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Manchester Ship Canal - Family History

Tracey uses the internet to research various aspects of the war and local history. She scans and downloads documents from the local records office.

Tracey Fisher was given an incomplete family tree on an A4 piece of paper as a gift. It sparked her curiosity about her own family history, and subsequently the history of her entire village.
Her great-grandfather, Harry Jackson was from Eastham and fought and died in the First World War. Researching his story led her to research the background of other men from the village who fought in both the First and Second World War.
That research invariably starts in the local church, where she visits the graveyard and the commemorative display for clues about 'The Eastham Boys'. Using their registration number and any other details she can find, she heads online to uncover out more details. Her ultimate aim is to put a living person to the name, and where possibly trace a photograph of the soldier himself.
Using the church as a starting point, she goes on to use the power of the internet including family history research websites to trace soldiers.
She has to date managed to trace all but one of the soldiers from the village who had fought in the wars. She has also traced many of their photographs and dug up details of much of their previous life story. Three of the soldiers had actually worked on the Ship Canal and were around at the time it was being built.
Her personal project has grown to such an extent that with others, she has staged local events exhibiting what she has discovered. It has also brought her closer to many of the local residents in the village.

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5 minutes

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