Thread: Farrell - Newcastle

I'm not sure how accurate this information is but my gt grandmother, Alice Edith Farrell born abt 1891 possibly in Manchester and baptised in Aldershot, had three full brothers - John Farrell born somewhere in Ireland, most likely in Belfast in 1890, Frederick Matthew Farrell born 19 December 1893 Nantwich, Cheshire and Edward William Farrell born 1895 in Nantwich Cheshire. In 1885 their father, Peter/Patrick Farrell joined the 5th Dragoon Guards, in 1891/1892 he was put onto army reserve and joined Cheshire Police force. In 1897 his reserve period was up and he was discharged from the army, in December 1897 he resigned from Cheshire Police and the family moved back to Belfast.

John, Frederick and Edward apparently all served in the First World War, two were killed (allegedly at Dunkirk) and the third had leg injuries, although this information was given to me as he had his legs blown off and then moved to Newcastle on Tyne. I've not been able to find their service records, although on Ancestry I did find an entry of Irish deaths for an E W Farrell (Eddie) Rank Signaller Irish Horse Killed in Action December 12th 1917 but no service number was given and there are loads of John Farrell's but no Freds or Frederick Farrell's.

I'd like to know more about the Farrell who moved to Newcastle but have come to a dead end and don't quite know how to move forward with it.

Anyone have any idea's?

Claire

Hello

Have you tried Commonwealth War Graves Commission www.cwgc.org.uk

Elsabels

Hi, yeah tried the CWGC and many others but to no avail. Have looked through pension records, service records, you name it. The records I'm looking for either don't exist or simply haven't yet reached the online stage.

I forgot to mention that I received John Farrell's birth cert today. He was born John James Farrell on 5th April 1890 at Carrickfergus, Antrim. This still hasn't helped in looking through service, pension etc records!!

About 2/3rds of the WW1 service records were destroyed or damaged by fire which might explain why you can't find what you want.

Of course the one who moved to Newcastle might not have stayed there very long and may have returned to Ireland or another part of Great Britain. If you can't find anything likely in the marriage and/or death indexes its going to be tricky!Do you know when your gt grandmother died? Perhaps a newspaper obituary might mention her brothers as mourners or say that they were dead?

My gt grandmother died in 1967 in Belfast, I live in England so I'm not sure how to go about finding the obits? Any links anyone to online indexes to Belfast newspaper obits for 1967?

Forgot to say, my mum says that my gt grandmother went to France/Belgium to see the war grave so I know there should be a CWGC entry but many don't carry details of parents or relatives etc so I can't even check that way and beleive me I've checked through every John Farrell, every Frederick Farrell and every Edward Farrell but without details any one of them could be the right one!

Obits - if you have your gt grandmother's date of death you could email the central library in Belfast and ask if they'd do a look up in the local papers for an obit or record of the funeral.