RootsChat.Com

Hello Rootschat,

As some of you may already know, I am a History teacher working in a secondary school in the East Midlands.

I have recently been asked by my Head of Department to take a lead on planning and resourcing our WW1 Scheme of Learning and I am pivoting towards a study of how the First World War impacted on ordinary people, e.g., the soldiers who fought in it and the families who lived it.

As part of this, I intend on using real-life examples of families during this conflict as well as experiences and stories by ordinary men on the front lines in extraordinary circumstances. My philosophy when teaching History is to make it as relevant and as powerful as possible to engage students' understanding.

In this vein, I have a polite request. If any of you have any stories or photographs of First World War soldiers/families that you would like to be incorporated into my lessons then I would love to hear from you, either publicly or privately.

I'd like to stress that as a teacher I will be making no profit from such work and if chatters wish, I'd be more than happy to share the lesson PowerPoints so that you can see how I have your family's stories of sacrifice to bring history alive for the next generation.

I hope that admin can accommodate this request; I don't believe such a request has been made before and I'd love to have real, authentic experiences of ordinary people during this time to share.

I'm looking for the following in particular, including images if they are available:

- Stories of loss on the front. Did your ancestor serve with friends who died in service?
- Stories of heroism or humanity shown on the battlefield, whether it be with friends, comrades or perhaps even the enemy?
- Stories of men who were taken as Prisoners of War.
- Stories of how families struggled back home.
- Stories of women who worked in munitions factories or who drove the ambulances near the front lines.
- Stories of soldiers who married their nurses.
- Stories of families losing more than one son/brother to the war and of course the awful stories of battle and warfare that the men experienced.
- Stories about soldiers being punished or tried for what the army deemed as cowardice.

I promise to treat all of the above with the respect and sensitivity they deserve. They are, after all, our family history. I'll be sharing the story of my great gran's cousin Peter who signed up with his friend; they had consecutive army numbers and served in the same machine gun battery, only to be killed on The Somme 24 hours apart.

Please reply or drop me a message if you are interested!

Kind regards,
Matt

Hello Rootschatters,

I am hoping that someone may be able to assist me in locating a birth certificate in Northern Ireland.

A baptism on August 30 1876 in Downpatrick's RC Church tells me that Ellen Owens was the daughter of Bernard Owens and Eliza Fox, but while I can find her siblings, her birth certificate eludes me.

Can I please ask if others mind looking her up for me, just for some new pairs of eyes? Her parents had married in 1858 so she wasn't illegitimate and as far as I can see as her parent's second youngest child, cannot see any evidence that she was adopted.

Any help you are able to provide would be warmly welcomed.

Kind regards,
Matt.

Hi Chatters,

I hope moderators may permit this post. I and three of my colleagues are walking the London to Brighton challenge (62 miles) on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of the month. We're walking to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society and each have a personal reason for doing so. For me, it's to remember my great gran who suffered from this disease and like so many lost her battle with it.

I would be grateful if any of you awesome RootsChatters would kindly share my fundraising page or, if you have any spare change, any donations would be warmly welcomed. Alzheimers is such a cruel disease and by doing my small bit to help raise awareness and hard cash, families in the future may not have to suffer so much from its devastating effects on the lives of loved ones.

Thank you for all of the support so far - the nerves are starting to kick in now! We've been practising for months and did our most challenging dummy run last weekend, testing our physical and psychological endurance.

Anything you can do to help, is kindly appreciated 

Please follow this link to reach my JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Matthew-Reay3


Kind regards,
Matt.

Hello all,

I hope that someone may be able to add some clarity to a problem I have researching an ancestor of mine who fought in the First World War.

The man I am researching is my great, great grandfather, Sergeant 15471 Thomas James Griffiths, who served with 5th (Pioneer) Battalion South Wales Borderers from 1915 and was demobbed in 1919. According to the medal rolls compiled in 1920, he is listed as being 'attached to 19th Machine Gun Corps'.

So here's the issue I have: Thomas' service record does not survive so I am relying on a medal card to give me the date he went overseas and the war diaries of the 5/SWB. But because he is listed as being attached to the Machine Gun Corps, I am confused as to precisely which war diary I need to look at.

A brief look at the war diary for the 5th Bn SWB tells me there was indeed a machine gun section in the battalion which occasionally conducted duties away from the bulk of the battalion, but what I really would appreciate some clarity on is whether I rely on the SWB war diaries for Sgt Griffiths' movements or is there a MGC diary somewhere that I need to find instead/as well?

Any help that any of you awesome people could provide on this would be warmly welcomed; it's difficult not having his service record and as a result I am relying heavily on war diaries, and so I'm obviously keen to get his movements correct.

Thanks for reading this post and in anticipation,
Matt.

Hi peeps,

I have a photograph my great great uncle before he went off to war in 1915, and another I have just found of his Royal Field Artillery Battery on the Imperial War Museum site.

I am wondering if anyone would be willing to offer an opinion on whether or not my great uncle appears in the group photograph and would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

Matt.