Anyone ever done their family tree?
My parents got a computer a couple of years ago now. I built a nice one specifically for the web, they got broadband and my mum started something she's wanted to do for years. Look in to our family tree.
She's got back to the mid 1700's so far with the surname name down my dad's line and we're doing pretty well on her side of the tree too.
Some really interesting stuff being thrown up.
Lots of the kids in the 1800s were servants to other families. We have a few agricultural labourers, several generations of butchers and a policeman.
I've also found some interesting war records.
We have one guy who joined the navy on March 6th 1916 at the age of 20, did 2 months basic training at Chatham and then went to the HMS Canterbury. 4 weeks later that was in one of the largest naval battles of WWI, The Battle of Jutland. He got out of it unscathed. The ship never got hit and he stayed in the navy until March 1919.
Also one that went to France in 1915 with the Royal Field Artillery and, despite the huge casualties they suffered, made it through the war in one piece.
But I also have one who wasn't so lucky. I've just been reading about a great grand aunt's son (my first cousin 2 times removed) who died in world war 1.
He signed up aged 28 in 1916, married with 1 child. He was a milk carrier and only 5ft 7in tall.
He spent 7-8 months as a reserve until he was called up to fight as a private in France in October 1917.
He fought for a year and 8 days until he got hit. The records say GSW (gun shot wound) right groin, right arm, right hand, left side of face. I wonder if, rather than a gun shot, it was actually a shell that went off and he turned away and held up his arm across his face, hence the injury pattern. Anyway, 19 days in hospital and sent back home to recuperate until the following March. He was then put back in to service in France again. 14 days later he was back in hospital with another gun shot wound. Right arm and hand again. 42 days in hospital and died of his injuries or maybe infection. The record just says death presumed by the war office.
Very brave men and women in those days.
