By Maureen Storey
In this journal we welcome back returning member Claire Thompson. Claire is the 3x great granddaughter of Hannah Sole, who married Charles Muncey at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, Middlesex on 8 Apr 1833. Hannah’s paternal line has been traced back to the marriage of John Sole and Sarah Hale on 27 Nov 1692 in Throcking, Hertfordshire. There are many trees online that claim to take this family back beyond this point and although, as we don’t know where John Sole came from, we can’t categorically say some of these trees are wrong we have sufficient evidence that casts doubt on them to go no further back than 1692 at this time. If anyone feels they can make a good case for any earlier generations I’m keen to hear about it.
Catherine Brazier wrote to thank the Society for the information about her Sole ancestors that she found on our website. She is the gt granddaughter of Albert George Sole (b 1859, Faversham, Kent) and Eliza Moon, who married in Faversham in 1885. It was from the past Soul Search articles on website that she learned that Albert’s father William Sole was killed in the massive explosion in the Faversham gunpowder factory in 1867.
One of the more unusual queries that I’ve received came from Freddy Pawle who is producing a short documentary about an Asian elephant named Jodee! Jodee was owned by the Sole Brothers Circus and died on 23 Aug 1968 as the result of a fall as she was being unloaded from a truck. Jodee was buried at the roadside near the scene of the accident but some years later her skeleton was removed to the museum of the University of Newcastle, Australia. Freddy also asked if we knew of a complete history of the Sole Brothers Circus that he could use to help with his project. I don’t think a history of it has yet been written but I put Freddy in touch with my colleague Linda Butler, who, being a member of the circus family, knows far more about its history than I do.
Although both findmypast and Ancestry have added to their collections over the last few months, most of the additions have been relatively small and not added much to our database. There were two exceptions, however, findmypast increased its coverage of Bedfordshire parish register transcriptions and Ancestry added the UK 1921 census to its census collection. Bedfordshire is one of the counties that had not previously been widely covered online, so the addition of the transcripts has allowed both new events to be added and already known ones checked. However, experience has shown that ’S’ is often misread by transcribers and perhaps the original registers may one day be filmed so that the original source can be checked.
Unlike findmypast, which charged either per view or an additional monthly payment, Ancestry has added the UK 1921 census as part of its standard subscription fee, making it possible to begin a wholesale extraction of Sole data.
Among the smaller additions to Ancestry’s database are some that include people who served in the forces in WW2. These include prisoner-of-war records, which will be described elsewhere in a future journal, Land Army records, alien internees and access to the ‘UK Corps of Military Police Index, 1800-2022’. I found only three entries for Sole in the Military Police Index, two of whom were from WW2.
Lance Corporal Edward George Sole, formerly of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, who transferred to the Military Police on 1 Feb 1941 and was discharged in August 1946:
Lance Corporal Ernest Arthur Soles, formerly of the Hampshire Regiment, who was discharged in February 1946; (These entries give access to the soldier’s attestation papers)
Sergeant D M T, who was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal in 2006. (No further information is given)
Ancestry also has some attestation papers for those that served in what it calls ‘Smaller Units Service Records’ – these included
Alfred Sole, b 4 Mar 1903, Royston, HRT, who served in the General service Corps:
William Arthur Soal, b 23 Jul 1903, Ryde, IoW, who served in the Pioneer Corps.