I have published the whole family tree online, more details can be found here.
Geleick Family History: The Geleick Family tree online
In case you are wondering why the Davies tree is listed as the Geleick family tree, the answer is simple, there are more Geleick details in the tree at the moment, mainly due to not being able to search BMD data online in the UK.
I contacted the ONS last week about the non arrival of the marriage certificate, they replied 8 days later saying they would send it again, though they did not think to check the address which means the second one may also not arrive!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Arthur Ellis Davies
Arthur Ellis Davies was born 21 August 1921. or at least I think that is the correct year, I was told that date by him many years ago but then I know that he retired from work around 1980 and would then of been 65 years old, there seems to be a 5 year error for me to correct. He died in 2000 I do know, but not which date.
I know he started work as a teenager in the locomotive repair works near Manchester, UK. As apprentice his job was to light the furnaces at 4 AM so everything was hot when the rest of the workers started. During WW2 he was in the North Africa campaign, which also implies his birth year was earlier than 1921, he was a sapper I believe with the Royal Engineers. In any case he ended up for a while as a signalman on the railway around Suez.
He was shot during the invasion of Sicily, which he described as "a monumental American cock up", As a sapper his groups job was to arrive at the beachhead last when the fighting was just about over, and establish the supply lines. He was in one of the first landing craft, with very little fighting experience and almost no ammunition. When he eventually rejoined his unit he was given the task of being signalman again this time on the rail system south of Naples, in a town called Torre Annunciata, near Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.
I visted there with him in 1963 and met the old stationmaster and several other old friends of his. He seems to have stayed there for some time.
At some point during or just after the war he met Dorothy Grist, a land army girl from Gateshead, C. Durham, in Bicester, they married and had 2 children.
After the war he returned to working for British Railways as a signalman in Manchester, Piccadilly and after 1957 in South Devon where he was also a union official with the National Union of Railwaymen.
After the marriage of his second child he left his wife and moved to live in Starcross, Devon where he died.
I know he started work as a teenager in the locomotive repair works near Manchester, UK. As apprentice his job was to light the furnaces at 4 AM so everything was hot when the rest of the workers started. During WW2 he was in the North Africa campaign, which also implies his birth year was earlier than 1921, he was a sapper I believe with the Royal Engineers. In any case he ended up for a while as a signalman on the railway around Suez.
He was shot during the invasion of Sicily, which he described as "a monumental American cock up", As a sapper his groups job was to arrive at the beachhead last when the fighting was just about over, and establish the supply lines. He was in one of the first landing craft, with very little fighting experience and almost no ammunition. When he eventually rejoined his unit he was given the task of being signalman again this time on the rail system south of Naples, in a town called Torre Annunciata, near Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.
I visted there with him in 1963 and met the old stationmaster and several other old friends of his. He seems to have stayed there for some time.
At some point during or just after the war he met Dorothy Grist, a land army girl from Gateshead, C. Durham, in Bicester, they married and had 2 children.
After the war he returned to working for British Railways as a signalman in Manchester, Piccadilly and after 1957 in South Devon where he was also a union official with the National Union of Railwaymen.
After the marriage of his second child he left his wife and moved to live in Starcross, Devon where he died.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Genealogy humor
Just some humor today while waiting for marriage certificate from the UK
Genealogy humor: "He who has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning." Old English Proverb
I did get a copy of the Wrexham Directory 1951 in the post today, fascinating reading. list of every address in the town with the name of the head of household, lots of backgroung info on the area and the advertising could also bring some family connections. Let me know if you would like a copy.
Genealogy humor: "He who has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning." Old English Proverb
I did get a copy of the Wrexham Directory 1951 in the post today, fascinating reading. list of every address in the town with the name of the head of household, lots of backgroung info on the area and the advertising could also bring some family connections. Let me know if you would like a copy.
Monday, August 20, 2007
UK BMD trials and tribulations
Getting birth, marriage and death data in some countries is relatively straightforward, If you know the city of the record then you go there, write there or check online for lots of historic data at least.
The UK of course has to be different and difficult. First you need to search the indexes for likely matches which just gives you a name and place and some code numbers which refer to the actual data. There is, as far as I know, no way to check further which of the possibilities is the correct one for your ancestor. Then you need to order a copy of the certificate by post which may arrive with you a month later. As I have 5 possibles for Arthur Victor Davies's birth then I would need to order 5 certificates or do them one at a time and take 6 months to check which was his.
