Ian Hedges’ Family Tree

I was invited on Friday to try out the latest beta of the 1911 census website run by FindMyPast. The tempation was too great to resist, so I headed over to the site.

I searched first for my grandfather Henry Hedges, who would have been 14 in the census. As it is in beta, the site doesn’t have all the counties available, even so it still returned four Henry Hedges’ aged 13-15. Unlike the 1901 Census results, there is no indication of where the person is born, so you have to buy a view of the transcription to see if it the correct one.

When the 1901 census was released, nearly 7 years ago, it cost 50 pence to see a transcription and 75 pence to see an actual image. If you buy the largest package of credits for the 1911 census available, it will cost you 10 credits (80 pence) to see a transcription and 30 credits (£2.40) to see an image.

Needless to say after a couple of hours of searching I had exhausted my 280 credits (£24.95), with next to nothing to show for the outlay. The thought of potentially repeating this for every person in my family tree, with the same results is just not financially viable.

I did find my grandmother on my mum’s side, and have a copy of the actual household return. It is different from previous censuses in that the original household returns have been scanned not the enumerators log. This means that I was looking at my great grandparents’ handwriting, Carrie Moulden I think. Much as I want to search for my relatives, I can see me waiting until this is available on one of the subscriptions rather than pay-per-view. For me this is just too expensive as it stands.

Last Friday, I searched the Incoming Passenger lists on Ancestry.co.uk and found Henry Hedges several times in the index. I did also find one of his return voyages by manually searching the voyages about the time he was due to return. This was the entry for the February 1926 trip, however I didn’t have the source citation, as I couldn’t find a way to find this from the image.

Common sense has prevailed. I searched for the person listed above him in the list, ‘H L Hall’, and once I had found him and confirmed it was the same image, I had my referance: Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 811; Item: 76

Now all I need to do is find Henry returning in 1928 and 1930. This is when it starts to get frustrating!

Last week I did try finding him in 1928, but gave up when I hit two months that I expected him to be travelling where there were multiple incorrect images against the ship names. It made it impossible to search.

Searching in 1930, I was looking in March and April as these seemed to be the most likely months. I started checking the ships of the Elder Dempster Line, but came across the same problems. Here is an example of the problem:

Liverpool, March 1930, M.V. Apapa. There are 13 images in the set; they comprise of M.S. Apapa page 2, 4, 6, 5, 1, T.M.V. Aba (Apr 1930) page 9, 8, 10, 12, 11, M.S. Apapa page 14, 13 and 15. So not only are they out of order and pages missing, they are not even all the same ship or month. I have reported the errors to Ancestry like I did last week. The really annoying thing is, Henry would have been on page 3 if he was travelling on the Apapa in March 1930.

While the image quality of the scans is good, the quality control on the indexing is appalling for some months. I think it was March and April 1928 that were particularly bad last week, I gave up reporting in the end because almost every image was wrong. I guess this has been outsourced, but there should have been better supervision or quality inspection. I have also contacted Ancestry Support detailing the problems with examples and asking if reporting individual errors was the best way when there were so many.

Ancestry.co.uk have the Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960 available to search if you have a Premium or Worldwide subscription. I have a Premium subscription and so I have searched for my grandfather, Henry Hedges returning to the UK from Africa.

