Alfred George Palmer, cousin to my grandma, Alma May Palmer.

(photo kindly provided by Angie Hodges on Nov 16, 2015)

On November 13, 2015, while searching on UK Ancestry where I'm currently a member, I discovered Alfred George Palmer. Alfred is my 1st cousin, 2xs removed. He was the son of Henry George Palmer, brother of my great grandpa, Herbert Henry Palmer. They were the sons of George Palmer my great great grandpa.

Alfred died at age 21 on May 31, 1916 in the Battle of Jutland.

The above shows the list of ships Alfred worked on.

HMS Broke where Alfred died.

I had a great time searching online for any information I could find.

This image is from Panel 3 in Stoke sub Hamdon, England, on top of Ham Hill, at the memorial built to remember the men who died in WWI.
Here is the LINK to the website.

From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The above shows Alfred's name on the right hand side.

By entering Alfred's name and date of death into the Google search engine, I discovered a wonderful website:

Stoke sub Hamdon

It contains a letter sent to Alfred's family with details of his death.

The site is written by Angie Hodges, and after an inquiry sent to her on the weekend, she kindly replied today and sent me the photo at the top of this post.

Although it's a blurred image I'm thrilled to have it, as I have no other image of Alfred.

Isn't it amazing what happens if you begin to research into your family tree?

You never know where you will wind up.

March 30, 2016  I added Alfred Palmer's details to "Lives of the First World War" website today.

The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland is this year, 2016.

By Loretta Williams Houben

Somerset, land of my ancestors.

These are my Palmer relatives.

I've mainly been blogging about the Williams side, but it's time to write about the Palmers.

Here's how the people above are related to me.

Florence (Bellamy) age 43 and Herbert Henry Palmer age 42 are in the middle, surrounded by their children on their way to the new country of Canada.

My grandma, Alma May (19) is on the right of her father in the cloche hat.

Notice the warm clothes all are wearing in the month of July!

The youngest children, Violet on the right, and Harry in front of his dad, are the twins, age 5.

John, (11) is on the left with Norman (17) beside him.

On the right is Sydney (9).

Today I found an interesting item on Ancestry, UK site.

I'll write about that in a separate post.

But I want to include a link to a post about Somerset England here.

It has beautiful photos and posts about this beautiful land where my ancestors lived since the 1600's.

Yes, I've been able to trace the Bellamy family back that far.

I've had an exciting 2 months searching Ancestry's records.

The above shows how I can trace back to the Bluetts in 1669.

I think I have many things to research.

By Loretta (Williams) Houben

Remembrance Day 2015

We shall not forget.

By Loretta Williams Houben

Remembering great uncle William J Williams.

Today, November 6, 2015, I searched again on UK Ancestry site for records of William Williams, and I actually found two more I had never seen.

I am very pleased. I would love to become a life long member of Ancestry.

It's so easy to search their records.

I created the above collage today.

The above record is from the army register of soldiers' effects.

Notice the "to whom authorized" box on the right.

Notice the red pen notation on the right.

Here is a close up; it shows Bro: Sole Legal, Robert David Williams, HMS Violet.

That would most likely mean the parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Williams, are dead.

So this is another big clue.

By Loretta Williams Houben