Local history

Tell us the interesting facts you discovered when researching your family history

Frederick Burnard Coatham
Discovered that my grandmother a Elizabeth Burnard was born in Rosedale in 1964, to a William Burnard and Jane Jefferson, Elizabeth m John Coatham from N.Dalton

Anna
I found out that my Great,Grandfather faught in the war and survived and still lives to tell his story today.

Steven Durham
My great grand-dad George Backhouse was a war artist

Ian Cook
My Grandfather was a SGT with the KOYLI 6th battalion WW1,they sent him into a wood with 30 men, 4 came out, I asked him what happened then? he said they gave me another 30 men and sent me back in. he got shot but the bullet was too close to his heart to operate, when he recovered he was sent back to france and served the rest of WW1, the bullet meant to kill him stayed with him for the rest of his life and was never removed, he died in 1966.His father was a colonel in the royal engineers, and he had 5 brothers all of whom served in WW1, edward the youngest was KIA in 1917, since the turn of the last century at some point a memeber of my family has served in the service of the king or queen, my own 2 oldest sons now serve,1 as an infantry man, and 1 as a royal marine commando.

Steve Lindley
My uncle Walter served with the commandos in ww2. He died shortly after the war. In the late 1990s his brother was sent the Croix de Guerre from the French government which had been awarded to Wally for saving the lives of comrades under heavy fire but he had never recieved. Wally had never even mentioned this award to the family.

Craig Chambers
My grandfather moved his young family from Muston to British Columbia, Canada, in 1928. My father was 5 at the time, and sadly never returned to the place of his birth. I had two vague names of relatives to go on - but tracked down my father's cousin in Goole in 2003, and visited her and other new-found relatives in Scarborough that summer. The wealth of family information she had was amazing. I knew that my grandfather served with the RASC in the First World War, but on this visit, I also learned that two his brothers were killed in action, one with the 5th Yorkshire Regiment, the other while serving with the New Zealanders. She has their photos. She also pointed me to the village of Seamer, and to place at St. Martins where my great-grandparents are buried. Next trip - hopefully to Calais and Ypres to pay respects to two family members who, although recently found by me, are not forgotten.

laraine cox
my husbands great uncle also achieved the military medal . LHe was in the 8th yorkshire regiment and died on the 5th july 1916 in the Horseshoe Trench, Four times under heavy bombardment he went out to repair a telephone wire which he had previously laid in the same terrible conditions.We do not know where he was bornj or how he came to be in this regiment as my husband's grandmother(his sister) came from London, Do you think they went out togeter?

Mike Greatorex
I have been researching my family history for about 12 years. In particular have traced a lot of my family to the USA. Have even been to where they settled and met present day descendents. BUT the most amazing link I made was tracing a family from NY State thru Florida onto Alabamha then back to Harrogate where I live. Basically I discovered an American cousin living here in Harrogate.