Did your ancestor work on the railways in the UK?

When I give my family history talk on Ancestry.com, I always like to mention the databases of Railway and Postal employee records as most families will have, at a bare minimum, at least one family member who was employed by one of these organisations.

Palmerston North Railway Station, 1899 Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-18990728-3-1

Auckland Libraries has in its collection the Who do you think you are? magazine and the February 2012 issue has a good background article about what some of those working for the railways did and covers the post World War One period as well. The article ends with a round up of depositories and a brief description of the resources held at each of them.

Rural postal near in the Cambridge District Auckland, 1914 Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19140618-48-5

If you have a railway employee in your family you may also find the following books of use and they are all available in our family history collection at the Research Centre:

Was your grandfather a railwayman?: a directory of records ... by Tom Richards (Federation of Family History Societies, Lancashire, 2002)

Railway ancestors: a guide to the staff records of the railway companies of England and Wales,1822-1947 by David Hawking (History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2008)

Tracing your railway ancestors: a guide for family historians by Diane K. Drummond (Pen and Sword, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2010)

Marie Hickey

While I was recently indexing some of my own copies of the now defunct Ancestors magazine, I was
struck by the wide array of subjects covered in the articles.  This is one of the reasons I had taken
out a subscription albeit a little late as publication ceased shortly afterwards. We do have the complete run of this publication in our collection at the Central Auckland Research Centre.

Ancestors, September 2005 issue.

The records covered by the magazine were, in the main, held by The National Archives (formerly Public Record Office), Kew, England.

Did you know that competition between doctors was so fierce at one time that soliciting for patients sometimes resulted in a duel?  This and other fascinating facts about the medical profession are found in an article - Health of the Nation which was featured the November 2004 issue.  There are several articles about how the Derbyshire village of Eyam dealt with the bubonic plague which arrived in the village in the form of infected fleas in a parcel of cloth from London.  A short article in the September 2005 issue describes the type of clothing to be worn when travelling by train; aimed at first time travellers by this mode of transport that included the suggestion to wear light coloured clothing and patent boots instead of ordinary ones.

Of course, there are many articles about all branches of the military and their records, those who
emigrated or were transported, Friendly societies, Freemasonry, and tips on preserving records and recorded media as well as the occasional article featuring a particular person.

If you have never delved into this magazine do have a look particularly if you have UK connections as there should be something of interest to you.

Marie Hickey

'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-6097' Showing the headstone and grave of Rev Carl Sylvius Volkner CM, who was murdered on the 2nd March 1865 Read the story in PapersPast Brutal Murder of Rev. Mr. Volkner, Resident Church of England Missionary at Opitiki, Bay of Plenty