Genealogy Chat

Brian Yes, Christine could well be right about looking at UMIST as he could have done an engineering degree from there back in 1896 particularly coming from Harrow so worth checking their Alumni Records. Janet

Janet & Christine. Thanks for your suggestions . . . . . . I'll follow them up. Brian

Have you thought of contacting the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to see if they have anything in their archives? http://www.imeche.org.uk/ If he might have been some other kind of engineer, they mostly have institutions, so you could google for them (as I did for Mech Eng). Also UMIST (Uni of Manchester Inst of Science & Technology) has been around since 1824 http://www.umist.ac.uk/university/default.htm Christine

Brian BT stands for Board of Trade and is a section in the National Archives where these apprenticeship details are found. They are not the actual apprentice certifcates but they give you the place where the apprenticeship was done but not the company but it is a start! You had to have a "ticket" to be involved with shipping of any sort and many mechanical engineers were involved with some sort of shipping. However I notice yours left school 1896 and was married by 1902, only 6 years and apprenticeships were 7 and on apprenticeship wages doubtful he could afford to marry.They also tell you what class certificate was obtained and importantly to me the place of birth and year of birth. You then need do some detective work to find out more. For me it gave me important info as to where my grandfather was born and what year and an idea where he did his apprenticeship before owning his own business as a mechanical engineer and I could go from there. The details I have is for 1896. I worked backwards for 10 years from the fact I knew that he married in 1901. I had no idea when he may have completed his apprenticeship or indeed if he did do one. A nice little Saturday job!! I wish you luck and hope you find him. Hope this explains a little. Janet

Thanks Janet that sounds interesting. What's the BT section?

Brian Apprentice engineer in 1890's to about 1925 would have been through heavy industry like the shipbuilding yards rather than a college, a 7 year apprenticeship. If you have some idea when he finished his training and you can get to National Archives at Kew easily then you can look up the records for these apprenticeships in the BT section I think, but you can check out on their website and download the leaflet: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk Of course you have the Manchester Ship Canal in Manchester so he may have completed an apprenticeship there. I had one who completed his in Glasgow on the Clyde and after a few hours search I found his details at Kew. Janet

Steve - there are around 30 listed now but I don't which ones would have been around then or if others that were around then have now closed. Somebody just might come up with something!

Can anyone help please? I am researching someone who was born in 1879, left Harrow public school in November 1896 and when he married in August 1902 he was an engineer (I think mechanical). Does anyone know where he might have trained to be an engineer? As he married in Manchester I wonder if his further education was there or near there.