18 June 2014

Hint: Check Hometown Newspapers

Don`t overlook hometown newspapers, becoming more accessible as they are digitized, for family history colour.
During my recent trip to England I visited my old home town library searching archived newspapers on microfilm from the start of WW1. I didn't find what I sought but fell victim to the common malady of newspaper researchers, getting sidetracked by other items in the paper. Reproduced is a letter from a former resident who had emigrated to Winnipeg and was writing home to tell of his experienced in his first days in the CEF.
In common with many of the early CEF recruits Alfred Thomas Woolston was English. Born in Great Ormsby, Norfolk in 1884 he arrived in Canada in 1905, made one return visit, survived the war and returned to live in Winnipeg. He died on 4 December 1953 on holiday in Daytona Beach and is buried at Winnipeg's Brookside Cemetery.

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