• Appam of Elder Dempster & Co Ltd from Lagos to Liverpool via Teneriffe, Sekondi, Sierra Leone, Freetown, Bathurst, Accra and Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 3rd March 1924. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 758; Item: 16. Henry Hedges, age 27 was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of 68 Walton St, Chelsea, London and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Reader. His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘Nigeria’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘British Possessions’.
• Adda of African Steamship Company Ltd from Lagos to Liverpool arrived in Plymouth on 22nd February 1926. H Hedges, age 29 was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of 68 Walton St, Chelsea, London and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Reader. His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘Nigeria’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘British Possessions’.
• Adda of African Steamship Company Ltd from Port Harcourt to Liverpool via Port Harcourt, Lagos, Accra, Takoradi, Freetown, Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 16th December 1931. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 960; Item: 40. H Hedges, age 34 was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of 243 Acton Lane, Acton ?????, London and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Printer. His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘Nigeria’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘Other parts of the British Empire’.
• Appam of Elder Dempster Lines Ltd from Port Harcourt to Liverpool via Lagos, Accra, Takoradi, Freetown, Las Palmas and Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 13th November 1933. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 1014; Item: 79. Henry Hedges, age 36, was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of 24 Actors lane, London W4 and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Printer (G.T.)His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘British Possession’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘Other parts of the British Empire’.
• Accra of Elder Dempster Lines Ltd from Calabar to Liverpool via Port Harcourt, Lagos, Accra, Takoradi, Monrovia, Freetown, Bathurst, Madeira, Las Palmas and Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 2nd June 1935. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 1063; Item: 62. Mrs H Hedges, age 27 was landed at Plymouth. She boarded in Accra( i think that’s what it says), had a proposed UK address of Queen’s Head, Long Marston, Tring, Herts and travelled 1st class. She has no listed occupation. Her country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘BP’. Her country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘Other parts of the British Empire’.
• Accra of Elder Dempster Lines Ltd from Port Harcourt to Liverpool via Port Harcourt, Lagos, Accra, Takoradi, Freetown, Madeira, Las Palmas and Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 7th January 1936. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 1087; Item: 143. H Hedges, age 38 was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of Queen’s Head, Long Marston, Tring, Herts and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Civil Servant. His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘Nigeria’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘Other parts of the British Empire’.
• M.S. Adda of Elder Dempster Lines Ltd from Calabar to Liverpool via Lagos, Accra, Takoradi, Freetown, Madeira, Las Palmas and Plymouth arrived in Plymouth on 4th January 1938. Source Citation: Class: BT26; Piece: 1144; Item: 43. H Hedges, age 40 was landed at Plymouth. He boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of Queens Head, Long Marston, Tring and travelled 1st class. His occupation is listed as Printer. His country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘Nigeria’. His country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘Other parts of the British Empire’. Also on this voyage is his wife, Lillian aged 30 and my father Peter aged 2. They both also boarded in Lagos, had a proposed UK address of Queens Head, Long Marston, Tring and travelled 1st class. Neither had an occupation listed. Their country of last permanent residence is listed as ‘England’. Their country of intended future permanent residence is marked as ‘England’.

Combining it with the outgoing trips I already had, this gives me the following trips:

• October 1922. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 25, Proof Reader.
• March 1924 Lagos to Plymouth. Henry Hedges, age 27, Reader.
• June 1924. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 27, Reader.
• February 1926 Lagos to Plymouth. Henry Hedges, age 29, Reader.
• July 1926. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 29, Reader.
• August 1928. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 31, Proof Reader.
• August 1930. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 33, proof reader.
• December 1931 Port Harcourt to Plymouth. H Hedges, age 34, Printer.
• April 1932. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 34, printer.
• November 1933 Port Harcourt to Plymouth. Henry Hedges, age 36,  Printer (G.T.)
• April 1934. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 37, printer. Lillian Hedges, age 26.
• June 1935 Calabar to Plymouth. Mrs H Hedges, age 27.
• January 1936 Port Harcourt to Plymouth. H Hedges, age 38, Civil Servant.
• June 1936. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 39, printer.
• April 1937. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Mrs H Hedges, age 29 and P H Hedges, age 1.5.
• January 1938 Calabar to Plymouth. H Hedges, age 40, Printer. Mrs H Hedges (Lillian) aged 30 and Mstr P Hedges (Peter) aged 2.
• May 1938. Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. Henry Hedges, age 41, printer.

Although I have some return trips missing at the moment, it looks like Henry served for about 18 months abroad and then after travelling time had about 4 months in the UK before returning to Nigeria. In April 1937, when my grandmother and my father travelled to Nigeria, they listed their country of future permanent residence as Nigeria, so it looks like they were all intending to stay. However, my father contracted malaria while there and they came back in January 1938 and listed their future residence as England.

Last weekend I applied on the General Register Office for four copy marriage certificates including Henry Hedges’ parents Henry and Louisa.

