Important Please Read

 

The death of my Father & Mother at Derriford Hospital has meant that I have and will not be able to dedicate as much time to your needs as I have done in the past. 

I need time to adjust but will be back.

 

Thank you, Terry

 

Plymouth & South West Devon

a Genealogical Miscellany

 

together with my

Williams Family History

 

Since 20 February 2000 you are visitor

 

 

Dedicated to my Mum, Dad and family

 

Arthur Williams 20^th October 1921 – 22^nd June 2002

 

Edith May Williams 21^st September 1921 – 28^th March 2006

 

Now Reunited

Arthur & Edith May WILLIAMS

 

Contents

Don’t forget to sign and view my Guestbook

 

·        My Family Genealogy includes a link to a 1962 photograph with listings, taken of all the staff and students including myself at Widey Technical Secondary School, Plymouth, Devon, England

 

·        My Gloucester links & The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars

 

·        Roll of Honour, Plymouth civilian war dead 1939 -1945

 

Transcriptions

Red - online

Green - coming soon

·        Plymouth Directories

 

1812 The Picture of Plymouth

1814 The Plymouth, Plymouth-Dock & Stonehouse General Directory

1823 Tourist’s Companion

1830 The Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Directory

Includes Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Seats, Villages, Etc.  This being a usefull guide to local place names of SW Devon & Cornwall

1836 Thomas’s Plymouth Director

1847 Williams’s Commercial Directory

1857 M. Billings Directory of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport

1864 – 5 Directory of Plymouth, Stonehouse, Devonport, Stoke, and Morice Town

1873 The Three Towns’ Directory for Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse

1888 Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse

1896 Plymouth and Devonport

1906 – 7 Post Office Directory of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse.  Also districts within a radius of 8 or 9 miles around the Three Towns (Devon & Cornwall)

1915 – 16 Post Office directory of Plymouth and District.  Also the districts within a radius of 8 or 9 miles around Plymouth (Devon & Cornwall)

High Street, Plymouth, from Plymouth Directory 1885 & 1910 –11

 

 

·        Devon Directories

 

1850 (White) History Gazeteer & Directory of Devonshire Bere Ferris, Bere Alston, Bickleigh and Zeal Monachorum

1873 Kelly’s Directory of Devonshire Beer Ferris, Bere Alston, Belstone and Berry Pomeroy

1878 Harrod’s Royal County Directory of Devonshire Bere Alston

 

Useful Links and relevant articles

 

·        General

 

·        Devon

 

·        South West Devon

 

·        Plymouth

      Cemeteries

      Data

      Churches

      History

      Maps

      Media

      Military

      On line Parish Clerks

      Personalities of the past

      Pictures & Prints

Research

Societies & Clubs

Webcam

 

 

 

Back to contents

 

My Family Genealogy

 

            Dynamic Family Tree Java Applet

                       

include

WILLIAMS, BAILEY, FENNEL and HATTON of Gloucester area

My Gloucester links & The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars

WILLEY of Plymouth Devon and Isle Brewers Somerset

RIGGS of Southwest Devon

SPRAGUE of Bere Ferrers and Plymouth Devon

STEPHENS of Mabe Cornwall

MITCHELL of Torrington Devon and Pontypridd Glamorgan

WILLS and PARFITT of Pitcombe, Preston and Weymouth (Dorset/Somerset)

FETERIDGE of Co Antrim? Northern Ireland, and Glasgow Scotland

FINDLAY of Angus Scotland

 

1959 - 1988 Widey Technical Secondary School, Plymouth, Devon, England a 1962 photograph with listings, taken of all the staff and students including myself at Widey Technical Secondary School, Plymouth, Devon, England

 

 

 

Guild of One Name Studies GOONS

 

            One name researchers relevant to my family Interests

·        RIGGS

 

 

Back to contents

 

Roll of Honour, Plymouth civilian war dead 1939 – 1945

Acknowledgement

Details kindly supplied by Plymouth Local Studies Library

 

Introduction

 

The DUTY of recording the names of the civilian war dead of the British Commonwealth and Empire was entrusted by Royal Charter, in February 1941, to the Imperial War Graves Commission.  These volumes contain the Roll of Honour of those civilians, citizens of the Commonwealth and Empire, who were killed in the United Kingdom by enemy action during the I939-I945 War, while engaged in household or in business activities, or at their posts as members of the Civil Defence Services.  Their graves are scattered throughout the country. 

