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It Wasn’t Just Londoners In The London Regiment
I was particularly interested to read the ‘Q&A’ article in the April issue of the magazine in which your military expert Phil Tomaselli expressed surprise at a Nottingham man serving in the Royal Fusiliers during the First World War.
When investigating the military service of my grandfather William Fernyhough in the Great War, I was nonplussed to find that he served in the Royal Fusiliers, which as Phil mentioned was also known as the City of London Regiment, having strong ties with the capital. Since my grandfather was from the Potteries and other relatives had served in the North Staffordshire Regiment or other locally based regiments, this didn’t make sense to me.
William’s army medical history reveals that he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers at Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, on 1 September 1914, and at that time he was a 21-year-old fitter and turner at an engineering company.
He passed away in 1944 so I never knew him and don’t know how he came to join up within a month of Britain entering the conflict, particularly because he was by this time courting my grandmother. The young man was clearly swept up in the wave of patriotic fervour that coincided with the declaration of war.
It seems that in order to bring their regular battalions up to strength, the Royal Fusiliers had a recruitment drive which passed through Stoke, even though the regiment doesn’t appear to have a connection with the area. After his training,
William joined the 3rd Battalion which having returned from India was posted to Ypres with the 28th Division early in 1915.
The battalion was occupying front-line trenches on 22 April when the Germans launched the first successful poison-gas attack of the war against the adjacent Allied positions. In the weeks that followed, the Allied lines were pushed back by further gas attacks, but Ypres did not fall. William’s battalion suffered terribly heavy casualties, and my grandfather was wounded in the chest and left shoulder when the Germans once again used gas as they stormed the 3rd Battalion trenches on 24 May. This gas attack on Bellewarde Ridge was thought by some to be the most severe that had been launched up to that point, even though it didn’t have the same element of surprise of the first such attack in April and apparently very primitive respirators had, by then, been issued to British front-line troops.
After a lengthy spell of recuperation, while never again being fit for active service, my grandfather remained in the Royal Fusiliers until his discharge in January 1919. Upon leaving the Wharncliffe War Hospital in Sheffield he was sent to a factory in Coventry to undertake war work using his old skills as a turner. Coventry is where he settled, marrying and bringing up his family.
EDITOR REPLIES: Thank you for sharing this Bill, and for emailing those wonderful photographs. Your research may solve a mystery for other readers who have connections to the Royal Fusiliers.
POLISH-RESEARCH TIPS
I read Madeleine Janes’ letter in the March issue about trying to find out more information regarding her father Mendel Popinski and his family.
I logged onto JRI-Poland (jri-poland.org), putting in her grandfather’s name and place of residence, and did find a record for her grandfather, Chil Majer Popinski. If she logs on again, she will see this message:
“Ujazd PSA Births 1889,1891– 1905, Marriages, Deaths 1889–1905; To learn more about these and other records, please contact the JRI-Poland town volunteer for Ujazd.”
I logged onto JewishGen (jewishgen.org), which is the biggest Jewish genealogy website, but this time did not include the name of the town and found many references to “Popinski”. I put in Madeleine’s family information and found a number of records for family members from Brzeziny who were in the Ëódz Ghetto. I would also suggest that Madeleine searches the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at ushmm.org. Also, on the Yad Vashem website (yadvashem.org) I found many members of the Popinski family who perished in the Holocaust. These may or may not be family members.
I hope that some of this may help Madeleine in finding members of her father’s family.
EDITOR REPLIES: What a great window into some of the records that can be used. Thanks Terry.
Sarah Philpott responded to an article about finding school records online: tinyurl.com/wdytya-school I took my late mother to our local records office whilst I was doing some research. Her older sister had lived with their grandparents for a few years as a young child. Mother was thrilled to find her sister’s records in the village school’s logbooks.
MORE 1921 NAME-CHANGE CHALLENGES
I enjoyed Patricia Davies’ letter (May) because I had a similar situation with the 1921 census. My great grandmother Margaret Swidenbank married Robert Scourfield in 1903, and they were listed in the 1911 census with two children. However, in 1921 Margaret and four children are living with 73-year-old Edward Hutcherson and they all now share his surname, with Margaret shown as his wife.
I know that these are the same people because the ages and birthplaces match, and Margaret’s sister Annie Swidenbank is visiting. Margaret died in October 1921 and was registered under the name Scourfield while her children carried the name Scourfield for the rest of their lives.
