The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 2022

Member’s article

Harry Nash

Many moons ago when the only indices seemed to be the IGI, the BMD and the 1881 census, and even these could only be accessed at a library or at the Record Office, I started to research my wife’s Family Tree after I’d done some work on my own side. The starting point was the tragic death of George NASH in 1938 after contracting gangrene following a motor bike accident having caught his foot in the back wheel. This gave his age which led me to look for his birth in 1890 in the BMD at Hampshire Record Office. Trying to save money, at the time I didn’t send for his birth certificate, but trawled through the Parish Registers in microform until I found his baptism in St. George’s, Portsea. On the same day in 1890 one of his brothers and two sisters were also baptised.

At the time and for a number of years I thought the family had “got religion” and thought no more about it until the wonders of the internet and in particular the British Newspaper Archive. Idly searching Nash in the Portsmouth Evening News I came across the tragic death of Harry Nash. It would appear that Harry’s distraught

parents, six days after Harry’s death, took Amelia aged 14, Harriet 11,

Samuel 5 and baby George to be baptised as a precaution against being buried in unconsecrated ground. Much as I enjoyed visiting various Record Offices and trawling through their archives it has to be said that the internet and all the numerous indices available now has been a boon to the present day Family Historian. Michael Pullinger (Member #8337)

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