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Post by Soap on Jul 1, 2013 15:55:34 GMT -5
Last week I began tracing my family tree. So far I have family names going back to around 1850 from both my great grandparents family line on my mothers side, and as far back as my great grandparents on my fathers side. To say I have learnt a lot about where my family have came from is an understatement, and shocked about some things I have found.
After around three hours working on my family tree, and chats with my grandparents it was uncovered that my great grandads brother was KIA during the First World War, but no information was known other than the fact he served in the Durham Light Infantry (DLI). So four hours of research and I believe I have found some answers.
Not only have I found his service number, but he was in the 11th DLI Pioneers. He died of his wounds on the 4th September 1916. Most of my time tonight has been spent trying to find out which battle he was killed in, and if they was any other information about his death. So, matching his date of death with 11th Pioneers battle dates, I think I have found the battle where he met his fate (although I am still trying to confirm this).
The Battle For Guillemont, which is a village in the area of the Somme. Which is fitting, as today is the annerversery of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme - 1st July 1916 to 18th November 1916. 12 kilometres of ground was taken at the cost of over 1 million British, French, and German lives.
The research continues....
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Post by Soap on Jul 1, 2013 17:13:03 GMT -5
Well, I think I have found all the infomation I am going to on my ancestors death in WWI. From 27 May 1916 to 12 July 1916, he was in the monastery hospital at Wincanton suffering with myalgia, a period of 47 days. Myalgia is chronic muscle pain and fatigue, sometimes of a rheumatic nature and nowadays often associated with chronic fatigue syndrome and repetitive strain injury. Once recovered he was returned to his unit. He died of wounds on 4 September 1916, on the second day of the battle to capture the village of Guillemont.
I won't lie, but I shed a tear finding this infomation. It's a strange feeling, and for someone who died 68 years before I was even born. Don't know what more information I can find on him now though....
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Post by Paradill on Jul 1, 2013 17:23:27 GMT -5
My family tree is fairly boring. I can trace it a long way but we never did anything too amazing. Except my grandad, that guy makes Marbo look like a pink kitten with no teeth and a fluffy tail.
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Post by Rook on Jul 1, 2013 20:01:27 GMT -5
I'm sure we have all heard of 'six degrees of separation' and thinking about it I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you are related to someone on this board Soap. I hope it's me.
Let me know if you run across the surnames Mueller(Müller), Nimsky, and King.
Also; how are you doing this? Is it with access to the web or are you asking family members?
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Post by ElegaicRequiem on Jul 1, 2013 20:45:52 GMT -5
"And that, children, is how you are distantly related to Rook. Try not to soil yourselves with the realization of what that means. I can only hope that a fraction of the badass is genetically available."
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Post by Soap on Jul 2, 2013 1:09:11 GMT -5
I have asked family members for information they know, which most of the time was only things names and rough ideas on birth or death year. But I have used Internet to compile the family tree and reference the census for dates, addresses, and other family links. For example, I was able to tell my grandad, that his own grandad was born in South Sheilds, his son moved to Essex where he met his wife, who then married 7 years before my grandad was actually born.
It's really interesting, but I have another relative who knows a lot more about my family tree, so I will have to go quiz her at some point.
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Post by Paradill on Jul 2, 2013 3:13:25 GMT -5
My great, great grandad died at the age of 21 falling off a ladder. Seeing his death certificate was quite emotional. I never knew the guy, he never left his tiny little village for longer than a few hours, but I feel he's a part of me.
Seeing the hole my great great grandma lived in with 8 kids was also pretty emotional, my great grandma was the only one of those 8 to survive.
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Post by Soap on Jul 2, 2013 4:31:27 GMT -5
Looking back at family in the early 1900s they had big family's with 8/10 children, and also one house hold had 3 child deaths.
Rook, although it would be quite cool to find a link with someone on the board I think they is very little chance of this. But saying that they is always a chance. RT would probably be most likely seen as he is from not to far From great great grandad.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jul 3, 2013 4:16:07 GMT -5
Sadly child death was a thing of normality and that's why a lot of family's were so big I did this research a while ago and found I'm related on my mother's side to George and James Lovless, the Tolpuddle Martyres... which as we all learnt in school changed the whole county, and ended up in Austrailia. I had no trouble researching them but the museum still won't let me in for free it's only 5 miles from where I currently live too, heh. My favorite relative died when I was really young but he served in WW1+2 as a chief engineer on those temporary docks to fix up our ships closer to the action, I have his medals including his British Empire Medal, good man.
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Post by Major Downer on Jul 3, 2013 7:36:46 GMT -5
One of my cousins has gone on the hunt threw History, to do my Family Tree and it's taken him 5 years to get to mid 1700, so he's not doing to bad. The last family get togeather his wife brought it down for all of us to see, the funniest death I could find was my Great, great,great Granddads and he got killed by his own horse and cart running him over lol
Major Downer
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Post by Soap on Jul 12, 2013 7:46:03 GMT -5
I think it was my nanas uncle (another one), who emigrated to America. Then one unfortunate day you locked his keys in the house, forced the window open and climbed in. Unfortunately the window closed on him and killed him.
I have also uncovered than my great uncle fought in WW2. He was one of the few who fought at Dunkirk, and was safely evacuated to England. He also fought in Burma. Research starting on what else he got up to during the war. Thankfully he survived and left the Army in 1946 after joining in 1938.
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Post by Rook on Jul 12, 2013 20:13:36 GMT -5
"And that, children, is how you are distantly related to Rook. Try not to soil yourselves with the realization of what that means. I can only hope that a fraction of the badass is genetically available." The World should be so lucky. Soap: Please give us details on how you are doing all this. Like specific sites and whatnot. I am interested in learning about my own family as well.
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Post by Soap on Jul 13, 2013 3:43:32 GMT -5
www.ancestry.co.ukThat's the site I'm using to build my family tree, and as you insert names date of birth/death it gives you 'hints'. These are posable documents that person could be mentioned in. For example, I put my great great grandads name in with his date of death, and estimated birth year, and it give me a couple of posable people via copies of the census. Then it was just a matter of making the connection with sons/daughters in the census to make sure I found the right person. With regards to the two members of my family who fought in ww1 and ww2 (apparently they is another who fought in ww1), I was actually told this by family. Ancestry.co.uk actually hold military records so they may also give hints with military records. For more infomation on military history, especially my nanas uncle (ww1), I looked for what regiment he was in, date of death, then what battles where fought on that day. As it happened he died of wounds on 4th Sept 1916 (battle of the Somme), in a two day battle for a village called Guillemont. He died on the second day of battle, but I don't know which wave of attack he was in. Died of wounds suggests he made it to a medical tent, whereas killed in action would say he was killed out right in a fight, so he could have been wounded on either day. The key is quizzing family members as much as you can, then it's all about connecting the dots. The pain is the census is only available for 100 years ago, so for the UK at least, I have to wait till 2021 for the 1921 census, but I can view the 1911 and before now. Prepair to lose a lot of hours doing this
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