4th Anniversary

Julie O’Neill is my Aunt and today marks the 4^th Anniversary of her passing, so I couldn’t let the day go by without mentioning it. So this is Post is for and dedicated to her.

She was born in Leicester in 1957 and one of the most wonderful people you’ll ever meet. I have tonnes of memories of her but the ones that stick out the most is the one during Summer of 1996, I was 13 years old. She was staying over at my Mum & Dad’s house for about a week  it was really hot at this point and during the week she stayed over she showed me how to make Bread. We made it together but she told me that it me that I’d made it, which I guess is true in its own way as she was telling me how to make it and I was mixing everything together and baking it, put it mildly. But I’ve always saw it as both of us making it. 

Another memory that sticks out just as much was in early Summer in 1997 and we both went to Kwik Save (an old Supermarket in England that I don’t think is running anymore for those who don’t know)near to where I lived at the time and whilst we were there doing some shopping we picked up ingredients to make Ginger Biscuits, the recipe which we stumbled across by accident in, what I believe, was a magazine. Making them was my idea and she helped me make them, I thought it was great. 

Every year, in the evening, (including her birthday as well as today) I light a candle and place it outside next to my front door as a mark of remembrance and this year will be no different. 

Aunt Julie, you're still missed very much.

O'Neill Family Historian - Ancestry

I have to admit that I am chuffed right now. I have just been contacted on Ancestry.com today by a Family Historian on the O'Neill side of my family referring to my Granddad O'Neill as she saw at least the part of my family history referring to him and she is willing to share information & photos on my O'Neill Family History. This seems quite the coincidence as it was only the other day that I posted in here saying that it was my Granddad O'Neill that I've had the most difficulty in researching. 

I will update again if/when I hear anything.

Granddad O'Neill

I have to admit, the one person thay I'm struggling to find anything about in my research is my Granddad O'Neill. Granted, I've found his Birth, Marriage & Death Certficates, but that's pretty much it. I'll also admit that I'm not 100% sure which avenue to go down next. I've tried everything I can think of. I know that there are areas in which I can perhaps search but it's narrowing it down to find out anything new about it. I am hoping that if I try agsin at getting what I know and what I want to know in front of me it'll help me find a place in which to go next. *Heres hoping*

Family Photograph’s

Believe it or not, there can be whole variety of vital clues in an old photo family as to who your Ancestors  were, when the photo was taken and what a person’s occupation was, amongst others. So, writing on the back of the Photo doesn’t necessarily need to be there for you read to find out important information on your Ancestor/s. What you discover will differ with each Photo,  for example if a person was in the Military you may find out if they were in the Army, Navy or Air Force and what Regiment they served with, all of which are dependent on what they are wearing at the time of the Photo. Or if it of a photo of Ancestor next to their new Car then you could find out when it was taken by the model of the Car and what your Ancestor was wearing.

So, there are a number of ways to find out any clues about your Ancestor. Some of which I’ve mentioned already.

-          Fashion
Fashion can change quite quickly and looking into different trends of fashion over the years can help you narrow down when a Photo might have been taken, although some trends will be fairly obvious, like with the 70’s and Flares for example.

-          Military
If you find a Photo of an Ancestor that was in the Military you may be able to find out a few clues. The Uniform he/she is wearing will tell you whether they were in the Army, Navy or Air Force (bear in mind that the Air Force wasn’t created until 1918). If your Ancestor was wearing their Cap or were holding in the Photo then look for their Cap Badge, every regiment, ship & Air Force Division, had their own Badge on their Caps meaning you’ll be able to find out which Regiment, Ship & Air Force Division they served with. Their Uniform, including their Caps, will also show you if they were an Office or not. The Uniforms have also changed over time and will tell you which period the photo was taken in.

-          Type of Photographs
Over the years Photographs have been printed on a variety of different things, each type of print will help you date the photo. What they’ve been printed on includes, but isn’t limited to: Metal (e.g. Tin-type or Ferrotype), paper and cardboard  (Carte-de-visite, Cabinet Card, A Photo Postcard) & Glass (An Ambrotype in a case or a Glass-plate Negative).

-          Background
The background can help you as well. It may help you find out where a Photo was taken, was it Pub, Castle, Back Garden or at work? For example and may also tell you what their interests were, all of which depend the type of photo taken. If your Ancestor ran a Pub and there is a photo of them stood at the front of a Pub then it could help narrow it down for you if you’re been unsure where the Pub is and/or what it was called. Granted, there are lot of Pubs with the same name (like the Nag’s Head for example) but if you can at least estimate where they were living then it’ll help narrow it down. You may find that your Ancestor was a big reader if you find a Photo of him/her near a bookshelf with tonnes of books in it. You won’t necessarily find these types of photo’s but the point is to look to see what and who (if anyone) else is in the Photo, you could very well find out something about your Ancestors personality.

There are also various places on the Internet for you to search to see if anyone may have upload Photos of your Ancestors (whether that’s because they just so happened to be in a group photo at a workplace or because you may be related in some way). But bear in mind that there isn’t any central governing places online to find photos. There are plenty of places to find them but at least most are User dependent in what Photos they have, meaning that’s it’s up to the individual user of each site to upload Photos, not the website itself.

I hope all this helps. It’ll hopefully be enough to at least get you started with your Family Photos. 

