Joy in the care home

Leggs55.As the gr, niece of a soldier who lost his life in WW1, I have in my possession a scroll that commemorates the part my gr uncle played in that war. It lists his regiment but I have never gone into taking it further.Does your mother know his regiment ?I think you will find out more if you go to one of the websites concerning the part the UK played in that war. Does the war office still exist? as they may be able to help if you give his name regiment and where he came from.

My late husband and I visited the archives at Aberystwyth Council Offices and we were able to go back as far as 1779 in one afternoon on my father's side of the family. this was because the family had hardly moved from the parish until the middle 1800's - great afternoon's work. We learned that my great grandmother a widow purchased a new build 7 bedroom house in 1910 for the princely sum of £600.00!!

Regarding relatives killed in battle in WW1, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website is a mine of information. I found my Gr. Uncle's grave near Ypres and regimental information. I have been able to visit the grave twice. My grandmother, his sister, never could. She would be pleased that someone had paid their respects.

What an amazing thing to do and with such great benefits for all concerned. I’d love to do my own but I was adopted as a child and thus have nothing to go on. Disappointing, but I’m helping my husband do his family tree. Unfortunately almost every other family in his home county had his surname!

Does anyone own a 'mourning brooch. These are for when on the death of a female relative a small piece of the deceased hair is displayed under glass in a brooch set in eighteen or twenty ct gold..On the back of the brooch are engraved the persons name and age at death. I have one of these brooches which was bequeathed to me in my younger days. I have since then, working on parish records, found out this person was on my paternal grandmothers side ,maybe an aunt or a mother and records from dates the person in question was born shown to be at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. I am a hoarder and like to keep things but shouldn't we all retain some memorabilia during our life which may be of interest to relatives of ours, yet to be born?

Well done you!!! What a very kind and thoughtful thing to do that obviously brought a lot of joy to the people involved.

How I envy you your skills grannyactivist . A couple of months ago I decided I would start my family tree. I had been thinking about it for a while and after starting I wished I had started earlier when parents, aunts and uncles were still alive to give me lots of information. My grandfather was John Kelly and he was born in Scotland as were all his ancestors so it is proving quite taxing, My biggest question is "how do you know you have the right person". I will get there in the end but I know what you mean about time running away with you once you sit in front of the computer.

ValC I know just what you mean about finding the 'right' person when so many names are repeated. Sometimes if a name is common I am enable to identify the right one through sibling matches or the work information. I do draw a blank sometimes, usually if there's a foreign born person in the tree or names are incorrectly transcribed perhaps. Another one to watch out for is when a person is in service in another household.
If you get your grandfather's marriage certificate it will have his father's name on it and the place of marriage and then you can maybe cross check against census information by seeing if the father's job is the same as on the certificate. Good luck.