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Hi Betty

It might be an idea to contact Bernice directly by clicking on her name in the first post, genesreunited will notify her that you have sent her a message.

also may I recommend that you please remove your email address from your post (genesreunited doesn't allow it).

kind regards

Hello Bernice. We have just seen your thread about the Woodleys of Hounslow. My husband ,John Hancock, lived at 52 Granville Avenue, Hounslow until 1958.His family Percy and Kitty knew the Woodleys very well and Edna nursed John at home when he had rheumatic fever. George taught John to ride motor cycles around 1949. John has great regard for George and has often said he wishes he knew where George went to. Edna and her fiancee(who was a pilot visited John's parents when they were evacuated to Ambleside during the war.
If you would like to know us please can you reply? Regards John and Betty Hancock(Egham) :-D

Bernice -- you can look for Gladys Becker births as well as we can!

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

I've looked for her under every surname combination I could think of, but you should give it a go too.

I've also looked for passenger records, which again you can search free:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/passengerListPersonSearchStart.action

(pay to see details), but you hav to use a surname, and I haven't had any luck with any likely surname. But again, you can give that a go.


Bernice, re annielaurie's question, by hospital records, I assumed you meant for when he died - ?

Any records would be good- there seem to be so few of them- its so sad that he almost seems to have been wiped out

Merchant Navy WW1 medal records are online at the documentsonline site but there's no record for Walter. There may be records for him at the National Archives if he was in the Merchant Navy but records for this period are a bit thin on the ground.

About the hospital record - does Bernice mean records for when he is shown in hospital on the census rather than that he died in hospital? If so, she could access any records assuming that they have survived.

Check here for existence of any records for the particular hospital

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/

I wonder if Gladys was born here in the UK as Gladys Becker? Would there be any records for Elizabeth/Gladys emigrating to Canada after the divorce? This might indicate if Gladys was born here in the Uk orCanada. I think it might be likely she was brought up partly if not totally by George and Ethel Woodley who had no children , perhaps a convenient for all so Elizabeth Ann clould remarry ?

There are these two marriages in Ontario:

Henry Thomas Fisher
Elizabeth Annie Woodley
York (Toronto)
- 1915 -- ???
- no Elizabeth Ann* Woodley was born in Canada

W. M Cunningham
Elizabeth Ann Woodley
Brant
- this one seems to have been too early

Ontario marriage records should give the parties' ages, places of birth and parents' names. I don't pay for access. We'll wait for someone who does to happen by, and if not I'll send out a request.

Elizabeth Annie Afford Woodley's birth, just for ref:

Births Jun 1874
Afford Elizabeth Ann Kensington 1a 133

-- place/date of birth matches 1911 census record posted by Delboy:

WOODLEY, ANNIE HEAD MARRIED 37 MONTHLY NURSE KENSINGTON
WOODLEY, ANNIE DAUGHTER SINGLE 16 SUNBURY ON THAMES
East Ham

There just isn't a Gladys born with any surnames that match up, so she must have been born in Canada. Possibly Elizabeth married a Skinner here ...

Will try and find out some more info . tomorrow .Definitelt want to keep digging in the war records though.Over and out.B

Sorry no idea to all those questions.But in the very faded tree it seems to indicate that she married so Skinner might be a married name

I'm not finding any match for Gladys under any surname.

If she was born in Ontario, out of luck -- 100 year cutoff rule.

If she's in the tree, there is a birthdate???

Any idea at all of when Elizabeth left England?

I have just found a mention of Gladys on the tree, it calls her 'Skinner', and a note says she was a corseteer in Niagara Falls. Wether this is a married or single name I don't know.

Sorry, Yes, I think that Elizabeth and becker had a daughter togehter.It could have been the cause of the divorce, I guess which was 1914-5. I am told that Henry managed to get him deported, I don't know if Gladys( no surname known) was born in the Uk or Canada.

The corespondent was Charles Henry Becker, but might just as well have been Karl Heinrich Becker using an English name. ;) The divorce details are from an official record and are definitely correct.

You keep leaking little bits of information ...

Who had a daughter Gladys? Elizabeth Woodley and Becker? Gladys what? Mother would have been Elizabeth Annie Afford, and I don't see a Gladys with an Afford mother from 1911.

