Great Western Railway Shareholders Index

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The Great Western Railway shareholders index collection is an index of shareholders in the railway. These records fall under the category wills and probate as the shares were bequeathed when the shareholder died. In almost all entries, the name of the shareholder is given together with an address, the names of the other parties (executors or legatees for deaths; husbands for marriages) and dates of death, probate, marriage or other event. After 1910, a number of entries relate to the change of trustees of Friendly Societies as a result of a death. This collection has over 570,000 records.
The Great Western Railway was built in the 19th century to link London to the south west of England. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the engineer when the railway was built. He can actually be found in the records as he was a shareholder.