My uncle John Kaye born in the early 1900’s was so he always told me brought up by nuns.  He used to tell me when I was young, that on a Sunday the children were marched down the road to the church and each given a ‘token’ by the priests of nuns for attending.  He also told me that he used to put the ‘token’ into the chocolate machine when no one was watching!.

Well, uncle John also said that he was sent to Canada when young – he told so many other stories, many about gnomes and fairies living in their garden that it was hard to sort out the truth from the tales. He also said his middle name was Campbell.  Well, sorry uncle, but I took that with a pinch of salt too. I am pleased to say that the Canada story was true, as I found him being sent out when 14 years of age.  The stories said that he worked across the three large states – Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. but no proof of that yet.  I did however, find him coming back to blighty aged 21.

Now, uncle John was a regular soldier, who achieved the rank of RSM.  He served in Africa and in Burma.  He also said he was a Commando and trained at Achnacarry.  I do know that he was very proud of the dagger and snake tattoo on his calf, and also the piper on his chest.

But I digress, uncle John was one of many young children sent to Canada, where some were welcomed into a new family but many other were treated as slave labour and mistreated.

There is a Rootsweb mailing list for British Home Children – you can either join or view the archives here

or you can visit the following websites

Wikipedia entry for Home Children

Canada National Archives – Home Children

Canada’s Slave Children

British Home Children Descendants

British Home Children in Canada 1869 – 1930

But, don’t forget that children were also sent to Australia

If you have family in the Morayshire or as it was called Elginshire, you will know of the Libindex.  If on the other hand you have just found your family there or the surrounding counties you may not know what a fantastic resource the Local Council have put on the web.

The Libindex is the Local Heritage Service’s index to sources of information about people, places and subjects relating to Moray.  These sources include archives from the 13th C to 1975, local newspapers, monumental inscriptions and a lot more.

The online Libindex is regularly updated and contains a people index upwards of 200,00 names.  The places index includes plans from the architectural collection as well as photographs.  The subject section is very diverse and includes topics on education, sport, archaeology and highway robbery.

Take for example John Younie, his entry in the Libindex tells that his father was William Younie of Scott’s Terrace, Forres.  He married Jane Audrey Forbes of Greenhill, Munlochy on 12 November 1921 in Inverness.  He died at Appleby Hall, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire on 13 August 1945.

This Moray resource for John Younie also gives the dates of newspaper articles relating to John i.e. his marriage, his death (2 newspapers) and his obituary.

Now, if you live out of the area, and many of us do, what a fantastic source of information is that, to have at the other end of the internet?

Well Done, Moray Council!

The Moray Libindex can be found by clicking here

The Moray Local Heritage Collection  can be found here

Years ago a very nice man sent me the 1811 census for Dallas, Morayshire and what a fantastic find that was.  My Riach family come from Dallas and the surrounding area and I was now able to find information about my family and add families that linked in.

The information includes :- Residence, Name, Occupation and Age.

In total there are entries for 199 families, that equates to over 870 people.

The same person also sent me Dallas, Morayshire Monunemtal Inscriptions – another fantastic webpage for people with Dallas families, including inscriptions for :- Riach, Miller, James, Grant, Masson,  Young and an inscription for William Grigor, USA in memory of his father who died in 1856.

So much information can be found within these two sources, so go on, have a look!

The 1811 census for Dallas, Morayshire can be found here

The Monumental Inscriptions for Dallas, Morayshire can be found here

Have you every wondered what it would be like to be walking the streets of 18th century Wakefield ?

Bishopgate, former Cock & Bottle Yard

Well, a notebook of William Scarth will take you there and for anyone who knows the town, these notes are sure to be of interest. There is even one instance where two of the people known to William Scarth go to America ~ a snippet for family historians and helpful if you happen to have ‘lost’ someone !

There are a few maps that help you to get your barings while following Mr Scarth chatting about his neighbours and people whom he knew.

William tells of Mr Oakland who kept the Golden Cup public house and sold flour and bread and was greatly attended by Foreing picture hawkers.

There was a Betty Fisher mother to Robert Fisher brick layer who lived bottom White Horse Yard next James Lane who used to flogg in the streets of Wakefield with the Cat of Nine Tails from the prison.

Jonerthon Hartley white washor and drummer in the Wakefield Volumnturs they next house in from was Jackie Sunderland a Malster who kept his 2 beautifull Black Cursing Dogs.

To read the rest of Mr William Scarth remembering his neighbours and friends click here

This article was compiled by Kevin Scarth and Richard Bointon

In the General Election in 1918 men away from their home were allowed to vote for the first time.

How? Well an Act of Parliament passed on6 February 1918 allowed service men and other men who were away from home on election day  to cast their vote in their home constituency.

Medal card index for H Siddle, KOYLI

The absentee voters had to register their applications before 18 August 1918 to be allowed to vote and the first of the Absent Voters Lists was published in October 1918.