 

On this Roll of Honour appear some 60,000 names: over 19,000 for London alone.  The first German bombs to be dropped on Britain fell on the Shetland Islands in the autumn of 1939; the last V2 rocket landed at Orpington in Kent on 27th March, 1945.  Between these dates fell more than 100,000 tons of air missiles of all kinds, killing over 60,000 civilians and seriously injuring a further 87,000.  Deaths occurred in people’s homes, in offices and factories, in schools and in public vehicles, in air-raid shelters and in the open country.  The lists include the names of members of the Peerage and of the humblest labourers, of housewives and of children, of an infant only eleven hours old and of a Chelsea Pensioner over a hundred years old.  Sometimes whole

families were wiped out together; sometimes an only child was taken and the parents were left to mourn, or parents were killed and a helpless infant spared. 

 

The large centres of population suffered very heavily.  London was a target of the first importance, and all the London boroughs show long casualty lists, dating from the days of the Battle of Britain, the subsequent period of almost nightly raids culminating in that of 10th May, 1941, the sporadic raids, sometimes heavy, by piloted aircraft thereafter, and finally the flying bombs and rockets of I944-I945.  Other places in south-eastern England shared London's ordeal, Dover and the neighbourhood suffering the additional trial of long-range shelling from the French coat. 

 

The first industrial town to be struck at was Middlesbrough, in May 1940; but the first full-scale attack on a provincial city was that which smashed the centre of Coventry in the night of I4th November, 1940.  Most of the great cities, ports and manufacturing centres suffered in their turn, some from only one or two devastating attacks, others from frequent heavy raids.  The list includes the Medway towns, Portsrnouth, Southampton, Plymouth, Merseyside, Belfast, Clydeside, Hull, Bristol, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle-upon-Tyne --- besides the victims of the so-called "Baedeker raids": Bath, Exeter, Norwich, Canterbury, Cambridge, York.  Many coastal towns, small and large, suffered from hit-and-run raiders.  Even the remotest village was not perfectly secure; the first fatal casualty on land, in March, 1940, was in the Orkney islands; others are recorded at Land's End and in the Scilly isles. 

 

To a greater degree than ever before, the I939-I945 War involved not merely armies, but entire nations.  The names of individuals mean little save to those who knew and loved them and mourn their loss, and the number of those who mourn will dwindle as the years pass by.  But it is fitting that these names should be enrolled in Westminster Abbey, at the heart of the Commonwealth and among the most illustrious of the Nation's Dead, in commemoration of their suffering and a tribute to their sacrifice. 

 

 

Number of civilians killed

 

·        1940 – 72

·        1941 – 926

·        1942 – 2

·        1943 – 85

·        1944 – 20

·        1945 – 0

·        1946 – 2 (Died)

At present scanned images only

           

 

 

Back to contents

 

Transcriptions

 

            Plymouth Directories

 

·        1812 The Picture of Plymouth

Alphabetical list of inhabitants, Plymouth, Plymouth - Dock, Stonehouse, Stoke

·        1814 The Plymouth, Plymouth-Dock & Stonehouse General Directory

Alphabetical Names and Residences of the Principal Inhabitants of these Towns. 

With Neighbouring Nobility and Gentry, also Boarding Schools

·        1823 Tourist’s Companion

being a guide to the towns of Plymouth, Plymouth – Dock, Stonehouse, Morice Town, Stoke

Alphabetical list of the Principal Trade – People

·        1830 The Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Directory

Includes Noblemen and Gentlemen’s Seats, Villages, Etc.  This being a usefull guide to local place names of SW Devon & Cornwall

·        1836 Thomas’s Plymouth Director

Alphabetical list of inhabitants

·        1847 Williams's Commercial Directory of Devonport, Plymouth, and Stonehouse

Alphabetical list of the Principal Trade - People

·        1857 M. Billings Directory of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport

Alphabetical list of Nobility, Clergy and Gentry, etc

Alphabetical list of Professions, Trades, etc

Due to the quality of the originals, Classification of Professions, Trades etc, has also been added so as to enable a certain amount of cross referencing

·        1864 – 5 Directory of Plymouth, Stonehouse, Devonport, Stoke, and Morice Town

Alphabetical list of inhabitants

·        1873 The Three Towns’ Directory for Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse

also of Stoke, MoriceTown, Ford, Torpoint, Saltash, Plympton St Maurice, Ridgeway, Tamerton Foliot, Turnchapel, and Oreston

Alphabetical list of inhabitants, some Commercial.  Saltash is listed by roads

Places of worship in the Three Towns

·        1888 Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse

Alphabetical Private Residents & Commercial

·        1896 Plymouth and Devonport District Directory

Alphabetical Private Residents & Commercial

·        1906 – 7 Post Office Directory of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse  also districts within a radius of 8 or 9 miles around the Three Towns (Devon & Cornwall)

·        1915 – 16 Post Office directory of Plymouth and District  also the districts within a radius of 8 or 9 miles around Plymouth (Devon & Cornwall)

