The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.3 | December 2021

Member’s article

time, we went on one of those evening walks. We all carried lanterns and followed the costumed guide who took us around the town pointing out the historic sites of interest. When we arrived at the statue, he gathered the group around and asked if anyone had a connection with the Pilgrims. One lady stepped forward and announced she was descended from John Billington. The guide said, "People don't usually admit to that". John

Billington was a criminal who in 1630, was the first man hanged in the colony for murder. Then Bryan stepped forward. So proud, he had been signing visitors’ books as William Bradford since arriving in Plymouth. He announced that his 10th great grandfather was Gov. William Bradford. There was a collective gasp of admiration!! I'll always remember that.” Margaret Bradford (Member #14882)

WKGE 34/5 (My WWII I.D. number)

I have recently revisited the 1939 Register to see if I could find members of my parents and close family. I found my father and my mother’s parents together at home in Southampton. Then I searched for my mother, my father’s mother and me. We should have been at the same home address. I found my mother in Parkstone, Poole. I remembered that I had been evacuated to Parkstone, recently. My mother’s I.D. number was WKGE 34/6. The I.D. number on the line above was WKGE 34/5 but the name was deleted/redacted. It must have been me!

Then I noticed that the I.D. numbers on the page were sequential! Back to the entries at my home address, my father’s I,D. was in a different series. I assume that the I.D. numbers were ascribed by location on the census day. Then I found my father’s mother in Wiltshire staying with friends. I remember that, after a couple of weeks in Parkstone, my mother came to Parkstone to take me home. It must have been on the day that the census was taken! Geoff Higgins (Member #9912)

Have your Query published in the journal Please email it to: searchers@hgs-online.org.uk

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