May Meeting– Members evening
What a fascinating evening on May 1st. Our own members have some very interesting tales to tell about their research and family connections.
David Chester was the first speaker. His subject Captain Frederick Daniel Parslow VC. From a friends curiosity about a gravestone in Ireland and the hunt through the archives a very interesting trail emerged. Who was he? Captain of the Anglo California, an unarmed horse transport vessel attacked by a German submarine on the 4th July 1915. He was posthumously appointed a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve and awarded the Victoria Cross. Research was over a number of years with other projects as well and the reports from the British Newspaper Library were very revealing, from the Cork Constitution, and other local Irish papers reporting the funeral, the New York Times, with a different angle on the incident. The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, The Guildhall Library. An excellent presentation with verified research.
The Maritime theme continued, Betty Landrock gave us the short sad history of Herman Landrock, who was apprenticed, aged 14, on 9th October 1886 to a maritime company. He sailed on an iron sailing ship 14th October 1886 and the ship was lost with all hands, one of 12 ships lost that night, in Penarth Bay in one of the worst storms ever experienced, so there it was a very short apprenticeship of 5 days. On a lighter note Betty went on to tell us of her searches for Netta Landrock, nee Krill. She had heard that she had remarried when widowed, and after a lot of work found her, married again, not once but twice, and eventually finding her death registered, and somehow she had been economical with the truth about her age at her third wedding and her death certificate recorded her age as 54 not 67. One should always verify these points.
John Crane then introduced us to Family Bastards in a Welsh village in the 1800’s. It did seem to be accepted more readily than we think. Margaret Ann Meredith spinster aged 25, in 1872 gave birth to a son, William Lewis Hughes Meredith. When looking at the birth certificate John noted that the birth had been registered by the mother the day after it occurred. Who was the father? Was it possibly the local Doctor William Lewis Hughes who had died a few months previously, no one knows. Interestingly Margaret Ann had another son John, but his birth wasn’t registered until three weeks after the event.
John Markwick very kindly brought along his family Bible that he had bought on the internet.
So there we are a fascinating and interesting insight into what has happened in our past, how to go about researching events, sometimes having to go sideways, having a bit of luck but always a great deal of perseverance.
Thank you David, Betty, and the two Johns for an excellent evening. I hope we have another members evening slotted in for next year.
