Links to forgotten generations found...

Well, it's been quite a weekend of finds!!!  I found 1911 Census information for both sides of my Irish family both Thompson and Farren sides.


With not much to go on and only scattered photos and snippets of memories of generations past it's been a challenge, but a fun and rewarding one.  


I opened a letter last night from my Grandpa that he wrote in 2002 just before my mom and I visited Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 2002.  I didn't know it at the time, but he wrote it only a year before he died.  Words I'd forgotten struck a particular cord with me last night.  He wrote of how pleased he was that I was interested in his side of the family.  It's taken a while to start, but Grandpa, the ball is now rolling.  


Last night's find came with the name of the terrace Grandpa was born in from his letter and the stories of the family business at the time being a barber's shop.  Bingo!!!  I found 1911 Census information for my great grandparents and great great grandparents!!!  From limited knowledge to everything from ages, religion, siblings and occupations for 2 generations!!!


From family stories and now census records to back them up, my great grandfather Robert Thompson and his father, my great, great grandfather Malcolm Thompson were both barbers/hairdressers.  Robert Thompson, aged 7 years in 1911, still lived in the same terrace of houses when my Grandpa (Malcolm John Thompson) was born there in 1927.  I also discovered that my great grandfather had 5 siblings, 1 brother - William James and 4 sisters, Isabella Mary, Rachael, Sarah and Annie.  Their mother's name was Eliza (a shortened version of Elizabeth).


Now the other side of the family, the Farren's, more difficult to find due to the lack of family stories beyond those of 'Mother', Mary Anne Farren, wife of William James Farren who went missing at the beginning of the First World War.  

According to family stories passed down my great, great grandfather William James Farren went missing presumed killed in action in the first week of World War I.  

That's all there was to go on besides a photo of the tombstone of my great, great grandmother taken on the short trip to Northern Ireland in 2002, stating that her husband was interred in Belgium.

Several months ago I finally found what military records there were to be found in the National Archives and the Commonwealth Graves website.

Although there is no known grave for William James Farren this is what I know of his life so far.  His parents were John and Lettie Farren of Monellan, Co Donegall in Ireland, born about 1883 in Monellan, Co Donegall.  He was married to Mary Ann Farren, otherwise known as 'Mother' by the family.  As a private in the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers he enlisted at Omagh and was killed in action 21 October 1914 at the age of 31 before his daugthter Elizabeth May Farren was born 10 January 1915 (per family history, however 1911 Census records found just today revealed that she would have been 8 or 9 years old at the time he was killed in action).

His army number was 7139 and his name is listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial, near Ploegsteert, Hainaut, Belgium.  A memorial unveiled 7 June 1931 as a memorial for those missing in WWI.  The following dedication is listed -

'To the glory of God and to the memory of 11447 officers and men of the forces of the British Empire, who fell fighting in the years 1914-1918 between the River Douve and the towns of Estaires and Furnes, whose names are here recorded but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.'

Per the records, his name is listed on Panel 5 of the memorial.

I can't tell you how rewarding it is to finally find the closest thing to a marked grave for a man who sacrificed everything protecting training areas from the enemy while more soldiers were trained to fight.