RootsChat.Com

I'm not sure how much information I can include on here but I think I may have found out more information about Douglas Sandels - the illegitimate son of my husband's grandmother that she had at 14. I posted another thread on here about how it was believed that he went to family to be raised. We also think now that he spent some time in the Army, possibly National Service and may have spent time overseas. My mother-in-law remembers a young man visiting and recovering from malaria and she believes this was Douglas.

She has now spoken to her older sister and she is sure that Douglas went to live with his paternal grandparents and that his father was the son of a family who lived in the same block/tennament as the Sandels family in West Ham. Now the paternal name we believe is Malise or Mulise (pronounced malishe).

Now I think that I may have discovered the family in question - whislt the Sandels family were still living in Sussex in 1911 there was a family living in West Ham with the surname Mellish. This is now where I'm not sure how much information I can post because I don't know if the person is still alive or not but needless to say I've found a marriage record that matches the two names together. However I'm now trying to find a birth record between 1910 and 1932 for the first name and the surname. Could anybody help me try and locate one? If I can't find one then this could be the missing son perhaps. I hope that i haven't infringed any rules by typing the above.

Obviously it's still going to have to wait until the 1921 Census before I can see if I can find a link between the 2 families but at least its a start.

Thanks   

Regarding the bridge itself. It was built by the M&GN Railway company, and the maintenance of the bridge which I believe was a swing bridge was carried out by the LNER and subsequently the Eastern Region of British Railways Lincoln and finally Doncaster divisions. The direct responsibility for the maintenance was vested in the workshop staff at Boston, and callouts were rare, once or twice in the 4 years I worked there. However, in the early 1970s there was consternation at Doncaster accounts office when a bill was received from the then Holland County Council (Highways Dept) for work carried out on the bridge. After some 10 years, and two major re-organizations on the railway our responsibility for the bridge had been forgotten, and I was the only person still involved who remembered it. All others  who might have known had moved on in the organization, I was the only one whose promotions had all been local.Sorry for the digression, but hope this might be of interest.

The current bridge is  actually the 3rd bridge which has spanned the River Nene. The first was opened in 1831 and designed by John Rennie the Younger and Thomas Telford. It was replaced in 1850, this time being designed by Robert Stephenson. The current bridge opened in 1897 at a cost of £80,000. Since 1959 it has been a road bridge only.

Well I can now update this with a little more information that may help with finding Douglas.

I spoke to my mother-in-law yesterday and quizzed her about what she remembered and what her older sister had told her.

Firstly apparently his father was believed to be a boy of a family that lived she thought in the same block of houses/in the same house as Emily and her family when they lived in London. Apparently Emily became extremly friendly with one of the boys of this family. I guess we are going to have to wait until the 1921 Census to find out any details about this as Emily and her family still lived in Sussex in 1911. She believes as I said before that Douglas went to family to be brought up - she thinks that this was Emily's family but is not 100% sure. She's not sure whether he kept the same name but does not believe that he was adopted out so he probably did.

My mother-in-law has recollections when she was a child of a young man coming to visit quite regularly and she believes that this may have been Dougie (the name she uses). She said that he was in the Army - probably doing his National Service as he would not have been old enough to have enlisted during WW2. She also recalls him spending time at their house ill, after contracting malaria whilst overseas.

Thanks