The certificates arrived yesterday and have provided a feast of information:

Henry Hedges and Louisa Copp

16 Jul 1894
Register Office, Marylebone, London
Henry Hedges, 27, Bachelor, Carriage Gas Man Railway, 39 Grove Road, Marylebone
Louisa Copp, 25, Spinster, 484 Edgeware Road, Marylebone
Groom’s father, John Hedges (deceased), cab driver
Bride’s father, – Copp (deceased), gold worker

Thomas Harper and Emma Edge

10 Oct 1844
unreadable, Acton under Edgmond, Salop
Thomas Harper, 26, Bachelor, Servant, Pave Lane
Emma Edge, 23, Spinster, Servant, Pave Lane
Groom’s father, John Harper, Labourer
Bride’s father, John Edge, Miner
Witnesses John Harper & Sarah Edge

Alfred Cakebread and Annie Collins

3 Nov 1867
District Church, Wareside, Ware, Herts
Alfred Cakebread, 21, Bachelor, Labourer, Wareside
Annie Collins, 18, Spinster, Wareside
Groom’s father, James Arbour, Labourer
Bride’s father, John Collins, Labourer

James Arbour and Sarah Cakebread

18 Sep 1852
District Church, Wareside, Ware, Herts
James Arbour, 26, Bachelor, Labourer, Wareside
Sarah Cakebread, 23, Spinster, Servant, Wareside
Groom’s father, George Arbour, Labourer
Bride’s father, Thomas Cakebread, Carter

I have entered all of this into my family tree and updated my online database. I’m fast concluding that I will drop the pages created by Ged4Web in favour of the online database.

Following the information that has allowed me to identify my grandfather Henry Hedges and his parents, my brick wall has now disappeared. I’m sure there will be many moments ahead that will seem just as difficult, but for the moment, its plain sailing.

I have renamed the ‘My Brick Wall’ page on my site to ‘Henry Hedges’ and created a redirect to catch any links to the old page.

For anyone interested in the technical, I have added the following to my .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /my_brick_wall.htm http://family.ijhedges.com/henry-hedges
redirect 301 /crown_agents.htm http://family.ijhedges.com/henry-hedges/crown-agents
redirect 301 /northern_provinces_news.htm http://family.ijhedges.com/henry-hedges/northern-provinces-news
RedirectMatch 301 ^/my-brick-wall/(.*)$ http://family.ijhedges.com/henry-hedges/$1

The first 3 lines are to catch any really old links to my original site. The next line redirects any page in the my-brick-wall set of pages to the corresponding henry-hedges page.

I decided to start a section on my website about the ships and shipping line that Henry Hedges travelled to Africa on. A couple of days ago, I bought a postcard on Ebay of M.V. (Motor Vessel) Accra, which he travelled to Nigeria on twice in the mid 1930′s. Well at least I thought I had!

The M.V. Accra that Henry travelled on was the second ship of that name, launched in 1926 and owned by the British & African Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., later Elder Dempster Lines Ltd. She was 9337 gross tons, 450.8 feet in length and registered in Liverpool. She had accommodation for 243 first class and 76 second class passengers. She was later torpedoed and sunk on 26th July 1940.

After looking closer at the postcard, which I should have done before I bought it, it is of the third M.V. Accra, which entered service in 1947.

As I said earlier, Henry travelled to Nigeria twice on the M.V. Accra.

• 6th April 1932. Travelled on ship MV Accra of the Elder Dempster Lines under master J.C. Shooter from Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. He travelled 1st Class. His address in the United Kingdom was 243 Giston Lane, Aston W4. He was age 34 and his occupation was a printer.
• 4th April 1934. Travelled on ship MV Accra of the Elder Dempster Lines under master J.C. Shooter from Liverpool to Lagos, Nigeria. He travelled 1st Class. His address in the United Kingdom was Long Marston, Tring. He was age 37 and his occupation was a printer. He is travelling this time with Lillian age 26. This must be their honeymoon as they were married on the 1st April 1934.

So, its back to searching for the correct ship images as I work on the new page.

It’s been a very long week since I applied for a copy of Henry Hedges’ birth certificate.

It finally arrived today and was waiting for me when I got home. I nearly missed it; previously when I had sent for certificates, they had arrived folded up in a thin brown envelope. This one was in a white A5 window envelope. I can’t remember if I have ordered directly from the General Register Office before, it might have only been county register offices. It was a surprise to find when looking at the certificate to see that they print the scanned record from the register instead of just transcribing it. I don’t know if they have been doing this long, but I may now replace some of my older transcribed copy certificates.

