To JJen and dawnkaren.
A few things I should explain! Firstly, I am more familiar with researching buildings than people so my skill level here is a million miles behind yours. Secondly, I stop to get a bite to eat and come back to all this - which is really incredible! I am investigating a fire which destroyed a magnificent old building - three stories tall and substantially built in stone. In 1948 it was burned down, demolished and replaced very quickly with a brick building because it was a successful hotel at the railway station in a small village.
The village is a very small one and has become a dormitory for the well off. Few of the old families remain and nobody can remember the fire but one person was killed and I am having trouble finding out who died and how. I have the whole history from when it was built in 1870 to when it was destroyed in 1948 less odd details on licensees but NOTHING about the fire. All of this is vital background about the building and the people who were associated with it but it will also help with tracking families who might know those details. I am trying to find someone with a family connection who will know how the fire started and who died. But I am also trying to fid out about the people who lived in it to build up a picture of the village life.
The Margaret Ann McKinney connection had to be the right one because I refuse to believe that in such a tiny village two Margaret Anns would marry two Mr Bells at the same time!
People have told me that the fire never happened but there are little bits of information all over the place which say it did and suggest the date was March 1948 including one person, sadly now deceased, who witnessed the fire. If I can build up a picture of those who were there, I can give them personalities when I write the story - not just names. This will be written up for local history reasons; I am not being paid to do it.
So I would like to thank you both for all your wonderful help and I will now plod on and try to complete the list of (and lives of) licensees from 1870-1948 so that I will know which family to seek out for details of the fire so that I can finish the story. Incidentally, the replacement hotel is still doing well today only now it is called the Derwent Walk Inn and is beside a cycle track/nature walk instead of a railway line.
Thanks again
Elliven
