Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone

I know how good you are at solving problems I found my father Thomas Gray dob 25 Sept 1912 as I knew he was living at 24 Sydney Road Enfield, Middx all names in the household spelt wrongly (his is Thomas Grain), above his entry it has BDA 23 - 4- 42 I wondered what it meant.

There is a Kathleen dob 01-Jul-1911 (surname unreadable) shorthand typist then changed to Kathleen Gower I presume she married a Mr Gower she seems to have died in 1999 in Barnet.

I have no idea who this is and in fact a few months later a church nearby was bombed and the family had to move as all the houses in the street were unsafe.

Thanks for any help.

By the way out of interest I was reading about requesting a closed record to be opened I have a couple of Wills but no actual death certificate I wonder if that would work.

I don't know what the letters mean above your father's occupation but after looking at the image and checking the marriage registers I think that Kathleen's maiden name was Crouch. This is the marriage record:-

First name(s) VICTOR A W
Last name GOWER
Marriage quarter 1
Marriage year 1940
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ VICTOR A W GOWER married
KATHLEEN CROUCH
Spouse's last name CROUCH
District EDMONTON
District number -
County Middlesex
Country England
Volume 3A
Page 3069

Think this is likely to be her birth:-

First name(s) KATHLEEN
Last name CROUCH
Birth year 1911
Birth quarter 3
Registration month -
Mother's last name BURTENSHAW
District EDMONTON
County Middlesex
Country England
Volume 3A
Page 1411

Kath. x

There's only one query that I have confident answer for
- you need a DC to submit before they'll open a closed record. That is a requirement imposed by an outside body, possibly the National Archives who are custodians of the government owned document.
FMP are gradually working through the England/Wales GRO index and are opening records when they are confident they can match to an entry.

BDA 'might' have something to do with the NHS.

Don't think I can access the register at the moment to give a suggestion re the young lady. She might just be a lodger.

Could your father have joined the services in 1942? The letters could possibly be something to do with that.

Kath. x

Thank you for the information on Kathleen I think she must have just been a lodger as I cannot find a connection to my family.

Regarding the comment written above my father's name I may try and contact the National Archives to see if they know - my father's life is a complete mystery he died when I was young and my mother would not discuss him at all (I did not know his dob until I started researching my family tree) and then found he was fostered and his birth mother had a very common name.

From what I have learnt he did not serve in the armed forces which I find strange as he did not have a job which would have exempted him from service so much information in the days gone by was not discussed or maybe I was not interested enough to ask too much.

I would think that Frances Dood , aged 80, is taking in lodgers to help pay her way.

Any annotations I understand were made by the NHS, so the initials BDA are likely something to do with that, although the list I believe started out as a basis for ration cards etc. before becoming the basis for the NHS register.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/BDA.html

As it was WW2, was Thomas called up - could it be to do with military service?

EDIT - I see you think he didn't serve in the Forces, so there goes a theory. Maybe he was lucky and if he didn't volunteer, then he wasn't called up or perhaps he failed a medical for some reason.

Hi

thanks perhaps he did in fact join the armed forces for a short while don't think the second world war records are on line yet.

Jjust looked at the list of abbreviations and perhaps it means Bomb Assessment Damage as I said they had to move out the house just before my parents married in 1940 why date was 2 years later I don't know.

Having seen this article in the Lost Cousins Newsletter
http://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/mar16news.htm#NHS
it seems possible that BDA is an abbreviation for a place. I haven't found a list of such places but according to the article SOH is Southampton and NEL North East London. The date is probably the first time a doctor was visited after the move.

My dad didn't serve in ww2 he was in an exempt occupation

He worked at the Woolwich Arsenal and on my birth cert pre 1939 he is a shell turner :-)

Dood Household (4 People)
24 Sydney Road , Enfield U.D., Middlesex, England
Start free family tree View original imagePrint
FIRST NAME(S) LAST NAME(S) DOB OCCUPATION
Kathleen Gower 01 Jul 1911 Short- Hand Typist
Frances E Dood 30 Nov 1860 House Wife
Juliet A Webberley 15 Nov 1908 Bookkeeper
Thomas ? Grain 25 Sep 1912 Laundry Engineer
Ref: RG101/0754C/018/31 Letter Code: BEDN
© Findmypast Ltd
Open a closed record Request a living person's record Close an open record Report an error

Was he Thomas D J Gray ??

:-)

So he was born and died in the same area

Births Dec 1912
Gray Thomas D J Gray Edmonton 3a 1297


Deaths Mar 1951
GRAY Thomas D J 38 Edmonton 5e 462

With Nora in 1946,1947 ,1948

Thomas D Gray
Year: 1946
County or Borough: Edmonton
Ward or Division/Constituency: Edmonton
Street address: 70 7t13
Reference Number: MR/PER/C/0711

Address 70 Blackware Garden


After that she was at 27 Halstead Road


Only posted because she passed away in the 2000's

BDA is Edmonton.

There is a complete list of them here

http://tinyurl.com/hkr88wt

Hi Everyone,

yes the death of my father is correct unfortunately my mother would never tell my sister or myself anything about him - in fact I did not even know when he was born. I have managed though web sites and visiting record offices to out a lot more and know he lived in Sydney Road and then Halstead Road where most of my childhood was spent.

He was fostered (before adoption) by a family called Dodd but have never been able to find why they took him in (they were elderly at the time) and the mother mentioned on his birth cert is Ellen Gray (well if that is correct) with no age or any other details.

There are millions of people of that name and think she might have come over from Ireland (my mother once mentioned we might have Irish blood in us) given birth to him and disappeared back.

One of my father's name was Dunbar and there was a Doctor Gladys Dunbar who qualified in 1908 (she must have been a clever lady) and worked at a GP very near to where he was born so wondered if she arranged the "adoption" his other name was Johnstone which I presume that might be his father.

The letters mentioned written are above his name so don't think it is to do with the district area I am hoping to go to the show in Birmingham in April and may find an expert to ask then.

I will try and copy the original entry so it is easier to understand what I mean

Thanks for trying to help.