TheGenealogist releases 60,000 railway worker records.
More than 60,000 railway workers have been added to the Occupational Records on TheGenealogist
Find details of railway ancestors, where they were employed and what they did
Trace your railway worker ancestor’s careers through their promotions
Discover when they retired
Read obituaries
The Genealogist has added over 60,000 rail workers to its online indexes of Railway Employment Records. Taken from Railway Company Staff magazines these records are useful to family historians with railway employee ancestors, wanting to find important occupation related dates and add some social history to their family tree. These records include such details as staff changes, promotions, pension records, retirements and obituaries. Often additional personal information is revealed in the magazines. In some cases you can read about gifts from co-workers given when rail staff leave.
For example, we can discover that Mr A.N.Train had been a Station Master at Whitdale and Sigglesthorne, stations that today are converted into private houses sitting as they do on lines closed under Beeching’s cuts in the 1960s. The railwayman’s details have been extracted from his obituary in the British Railways Magazine of November 1949 Vol 2 No 11. We can learn such useful details as his retirement date, as well as the date that Mr Train passed away at the age of 79.
One click takes us to an image of the original page on which the record is based.
There is also a great article on their website where you can also do a search for your railway ancestors:
Popping into mailboxes at the moment is the May edition of S&N Genealogy Supplies email newsletter. Always worth a look for money saving offers and interesting articles.
Key points covered include
Millions of new records have been added to TheGenealogist, and to celebrate there is a special offer available to all email news readers.
You can also save 20% on a Discover Your Ancestors Online Periodical subscription,
There are many new software and book releases from S&N Genealogy Supplies.
Don't forget to buy your tickets to the Yorkshire Family History fair early - follow the link in their email newsletter to buy one and get one free!
This coming Saturday, 16th May 2015, between 10am to 4pm at The Winter Gardens, Weston-Super-Mare is "The largest family history show in the South West".
With over 40 exhibitors from all over the UK and Ireland, they have many family history societies and companies attending again this year.
Free Talks are being hosted throughout the day by various experts.
"Looking for Tommy - Tracing a Military Ancestor"
and "Breaking Down Brick Walls in your family history research"
both of which are by Mark Bayley, who is an Online Genealogy Expert."Recording, Reporting and Preserving Your Family History"with David Bayley, Genealogy Software Expert. "Restoring Old Photographs & some tips for Do It Yourself Restorers"with Matt Curtis of Moments in Time. "How to start researching your Family Tree"with David Gynes Dorset FHS
Whether you are a beginner or an expert, everyone will be made very welcome at the event and there will be a lot to see with refreshments available all day. For those coming by car there will be plenty of parking to take advantage of.
This event is organised by family historians for family historians and is their 9th show, which the organisers report is getting more popular each time. The event is sponsored by S&N Genealogy Supplies and by leading British genealogy research website TheGenealogist who will be there at the show.
As they say in their publicity: "Do you really know who you are? Come and find out - you may be surprised!"
http://www.swag-fair.co.uk/
The Society of Genealogists has added the evidence records of those candidates taking the Civil Service examinations, between 1855 and 1939, to their SoG Data Online. Members of the Society will be able to view the original documents, after logging in, while non-members can search for a name in the collection, but are not able to view the documents.
The records were originally created when candidates for the examinations had to provide proof that they were at least 21 years old. The evidence, which they submitted, very often would have been their birth certificate or sometimes a certified extract from a baptismal register. In some cases these documents were simply not available and so all manner of alternative evidence was produced, such as Indian horoscopes drawn up at a child’s birth.
The SoG says that the geographical spread of the collection is extremely wide with many births recorded from Ireland, the Channel Islands, Malta and Gibraltar plus others for British people who were born all over the world and especially in India.
The surviving documents only include evidence of birth for a small proportion of Civil Servants, some 60,000 people in all. However the collection may provide vital evidence of an ancestor’s birth date that would be difficult or impossible to prove otherwise and so break down a brick wall.
The May issue of this great online family history magazine is now available!
This month, in the Discover Your Ancestors Periodical, they have articles on:
150 years of the Salvation Army and how to trace Salvationist ancestors entitled The front line of faith writtenby Nicola Lisle
All the fun of the fair: a preview of the Yorkshire Family History Fair
Before the census: Chris Paton looks at Scottish census and census substitute records before 1841
One-stop shops: Jayne Shrimpton explores the history of department stores and their impact on shoppers and staff
Saving what they could carry: Canada’s Great Fire of 1922
A May to remember: Keith Gregson tells the story of Britain’s worst railway disaster, sidelined by its occurrence during WW1
States of growth: Jill Morris on booming 19th century America
History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on parasols
Regulars: events / Books / Place in focus: Warwickshire / Classifieds
Visit their website to buy your copy today: http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/current-issue/
On the first of May 1840 the first British Penny Black stamp went on sale. Invented by Sir Rowland Hill, it was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp and it became valid for postage on 6th May.
The idea of an adhesive stamp, which would indicate pre-payment of postage, was part of Sir Rowland Hill's proposals in 1837 to reform the British postal system.
Until then our ancestors would pay postage on delivery of their mail.
Another idea that Sir Rowland suggested at a government enquiry on February 13, 1837 was for customers of the service to use a separate sheet that folded to form an enclosure or envelope for carrying letters. At that time postage was charged by the sheet and on the distance travelled.