North Lincolnshire Research

[AdamB]

Hello everybody,

I am currently conducting research on World War One as part of a centenary project in North Lincolnshire and came across this site, I thought that maybe you could help me with a few things I am trying to uncover?

Firstly, I am carrying out research on Normanby Hall during the period it served as an Auxiliary Hospital between 1914-1919 and whilst there are a few bits and pieces that still exist at the Hall itself I have used, I cannot find any material on the national archives, HOSPREC or in the RCN archives. With it being an auxiliary hospital in a fairly small and rural area is there much hope of me finding any material elsewhere? I will be looking at the family archives of those who owned the hall at the time, but other than that, it is proving rather tricky.

Secondly, how much would any of you reccomend I use ancestry as a source for identifying soldiers and their records etc? Whilst I know I can find most soldiers medal cards via the national archives, the burnt records with service records are very poorly labelled online and don't give me any clear indication of whether the soldier I am looking at is the right one or not (they don't show their regiment or reg. number). Which makes things a bit harder when I have to travel down there.

Finally can anyone reccomend any good books or sources of literature that will describe in good detail:

A) Living conditions for soldiers in a dugout. e.g. Ways to pass the time, food they would eat, recreation etc.

The process a soldier would go through when they are wounded and sent back to Britain, particularly anything that might describe how a soldier is redeployed when they recover from their wounds.

Any answers to any of these would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Adam

[David_Underdown]

For any medical related things it's worth taking a look at http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk (the author, Sue Light is also a member of this forum).

Essentially the service records are only available in their online form, even if you go to The National Archives that's how you'll access them, unless there's a problem with the image itself when it might just about be possible to look at the microfilm (it's virtually impossible to get permission to view the originals due to the condition the bombing and subsequent fire left them in). I don't think it's that common for regimental number and unit to be mssing entirely (and it's always worth going back from the first page of the record as well as forward, Ancestry often manages to link to an image in the middle of the record rather than the very fist page).

[sketcher]

Dear AdamB. Having recently done the research into some 85 WW1 dead Old Boys of the school I taught at for more than 25 years - with a steely resolve not to pay a penny to any one or any thing for info, I suggest you start thinking outside the box and navigating your own way to the truth. Using a computer you have everything you need to find everything you want, just so long as you have the time to spare to dig deep. It's all out there, just the grabbing of a whisker away.

A few weeks ago I took my wee grandson who lives in Sheffield for a walk in the National Trust, Longshaw Estate at the edge of the Peak District. It was a summer day and at the end of our walk, while he guzzled a diet Coke, I had a strong coffee, enjoying which, I became intrigued by what I knew to be a mounting block, or step close by the old stables. On closer inspection I noticed an even more interesting carved inscription which said that during WW1 a part of the building had been an auxiliary hospital. Perhaps by either Googling or visiting the Longshaw Estate you will find a way forward with your particular research. Surely those many auxiliary hospitals kept records, and maybe the owners of them were allowed to keep a copy of the records.

Good luck anyway AdamB.