Thursday 19 May 2011

Serendipity In The Pages Of The London Gazette

The London Gazette is useful online resource for discovering all sorts of family information that is published in the public domain. I've found it invaluable when attempting to analyse the circumstances in which our ancestors lived.

Sometimes one discovers the unexpected. For example here is my grandmother, Gladys Elizabeth Degville, newly appointed as a telephonist in Birmingham (published 5 March 1929).


After the death of her parents my grandmother was brought up in a convent and had little contact with her extended family. Here The London Gazette is advertising her late father's estate so that it could be claimed by his kin. This process seems to have gone on for some time after the end of the First World War as this particular advert appeared on 4 May 1926.


When my grandmother fled the convent to live in the YWCA and avoided being resettled in Canada she would have thought £1.16 (and that is shillings not pence) a small fortune.

Gladys Elizabeth Kimberley nee Degville (1911-1991)
with my father John Kimberley

5 comments:

  1. My name is Jean Martelliere, and I am related to Lewis d'Egville, (1783-1857), who was one of the many children of Peter Daigueville and Sophia Auselin. I have been researching the enigmatic d'Egville family for many years and I am looking forward to communicating with other researchers on this family. I am having difficulty with this site. I would very much appreciate it if you could email me at jean.martelliere@nordent.com Thank you!

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  2. Hello Jean,

    I've sent an email to the address you've given. I hope that it isn't sitting in a spam folder somewhere.

    Warm regards

    Christopher

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  3. hey my name is charlie degville and my fathers name is steven degville whose father was victor degville just wondering if you had any of those name on a family tree somewhere

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  4. Hi Charlie,

    Thank you for posting.

    Google's blog system is misbehaving today. If you email me at degville.research@gmail.com I'll get back to you.

    I think you descend from George Hervey d'Egville. I'll give you more details by email.

    Warm regards

    Christopher

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  5. Hi Christopher. I am one of the descendants of the Escolano d'Aigueville family (Casto Escolano D'Aigueville was my great grandfather). I don't know why d'Aigueville established himself in Spain, but I know a little about Don Casto I could share with you.
    Yours is a great blog!
    Víctor

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