As part of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine’s ‘Transcription Tuesday’, our project made available a set of records produced by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, one of the major railway trade unions. It listed over 2000 cases involving members, many of them accidents. In this blog post, one of the transcribers, Gordon […]
Archive | September, 2019
Thoughts on collaboration: the start of a manifesto?
Last Saturday, as I arrived home from the U3A Family History Conference, I spotted a discussion on Twitter that was sad to read. Else Churchill, genealogist at the Society of Genealogists, had been at a different conference. Whereas my experience was very positive – as an academic I’d been warmly welcomed and enjoyed engaging with […]
On Funding, Heroism and Family History
There’s never a dull moment for us, but the last couple of weeks have been particularly busy. On top of the usual things, we’ve submitted a funding application and spoken at 2 conferences. This blog post will round up some of the key points! The funding application first. It went to the British Academy, and […]
A lucky escape and a relief
In the course of the project work, our volunteers have found a huge range of stories that feed into our database. Some are quirky, many tragic, and the odd one or two involved relative good fortune (by and large – in that the results might have been a lot worse than transpired). One that falls […]
‘practically demolished’ – how not to rebuild your office!
The status of the north east as a producer of coal in the 19th and 20th centuries is well-known; it was one of the important sources of revenue for the railway companies, which vied with each other to build lines and facilities that would service a big income-stream. This included the construction of vast dock […]
Dernancourt (Somme) railway accident, 1918
In this post, guest contributor Sandra Gittins brings us back to the First World War, when accidents to railway staff didn’t stop. She’s already blogged about a case which led to an injury for a railwayman on active service in France (here); this time, sadly, 2 fatalities resulted. As always, we’re very happy to receive […]
