Hot off the press, we’re delighted to say that we’ve just had a favourable ethical opinion on the next project extension. It’s going to bring in trades union records, held at the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick (MRC). This is great news, and we’re really grateful to the MRC for their support. […]
Archive | Linking sources
What happened to James Chown?
By Steve Chown on November 12, 2018 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
In this guest blog post, Steve Chown outlines the few details he has of his grandfather Jim’s accident on the railways around the time of the Second World War, including his convalescence. Unfortunately Jim’s accident appears not to have been investigated – possibly because of the war, or possibly because it was one of the […]
The Fighting Wounded
Over the last 4 years a great deal of attention has been focused on the First World War and its devastating and wide-ranging impacts. We’ve thought – as nations, communities, families, and individuals – about what happened, and about how we remember and talk about the war and its aftermath. That has included people looking […]
Halloween: A mystery man, an eerie rabbit & a railway death
As we’re heading towards Halloween, it seems only fitting that we’ve a supernatural case, involving an accident to a railway worker, to bring to your attention. It’s a great demonstration of the promise of our project work, combined with digitisation and transcription of seemingly unrelated documents: the combination and linking of sources is very pleasing. […]
35,000 records from The National Archives!
Previous blog posts have already discussed the 2 project extensions in place at the National Railway Museum, here and here. But that’s not all we’ve been working on. With the support of The National Archives, we’re delighted that we’ll be able to include railway company records in a new extension to our work! This is […]
James Hodge, 1895
By Nick Planas on October 1, 2018 in Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Non-company employee
In this post we’re pleased to feature another guest contributor, Nick Planas. Nick contacted our project earlier in the year, offering details of an accident which resulted in the death of one of his ancestors in the 1890s. Although currently outside the timeframe of our project, it was of course still of interest, and Nick […]
Fatal Accident at Steele Road Station
By Kenneth G Williamson on September 10, 2018 in Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
In this post, Kenneth G Williamson outlines the circumstances around the death of his Great Uncle in 1907. Whilst not strictly a worker accident – in the sense that his Great Uncle was only 9 at the time of his death, & not employed on the railways – it happened in the railway workplace, and […]
Railway accidents and deaths: archives at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
By Helen Ford on August 20, 2018 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Updates
This week’s post comes from a guest contributor, Helen Ford, Manager of the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick – and a staunch supporter of our project. In the post Helen reflects upon the project, the topic of railway worker accidents and the sources at the Modern Records Centre, home to all sorts […]
James Walsh, 2 July 1882 – 8 May 1911
By Fiona Forde on July 10, 2018 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
We’re delighted to receive this guest post, contributed by Fiona Forde, one of the people who’ve used our database. Fiona saw our tweet (@RWLDproject) about the case of James Walsh and decided to explore it in more detail, using our database as a starting point and exploring the various other records that might be pieced […]
Edinburgh shunting accidents – a connection
In previous posts we’ve extolled the virtues of our database as a means of making connections between accidents, whether by location, company, grade of employee, circumstances or a host of other possibilities. In some cases, however, our work is done for us by the Inspectors’ reports – they too found these connections significant, as they […]