Genealogy Chat

I find it sad how many 'unknown' listings are after the Z surnames on the BMD indexes. For the births they usually have forenames followed by 'unknown' for the surname, but sometimes both names are unknown. Does it mean these children were found abandoned? There are entries through the 1900s, all over the country. I wonder if they had happy lives, mostly.

That is sad....
I always feel saddened when reading some entries in local burial registers. There are so many in this coastal area.

... A man found drowned....unknown
Man washed ashore...unknown

and one of the saddest..
A male child about 2 weeks found dead on the railway line on Christmas Day.....

Gwyn

Oh Lord, Gwyn. Thats awful. It makes you wonder, how could they not know who the men were? After their burial their families could be searching for them forever more. And the little boy, poor soul. How someone could do that is unbelievable, cold blooded murder. I hope an investigation was launched. I dont know how they could live with themselves. :-(

We are close to the English Channel, so the men could be sailors from foreign ships maybe.There were many shipwrecks over the years.

I have sometimes seen additional notes added at a later date, ...something like ' Later identified as ( whoever) on account of his watch and chain...
At least the family know their resting place then.

As for the little boy, I must investigate more about his story some day.
I have never forgotten him.

Gwyn

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending which angle you see it from) there was an article the other week on unidentified bodies in modern times that go back decades. They've come up with photofits of those that have died in the hope that people may recognise them as someone who may have disappeared.

I love stuff like that Squirrel. I know it sounds morbid, but its like detective work - as is genealogy. So fascinating.