Wakefield Family History Sharing has transcribed the Absent Voters List for Wakefield mainly as it is a very useful tool for finding a soldiers regiment and service number, be it only good for those young men over 21 years of age (men under 21 years of age were not given the vote until much later, as were women), and don’t forget the first one was in 1918, so no point in looking for a soldier before that date!

Why would I need to look on such a list.  Well, you know great uncle George served and was KIA in WW1, but what you don’t know in which branch of the armed forces he served in. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website can’t help you in your search as he has a common name, which means there are lots of entries  and some have no specific family information.  It is now that a service number and regiment comes in very handy.

What information can the Wakefield Absent Voters List tell me? Firstly, the lists are divided into Polling Districts.  Each district is then in street order and it is here you will find your man with his regiment and service number which will help you when looking on the CWGC to find the right man.

Not only will this newly found information aid your CWGC search but will also help when looking for service records, medal cards etc. Sometimes you have to go sideways to go forward!.

One thing I will mention is that it was not until c1920 that each individual service man was given a unique number.  Prior to then if a serviceman changed his regiment, he changed his number too.

You know have the information you need to find the grave or memorial of your relative and, if it survives the service records too – so if you have a WW1 soldier from Wakefield the Absent Voters List page is worth a visit.

Wakefield 1918 Absent Voters List can be found here

Leeds City Council did have a searchable version of their Absent Voters List containing over 50,000 enlisted men but unlike the Wakefield transcription there are no addresses.  For further information you have to go to Leeds Library.

Have you a convict in your tree?  If you have a bit of good luck has come your way as Ancestry.com have made available over 42,000 records of convicts transported to the Australian penal colonies.  These new additions join a collection now in the region of over 2 million documents from the 19th century related to convicts from their arrest to release.

Ticket of leave

During an 80 year period over 160,000 men, women and children were transported as convicts and it is estimated that over 2 million Britons have one or more convicts as relatives – so why not have a look, you never know what or who you may find.

You can either read the article on the link below or follow the direct link to begin your search – happy hunting!

The article can be found by clicking here    The linked has been removed 

New South Wales and Tasmania, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave, 1834-1859

Anything that’s free is good, well most of the time.  But here are some charts and forms that you will find of use when researching your family.

To view these charts you will need a PDF reader but a free one is available for download with the charts.

Some of the charts/forms include :-  Analysis sheet; census summary; family group sheets with continuation sheet; various pedigree charts; family tree with siblings; cemetery transcription form+ others all designed to help keep some order to your research.

But talking about order don’t forget the Family History Diary a must for when you visit the archives, the library and relatives – even with a computer a Family History Diary is a must!

You can find the charts for free download here

The   Family History Diary can be found in the  shop or follow the link on the sidebar

Anyone have any French soldiers who died in World War 1 or any conflict involving France i.e. WW2, Indochina and Korea?

The French site SGA-Memoires des hommes can certainly help you – each soldier having their own scanned sheet giving the following information :- Name, date of birth, regiment and service number, date of death etc.,  Obviously the information is in French but it is quite easy to understand some of the information.

Soldiers who died for France  – SGA-Memoires des Hommes

You’ve just read how my family treat me as an object of fun when talking about war memorials but I felt I must tell you how it all started.

My daughter, yes its her fault! She had the opportunity after graduating to work for nearly 6 months in China.  She was to work in Tianjin University teaching the young trainee pilots English – I sometimes call her Miss Chips, as she had lots of pupils and all boys!

John Henry MacDougall Scott – old Etonian KIA WW2

And with only a couple of weeks notice she packed all her belongings and I do mean ALL!  We took her to Heathrow where she met her fellow ‘teachers’ and off she set – leaving us with only Skype to communicate with.

We stayed for the night in Windsor and walked down to Eton – it was the holidays and very few students were left boarding.  Firstly, I was taken by the Quad – I’d seen it on many a film but looked different in reality.  Anyway, we wandered around the outer edge, under the covered area that surrounds the central courtyard, and there were memorials galore but at this stage they were just memorials.  We took pictures, as you do, of them, finished our walk around and left.  Leaving for home later in the day.

By this time Wakefieldfhs.org.uk had been going for about 5 years and was mainly transcripts that I gathered along the way, a series of links and other useful info for people with a Wakefield connection.  Eton was out of the remit of the site so Genealogyjunction was born!

What to do with these pictures – memorial, glorious in their remembrance of fallen Etonians.  I started to think and that can be lethal and cause work for some people.  The transcriptions started, names on a white page – but who were these men, young and not so young, some ones son, husband or brother.  A name meant nothing, these men had to come to life, have parents, a place to live, a job they did and a final resting place.

The great monster was born and over the years ‘life’ has been given back to many a man who thought it would be over by Christmas and those whose fight was over only a short time before November 11 at 11am.

….When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today…

www.wakefieldfhs.org.uk

www.genealogyjunction.org.uk –    memorials and other transcripts  outside of the Wakefield area, Belgium and France