·        High Street, Plymouth from Plymouth Directory 1885 & 1910 – 11

Alphabetical list of inhabitants

 

            Devon Directories

 

·        1850 (White) History Gazeteer & Directory of Devonshire

Scans             1          2

Bere Ferris, Bere Alston, Bickleigh and Zeal Monachorum

·        1873 Kelly's Directory of Devonshire

Beer Ferris, Bere Alston, Belstone and Berry Pomeroy

·        1878 Harrod's Royal County Directory of Devonshire

Bere Alston

·        Val Hendersons South West Devon Towns and Villages

 

 

Back to contents

 

Useful links

I have no personal interest’s in any commercial sites but feel some have much to offer

 

General

·        Two interesting scanned articles describing what surgery meant for our ancestors

From agony to Anaestesia  1          2          3

& A patient with a grisly tale

 

Kindly reproduced from Awake Nov 22, 2000

Weekend Dec 30, 2000

 

·        Search the National Archives Search the National Archives

·        Map of UK today

·        The Francis Frith Collection  a photographic archive of over 7,000 towns and villages taken between 1860 & 1970

·        Federation of Family History Societies

·        FreeBMD FreeBMD stands for Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths. The FreeBMD Project's objective is to provide free Internet access to the Civil Registration index information for England and Wales

·        Archaic Occupations

·        The Naval and Maritime Libraries and Archives Group Guide to Collections & Contacts

·        Maritime and Naval Museums in Britain and Ireland lists about 275 museums and museum-ships in Britain and Ireland

·        Applause South West  Applause South West is a digital exploration of theatre past and present

·        The Jews of South-West England (ARCHIVED)

·        West Country Poets are any related to you?

·        Richards Church Albums, pictures of many  UK churches especially in the South Western counties

·        Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers  Alphabetical Index and search facility linking to Street Maps of today showing the approximate location churches with towers with four or more bells.  If you are simply interested in the Village / Town perhaps for tracing your family history, these maps may be a good start.

·        The Workhouse much information regarding this subject

·        IGI Batch Number - British Isles and North America

A very usefull site for searching the IGI

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as the LDS) has made the International Genealogical Index (the "IGI") available on the internet at http://www.familysearch.org and provided a very effective searching capability. However, it is not always easy to locate your ancestors (even if they are there in the IGI) using the search mechanisms provided at that site. This is because a search by last name only is not permitted unless you search within a single batch of records at a time or, at minimum, across the entire country (not even a single county let alone a town). If you have a rare name this might be OK but what if you are looking for Smith or Jones?  

·        Listing of Online Parish Clerks for the county of

Cornwall

 

Devon

·        Map of Devon area today

·        GENUKI: Devon  Enter this part of a large collection of genealogical information pages for England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.

·        Devon 1891 Census Transcription Project contains online transcriptions available to date

·        Etched on Devon's memory around Devon with early topographical prints views of landscapes, townscapes or buildings as well as some interior views Dedicated to the memory of John Somers Cocks

·        Devon & Cornwall Constabulary a photographic history of the force

·        Devon Historical Parish Populations (1801, 1851, 1901, 1931, 1961, 1971 and 1981)

·        Devon Parish Finder

·        The Devon Family History Society

·        Devon Workhouses

·        Devon Look-up Exchange

·        Devon History & Museums

·        Exeter Synagogue Archive

·        The Doomsday Book Devonshire (ARCHIVED)

·        Devonshire Parish Register Copies in the Library of the Society of Genealogists as of December 1994

·        IGI Batch Numbers For Devon

·        IGI Middle Name search (all of Devon)

·        Devon History Society

·        List of 800 Devon and Cornwall Mines by Heather Coleman 1999

·        Shipwrecks around Devon and the world SUBMERGED  productions

·        Richards Church Albums

·        Dartmoor Press “Genealogical, Family & Local History Guide Booklets & Indexes“

·        The Keep ~ Military Museum of Devon and Dorset

The Devonshire Regiment, The Dorset Regiment, The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, The Dorset Yeomanry, The Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry, The Dorset Militia, The Royal Devon Yeomanry and 94 Field Regiment RA are all represented in the Keep Museum

·        Seaton Museum The museum concentrates on the lower Axe Valley and also includes the adjacent villages of Beer, Axmouth, Branscombe, Colyton and Colyford.  Specialist help can be given regarding the history of local families. 

·        Family History in IPPLEPEN offers a number of useful lookups

·        LUPPITT Parish, Church, and People family trees and photos

·        Cullompton Local history, pictures and more

·        TIVERTON Museum is a museum of Social, Agricultural, Transport and Local History.  Select link for research and Genealogy

·        Westleigh North Devon  Not far from the estuary, Westleigh sits on a hill overlooking the river Torridge with enviable views of the local countryside. 

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