Free access...8th & 9th.

Just a quick post...this weekend Ancestry.co.UK and findmypast.com are offering free access... Findmypast is full worldwide access and Ancestry is military records only...
I know which one I will be using...

Good hunting......The search continues....

Alfred Price Project

My Great Grandad was called Alfred George Frederick Price. He was born in Stratford in 1874 and seems to have lead a very full life.
I never met him but I am very interested in his life story so I have decided to go all out to research everything I possibly can about him.

 

I know he was in the Army.
The Essex Regt for many years, serving in India and south Africa. He was involved in the Boer war and later fought  in WW1 after joining the Canadian C.E.F.
I know, don't ask...I have no idea how he came to join the C.E.F. that's one more thing to research.
He lived in Essex, Kent and of course Canada at some point.

Several years ago I was lucky enough to get hold of his C.E.F. attestation papers sent to me by the Canadian Archive..
I  have his wax army discharge papers from the Essex Regt. (1906)

I also have a couple of very very tatty photos that seem to have been taken in India. So I'm assuming its the 1st Batt Essex Regt in Bangalore.

This photo was recieved in two parts. It has been laid on a scanner to try to make one good picture..
As you can tell I haven't had the time to photo shop it yet. But I'm hoping to get rid of that crease at some point. 

Any info about this second picture would be great as I am only assuming its India.
Please comment below if you can help.

Wikitree.

 After doing a family history related search on Google recently I came across a reference to one of my ancestors on a site called Wikitree .

From the initial find I E-mailed the owner of the tree on that site asking if we were related. And it turns out, yes we are related. We are distant cousins with  common Great Great Grand parents.
This is only the second person that I have found researching the same related family. The other relative that I am in contact with I have been sharing information with for the last ten years.
I am hoping that they may have information that they can share to further my search and in return I hope I can help to grow their tree.

On the grave photo front I have not been able to get to our local church to photograph any graves as the weather has been against me.
Its always in the back of my mind that this is what I need to do so I am hoping to get there as soon as the weather breaks.

Gravestonephotos.com

 Gravestone Photographic Resource

Well after a short wait my Gravestone photo volunteer pack has arrived.

It consists of: 

1 x GPR Volunteer  CD

1 x GPR ID Card

1 X Laminated Poster /  mouse mat

1 x Access Details Card
2 x Return Labels
1 x Welcome Letter

The site seems to be well put together although there are some bugs. For example I have tried several times to send a message to the site owner but it just gets deleted as spam before sending...very annoying

Also after looking around the volunteer section of the website there seems to be one very important thing missing.

There is no members forum area, this would be a great benefit to new members,  as they get used to the site, uploading, photographing etc. Questions can be asked of other members this would save asking  the site owner.

I have added the name of our local church burial ground that I intend to photograph as soon as the rain stops I will spring into action.

Watch this space for a review of how easy it is to upload pictures. Although there is the option of sending the pictures direct on a CD or Flash Drive.

Other Family History research has slowed down as I am trying to index my research into a box file as well as in to a folder for storage on a Flash Drive.


The search Continues.

sources etc

I am thinking that I should start noting sources more closely.
Up until now most of the information that I have found has been via census returns, however just recently I have been getting much more information from Online church inscriptions as well as newspaper reports that have given me home addresses that I couldn't get from census returns as they were lived in in between decades.
I now have a lot of random information about my ancestors that I can see will either cause me some confusion in the future or to anyone reading my findings in the future.
After watching several great videos produced by Ancestry and featuring Crista Cowen I have realized that I should be going back over my findings and citing sources before I go any further.

It might be blindingly obvious to me where I got the information but to anyone else..............

The Ancestry videos are available via You tube or most Podcast players, and are definitely worth a look.

On the research front I have found some very distant uncles (Weston) in Kent c.1755. Now comes the search for their children etc.

Newspapers

I spent an evening searching for various ancestors in newspapers via Find my Past I was a little sceptical as to what, if anything I would find.
I'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Quite a long article was found about how a relative was attacked by his step son as he lay in bed.
Also a piece about how that same relative together with another man posed as police men to con an old man out of £2.00
(quite a bit at the time)
The second case was adjourned and I am yet to find a follow up piece for the verdict.


I have made some headway on my wife's side  (Bate) in Cornwall UK but seem to be getting side tracked quite a bit with relations of relations that seem interesting to look in to.
Not really the thing to do to get on with things but "ha ho" that's the way I seem to work.
The search continues.
 

 

Great New web site found.

Well this has been a good weekend, not only have I still got a week left of my one month for a pound on Find my past but Ancestry have been doing one of their free access weekends.
So lots of research going on.
I have found an interesting website for those who can't get to churchyards to search for their ancestors. It is powered by volunteers who go out to local burial sites and photograph graves and inscriptions before they are eroded / vandalized or just lost due to redevelopment. It is free to access and all photo requests are free too. You just can't go wrong..Its called Grave stone photos and covers the whole world in varying degrees.
I have sent off for a volunteer pack and plan to help where I can.

The other interesting thing that I have found this week end is how to make a  custom Google map that you can drop pins on to mark places of interest. This will be great for marking where my ancestors have lived. I will post a tutorial on here in the near future for anyone unsure of how this is done.

Ancestors researched this weekend...Gurr, Shaw, Price.

Snargate research

Research has been on going. At the moment I am researching my mums side of the family.(GURR)
I have tracked them down living in Snargate Kent, this has taken me back to my GGG Grandparents together with all the siblings that go along with this research.

I have had a lot of pointers from the transcriptions from woodchurch ancestry and the M I's transcribed by the Kent Archeological society of St Dunstans Churchyard.
Also lots of downloads from Find my past.

Snargate church c.1870




Much work to be done as after all my research over the years this is the first time I have looked at Gurr in any depth.

First blogg in my family history research.

 Family History Research.

This blogg is going to be a record of what genealogical research I am doing at present.
I will include names and dates of people and places that I am researching in the hope that someone reading this is doing the same research and may be related and will get in touch.
I have been researching my family history on and off since about 1985. with the advent of the internet it has become much faster to get results, although it is still a slow old job.
I have listed here a few of my family interests and will blogg as I research each name.
I am not a disciplined researcher, in that I get very easily side tracked into looking at a distant relatives job or address. And I tend  to jump from family to family as the wind takes me. So be prepared for some very random research..
My research interests include:

Shaw...Darfield Yorkshire
Gregory...Doncaster Yorkshire
Price...Tenterden / Biddenden Kent
Swan...Bethnal Green / Whitechapel, London
Weston....Tenterden Kent
Merrells....Tenterden  Kent
Gurr.... Kent

If you share any of my interests please get in touch..I use Ancestry.co.uk and Find my past.com for research although my tree is stored on Ancestry.