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Archiver > WARBRIDES > 2005-11 > 1132069636


From: "Debbie Beavis" <>
Subject: War Brides Website Updated
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 02:17:16 +1030


This is to let you all know that I have just completed a major update to the
website at www.warbrides.co.uk

The on-line database now contains names of every Canada-bound bride from
December 1945 to 1947, which is very exciting for me and has been a real
labour of love.

GI Brides are not left out! There are currently almost 15,000 American
brides in the database and several thousand more are being added each
fortnight.

Aussie brides, watch this space! There are almost 1000 Australia-bound
brides included in the database but - the list for the Stirling Castle
leaving Southampton on 19 May 1946 gives only an initial for the Christian
name. With the search criteria as they are currently, a search requires at
least two letters of the first name. This will be changed in due course, but
at the moment anyone wanting confirmation of an Australia bound sailing will
need to contact me.

Some hints for searching - if your name is Joan and you have not succeeded
in finding yourself listed in the database, please try a search under the
name Jean... likewise, if the Jeans out there don't find their listing,
please try under Joan. These lists are old and fading, they were transcribed
by a clerk in 1946 from a handwritten list, then they were typed up on an
old 1946 typewriter on 'fluffy' paper, and copied several times. I
photographed them, and have transcribed them again - lots of margin for
errors! And that applies especially to the letter e and the letter o.
Sometimes it has proven absolutely impossible to decide whether a name is
Jean or Joan. Likewise, middle initials - a capital E and capital K are
sometimes very hard to distinguish. Likewise, a capital N and a capital H
can be impossible to decipher.

You also need to be a little adventurous in your spelling - in most
instances, a next of kin overseas is shown and that is usually either the
husband or an in-law who might be expected to have the same name as the
bride.... I have found many examples where the name is almost certainly the
same, but one or other has been mis-typed.... one I found today showed the
bride as Shwartz and the mother in law in the US as Schwartz. Again, I have
just found a bride named Jaunita, with a baby daughter named Juanita. It is
not for me to change the record! I have therefore faithfully recorded what I
have seen... I saw Shwartz, and I saw Jaunita... I suspect both are wrongly
spelt but as an historian it is not my place to 'correct' what may be right
in the first place! Hope this helps your searches, but if you still have
problems, contact me!

Enjoy!

Debbie Beavis
Warbrides





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