Ancestry look up needed please - Genealogists' Forum

Lynn the Forest Fan · #1 20-07-11, 13:20

Could sks look up my g grandfather Francis Stowell in the British Postal Service Appointment Books 1737-1969 collection on Ancestry please? I looked at the free index & found him listed as F S Stowell 1924 London, but can't see more as I don't have a current sub.

Many thanks

Merry · #2 20-07-11, 13:56

I'm not sure I'm looking at the right entry as Ancestry brought me in on the middle of the Rs and the entires are only in initial letter and next vowel groupings. Your transcribed Stowell entry said the date was 18th August 1924 and the one I'm looking at says that date but the name is Fredk S Stowell and the W in Stowell is crossed through and replaced with a different letter (not sure what)

So it reads:

Aug 18th
Registered Number of Nomination Paper: 78328/24
Sto?ell Fredk S
Situation: Unist Skld Wkn (do they have a list of abreviations??!!)
Place: Eng Dept (London)
Minute Number: 11448

Lynn the Forest Fan · #3 20-07-11, 15:51

Many thanks Merry, that is rather confusing, perhaps it is not him afterall

Thanks for trying anyway

Uncle John · #4 20-07-11, 16:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merry

Aug 18th
Registered Number of Nomination Paper: 78328/24
Sto?ell Fredk S
Situation: Unist Skld Wkn (do they have a list of abreviations??!!)
Place: Eng Dept (London)
Minute Number: 11448

Situation: Unestablished Skilled Workman [i.e. he'd passed the tests to become a skilled workman but hadn't worked long enough to become Established (join the pension scheme)].
By the time I joined the PO in 1963 the abbreviation was USW.

Place: Eng Dept (London) is the headquarters of PO engineering, so he was working in a laboratory or similar where they developed equipment.

kiterunner · #5 20-07-11, 16:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merry

Situation: Unist Skld Wkn (do they have a list of abreviations??!!)

It says that "the British Postal Museum’s website has the abbreviations in their Family History Guide".

which you can download from here:
http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/genealogy

The abbreviations start on page 58, and USW = Unestablished Skilled Workman. Unestablished = service ineligible for a pension.

F S Stowell is listed in the middle of the R section! Third from bottom on the left hand page of that "R" image. So Ancestry does actually take you to the correct image, surprisingly enough.

18 Aug 1924 Number of Nomination Paper 78328 Stowell F S
Unest Skld Workman place Eng Dept (London)
The minute number isn't filled in.

Probably they noticed it was written in the wrong place and copied it out into the "S" section but put more of his name in that time! Each bit of the "R" section entry is ticked, I'm guessing they ticked it off as they copied it across.

kiterunner · #6 20-07-11, 16:25

Ah, looking at the Fredk S Stowell in his right place, with the w crossed out, he has been transcribed as Stovell, and there is a Frederick Stephen Stovell born in Epsom in 1903 so I expect that's him.

Merry · #7 20-07-11, 16:30

Quote:

F S Stowell is listed in the middle of the R section!

Oooh I didn't even look at the R page!

Ancestry has transcribed the S entry as Fredk S Stovell.

Lynn the Forest Fan · #8 21-07-11, 06:01

Thanks a lot guys. Sadly not my man afterall

Uncle John · #9 21-07-11, 21:05

By the by, I've found a lot of my former PO colleagues in the list (they were a lot older than me). But I'm not there, I joined with A Levels so I would have appeared in the Post Office Gazette.