Genealogy Chat

Thanks Linda I had not thought of looking there. He does not appear to be there as you say, but I did find my first cousin three times removed! I knew he died during the war as there is an inscription at my local cemetery, but I had not realised he was buried in Belgium. I now have the certificate to show to the rest of the family. Every cloud and all that! B

If you have a look on the Commonwealth War Graves website, you can look up the names of servicemen. I can't see anyone listed with the name you are looking for - but others appear to have a similiar number quoted as their Service Number...

Thanks Steve and Sarah . Unfortunately its a studio picture taken at 15 Foregate Street but State Studio is the name. I'm actually from the Wirral anyway. I was really trying to find out if it was a naval reference. I just don't know who to ask or where to start looking Think I'll have to try the MOD as a last resort but I didn't want to write a blind letter to them B

Hello Barbara, I see you mentioned Chester, I live in Chester if you need any help in Town send an e-mail, how can you describe the background? Steve.

Hi Barbara, Just wondered if it was worth you just writing to the MoD or wherever you apply for the records, with his surname and the reference number, surely if it is related to his occupation, they would know and maybe something would turn up that way. Good luck. Sarah

Hi Barbara its apity you dont have a name for him as the M.O.D would do a search. I know how you feel iv hit a brick wall with my gt gt grandfather on his daughters marriage cert he is deceased thats in 1890 his daughter was born in 1871 so iv checked everthing i can think of for his death but cant find it anywere its really driving me mad.......why do we choose such an hard hobby have you tried looking on.catalogue.pro.gov.uk if you know his surname you could see if it gives you any clues Christine

Thanks Christine, but the trouble is I don't have any info on him. He really is a mystery. I ahve all the details of his borther, but I think he may have been a half brother as I discovered their father was married twice. First in 1884 and then in 1889. Bizarrely the whole family is split in 1891. Father Samuel Dean is at 9 Planet Street Tranmere, Mother Ada Dean is over in Liverpool as a cook and brother Tom Dean is 10 months old and with an uncle in Hoylake. I have no dob for Eddie, just a few possibilities. His father was a platelayer on the railway but Ada died in 1892 and the dad went back to Aston in Cheshire leaving Tom dean with his grandmother in Hoylake. A note withthe photo suggests that Eddie was with his Uncle Frank Jones in Hoylake but I have no evidence of this. The Hoylake lot were all fishermen so Eddie could quite easily have joined the Navy. By 1901 he could have been 14-16. This is such a brick wall! How can a person exist and yet appear invisible? Barbara

Hi Barbara My father was in the navy in ww2 i have photos of him on postcards and they too have numbers on the back, on his uniform is just HMS as they were not allowed to disclose the name of the ship for security reasons, but i sent for his service records from the M.O.D and they gave me all the info i needed including the name of his ship Christine

Hi thanks for the interest. His name is Eddie Dean (not sure if its Edward or Edmund) There is a paper with the card that has his address on it, so this number is a reference number. I was hoping it would be a naval refernce of some kind. It could of course be a photographers reference, but I think it was written by his sister in law as the writing is the same as that on the other piece of paper. I've just used my web cam to take a snap of it, if anyone has the time to have a look I would be grateful Barbara

Is it possible that it reads 12th Jun ? Don't know about the numbers sorry.... best of luck . Sioux

Could the 6 Dean bit be part of an address? Does the writing look like someone just scribbling a note on whatever happened to be to hand (in which case it might be nothing to do with the photo) or is it fairly clear and deliberate as it might be if it were meant to refer to the person in the picture? Can you use the other things you've got in the same handwriting to help decipher the unclear letters on this?

I suppose its possible, the face is hard to age. I so want to find out about this man as his niece is still around (about 80) and living in America but always wondering. I think maybe he died during the war, but it would be nice to be able to let her put im to rest in her mind. We know he existed, just can't find him anywhere! Thanks Barbara

Hi Barbara, I vaguely remember someone on GC telling me that they only had HMS on their hats during war-time. No other information deliberately. Hopefully someone more knowledgable will confirm or deny this! Good Luck anyway, Linda.

This is a bit like a post further down the board and I apologise cos this question has been asked before but it didn't apply so I didn't take proper notice. A while back I said I had a picture of a sailor. All you can see on his hat are the letters HMS so somone suggested it might just be a staged photo. I got my America cousin to send a photocopy of the back of the picture which was a post card taken in Chester. The numers say 12 " yun (?) S1280 - 6 Dean The jun bit is hard could be a y or a j and then theres just a squiggle after it. I suppose it could be a code for the photographer but the writing is the same as on another piece written by this chaps sister in law. So could this be some kind of naval number? And if so where would I look? I think he was born 1885-9 Any tips would be gratefully recieved Barbara

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