Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Friday, 13 September 2013

A little bit of granny hunting ...



Friday 13th,
Unlucky for some, but possibly lucky for me.
It’s genealogy time again…
Beat with me and I’ll try to explain as simply as I can.

A while ago when The Man and I were visiting someone special up in Lincolnshire, our hostess took us to Croyland.
That’s where I’ve back tracked my HALL ancestors to.
On a walk about I took pictures of the war memorial because there on the list of these killed in action were  two HALLs.
John and Thomas Arthur.
I didn’t get much help when I emailed the local council office.
Yesterday evening  when I was googleing I thought  ‘Hmmm, let’s try Croyland War memorial’
What do you know there it was. A picture of the memorial and  information about the individuals named.

John Hall
Military Medal. Sergeant 15806. 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Born Crowland, Lincs and enlisted Northampton, Northants. Commemorated Unicorn Cemetery, Vend’Huile. III.D.15.


Thomas Arthur Hall
Private 58219. 4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. Killed in action 11th April 1918, aged 19 years. Son of John Thomas
and Mary Ann Hall of North Street, Crowland, Lincs. Born Crowland, and enlisted Spalding, Lincs. Commemorated Ploegsteert Memorial. Panel 2.

No I didn’t stop there.
Log onto my favourite site and begin searching census records
Using the date and address as a starting point I got back to where I think Thomas Arthur’s ancestor and mine link up.
And where was that.
William and Elizabeth Hall are on the 1851 census for the area. In fact they’re the only Halls on that particular census.
Among their children were John Thomas and William.
Remember…The father of Thomas Arthur was John Thomas. My ancestor was William.
Unfortunately young Thomas Arthur was killed in action.

On to John Hall. Without much to go on apart from his army number, the going was a bit slow. But I think the two men could well have been brothers.
Now I know John is not an usual name but there on the 1901 census along with Thomas Arthur, aged 12 is a John Hall aged 17.

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