GWR Shareholders (not staff) on FMP

[Christine in Herts]

I had a quick look down the list, and couldn't see that anyone had passed this on already...

Findmypast.com has been working in partnership with the Society of Genealogists (SOG) to publish online records held at the Society's London headquarters. The Great Western Railway Shareholders Index is now live.

This unique index is not an index of railway staff, but shareholders in the Great Western Railway. The index contains details for 77,000 shareholders, with a total number of 292,000 names plus addresses (where given) entered into the registers.

The Great Western Railway, also known affectionately as "God's Wonderful Railway", was built to link London to the West Country, South Wales and the South West of England. Bristol merchants were desperate for effective transport links to London, to prevent the emergence of Liverpool as the country’s second port.

I'd have been pleased if it had been staff, because my g-g-father was a guard. On the other hand, I believe I've probably got all there is from the GWR records about him, because I went to Kew and looked at the staff registers.

Christine

[Dead Rellies]

I would have found the staff names really useful also as i have rellies that worked for them, maybe in the future, fingers crossed????

[Christine in Herts]

I would have found the staff names really useful also as i have rellies that worked for them, maybe in the future, fingers crossed????

Have you been to Kew? The GWR staff registers are huge tomes, with two or three surname-initials to a tome, and about three sets, by era. You have to make sure you pick up the new references to request the "docs", or you'll end up several letters adrift - as I did, the first time: C instead of IJKL (? - a set ending with L, anyway). Because the tomes are so bulky, they're made available in the top floor area, instead of the regular tables.

Sometimes they have lots of info, sometimes very little. My G-g-father's record had a list including approx DoB (e.g. year), rates of pay (by date of change), posts held, any incidents (with penalties), reason for leaving - but not with the date, altho' it should have been recorded, judging by other records.

I looked through the tomes for all three eras, but found a record for my g-g-father in only the one.

It's also possible to order images of the pages online - but I'm not sure that you can be specific enough to be sure you'll get the record you want that way. If you visit, you can take digital photos (without flash) if you're careful with the records.

Christine

[KiteRunner]

I've just viewed one of the records (turned out not to be my relly, though) and it gave me a list of 8 executors! I wonder if they really all were executors or if some of them were just legatees? Anyway, if you only want the actual shareholders I think you have to tick the "deaths only" box. But I didn't realise that some of the people listed weren't the actual shareholders, so I think I'll just try my search all over again now in case there are any potential executors in there...

[Uncle John]

If the shareholding formed part of the estate on death, it depends on the wording of the will and how long it took to wind up the estate as to how long the shares were "owned" by "Executors of Joe Bloggs deceased". I realise this is stating the obvious!! And for any holdings still in limbo when the GWR was wound up, some time after nationalisation in 194x, they would presumably remain in this state on the last published share register in perpetuity.

[KiteRunner]

Uncle John, from what I can make out from the entries I have looked at, it isn't a register of shareholders but of transfers of shares, usually on the death of the shareholder, so usually the entry will tell you the name of the shareholder, where and when he / she died, and the names of the executors plus the date when the shares were transferred to them, and sometimes the names of people who had to give some kind of evidence that the deceased was the same person who had owned the shares.

[Uncle John]

A useful source for the fortunate researcher, then.

Have you heard about the man who changed his name by deed poll to Gerald William Reeves, to match the monograms on his cutlery and towels?