Great Uncle John PARRY, Chirk 1876 - ?

[Gadget]

I think I might contact this site:

http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/greatwar/allied/westyorkshireregiment-gw.html

1/6th Battalion - Part of West Riding Brigade, West Riding Division. Landed at Boulogne on 15 May 1915, joined 146th Brigade, 49th Division.

I wonder if he went to wrok in Normanton, West Yorks between 1901 and 1911 - lots of my Dad's family did and they all lived in the same street. The rest of my Mum's family were in the RWF in WW!

[Gadget]

Just found some possible leads here:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t36608.html

but mainly officers 

[hiraeth]

The officer POWs were interviewed prior to being demobbed.  All the POWs were supposed to have passed through a reception camp which had been set up at Dover.  See release of prisoners on this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war

[Gadget]

Thanks, Heather - saw that earlier 

Uncle John was just a private and I've been on a site that says that it's practically impossible to find POW info for WW1. The Red Cross site is probably my best hope 

I'll just have to wait for 3 months and for the 1911 to come out for Yorkshire to see why he was originally in a TA battalion from Yorkshire when we thought he was in Chirk 


Gadget

[Peterej]

Hi Gadget

I guess you will have spotted Llangollen deaths that might help -just appeared on NorthWales BMD?
Curiously I had a great Uncle Charlie from Wrexham (who died 9 days before the war ended) and was In the Durham Light Infantry. I am sure there was no connection with the area.

Peter

[hiraeth]

I'll just have to wait for 3 months and for the 1911 to come out for Yorkshire to see why he was originally in a TA battalion from Yorkshire when we thought he was in Chirk 
Gadget

We have become accustomed to many of our families following the same social patterns throughout most of the 19th century,  particularly Welsh ones.  It is easy to lose sight of how much more mobile the population was becoming, even before 1901, and particularly by 1911. 

WW1 was a cataclysmic event for young people in particular.   It brought people from all areas of the country and walks of life together.   Many might not normally (or previously) have ever connected.   This vastly increased the possibilities of random chance in many lives.   

When the 1911 census is fully available, I think many of us are going to get a number of surprises in more ways than one

[Gadget]

Hi all 

Happy New Year and thank you for the input - and thank, Paul,  for checking the burial records. I think this is a mystery that will only be solved if the irc get back to me in a few months time.

Heather - my families moved around all over the place before the 20th century. It was only then that they settled and then my generation got the mobility bug again 


Gadget

[Gadget]

No relatives in either Sunderland or Glamorgan, Heather, so what would identify him on a death cert.  

Just to update as I have recently found that his first cousin (also a John Parry) had moved to Sunderland in the late 1890s. Also, located him on the 1911 (Lancs).  He arrived back via Hull in 1918.

I shall now order the Sunderland cert. 


Gadget

[Gadget]

...and finally, I've found him, thanks to the 1939 register!

Although I followed up all the deaths that looked possible, none seemed to fit. Last week I was searching the 1939 for someone and decided to check up on him once more. There was one in Rotherham who seemed to fit  - exactly same birthdate and an unskilled  labourer. As he'd landed back in Hull in Nov 1918, it was a possible. I checked the birth reg and the 1911 and worked out that the odds of it being someone else were pretty low. He was living with a Martha Parry, and two chidren - a Marjorie (b. 1927 and Edwards written in )  and a redacted son (from clues on the sheet, I've worked out that he was born in 1930).  I checked up on a marriage and eventually found that he'd married a Martha Whitehouse ( mn Powell) , Dec q, 1937. The two children had been registered under both Whitehouse and Parry so he must have adopted them on marriage. With this info, I decided that it would be worth getting the marriage cert to confirm the details.

It arrived today - it was him as his father's details and age fit perfectly and he was single.

John died  4th Q, 1954, Rotherham.

His step daughter, Marjorie, married a Wilmot Lynus Edwards 2nd Quarter, 1947 and died 1st Q, 2001, Rotherham.

I assume, from the 1939 info being redacted, that the stepson, b. 1930 is still alive.

I now feel quite sad as my Mum (died 1999)  thought her uncle had died and he'd been in Yorkshire all the time! It was one of those sad moments when I nearly went to the phone to tell her.


Gadget