Genealogy Chat

Maggie, my mum doesn't read a book, let alone use the internet!

I just envy those of you whose parents apprecate your finds. Laugh at my mum. I said "Why do you think your dad was called Llewellyn?". Answer "His mother must have liked the name". But he was born in a Derbyshire Mill Town where everyone was was called Jim or John or Joe, where did Llewellyn come from? I don't know, she said. Well, a bit of research and his grandfather was John Davies born Llanasa, Flintshire, North Wales, c 1841. Father Peter Davies, a stonemason or quarryman. Prize to anyone who finds him.

I have already sent for 7 birth certificates of a John Davies, none of them with the right father/district, I have even had a family member visit the local register office with no luck. No mention of him on census for 1841, 1851, 1861, or 1871. He appears in Glosop in 1871 with my great grandmother Margaret (second marriage for both of them, but her first husband died in 1873, so why did the pair not marry till 1980? after having 3 children together?).

Any help gratefully received. I am getting demented about John Davies.

Regards

Margaret

Margaret,
I'm amazed that care homes don't have broadband connections. Using the internet is a lot more interesting than watching TV!!

maggie

I have found the Cwgc to be quite helpful in altering mistakes made on the entries for both my husbands father in the WW2 and and a my fathers cousin in WW1 this lad was only 19 and was killed just before the war ended and had only been in the army for 3 months
They took note of the info I had provided and said it would take about 3 months to rectify the mistakes which they subsequently did

Bren

Nice to read about your parents having an interest, but in fact nobody of mine has any interest. My dad might have done, but he died 3 years ago. My mum's response is "Why are you bothering with all that?", but then my mum's entire life has been spent "not bothering", which is why she is now bored stiff in her care home.

I am feeling a bit cross, I know this is a gripe for the Alzheimer's website, not this one, but if you spend your life "not bothering" then you have nothing to amuse you when you are in a care home.

Regards

Margaret

Nicki

I couldn't find anything re Alma Stokes subsequent marriage or baby Alma Stokes death. I will have to send for the certificate of the death you have found. As it is Prestwich it might be on Lancashire BMD. I will check first.

Many thanks for looking.

Margaret

Wow, thank you for that Elisabeth; I've just added the site to my Favourites. Have also just found that they hold photos regarding a couple of my folks.
x

Those researching deaths on the CWGC site should also look at:

http://www.twgpp.org/

Photographs are slowly being uploaded of the graves. It is a lovely site to add a little more information on your relatives. (I have contributed a few photos of CWG in our local village churchyard.)

Elisabeth

My great uncle was killed 3 days before the end of the war, by 'friendly fire'. He had married less than a year before and his wife was pregnant. My gran kept a newspaper cutting of an obituary. My great aunt had put a notice in the paper announcing the birth of her stillborn daughter. That was so sad. She died a year later of TB.
Recently I came across a report on the death of my great uncle. He had been injured in the legs - it was bad but not potentially fatal, was concious and talking to the medics, but died suddenly (probably of shock) in the ambulance on the way to the field hospital.

maggie

Margaret, it is a great site isn't it. I managed to find several family members on there; one of them, a great-uncle, is buried in a war cemetary in Belgium, and a couple of years ago my brothers and I took our Mum to see her Uncle Alfie's grave; an uncle she never knew. She was thrilled, although she cried for him when she saw his grave; it was beautifully kept.
This is all thanks to the CWGC, as I also printed off the map of where Alfie's grave was.
These war cemeteries are very peaceful places, and very humbling. I take my hat off to the wonderful people who keep the graves looking so nice.
x

Gerri,

Your one wish would also be mine. I started this hobby just before my mother died 5 years ago, and even now if I find something new I find myself saying to myself "I'll have to tell mam about that", only to remind myself that I can't tell her. I know she'd be thrilled, as she knew nothing of her mother's family apart from the area they came from and I've now gone back quite a few generations.

I've also found relatives on the Commonwealth War Graves site - one young man who was killed in the same qtr. as he was married - they probably only had a few days together. It's so sad.
Also a great uncle killed in Mesopotamia (Iraq), so things haven't changed much since 1915 when he died.

Kath. x

Margaret

Thats whats so nice about our hobby...

We put flesh to the bones and pass this info onto our Children so they are not forgotten.

If I could have just one wish...it would be that i could tell my Mother what i have found out about her Family....
She would have been thrilled!

Gerri x

I found this death on freeBMD..... there is no corresponding birth registered for the same district at the right time....the only other Alma Stokes birth is the one in Glossop who you belive may be your relative.


Deaths Mar 1919 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STOKES Alma 1 Prestwich 8d 764



Nicky

Margaret,

Chances are Alma remarried and her little girl took a new surname. Might be worth searching for that marriage.

Rose

Some kind person directed me to this a few weeks ago:

http://www.cwgc.org

and boy has it been a mine of information for me.

I have now got the dates of death of about a dozen family members who died in WW1 or WW2, the places of death, and details of the memorials containing their names, many buried in Europe.

One thing bothered me, that some of the records contained no details of where they were from, their parents or spouses, so I set about investigating. Most are "sideline" branches of the family, but it just seemed wrong to me that these young men who died for their country (i.e. for US) should not have proper details recorded about them.

The War Office need proof that the person they have recorded is the person whose record needs amending, so it has cost me a bit of money in certificates I wouldn't otherwise have bothered with.

But tonight I cried.

I already knew that Private Leonard Stokes (my dad's uncle) died at the Somme in 1917, aged 19. I knew his parents were Frank Stokes and Hannah Hartley (not recorded by the War Office). I then discovered he had married Alma Wilkinson just 4 months before he died, the certificate came today. That was sad. But I was playing around on Ancestry tonight trying to discover who his widow might have married, and came across a birth. December quarter 1917, Alma Stokes, mother's maiden name Wilkinson. It is pretty certain to be his daughter. He probably went to his death never knowing that his young wife was pregnant.

Obviously I have sent for the certificate.

It all starts to paint a picture. There is more to this family tree business than just finding names and dates. I have now found a great aunt widowed at age 20 with a little girl with a daddy who died for his country. I now want to know what happened to that little girl (she could still be alive), but I can find nothing at all about her or her mother. Can anyone suggest where I look?

Alma Beverley Wilkinson, born Qtr 4 1896, Glossop, Derbyshire (District then Hayfield) and Alma Stokes born Dec Qtr 1917, Glossop.

Many thanks if you can help.

Margaret