Children's names

So there I was, revelling in some new information which enables me to welcome some of my stray Culpins into the family file. And I was checking some, as is my wont, and I discovered two Georges born in the same village four years apart. 

So far, so very ordinary.  Then I saw that one, incidentally the 'wrong' one according to my recent information, had a mother called Dorothy. 

And the 'right' one had a daughter called Dorothy. The eldest daughter, no less. 

So now I'm surrounded by pages of notes.....and I think my head is going to explode!

More soon. 

Great War Centenary: George Barnett Culpin

At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, Arbuthnot took HMS Defence and her sister ships Warrior and Black Prince to attack the light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, which lay dead in the water between the opposing fleets.  Brought under concentrated fire from Rear Admiral Paul Behncke's Third Battle Squadron, HMS Defence sank with the loss of all her 893 crew at 1815.

One of the members of the crew of HMS Defence was George Barnett Culpin.  My 2nd cousin three times removed, George was born on 11 November 1898 in West Ham, the oldest son of Henry and Alice (nee Ball).  His entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission says it all:-

"In memory of Boy Telegraphist George Barnett Culpin, J/31710, HMS Defence, Royal Navy, who died age 17 on 31 May 1916......"

We will remember them.

Great War Centenary: Bernard Gifford Sercombe

Born in 1892 in Lewisham, Bernard Sercombe was my 3rd cousin twice removed and youngest of the six children of Horatio and Ellen (nee Ongley).  The family stayed in the area and by 1911 they were living in Lee (Kent/London) and Bernard was listed as "no occupation" - which I take to mean unemployed.

Come the Great War Bernard enlisted in the London Regiment and advanced to Corporal.  He was not married but the Probate index suggests that there was a young lady left behind.  He died on 21st May and is named on the Arras Memorial.

We will remember them.

Great War Centenary: William Culpin

William (Willie) Culpin was born in Elton, Hunts, in August 1884, the eldest of the thirteen children of William and Lizzie, nee Quince.

The family moved to Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire, before 1890 and William grew up in the village before he went from being a horseman on a farm to a soldier.  In the 1911 census he was 26 years old and serving in the 1st Northants regiment.

I know little else about him.  He died on 20 March 1916 in France, in the Pas-de-Calais region, and was buried in the Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay.

We will remember them.

Patience is everything....

I have a subscription to FindMyPast so most of the things to do involve the 1939 Register.   

More soon. 

That'll teach me......

Soooo, I have a new website (culpinconnection.co.uk) which uses The Next Generation software.  And very good it is too.  It also means that the majority of my genealogy data is in the cloud, at last.

However I'm trying to be too clever, I think.

Firstly I tried to import some people from one tree into another..... And totally forgot that the imported people might have the same ID number as those in the other database.  And what a complete mess that made.  So I had to delete the database and re-import an older version.

Said older version, however, doesn't seem to contain any entries for the 1881 census.

Which is a bit of a shame (I'm understating slightly).

So I have another choice:  be clever and attempt to import (from Gedcom) just the 1881 entries, or simply enter them by hand (all 1800 of them).  I think the latter, whilst time-consuming, might be the safer option....

More soon.

Great War Centenary: Alfred Ernest Glew

Alfred Ernest Glew was born in Farnborough in 1896, youngest of the five children of Richard and Matilda (nee Culpin).  He was christened at St Mark's church in the town on 6 December that year.  My fifth cousin three times removed, he appears to stay in Farnborough and is described as a telegraph boy in the 1911 census. 

Sadly he was the second son in the family to die in the Great War - his brother Joseph died on 16 June 1915 and you will find his blog entry in the archives.

Alfred served with the 1st (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars and died on 6 January 1916; he is buried in the Bethune Town cemetery.

We will remember them.