Editorial

When I’m asked why I spend so much time researching my family tree, I often tell people that one of my main motivations is to bring to life those who would otherwise be forgotten. I love to learn about my ancestors’ lives and in doing so, I have found quite a few unsung heroes amongst them. For example, my great aunt, Amy Bullock, contracted cholera but her life was saved at a hospital in India. Grateful for the care she received, she trained as a nurse and went back to devote her life to nursing, becoming the matron of the Welsh Mission Hospital in Shillong. Another ancestor who comes to mind is my great great uncle, William Nock, a botanist, who trained at Kew Gardens. He experimented with growing the cinchona plant in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), from which quinine is derived. By making the plant more widely available, his work must have helped to save the lives of thousands afflicted with malaria. These relatives are perhaps particularly noteworthy but even though the majority of my ancestors were just ordinary folk with no conspicuous achievements to their name, I often find myself admiring them. Many raised large families in difficult circumstances or did tough, dangerous work to support their families.

Some unsung heroes are to be found closer to the present day. I was thinking recently about my Dad, a member of his local Home Guard unit whilst working long hours on the family farm. He was one of 1.7 million British people who joined the Home Guard after its formation in May 1940 in order to support the war effort. The main purpose of the Home Guard was to slow down the advance of enemy troops in the event of invasion, which was a very real threat at the time. Although the popular BBC sitcom, Dad’s Army, portrays them in a comic light, they actually made a major contribution to Home Front defence. Whilst carrying on with their jobs in civilian life, these unpaid volunteers manned anti-aircraft and coastal artillery, guarded vulnerable factories and munitions, disposed of bombs and aided the civilian population.

In my collection of family photographs, I have an amazing photograph of Dad with his battalion:

Dad would have joined the Home Guard when he turned seventeen in March 1942. His beloved elder brother, Gordon, a Battle of Britain pilot, died the following month, aged 23, as a prisoner of war in Hamburg. When talking with him, years later, Dad recollected how he had to to run towards straw dummies in a field, pretending that they were Germans, in order to bayonet them. He found this bloodthirsty exercise repellent but, nevertheless, did his best. Gordon is rightly revered yet Dad, in his less glamorous role, deserves recognition too. Always modest about his own contribution to the war effort in those dark days, to me, he is an unsung hero. How you define a hero is up to you but perhaps what they all have in common is decency, hard work and the support of others. Let’s bring their stories out into the light and celebrate them.

If you have a relative who was in the Home Guard, you can apply for their enlistment record for free from the Ministry of Defence (although the MOD is in the process of transferring them to the National Archives). To do so, you will need to fill in two short forms: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-home-guard-service-records. The only exception is County Durham, as records for this county can be downloaded for free from the National Archives website: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/durham-home-guard-records-1939-1945/

Most other Home Guard records, where they survive, are usually to be found in local archives so search their catalogues to see what you can find. For example, there may be photographs, correspondence or lists of members. Online, Ancestry has some Home Guard records for Surrey, Lancashire and Berkshire. Other online records include those for 46,000 Home Guard officers on Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/publication/1211/uk-home-guard-officer-lists-1939-1945/description. Fold3 also have records for Home Guard Auxiliary Units, top secret militias who were specially trained to resist any occupying force. You can find more information on their collection here: https://www.fold3.com/publication/1210/uk-records-of-home-guard-auxiliary-units-1939-1945/description

A useful website containing information on the Home Guard in the West Midlands, as well as links to resources for other counties can be found here: http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/AWELCOMEstaffshomeguard.htm#sitemap.

Another helpful resource is The Wartime Memories Project, which lists each Home Guard battalion alphabetically on a county basis:

https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/homeguard.php\

Click on the battalion link to see if other material has been submitted.

Genealogy News

One tends to think that only documents are stored at archives but in fact, they can have some physical artefacts in their possession too. The National Archives (TNA) recently discovered a sweater found in a stash of 19th century letters, part of a collection called the Prize Papers. With a bright red knit and in pristine condition, the sweater, wrapped up in a parcel, had been sent by sea in 1807 to a woman in Denmark. However, the ship that carried it was captured by the British Navy and the sweater never reached its destination. You can read the full story here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/pristine-sweater-found-in-parcel-posted-in-1807/?fbclid=IwAR1tbcf796fhgVBQdBv_Cb7IQY4yGHHqsBUACm5-txYDQZoi9uVjyyZNhhc

Website Focus

The database currently has details of nearly 50,000 incidents and is available as a downloadable Excel spreadsheet. Volunteers have transcribed information contained in the Railway Inspectorate Reports 1900-1939, and from records documenting various trade union claims between 1889 and 1919/20. Note that there are no details of cases involving passenger train accidents, even when workers were involved, as these are available elsewhere.

Did you know?

Many of us have taken an AncestryDNA test but did you know that matches who share less than 20CM with you will not feature in lists of shared matches? This was news to me and explains why lower matches in the 20CM region often have no shared matches.

Media Moments

If it’s your dream to produce your own family history book to share amongst family members and descendants in the future then Leaving a Legacy: Turn Your Family Tree into a Family Book by Rebecca Shamlin could be just the ticket. It’s the culmination of one’s research to create your own family history book, but it can be overwhelming to think about to go about the project. Where do you start? I can only imagine all the work needed to pull all the information together, write mini biographies and make those important decisions about all the technical stuff. Help is needed and Leaving a Legacy provides just that, being full of practical advice, with clear and detailed chapters covering the five phases of your project: Planning, Research, Writing, Printing and Distribution. Take the plunge and it can be your trusty manual, guiding you through the process and helping you get to grips with all the nitty gritty stuff behind the scenes. The aim is to create a beautifully illustrated masterpiece. To produce her books, Rebecca uses Family Tree Maker for her software, Family Creator, (a FTM plug-in) to create the structure of the book and Lulu.com, a print-on-demand service, to print and sell the book (also available in the U.K.) You may decide to go down a different route, as there are other options available, but even so, this book would be definitely useful, as it is full of expert tips and examples.

To purchase a copy of Leaving a Legacy on Amazon for the current price of £11.81, click here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CTMLLKGJ?psc=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_ct_FQSF7W963XW71STRGHM6

Note that I have been given a free PDF copy of Leaving a Legacy by the author for review purposes.

© Judith Batchelor 2024