Anyway, on to the contents of the certificate. Yes, it’s him! Born on the 17th February 1897 at 7:45pm at 101 Portman Buildings. This is the same address that Henry Hedges age 4, son of Henry and Louisa was living at in the 1901 Census. From the certificate, his father is Henry Hedges, which I already knew, a railway carriage gasman, which I suspected and his mother is Louisa Hedges formerly Copp, which I also suspected. His father Henry registered the birth on 20th February 1897.

I finally get to combine the two Henry Hedges in my family tree; the first Henry Hedges[P16], my grandfather and the second Henry Hedges[P408], son of Henry and Louisa. It has been a long time, but I think I can safely say, my grandfather is no longer my family tree brick wall. It just remains to continue investigating his parents and their line.

All of this was possible because of the suggestion by the company secretary of Crown Agents who suggested that I contact the Pensions Department at the Department for International Development and provided me with the contact details. I am very grateful to her for the time she gave to my enquiry.

I’ve just realised I also get to combine Henry’s parents in my tree as well.

I have updated the Crown Agents page to reflect the fact that Henry Hedges didn’t actually work for them. I have also created a new page for his colonial service, where I have collected all the information that I know so far.

Since finding out Henry’s date of birth, I haven’t had a chance to do anything with it until today.

I have applied online at the General Register Office for a copy of the birth certificate of Henry Hedges, registered in Marylebone in Jan-Feb-Mar 1897. This is the Henry Hedges that I already believed to be my grandfather, and the registration quarter is correct. Hopefully it will be the correct date of birth and then I’ll have confirmation that the Marylebone family in 1901 is mine.

On the assumption that it is, I revisited old ground this afternoon and found entries on the same page of the Marylebone marriage index for Henry Hedges and Louisa Copp in 1894. This, if I’m correct, would be my grandfather’s father Henry (that gets confusing at times), and mother Louisa. In 1891, there is a Louisa Copp as a servant for Eliza Hedges, a 58 year old widow in Hampstead (RG12/112 Folio 11 Pg 16). This could be my brick wall coming down.

In 1881, I had trouble finding Eliza Hedges, who would have been 48. Then I came across Eliza Hodges, 47, widow from London in Marylebone (RG11/159 Folio 53 Pg 26). With her were Henry Hodges aged 14 from Marylebone (right age and birthplace) and Anne Eliza Hodges aged 11.

Here’s where my trail goes cold. Try as I can, I cannot find Eliza and Henry in the 1871 census.

I have contacted Sue Hedges at The Hedges-Study, to see if she has anything in her database that might help me. Sue was very helpfull about six years ago, when she put me on the right tracks for getting hold of Henry’s will.

Before I went on holiday, I emailed the Department for International Development, Pensions Department to see if they had any records for Henry Hedges’ pension or service. I had an email waiting for me when I checked tonight that has knocked a few bricks out of my brick wall, so much so I think I can see it falling down soon.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to trace any files containing your grandfather’s records in this office.

I should explain that generally if no action has been taken on a file of a deceased officer, or their dependents, for 6 years after their death the file is destroyed under statute.

The only record we have been able to find relating to your grandfather is an index card noting that Mr Hedges’ wife died on 11 May 1972 and that, as there are no further eligible beneficiaries under the widows’ and orphans’ pension scheme/fund to which he contributed, interest in them has been lapsed. As noting Mrs Hedges death, and the resulting lapse, is probably the last action taken it seems likely that the files have been destroyed several years ago.

The only other information this index card shows is very similar to what you have already stated in your email:

• That Henry Hedges, born 17 February 1897, was a Superintendent of the Government Press in Nigeria and later a Government Printer in Sierra Leone.
• That he joined the Nigeria Widows and Orphans Pension Scheme i.e. started contributing to it, on 11 October 1922 (the date of joining such a scheme is usually the date the officer’s appointment in the territory started).
• Subsequently, he joined the Sierra Leone Widows’ and Orphans’ Pensions Fund on 14 January 1939 (most likely his date of transfer to his appointment in Sierra Leone).
• His contributions ceased on his death on 4 November 1939.

As mentioned above, his wife died on 11 May 1972. (Pensions in respect of Mr Hedges’ contributions to the Nigeria and Sierra Leone Scheme/Fund would have been paid to his widow from 5 November 1939 until her death).

I finally have an actual date of birth for Henry! This means I can confirm Henry’s parents and at last know which Hedges family is really mine. To say I am overjoyed is understating it.