Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

This morning I had an epiphany – which revealed how stupid I have been in my 18 months of naivité as an amateur genealogist.

It was whilst watching a re-run of the Coming Home series about celebrities’ Welsh ancestry that all was revealed – base-born meant illegitimate! I had believed that base-born meant still-born!

I now find myself searching through my GEDCOM file finding occurrences of “base born”, “bb” and the like to make sure I have not added a death date to match!

Call me stupid, call me anything similar (or stronger!) – but call it lesson learned (I hope!)

Well, I attended the WDYTYALive family history show in London on Friday 26th February. A busy and tiring day, but I managed to visit most of the stalls I had prepared questions for, and received welcome advice, before my first day’s seminar at 12:30am. The remainder I visited dodging between the seminar schedules.

Tony Robinson signing autographs

The actor and historian, and UK face of Ancestry.co.uk, Tony Robinson, presented The Journey of a Record at the Ancestry Academy, and visitors through the day could hear beginner, intermediate and advanced talks, with the main advanced presentation being given by genealogy and history expert Dr. Nick Barratt (personally, I felt a little too much cross-over between content of the latter two that I visited).

Gill Blanchard’s talk on Norfolk ancestors was welcome, since I may have to trace there (as confirmed by a visit to the Norfolk FHS stall).

The talk on the 1910 Valuation Survey (‘Lloyd George’s Domesday’) given by Peter Park was ‘different’ but useful, amongst other things highlighting how the occupier of property is not necessarily the owner, and that occupation could change a lot within a short few years.

All-in-all, another worthwhile visit, and the extra CDs I bought from KFHS have already this weekend yielded tree expansion and clarification around Birchington, Chartham and Challock!

Ancestry Intermediate

I was searching today through the British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920, on Ancestry in an effort to find information of my 2nd cousin 3 times removed, William FAGG, born 1882 in Kingston, near Canterbury. The index indicated that I would find 3 images for him. I thought I’d tried my luck and click forward one more page …

To my surprise, I found a further seventeen images, indicating that he enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery Reserves for the duration of WWI (having already served the R.G.A between 1899 and 1907), but later re-enlisted in 1919, for one year at the age of 37, into the Royal Engineers (Inland Waterways & Docks) within weeks of being demobbed.

William’s military records also suggested that his brother George served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and his brother James served in the Navy. He was also living with his (as yet undetermined) sister Miss ‘A’ FAGG in Ramsgate during the period around the First World War. I now have two more brothers’ records to locate, and a sister (at least) to find!

Seek and ye shall find … !