Edward Hutcherson is listed as the father of the youngest child Florence on her birth certificate in 1914, and she used his surname until she married.
Robert Scourfield is nowhere to be found in the census but shows up in 1934 when he remarries.
Margaret’s other illegitimate son Thomas Swidenbank and his wife (my grandparents) are living just a few streets away in the 1921 census. He is a miner and in pencil under his job description is written “Out of work”. This is probably because of the mine lock-out, as was the case with many others in the village.
EDITOR REPLIES: Thank you for sharing this David. Have any other readers uncovered interesting stories or mysteries from the 1921 census?
WILLS CHAOS
I am in need of some help with the Government’s wills and probate website (probatesearch. service.gov.uk). On 23 January I ordered and paid for a will in PDF form, which I haven’t received. Some weeks ago I ordered a paper copy of another will, giving the details and order number (in a letter) of the first one that I haven’t received. My cheque was cashed, but nothing else has happened.
I have filled in two or three feedback forms, but nothing. If I try to log on it says that my email is invalid. I created a new one, but that is held to be invalid also.
My current research is stymied by the lack of these wills, but I can’t see a way forward.
EDITOR REPLIES: We asked the Ministry of Justice for a comment and they said, “We understand the frustration users have experienced and thank them for their patience. We are working on a range of further enhancements to improve the service.” Fingers crossed that things will improve!
SOUTH-WEST MAPS
Many thanks for another excellent issue of the magazine (May). However, I was surprised that the article about maps failed to mention the website kypwest.org. uk which covers many counties in the south-west of England. Using it I was able to identify the house where a great uncle lived for which I had a name but no number in a long street.
EDITOR REPLIES: Being based in Bristol, I love the maps on Know Your Place West of England. As you say, it’s definitely one to be included in any list.
DON’T FORGET MANORIAL RECORDS
I read with interest Else Churchill’s article in the April issue about researching our ancestors from the 18th century. Perhaps space prevented her from mentioning the wealth of information that can be found in the records of manorial courts.
Most county record offices have considerable collections of these records. Manorial courts were held in just about every manor of the country twice a year. The records list court officers and appointments but more importantly the names of tenants present at court, those who were absent and those who were “essoined” (excused). They deal with the transfer of tenancies, and allow you to see how they transferred down through the generations – relationships are often stated.
They also show what was important for our ancestors such as dangerous chimneys, poorly maintained buildings, fences and bridges, as well as misdemeanours: encroachment of land, drunkenness, lock-ins, suspected poachers – even an illicit skittles match on a Sunday!
Although prior to the 1740s many of the records are in Latin, they are well worth investigating.
EDITOR REPLIES: Well Steve, you will be pleased to know that an article on this very topic is going to be published in a future issue.
RESTRICTED ACCESS
I wonder if any other readers have found archives biased towards people who don’t work. I have been lucky enough to uncover some incredible stories about family members, but it’s almost all been done online. As someone who has a ‘9-to-5’ job I really struggle to get into archives and libraries, especially now. Even in pre-Covid times my local archives opened at 10am and closed at 4pm on weekdays, meaning that I had to take a day’s holiday to visit. Now they are only open two days a week, and that’s midweek.
The only option I am given is to pay them to research for me at an hourly rate, and we all know how quickly the hours run away when you’re researching.
It would be fantastic to think that when places start to reopen properly, archives and libraries take people like me into account, and make their opening times a bit more worker-friendly.
EDITOR REPLIES: Thanks for raising this issue Michael. We contacted the Archives & Records Association (ARA) who asked members to offer feedback, and received a long and detailed response. The association said that those in charge of archive services are “working hard to ensure fair access for everyone to the collections they hold”.
Although various constraints were cited, the main barrier to out-of-hours opening was a lack of demand. However, they do recognise that there is a principle of equal access to be considered, and some archives are looking at offering occasional out-of-hours options. Perhaps it would be worth you having another conversation with the archive in question.
@chigworld welcomed the repeat of June Brown’s episode of WDYTYA? following her sad death Showing June Brown’s #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre? again was a brilliant tribute to her. Far better than a compilation of #EastEnders clips. It was a rare chance to see the real person.
WARWICKSHIRE LOSS-ACCOUNTS CORRECTION
A news story that we ran in our May issue about Warwickshire Loss Accounts stated that they were a record of compensation, however there is no record that civilians were ever compensated. Also the project was solely funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
YOUR LETTER IN PRINT
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