soldiers and seamen who did not die.

[j.r.f]

PALS

Can I bend your ears please?Last wednesday I went to the BRISTOL RECORDS OFFICE there I found a,double list,about ST ANDREWS CHURCH MONTPELIER.I Used to live just across the road from the church as a child.The first list was "MEN OF ST ANDREWS CHURCH WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918".Followed by the list 17 men.I have more or less tracked them all down.CWGC,SDIGW,MIC INDEX,,the last to take up to London as soon as I can to get the full story as to medals.

Now comes the crunch the second list is"MEMBERS OF ST ANDREWS CHURCH WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918."My first thought was gre4at but then,tonight ,I started to research these names.There are 91 of them.Up to now I have only found 1 man on both lists.I have looked up The archive material on ST ANDREWS CHURCH.There is no list of church m,embers that would give me any leads.I should say the church is kong closed and demolished.My next thought was look up MICs on line .For the first name there were 16 documents.At 3pounds 50 pence a throw is 35 pounds.Not on.Even if I go to the PRO its 16 x25pence again a lot of money and will this prove anything.I dought it.This is for 1 man out of the 91.

I dint know where to start.There are a few of the men that have MM.MC.CdeG..These I can look up ,may be with the help of tke forum DOCUMENT REPOSITORY.But what about the rest.Cencus is not going to be a lot of good because this was a very fluid area in 1901,and also more money.PLEASE PLEASE what and where do I go.Or do I have to say "THIS I CANNOT DO".

HELP

JOHN>

[Jock Bruce]

Leaving aside the use of PRO records, suggest you try local newspapers for the period.

Jock Bruce

[John_Hartley]

John

Absent Voters Lists will also help.

However, if I can be blunt, I suspect you might find this exercise personally disappointing compared with researching those who died. The satisfaction I have had in researching fatalities is in being able to tell their story. Something of the life, something of their death.

I've been thinking about a new project since I recently finished my memorials research and did think about extending it to those from the community who lived. There is some information around - nespaper reports of soldiers returning on leave or wounded - but rarely on the same scale as an obituary. In practical terms, It would have meant I could only ever assemble sketchy information and I just didnt think I was going to enjoy doing it -let alone anyone else be interested.

I now have another "big idea", which I'm going to talk to the local authority about in the next day or so, to see if it's practical.

John

[j.r.f]

MY THANKS TO BOTH OF YOU

I have tried the local papers but I find that the fiches tend to be very used and so tend to be very scratched to the point that tey are almost unreadable.However I shall persist with this.Particularly thankyou to John.Wes your thoughts are much as I had been thinking.I think maybe I will treat it as something that I dip into time to time.I know it was almost inevitable that the stories of the dead were and are most sought after.We must try to give the same effort to those who returned.They also were unable to tell their stories mostly because they were so traumatised.

THANKS.

JOHN.