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UK railway employment records on Ancestry

Did your UK ancestors work on the railway?

Ancestry recently launched their newest set of records "UK Railway Employment Records, 1833-1963".

The database includes records from 

• Great Central Railway Company, 
• London and North Eastern Railway Company
• London and North Western Railway Company
• London and South Western Railway Company
• London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
• London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company (formerly the East Kent Railway)
• London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company
• Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company
• Midland Railway Company
• Retired Railway Officers' Society

Free access to Ancestry is available at the State Library of Queensland and at most local libraries and family history societies.

National Archives of Fiji - digitization of photographs and film footage

The National Archives of Fiji are currently digitizing thousands of photographs and old film footage which will be made available to the public.  The digitization process will be completed sometime next year.

Read the Fiji Times Online article for more information: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=176887

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The sad tale of Thomas Beynon - stories from the records

Thomas Beynon was born 18 May 1864 at Graig y Bedw, in the Parish of Llangynwyd, County of Glamorganshire, Wales. He was the second son of parents Thomas and Sarah Beynon, nee Williams. His mother died in 1874 of tuberculosis; his father remarried in 1881, to Mary. This secord marriage produced a daughter, Margaret.

Prior to immigrating to Australia, Thomas was working as a coalminer, living in Glyncorrwg, Glamorganshire. He decided to immigrate to seek a better life, selecting the goldmines of Australia as his future. He left his family, and his sweetheart Jennet Popham, heading for Gravesend to board the Duke of Buckingham. He left with the hope that Jennet would join him in Australia once he was settled.

Thomas arrived in Maryborough in January 1886, from where he made his way to Gympie. It was while employed at the Crown and Pheonix Mine that Thomas Beynon died after sustaining severe head injuries in a mining accident; while ascending the mine shaft a cage guide sprung out and hit him in the face. He died in Gympie hospital on 12 April 1886. He was buried the following day at the King Street and Tozer Park Road Cemetery.

During his voyage to Queensland onboard the ship Duke of Buckingham, Thomas kept a diary recording the weather and his interactions with and observation of other passengers. The diary was donated to the State Library of Queensland several years ago by descendants of Thomas' family. You can read a digitised copy of the diary online at http://hdl.handle.net/10462/eadarc/7405  and then click on the thumbnail.

You can also find Thomas' death listed in our index to Queensland mining accidents at http://fhr.slq.qld.gov.au/minacc/

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