More WW1 Army pictures by Cull of Watford

Hilary has kindly provided a picture of the Hampshire Regimental Band  at Watford in the summer of 1915. 

I have added a picture of some London Scottish soldiers - who may be some of those who were the first territorials at the front and were slaughtered. (with quotes from the London Gunners come to Town). 

There are also two pictures which may date from 1916, representing the City of London Rifles and Middlesex regiments, including one portrait of a single unidentified soldier. I have also moved the pictures of the Isle of Wight Rifles to another page.

It is now possible to draft an initial time line for Harry Cull's First World War photographs - but if you have any additional photographs of troops in Hertfordshire, especially where the unit, place, date and/or Hertfordshire photographer is known let me know as every little helps to improve the time line of which troops were based where in Hertfordshire,  and when.

Long Marston War Memorial

As part of the plan to photograph Hertfordshire War Memorials two pictures of the War Memorial at Long Marston have now been published, together with a list of names.

A Peace Day Float at Watford?

A Peace Day Float?

Is thus a float for the Peace Day Parade in 1919? - and is it in Watford? The lady at the front bears the word PEACE and the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes, the Italian flag and what is almost certainly the French flag are carried.

Where would you bury someone from Scotland?

Michael knows that Jesse Henderson was born on the Isle of Mull, married in Glasgow, and died in Aldenham, Herts. He has search high and low to find where she was buried and in HENDERSON, Aldenham, 1876 I have reviewed the possibilities. 

There was no Church of Scotland church in the area before 1895 - but there was a well established Presbyterian Chapel not far away. Unfortunately there appear to be no relevant chapel records for the period - but Trinity Chapel, Dagnall Street, St Albans, looks a real possibility.

Hertfordshire Criminals in Bedford Goal

Samuel Jones was born in Tring in 1816 and in 1838 he was 5 feet 9½ inches high, had brown hair, hazel eyes, and had a scar on his upper lip. 

And how do we know this? 

Samuel was in Bedford Goal having committed for highway robbery, and was later put on board the Fortitude, at Chatham, on the way to Australia. This information comes from the Bedfordshire Goal Register which is currently being put online by BLARS. For more examples see Some Tring Criminals.

Hertfordshire Stray Index

Somehow I forgot to post details of this CD when it came out a few years ago, so I have now added a small example of the kind of information it holds on the Herts Family History Society web site. 

Using Google to Search for your Ancestors

There is no doubt that Google is a powerful search engine but recently it seemed to be finding too many irrelevant entries which appeared not to contain the words you were looking for. This was particularly frustrating if you were looking for a surname or place name which was similar to other common English words - and Google assumed that you had misspelled the word you were looking for or tried an irrelevant synonym. In addition the useful cache facility seemed to have vanished. 

In fact there has been a change in the interface and a range of useful tool can be found by clicking on the words "more search tools" at the bottom of the menu in the left hand margin. In addition, if you hover your mouse over the right hand end of the entry that interests you a thumb of the cached entry appears and clicking it gives you the content of the cache.

If you have been struggling with the changes the Ancestor blog has just posted some helpful notes on the subject. The new Verbatim facility allows you to ensure that an exact search is carried out without any of the Google cleverness. It also explains how the use of quotation marks has changed and describes the way to find the Cache facility.

St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead

Chester Vaughan post card of the
Parish Church,  Hemel Hempstead

In 2005 work was started on upgrading the Hemel Hempstead pages - but then stalled, and many of the pages still have "Under Construction" messages.  Following the construction of the recent new page on Gadebridge House it has been decided to resume the upgrade and to begin the process I have added a long description of St Mary's Church from 1880.

Title Deeds, Catlin Street, Boxmoor

The research relating to the Catling Family continues and Dave has now provided a digitized image and transcript of Angela's title deeds relating to the purchase by George Catling of some building land where Catlin Street now is.

   Not only does this provide more information about George's activities, and the history of Catlin Street, but it is an excellent example to illustrate the kind of useful information that can be found in a title deed.

Was "Cattsdells", Hemel Hempstead, a Children's Home in the 1940s?

Gill wrote asking about a children's home in Hemel Hempstead in the 1940s which she called "Cat's Tails." I suspect that this was either a mishearing or it was the children's own nickname for the place where they lived. I replied:

    My site is really only set up to deal with earlier enquiries (First World War, the 1911 census, and earlier) but in this case I may be able to point you in the right direction.

    The London Gazette of 24th April 1934 reported that on 23rd December 1933 Walter Grover, Esq., died at his home of "Cattsdells", Hemel Hempstead, and probate was given to his son Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Walter Grover of the same address. Other records show he was aged 91. In 1937 a Mrs Grover (presumably the widow) was living at "Cattsdells", Redbourn Road, Hemel Hempstead. She may have been the Annie Grover who died aged 82 at Hemel Hempstead in 1939.

    The Grover family were a well to do family of solicitors in the town and it is reasonable to assume that Cattdells was a very substantial house, with a large garden, which came on the market about 1940 and could well have been suitable for a small children's home.

    If you look at a modern street map of Hemel Hempstead you will find a road called Cattsdell which is part of the New Town development of the 1950s onwards. It connects with a road now called Queensway - which before the New Town would have been called Redbourn Road.

    I think that the Children's Home you refer to as "Cat's Tails" must have been "Cattsdells", a large house facing onto the Redbourn Road, Hemel Hempstead, which was demolished to make way for the New Town developments.