This system is archaic and frustrating, historic data should be in the public domain and freely available online.
To make matters worse many companies have seen an earning potential without doing much work, they allow you to search the freely available indexes at a cost, I realise the cost is not high but it all adds up, these sites are the same ones that encourage you to share you tree online 'for the good of the community' then they charge other users access fees.
Fortunately there are some free alternatives such as FreeBMD
You still need to wave your plastic about to get the actual data, and wait for the certificate to arrive before you can carry on with the research, but this does at least starve the leeches a little.
The more astute reader will of seen that the Free*** sites are sponsored by rootsweb and Ancestry, I'll let you draw your own conclusions and correct me if I'm wrong.
The UK of course has to be different and difficult. First you need to search the indexes for likely matches which just gives you a name and place and some code numbers which refer to the actual data. There is, as far as I know, no way to check further which of the possibilities is the correct one for your ancestor. Then you need to order a copy of the certificate by post which may arrive with you a month later. As I have 5 possibles for Arthur Victor Davies's birth then I would need to order 5 certificates or do them one at a time and take 6 months to check which was his.
This system is archaic and frustrating, historic data should be in the public domain and freely available online.
To make matters worse many companies have seen an earning potential without doing much work, they allow you to search the freely available indexes at a cost, I realise the cost is not high but it all adds up, these sites are the same ones that encourage you to share you tree online 'for the good of the community' then they charge other users access fees.
Fortunately there are some free alternatives such as FreeBMD
FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is a part of the FreeUKGEN family, which also includes FreeCEN (Census data) and FreeREG (Parish Registers).
You still need to wave your plastic about to get the actual data, and wait for the certificate to arrive before you can carry on with the research, but this does at least starve the leeches a little.
The more astute reader will of seen that the Free*** sites are sponsored by rootsweb and Ancestry, I'll let you draw your own conclusions and correct me if I'm wrong.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Start of the Research
Starting with what is known and hopefully moving onto new discoveries.
Some families are difficult to research because there are so few of them and fewer records, Davies family research is the opposite, information overload.
To start with I do not expect to get to far back in time with branch, the oral family history is the Arthur Victor was the son or grandson of an itinerant tinker who traveled around the great houses of N.Wales - tinkering. He formed a relationship with one of the maids in one house and eventually they married and she traveled with him until they started a family. She made him settle down in either Wrexham or Manchester or even somewhere in between.
Arthur Victor Davieswas married in Wrexham to Gertrude Florence Jones ( oh no a Jones, all I need now is a Williams and I have the full set!) The had 2 children Arthur Ellis and Joan Ellis both born in Immingham, Joan married Wilfred Hayes and had 3 daughters and Arthur married Dorothy Grist and had 2 children. Arthur may of had a brother or a cousin named Harold who lived and died in Wrexham, he was married to Peggy and they had a daughter.
Not much to start with but I have found the marriage of Arthur and Gertrude in a free BMD index but as the public records in the UK are not publicly viewable online I have ordered a copy of the certificate to see where that leads me, more info will be posted when I have it.
Some families are difficult to research because there are so few of them and fewer records, Davies family research is the opposite, information overload.
To start with I do not expect to get to far back in time with branch, the oral family history is the Arthur Victor was the son or grandson of an itinerant tinker who traveled around the great houses of N.Wales - tinkering. He formed a relationship with one of the maids in one house and eventually they married and she traveled with him until they started a family. She made him settle down in either Wrexham or Manchester or even somewhere in between.
Arthur Victor Davieswas married in Wrexham to Gertrude Florence Jones ( oh no a Jones, all I need now is a Williams and I have the full set!) The had 2 children Arthur Ellis and Joan Ellis both born in Immingham, Joan married Wilfred Hayes and had 3 daughters and Arthur married Dorothy Grist and had 2 children. Arthur may of had a brother or a cousin named Harold who lived and died in Wrexham, he was married to Peggy and they had a daughter.
Not much to start with but I have found the marriage of Arthur and Gertrude in a free BMD index but as the public records in the UK are not publicly viewable online I have ordered a copy of the certificate to see where that leads me, more info will be posted when I have it.
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