Useful Links:

Ancient Faces http://www.ancientfaces.com/

Family Old Photo’s http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/

Dead Fred http://www.deadfred.com/

Ancestry UK Photographs http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1093

Ayrshire Roots – Date Old Photo http://www.ayrshireroots.com/Genealogy/Reference/Date%20old%20Photographs%20z.htm

Your Family Legacy – Researching Old Photographs http://www.webyfl.com/researchingoldphotographs.aspx

Mum's Birthday

Today is my Mum's Birthday and this is just a quick post to wish her a very happy birthday and that I hope she's had a good day.

Military Records

When researching an ancestor that was in the Military there are a few things that will help get you started in finding them:

·         Name & Regiment

·         Medals (if applicable)

·         Date & Area of service (e.g WW1 in France or WW2 in the Somme)

If you don’t know most of these don’t worry. Finding out about your Ancestors has become easier than ever, even if you have a name & nothing else to go with but finding out as much as you can beforehand doesn’t hurt either. Your best starting point to finding out any of these is asking members of your family, which if nothing else should give you a good place to start searching. It is important to help you find Military Records if you can find out whether your Ancestor/s were in the Army, Navy or Air Force (RAF for example). But as far as I’m aware there wasn’t a separate Air Force until March 1918.

Some of the things you may find out online about your Ancestors are: 

-          Their physical appearance (e.g. through discharge or pension records or photographs).

-       

            Medal Awards.

-          Appearing in the Newspaper (e.g. a local paper or in the London Gazette after earning a Medal). 

-          Photographs.

 

And some of the thing you might come across at home or after visiting relatives or even visiting memorials:

-          Medals

-          Cap Badges

-          Photographs

-          Postcards and/or Letters home

-          Stories from Family Members

-          Their name on War Memorial or Gravestone

It can often vary on what you will discover about your Ancestors time in the Military as not everything has survived or readily available to the public and sometimes your Ancestor may not have, understandably, wanted to talk about his/her experience during the either of the World Wars. But I’ll explain more on this later on.

An almost Constant stream of paper evidence starts from about 1750 and one of the best, if not the best, places to visit is The National Archives, they hold discharge records & medical records that may very well tell you when/where your Ancestor enlisted and which ship or regiment they enlisted on and/or when they were discharged.

War Diaries exist, mainly from WW1 & WW2, if you’re lucky your Ancestor might be mentioned. But usually Soldiers aren’t mentioned by name and it’s Officers that are mentioned, if anyone is on the Unit/time you are looking at.

If you’re unable to visit The National Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) then their website could hold clues to help you as they have a Downloads page called DocumentsOnline (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/) which includes, but isn’t limited to WW1 & WW2 Campaign Medals, War Diaries, Victoria Cross Registers, WW1 Airwomen's Records & records for the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

If any of your Ancestors died during either of the World Wars then you may find details on them through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (http://www.cwgc.org/), since 1914. It hold details over 1.5 million Servicemen & Service women who died during the World Wars and about 60,000 civilian people who died during bombing raids.

Ancestry.co.uk has plenty of online records for you to search through which includes but isn’t limited to: WW1 & WW2 Campaign Medals, Discharge Records, Pension Records, Service Records & records for the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

It will be worth mentioning that there was a street fire when a bombing raid struck the War Office repository in Arnside Street, London in September 1940 and due to fire & water damage, some records haven’t survived – so called the Burnt Records or Burnt Documents but others have survived, some of which can be viewed online, there are an estimated 2.8 million service records that survived or reconstructed from the Ministry of Pensions.

Useful Links

Ancestry.co.uk Military Records - http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/category.aspx?cat=39

Military Genealogy http://www.military-genealogy.com/

Forces Reunited - http://www.forcesreunited.org.uk/

Commonwealth War Graves Commission  - http://www.cwgc.org/

The National Archives DocumentsOnline - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

The National Archives - (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Lots to Do - Family History

I've been going through my Family History folder and my Family Tree Maker software last night and I've realised I've been quite slack with my Family History. I have a 'To-Do List' on Family Tree Maker and it turns out that I have 18 things listed and I've only done 3 of them, which for me is quite bad. I think I need to pick up the pace again. It's not that I haven't wanted to do them, it's been a case of thinking that there wasn't that much at the minute that I could online when it turns out there is something to do (like looking through the Trade Directories & BMD Indexes) and finding the time to visit local Archives for the things I can't do online (like looking for an Obituary for my Ganddad O'Neill) and it seems now a case of not finding time but making time to visit local Archives.

RMS Titanic #2

Easter Break Over

As of yesterday, for me, the Easter Break was over and I'll be back to Posting as normal. Did everyone have a good Easter? What did you do? Did you find anything new in your research? Or did you have a break from your research?

RMS Titanic 100th Anniversary

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the RMS Titanic striking an Ice Berg in the Atlantic on it's maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York, USA.

If you'd like to search the Passenger & Crew Lists then The National Archives UK are letting people search them online for FREE. You can visit the by clicking here.

You also able to, as far as I am aware, download PDF files of at least some of the Passenger & Crew List records for Free as well. All of the Records I've seen so far have been free to download. But if you're unsure please contact The National Archives.

If no one minds me asking, does anyone have any Ancestors that were on the Titanic that they are aware of?