Royal Humane Society award

The most recent issue of "Remember When" published by the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle includes in its Roll of Honour column the following:

1954: The Royal Humane Parchment was presented to 12-year old Anne Valerie Daglish, a pupil of Central Modern School, Wallsend. William Messenger, a nightwatchman, had been overcome by gas and fell into a four feet deep trench. In a gallant rescue Valerie managed to help the victim to safety.

The Royal Humane Society is a charity that grants awards for acts of bravery in the saving of human life and, also, for the restoration of life by resuscitation. Its awards range from bronze, silver and gold medals to Testimonials on Vellum and Parchment.

The Testimonial on Parchment is awarded where someone has put themselves in danger to save, or attempt to save, someone else. Many of the awards go to people who have swum to the rescue of someone else - in a quarry, a lake, a river or at sea.

Some useful web sites

Firstly my apologies for the lack of recent postings. However, I am still here and continuing with the Daglish research! I hope to continue to make occasional postings, as time allows.

The following web sites that I have not seen before have been brought to my attention - these may be useful to anyone interested in family history research.

The Coalmining History Resource Centre

Described as "the UK's largest and most comprehensive website concerning the history of coalmining - including a searchable database of over 164,000 recorded accidents and deaths".

The information on the site has been compiled by Ian Winstanley and is now available through this new site, sponsored by Rales solicitors from Barnsley - who are described as specialists in workplace accidents and disease compensation.

The War Graves Photographic Project

Working in association with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the aim of this site is:

"to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, MoD grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day and make these available within a searchable database."

The site was launched in February 2008 and is work in progress with many photos waiting to be uploaded. The site relies on volunteers to visit, record and catalogue the many hundreds of thousands of graves scattered aound the World.

Deceased Online

This new site was launched on 11 July. It is described as:

"the first central database of statutory burial and cremation registers for the UK and Republic of Ireland -- a unique resource for family history researchers and professional genealogists ... We are making it possible for burial and cremation authorities around the country to convert their register records, maps and photographs into digital form and bring them together into a central searchable collection."

For now the site has very limited data from Kent and Sussex - and is running in test mode. During this tes period, access to data is free of charge, but after this there will be a charge to access the records (although searching will be free).