soonguy
proper brummie kid
Hi, I am an amateur local historian and have been researching the story of a double train crash and double runaway trains in Derbyshire in September 1867. The main runaway train was carrying cattle and eight Birmingham drovers. Five died in that crash. I have written up the story at http://tinyurl.com/railcrashes1867
One of the drovers is named in newspaper reports and one directory of the time as Robert Hemus, butcher and cattle dealer, of High St, Aston Newtown. His death was registered as Robert Hemas in N Derbyshire, with no age known, but as the identification may have been made by one of his surviving colleagues, it would be easy for the name to be misheard or misunderstood. However, I can find no census or other records that seem to be him, though there are one or two people of that name in Birmingham. And there is no one of a name remotely like his in the Birmingham burials for 1867, even though one newspaper report suggests that he was buried at Witton.
It may be that his name has been badly scanned by OCR in the newspaper archive, but that does not account for his name being correct in a directory. Perhaps he was using an assumed or trade name, or had anglicised a foreign name for simplicity.
Any ideas of where to look to try and identify him will be gratefully received. Mega thanks.
One of the drovers is named in newspaper reports and one directory of the time as Robert Hemus, butcher and cattle dealer, of High St, Aston Newtown. His death was registered as Robert Hemas in N Derbyshire, with no age known, but as the identification may have been made by one of his surviving colleagues, it would be easy for the name to be misheard or misunderstood. However, I can find no census or other records that seem to be him, though there are one or two people of that name in Birmingham. And there is no one of a name remotely like his in the Birmingham burials for 1867, even though one newspaper report suggests that he was buried at Witton.
It may be that his name has been badly scanned by OCR in the newspaper archive, but that does not account for his name being correct in a directory. Perhaps he was using an assumed or trade name, or had anglicised a foreign name for simplicity.
Any ideas of where to look to try and identify him will be gratefully received. Mega thanks.
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