Original Newspapers

Recently I’ve received two original Newspapers, one being The Times and the other being the Daily Mail (both in the UK).  Both were kindly sent to me by Thomas Walker of Historic Newspapers (link to the site) and the dates of both Newspaper are for dates of birth for two of my family members, one being my Mum’s and the other being my Granddad’s. The Newspapers are fab and they came in really good condition and in a gift box with a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ and these will go nicely with my collection of other Newspapers that I’ve bought with my families Date of Birth in mind. I guess I’m a bit of a nerd on that. There is just something about seeing what was happening in the world on the day/s the people in my family were born and I can show these to the younger members of my family as they get older, as long as they’re interested.  

As with most people probably what struck me, out of interest, was the headline on front page of the Daily Mail with a photo of Winston Churchill underneath: 

WINSTON BOWS OUT
“I’m not mobile enough to carry on as MP”

These are the type of things I’m curious about seeing when I order/buy Newspapers. It’s finding out the big stories as well as the small stories that surrounded my family members birth. It can help ‘bring them to life’ a bit more with Family that aren’t with us anymore and be fascinating to see for those that are still with us.

Historic Newspapers aim to have the Newspapers given as gifts but there is more to Newspapers than reading the stories featured it can help to see if any Ancestors have been mentioned as well, whether it be in the Announcements section for a birth or if they have been awarded a Medal during WW1 for example. Although, they could also be featured in the Stories as well. You never know.

Ancestors Life Stories

Over the last couple of weeks or so I've been thinking about typing up some of my Ancestors life stories. Not, necessarily my Family History in general but the individual people that make up my Family History. At the moment I've no interest in publishing them in magazines or as books but to type them up for my family and future generations of my Family. What I may do is perhaps have one book (per person maybe) printed to pass around my Family but at the minute that is just a thought and not concrete but I thought this would be something really nice for my Family. I've a  fair amount of research to cover to do it but it could be something worth seriously considering.

ShareHistory

I've recently begun sharing my own personal history on ShareHistory.org. This site gives me the option to upload files to the site, such as PDF files, I'll be using it in conjunction with this Website but this Website (The O'Neill-March Family History blog) will be my main site. Here is a link to my profile on MartinLOM ShareHistory.org.

So far I've only uploaded 2 memories and 2 family trees but bear with me and more will be added soon.

Granddad O'Neill's Book

Well, I am in the process of typing up my Granddad's book. It's called Mervyn Rain. I'm hoping that once I've typed it all up, I'll be able to have it self-published, which I'm quite looking forward to doing. My plan is to publish it as an e-book mainly but have certain amount published in Paperback to give to members of my family.

But I think doing this will take me longer to type up and publish than I originally thought. It turns out there is a second copy of the same book, his first draft, but with about 30-40 extra pages that he took out of his final copy. This isn't a problem in any way really, but I think the parts he took out would do well to be kept in the story. So, it means going through the books making sure it flows well and then editing the book for any spelling mistakes & grammatical errors that I come across.

Effectively I want both copies of the book on my computer in one form or another, whether that be by typing it up or finding a way of scanning it into my computer (the paper doesn't fit in to my Scanner easily) as I want to have digital copies of the books. But with the aim of editing it in a way that I'll be able to publish it.

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/