For several weeks now I have been wanting to send a big thank you to two bloggers. Randy Seaver of Geneamusings and Gail Dever of Genealogy à la carte.
Randy regularly posts lists of new and updated record collections. These are not the blog posts I usually spend much time on. (No offense Randy, I’m just a busy mom with a preschooler still at home…) But for some reason, I started reading them more carefully lately. Well, on May 12th he posted a list of new records available on FindMyPast. Among the many collections was “National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914. He noted that, “Over 34,000 York School records have been added…” to that collection.
Guess who lived in York?
My Hyde family. Including Robert and Rosey.
Now, I have looked through the indexed school records available on Sheffield Indexers and found several records for my Hyde family. But I thought I’d give it a look and see what was there.
Guess what?
There were SEVERAL records for my Hyde family on FindMyPast that have not yet been indexed on Sheffield Indexers. And even better – there are images!
Do you know what that is?!
It’s a record of Muriel Grace Hyde, Rosey and Robert Hyde’s oldest daughter, being enrolled, and re-enrolled, and removed, and removed again from the Western Road Infants School in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. This means that I have several more dates for my timeline. Yippee!!
Thank you Randy!
Now let’s talk a little bit about Gail.
Gail also posts quite often about new collections and other genealogy news. On May 16th, she posted about an update to the WWI Canadian Expeditionary Force service files. If you remember, that very collection gave me a hint of Norma. And from there, well, the ensuing research took me on a crazy trip down the rabbit hole.
But here’s the thing. My 2nd great grandfather, Francis Cyprien Duval, was also a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. I had looked for his file before. A few times. After all of the “D”s were supposedly indexed. I never found it. But when I read Gail’s post I thought I’d give it another try anyway. Just in case.
In all it’s full color, 66 page glory. It was very enlightening. I thought Frank stayed in Canada doing work at home during his service. He did not. In fact, he lied about his age so he could join up and head overseas. He was too old, so he fudged it. I was so surprised by that. He claimed to be 44 years and 4 months old when he enlisted. A mere 8 months younger than the upper age limit of 45. It didn’t work out for him though.
On page 58 there is this telling note from the doctor:
“Is 54 years old and looks it.” Hmmm, did he age considerably during the short time he was enlisted? I mean visually. Because just shortly before this note was written he got away with saying he was 44. 😉 There are so many cool details in this file. It is awesome.
I have no idea why I never found it before. I don’t know if it was indexed out of order and published well after the other “D” surnames or if I didn’t search carefully. (That is soooooo not like me, but maybe I was distracted?) Either way, I am very glad I read Gail’s post and decided to give it another look.
Thank you Gail!
So. What is the lesson in all of this? There are two.
First, I really love genealogy bloggers! I think we are the friendliest bunch of bloggers out there. We share our great finds, our search strategies, awesome websites and collections, cool stories, brick walls, research woes and wonders, and so many other tid-bits. We all make the genealogy experience SO. MUCH. BETTER. for everyone.
And second, I will never again skip a “see what’s new at such-and-such website” post. 🙂
What do you think? Do you love genealogy bloggers too? Well if you do, share a little love today and thank your genealogy blogger friends. Because they are just plain awesome! <3