The Railway Man 2

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In my September 2015 Blog I detailed the life and times of my railway clerk ancestor Rowland NEEDS.

The Railway Service Journal in September 1926 recorded that Rowland NEEDS retired from the Willow Walk branch of the R.C.A (Railway Clerks Association) in September 1926 after nearly 44 years service on the London Brighton and South Coast Railway.

The UK railway is the oldest in the world with the first public railway opening in 1825 ¹. With a huge workforce it is likely you will have a number of ancestors involved with the railway in your family tree. What records exist and how can you find them?

Try these websites and links first:

 

Introduction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Great_Britain

Start here; identify the Railway Company first
www.railscot.co.uk/railways.htm

Looking for a railway worker

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/railwayworker.htm

http://www.nrm.org.uk/NRM/ResearchAndArchive/researchhelp/FamilyHistory

Railway Trade Union Records

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/subject_guides/family_history/rail

London & North Western Railway Society

www.lnwrs.org.uk

Scotland’s railways

www.nas.gov.uk/guides/railway.asp

Check County Record office holdings

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

THE Railway Museum

www.nrm.org.uk

Books

My Ancestor was a railway worker; Frank Hardy; ISBN-10: 1907199020; ISBN-13: 978-1907199028; http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/bookshop/details.aspx?titleId=891

Engine-driving Life: Or, Stirring Adventures and Incidents in the Lives of Locomotive Engine-drivers (1881); https://archive.org/details/enginedrivingli00reyngoog

 

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Great_Britain; accessed June 2016

 

Robert Parker is a Genealogist and Trainer, based in Cambridgeshire. He delivers courses, coaching, talks, and research services for those interested in tracing their ancestors. See www.myfamilygenealogy.co.uk for further details. Contact Robert to discuss your requirements without obligation. What stories could your ancestors tell?