Found at Last...

Sometimes information just pops out and hits you when you least expect it. Yesterday i though i might as well check my messages on Genes reunited and found someone who had shared their tree with me. Out of interest i looked for the infamous "Brittain Cousins" who my mother has been looking for for years.

and low and behold.... Children of James Brittain and a "Margaret" (last name now know as Allison) are Judith Alison, Barbara Jenifer, and Mary Deborah. My mother remember them from when she was younger and knew one was Judith but couldn't remember the others.

Now armed with this information i need to actually find them. Current position unknown.

I also found out that James Brittain had another sibling called Kenneth born in 1920.


very interesting and i will keep looking for their contact details mum!


.........on another topic......

today we watched the documentary about the 9/11 bombings talking about how they didn't make sense that it was terrorists. Pointing the finger at the American government for contriving the whole thing so it could launch it's war on terror. It was very interesting and i suggest it as an interesting documentary. Like all documentaries with a view to convince people of a particular view, the evidence given is one sided and carefully selected to omit any evidence contrary to the writers views, however it does show some very very interesting point of view. It is well documented.

...............another topic..............

the weather is shocking


.............another topic.................

we are going to hampton Court Palace tomorrow. :-) ha ha ha... :-)


.............another topic........

It is 5pm and chris is in bed with a beanie on reading a book on stonehenge.


well thats it for me will be back with another instalment of...."Beautiful Palaces and I'm here and your not..."

some of the harry patrick photos...

Just to throw you a very quick taste of the documents many more to come but ineed to go have a shower.

byeee

Records Office - mark two

Went back to the records office today and took photos of EVERY page in that file.... hundreds of them.

I can't currently upload the photos onto this computer and therefore the Internet. I need to hook up Chris's laptop to a network. When i do that i will load the photos.

Just out of interest, his family make a massive petition every year for his release, and go all their friends, family, neighbours, local politicians, to sign it. Each person had a name and an address....

I have the letters from his sister and an uncle begging for his release.

i can't wait to get into the data and find out more about the family and the streets they lived in.

Just as a side note, the murder took place only a few streets away from James's place in Bow. If you go to google maps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl&q=

and type in Eterick street you will see in next to Canningtown. James lives just above the Bow Road tube station.

Anyway i had better get back to looking at the photos. I have work to do.

byee

Harry Patrick - the convicted murderer

Today we visited Fort Knox!

Otherwise named the ~ Public Records Office~ at Kew, London.

We arrived at a new shiny building set amongst very expensive buildings and Kew Gardens. After the obligatory bag search which we have everywhere we go, we had to register with the Office and have our photographs taken and put onto ID cards.#
next ~ leave everything in lockers

next~ take a pencil (no sharpener) a PRO writing pad through the security and up to the research room.

next ~ we eventually found a record and ordered the documents.


Today's Mission was to find court proceedings about my great grand uncle Harry Patrick, who murdered his girlfriend Rachel Bailey on 22 November 1885.

Was i expecting to find anything ~ no ~ did i find something ~ yes!!!~

We were told that it would take about 30mins and were given a readers seat and coded document locker. When the documents appeared they were put into a glass locker with my code on it. we could then take the documents to the assigned reading chair.

I was expecting to have either:

1. Have to look through a large book for a small entry on Harry
2. Or, to have a few sheets of paper in a small folder.

What i got was a great stack of documents about 10cm high. ALL Harry Patrick's prison files!!!! the witness statements, police and medical records, his hand written pleas to the courts to release him. And Monthly reports from the prison about what he had been doing in prison.

He was also due to be hanged on Monday the 4th of December 1885.

I found a family connection to a family called Cooper.

I had no way of copying this 300 page file which was so brittle that if i had breathed to hard it would have blown away.

I have reserved it again for tomorrow and am going back to photograph the entire contents of the file.

despite the fact that it was old and crumbled and had been handled for many years til 1901, i doubt that it has been opened more than once or twice since! It had practically melted together.

The following are two excerpts from the files:

Police report at trial

"23 November i went to 34 Beckstone Tce, Canningtown, about 1/2 6p.m.... He
said he was just getting himself ready to hand himself in... and that he was
just informing his family in person."

Recommendation for release in 1901

"On the whole i suggest that a merciful view may be taken of his case in
consideration of his contrition and unvarying good conduct.

In 1898 he said he could have a home with his uncle Mr cooper in Canningtown
and a year before his sisters and friends said they would do all to help him
lead a good life and to earn an honest subsistence..."

with the amount there and the hand writing, it was impossible for me to copy any more than that. Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to fully photograph this document so i can study it in more depth.

off now, talk to you all later