Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know how I might be able to find out details about an ancestor who appears on the 1881 census on board the Industrial School ship Formidable off Portishead? Why he was there, who sent him there, how long he was there for, what he did while he was there, etc? I assume that there must be records somewhere - but where?

Just googled and found this: 'The Formidable was leased from the Admiralty in 1869 for use as a training ship in a scheme financed by several Bristol businessmen, led by Mr Henry Fedden, who were concerned about the high numbers of urchins wandering the city's streets. The vessel was moored at Portishead in the Bristol Channel, and anchored about four hundred yards off the pier. Much of the cost of her conversion, around £3,000, was raised by organising excursions out to the ship for local people. The ship could take up to 350 boys, the first of whom arrived in December 1869. The official opening was performed by the Reverend Charles Kingsley, author of Westward Ho! and The Water Babies. The Formidable was withdrawn from service by the Admiralty early in 1906 after damage from strong gales. The Formidable was then replaced by a new shore establishment known as the Incorporated National Nautical School '

Thanks Pete! I had in fact already found that - but can't seem to locate anywhere that might have more detailed records!

It appears that the Bristol Record Office hold many documents relating to this school. The A2A website provides a full listing of the material held in Bristol. It appears that they hold the register of boys for the period 1878 onwards. Hopefully if you copy and paste this link it will get you to the relevant page http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/documentxsl.asp?stylesheet=xsl\A2A_doc.xsl&i=0&com=1&nbKey=1&keyword=National+Nautical+School&properties=0601

Sorry Pete - your second posting coincided with mine!!! I'll try that and see what happens. Thanks vey much!

On the a2a site if you click on the 'Catalogue in Full' option (just below the top banner it will give you the ref no and descriptions of all their holdings for the school. You'll see the registers are listed. Perhaps you will be able to get the BRO to search for you if you can't get there to check it for yourself

Earlier this year, I found a very interesting 5 page article entitled 'The Boys of the Formidable' by Miss Worboise in the 1888 edition of 'The Quiver - An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading'. I have made a scan of it and distributed it to the Bristol Record's Office and other interested Archives. If anyone would like me to send them the scan (for free!!), please click on my name to send me your email address and I'll send it as an attachment. It is pasted into a 1.33 Mb sized Word document and prints out quite nicely! Also, the following excellent website, created by Peter Higginbotham, had information about Industrial Ships. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find the pages as he has revamped the site since I last looked. It is well worth checking out however. http://workhouses*org*uk/ replace * with . Hope this helps someone. Tracey

A2A seems to have records for the right period, so I will get in touch with the Bristol RO. Thanks again! Tracey - I've seen the workhouses site, too - interesting, isn't it? The article you mention sounds interesting, too, though it's a little later than my ancestor - I think he would have been 18 then, and I'm sure they'd have kicked them out earlier than that!

Those of you wanting a copy of the article - Please email me your ordinary email address. Unfortunately the GR contact link does not accept attachments. Tracey