Railway worker

[Stageman]

Hello All.  Any ideas on how I find out about my Grandfather Peter McCallum who was a railway worker/builder from about 1880. Possibly starting in Perthshire, but also he apparently went at least twice and worked in South Africa certainly in 1888 (British Bechuanaland now Botswana) and later (after marrying Magdelane White in Stirling 1891) in 1893 (Newcastle in Natal). He later settled in Stirling and Ayrshire, still working on the railways. These dates in Sth Africa are via his written notations in books he owned.  I would like to know what records there are regarding railway workers who went to Sth Africa obviously to help build the railway system there. Any help from out there much appreciated, been worrying away at this for a long, long time.

[meles]

In the UK, he would undoubtedly belonged to his Union, the National Union of Railwaymen. That no longer exists, but had been subsumed into the RMT.

Their records are good, and you could do worse than contact them.

http://www.rmt.org.uk/

meles

[Stageman]

Thanks for the advice meles.  Didn't think of unions as far back as the 1800's!  I did think of ship passenger lists but have not done so yet as the possible dates are a bit hazy.

[Redroger]

Do you know whether he was directly employed by the railway company, if so which? either in the UK or South Africa. There are some railway staff records at the National Archive, Kew, but if he was employed by a contractor building railways then the search becomes more difficult, even so, there are many records at |Kew relating to the building of the railways in Britain, so it's worth a search.

[Stageman]

Hi redroger.  I don't really know much of the circumstances at all.  Family stories is that he worked on the railways in South Africa, but apart from a couple of book notations there is nothing else. He was certainly a railway man and worked in Stirlingshire and latterly in Ayrshire where he died aged 90yrs in 1955.  He disappears from the census for 1881 and reappears 1891 which makes me think he was away somewhere then (this matches up with a notation in a book of his dated 1888 in British Bechuanaland).  My impression is that, initially anyway, he was involved in the building of railways, but who for etc, I have not the slightest!  I have emailed the NUT union and will see what comes of that.

[Redroger]

I hope the NUT union is a typo for NUR . There are many records of deeds for land acquired during the building of British Railways in the National Archive at Kew. A google will show what they have for railways in the geographic area concerned, then it might be worthwhile investigating whether any of these companies built railways abroard in Southern Africa.

[Stageman]

Sorry about the NUR!  I have still to follow up your previous suggestion ref. Kew archives, so will add this other suggestion to my search there too. I also got www.railwayancestors.org as a suggestion from the RUT union as all the old NUR records are held by Warwick University. My main problem at the moment (apart from the obvious) is that I am in the throes of moving house and there just does not seem to be the same number of hours in the day!  But thanks again.

[Redroger]

As a fairly recent mover myself, may I suggest the following? Stop research and all other activities that you are able to, concentrate on your move and settling in afterwards, then return to your research. Worked for me, why not give it a try?

[Stageman]

Now that's what I call a really good suggestion, thanks Redroger.  It's annoying because I am also going to lose out on some of Scotland's People credits again, but what the heck! I will concentrate on the move.