Nikki-ann

While looking for Christmas presents for various friends and family members, I have come across this book that looks to be a must-read.

Potty, Fartwell and Knob: From Luke Warm to Minty Badger - Extra Ordinary But True Names of British People

It’s written by Russell Ash.  He’s trawled through 900 years worth of parish registers and census records to present us with quite unlikely but true British names (you have to feel sorry for some of these people!). Each name has been checked for authenticity and it’s source is given, including extra notes where further fascinating illumination is possible.

It was published in hardback format (256 pages) on 14th November.

ISBN: 9780755316540

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Wish Lists. So here’s my Genealogy Christmas Wish List:

Dear Santa,

1. Great Grandfather Alfred’s birth certificate
I have found birth certificates for several of his brothers, including his eldest and youngest brother, yet Alfred’s birth certificate seems to escape me. I know it was in the early days of registration, but surely his birth was registered if his brothers’ births were registered. The closest thing I have to Alfred’s missing birth certificate is a copy of a Parish Register page which includes his baptism. I also have a family bible in which Alfred’s birth date is noted, but it was written in many years after Alfred was born and the birth year looks to have been edited. I’m guessing he as baptised the same year he was born, but still I can’t find his birth certificate.

2. For my Great Grandparents’ Gravestone to be restored
When I found my Great Grandparents’ (Alfred & Mary) gravestone in Malpas, some of the letters were missing. I would dearly love to restore the headstone to it’s original condition.

3. Great Great Great Great Grandfather James’ death certificate
I only recently discovered James, but I would dearly love to find his death certificate. He disappears from the census records and his wife Jane remarried, so I have a window to work to, but I’ve still not been able to find the right death certifiate. I ordered one a few weeks back, but it turned out not to be his. Why did he die young? If you could find it for me, could you send a copy to my distant cousin in Australia who would also be very grateful.

4. To be able to put names to photos
I have a big box containing photos of family, soldiers and friends of the family. Dad can put names to some of them, but who are the others?

5. A time-machine
Imagine how much research I could do with one of these!

I know one or two of these wishes are impossible, but maybe one or two could be completed. I have tried to be good this year.

Yours faithfully,

Nikki-ann.

What would you put on your wish list?

Submit your Genealogy Wish List here.

As today is Remembrance Sunday, it’s only fitting that I remember men who fought during the Great War. These men did not die during war, but they survived a hell and had to live with the memories for the rest of their lives.

Granddad Charlie was called up for service with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 5th March 1917. He served as a Lewis Gunner on the Western Front, I believe in the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). We have been told he was rescued by another man in the field, but I don’t know any details (I can only be eternally grateful). Sometime in 1918 Granddad was reported as missing, but in October of that year the family received a postcard from the British Red Cross stating that though wounded he was reported as a Prisoner of War (Camp not stated). Granddad was repatriated on 4th December 1918 and transfered to Army Reserve on 22nd October 1919. He was given the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service in the Great War.

During World War II, Granddad Charlie served his country once again, this time in The Home Guard. Granddad was certified as having attended a practical examination at a Bombing Range and was qualified to assist in the throwing of live grenades (although I would have thought his time in the Great War trenches would have qualified him for something like that). During this time, my Grandparents also took in a number of evacuees.

As with most Great War veterans, Granddad never said much about his time on the Western Front. I can’t imagine what he’d been through and he probably didn’t want to think about it either. Granddad Charlie died at the grand old age of 86.

Joseph Groom wasn’t family, but he was close enough. I’ve been told my Great Grandfather Alfred took him in at a young age.

As far as I’m aware, Joe had joined the Army before the Great War. He certainly saw battle by November 1914. Joe was in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and by August 1915 was fighting near Hooge, Belgium. While there, he earned himself a Distinguished Conduct Medal. The London Gazette announced people who had won this prestigious medal and on 15th September 1915 they listed Joe and an account of why he’d been awarded the DCM. It says:

For conspicuous gallantry on the 9th August, 1915, during the attack on the Hooge trenches, when he was ordered to reinforce the captured trenches with a machine gun. In the advance he came under heavy shell fire, the gun was damaged and several of the gun team wounded. Although wounded himself, he bound up his comrades’ wounds, returned to Headquarters and reported, and successfully took another gun and team to the firing line.

A well deserved medal, in my opinion. I also know that he won the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the 1914 Star Medal. He also served in the Nigeria Regiment in West Africa during the Great War.

Joe achieved so much at such a young age, but sadly didn’t live much beyond the Great War. Regimental Sergeant Major Joseph Groom D.C.M. died on 7th April 1919 of “Acute bellow atrophy of the liver”, aged just 23 years old.

May they rest in peace.