If Walter was in the merchant navy, I don't think his records would be with the military records sets -- annielaurie?

Walter died in 1938 ... you're asking about his hospital records? I don't know about access cutoffs I'm afraid -- annielaurie? ;) His next of kin / direct descendants could access, in any event, I'd think.

Dorothy lost her job to the men after the war -- yup, all those lives, all that talent, squelched. My mum was a little younger; she lost her govt job in Canada in 1952 when she married. Same deal.


annielaurie -- yes, that was the only Walter with an SWB -- and he was the one whose records I'd looked at earler who was discharged as medically unfit for duty, 1916 I think it was, who was married to Rose -- same regimental number etc., and too old (by date of marriage) to be our Walter.

Wow what a lot of info. Iam pretty sure the first ref to Henry George- sergeant in the engineers is correct. Yes, Walter was known as Harry, and his brother who I thought was Harold now seems to be Henry George, and sister was known as Annie-Very confusing !
Even the story of the divorce seems correct The correspondent Becker ( Boris ?) could possibly be German . I think they had a daughter Gladys who emigrated with her to Canada after the divorce, where they seemed to stay with b i l George and his wife Ethel who had no children .

I had found Walters hospital record and was a little puzzled as I think it may have a tick against imbecile ? but it was normal hospital- not sure about this.By coincidence his oldest daughter contactedme today , with info that Walter may have been a CPO in the Merchant navy- at this age he was almost certainly unmarried.His wife Dorothy(m 1924 ) was remarkable as she was a lady engineer making bombs, during this war,lost her job to the men after the war- had a suffragette as an aunt- but thats an aside.If Walter died in 1938 is there a 100 yr or relationrule do you think?

Is he the only one then with a SWB? But then do we even know for sure that he was discharged through illness/disability?

I found a Walter Woodley with an SWB.

It says

SWB list TP/3006

Also has entries beside Victory (roll, page) and British (dittos).

24th Lond R, Private, Regtl. No. 5602
then under that
24th ditto, [no rank shown], Regtl. No. 722500

as transcribed by Ancestry:

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=1&gsfn=walter&gsln=woodley&sx=&f16=&f14=&gskw=&prox=1&db=medalrolls&ti=5538&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=39&fh=6&h=1567277&recoff=9+10

Name: Walter Woodley
Regiment or Corps: 24th London Regiment, 24th London Regiment
Regimental Number: 5602, 722500


But after all that, no -- 5602 was the Walter Woodley of 5 Umberston St Stepney married to Rose, and per the 1914 marriage he was Walter T.

Not all WW1 files n records are around because of the records office fire which is very annoying.


Enjoyed researching this one: seems like an interesting back ground with the family being dispersed like it has been.

I hope this has answered some of the questions Bernice has been looking for.....

if only she looks and comments.....:)

Didn't notice your post about the divorce Janey, but then you didn't explain how to get copies............ !!

Have checked all the naval records for WW1 on documentsonline but there's nothing for Walter .

If he was in the Army and was discharged due to illness or disability then he should have a Silver War Badge entitlement, so if any of the cards have SWB then they could be him. The SWB Medal Roll (not online - viewable at National Archives) would give dates of service.

There are a very small number of Medical Files at TNA for WW1. There's one for a W Woodley, disability Duodenal Ulcer. That's the only info given in the index - the file would have to be looked at to see if it was for the right man or not.

tsk, annielaurie. I done that yesterday - the divorce - about five posts up. ;)

(I'd helped out on another of Bernice's threads and just looked in here to see whether there were any bits and pieces I might go after, Delboy1978 having already done yeoperson's work on it by then!)

You're supposed to have useful advice about the WWI records, you are! Whaddaya think? -- neither Henry George Woodley nor Walter Harold Woodley's records can be found. Any thoughts about whether any of the medal cards are likely? (Identifying the right ones would at least give a service number, I was thinking.)

Are pension records more complete than service records? With Walter having had disabilities apparently resulting from the war, I'd have thought there might be such records for him.

The LMA hospital records sound like a very good idea. They might contain info about his military background?