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I don't know what I did, in a former life, to deserve this number of Smiths in my family tree!

Before I go and spend even more money on certificates, I wonder if anyone has access to burial records for churches in or close to Northallerton and if so, would you be able to check one Robert Smith, died in the March quarter of 1840 in the Northallerton district. ( 24/301). I am hoping this is my 4 x great grandfather, husband of Elizabeth ( ?), who was still alive in the 1841 census, living in East Harsley so that could be a clue. Robert's birth was probably around 1760 - 1770.

It could be that Robert died before registration began, of course but I thought it worth checking this one out and if there is a burial record, it might confirm that it his him - in which case I'll send for the certificate, or eliminate him from my list of possibles - at which point I shall go back to tearing my hair out!

I seem to be getting horribly close to linking up my two maternal Smith lines, which is something I have long suspected could be the case.

Many thanks,

Jen

Hello,

Christiana/Christian Dove married William Smith, 1818, in Marske by the Sea, North Riding, Yorkshire. She spent her married life in Tynemouth, which is where William was born.

I believe she was born around 1793-95, possibly in Robin Hood's Bay, or Moorsholm. In two censuses she says Redcar but that was the civil parish - I don't think she was born in the town.

In 1861, William Smith is a visitor in the Redcar household of Joseph Dove, born Robin Hood's. c1795. I think he is more than likely to be Christiana's brother.

I would really appreciate some Rootschat help in tracking down the Dove family.

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to think that I might have ancestors from Robin Hood's Bay. I've been a little bit in love with the place since I slept in the shelter opposite the Bay Hotel, as a teenager with a bit of a wander-lust!

Hello,

I have just bought a new laptop and am having various problems so hoping someone in here might be able to help me.

Firstly - I have tried to download a free Legacy programme, plus one or two other things but am receiving the message that the downloads could not be completed. Can anyone explain why that might be.

Secondly - my old laptop was pretty ancient and all my documents are in Microsoft Works - another obsolete programme. There appears to be a recent downloadable Works programme but again, my laptop won't accept it. Am I really going to have to type out every document I have ever created or is there a way of converting the originals to Word?

If anyone can help with either of these questions, I would be eternally grateful.

Many thanks, Jen.

Ernest Cooper Smith, born in Middlesbrough, November 1886, was the son of John Smith and Harriet Knight. He was always known by his family in Middlesbrough as Cooper but his young wife Lillian, in Sheffield, called him Ernie. They had a daughter Mabel, born in February 1914.

Cooper was a career soldier, joining the army on September 18th 1902. In June 1914, as he approached the date on which he was due for his final discharge after twelve years service, he had applied for a civilian post and received a glowing reference from Lt. Cl. Ainslie of the Northumberland Fusiliers. His discharge papers describe him as "sober, honest and trustworthy" and state that there were no instances of drunkenness in his twelve years of service.

Before he could take up his civilian career, with war looming, Cooper decided that he had to re-join the army to serve his country. In a letter to Lillian, he writes " ....remember you are a British Soldier's wife, who is not afraid to die for his country..........although our love is loyal, my country has more claim on me" On August 14th 1914, he landed in France.

Then, on 2nd November he wrote to Lillian saying that he was well but tells her about a friend who had been killed.

On November 7th, the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers were close to Ieper, at Herenthage Chateau on the Menen Road. The war diary for November 8th reads...."War Diary.: 4 a.m. received order to hold the line at all costs. Intermittent shelling and rifle fire throughout the day. About 5.30 p.m. the enemy left their trenches and charged our right. During the day our fire from our trench had been withheld. When the enemy charged a heavy rifle and machine gun fire from our trench was brought to bear on them and coming in the nature of a surprise did great execution and the enemy were repulsed with heavy losses. During the night the R.E. strengthened the position.
At the end of that day the diary reports that three men of the battalion had been killed, eleven wounded and sixty-one listed as missing. Among those whose bodies were never found, was Ernest Cooper Smith. With no known grave, his is one of the 54,403 names on the Menin Gate in Ieper.

Cooper's widow never re-married. She sent some of his possessions back to his family in Middlesbrough and remained in touch with them after the war was over.Their daughter, Mabel, grew up in Sheffield and in time, she married and had two children.

Some time in the early 1960s, my mother pointed out his name on the memorial in Middlesbrough. Cooper was her uncle - her father's eldest brother.

In the 1980s, when I started to play the concertina, she told me that there had been two of them in her house when she was growing up and that they had belonged to her uncle, Cooper.

I started researching my family history some years ago and at some point, I posted a photograph of Cooper, with his full name, onto the photo restoration boards here in Rootschat. A year or two later, I had a shocked reply from a new Rootschatter who had idly typed her grandfather's name into Google and found my post. The photograph which I had posted was one which she also had so there could be no doubt that we were talking about the same person. We chatted, discussed our lives and our families and reeled in astonishment when it turns out that we both play traditional and Morris music on the squeezebox and that for years, our paths have been crossing at one of our regular summer festivals. We decided that through Cooper, or Ernie as her family knew him, the music is in our genes!

Today, exactly one hundred years since his death, it seems a cruel irony that he was so close to leaving the army and to settling down to life with his wife and baby daughter but that, as a man who saw it as his duty to serve his country, he died at a time when people were still saying that the war would be over by Christmas.

As it is, I stand beneath the panel which bears his name whenever I go to the ceremony at the Menin Gate and shall do so again when I am there in December.