George Wright

[Fiona Power]

Hi, my name is Fiona, I live in Queensland Australia and am new to this site.

I have been researching my family tree for a few years now and have made some wonderful discoveries on both sides of my family. And have received help from many wonderful people along the way.

I now want to try and research my maternal grandfathers line, but this is where the problems start. My grandparents were not married and my grandfather had no contact with my mother. The only info I have on him is from her 1939 birth certificate as follows: Father - George Wright, occupation - Tramcar Motorman (Bandsman 1st Batton. Glasgow Highlanders)

My mother was born 5 October 1939 in Glasgow. Her mother was 32 when she was born so we are guessing that George was probably born 1900 - 1905 but don't know where. We think he may have been married with a family.

There were a lot of George Wrights around at that time so my problem is where to start to find the correct one, any ideas?

Cheers Fiona

[marquette]

Hi Fiona

Welcome to GF, from another Aussie.

I might not be much help, but there are plenty of members who have great experience in tracking down lost people from very little information.

I would start with maybe the obvious - was your grandmother born in Glasgow too ? Would it be likely that George Wright was born locally too ? I know the railway/Tramway employees, and folk generally, moved around a great deal more in the 20th century than earlier, but its a place to start.

Was he a bandsman during WW2 or before ? Are there records for the Glasgow Highlanders during WW2 ? From your mothers birthdate, the war had started, so can you look at WW2 records ? I know the English records are not as good as our Australian ones, but no idea about Scottish.

Di

[kiterunner]

Hi Fiona and welcome to the forum. Unfortunately there are not many WW2 records available online because of the fact that many people who served in the war are still alive so the records are not released to the public. And of course George Wright is a very common name. But hopefully people on here will have some ideas.

[kiterunner]

Was he a bandsman during WW2 or before ?
Going by the date of his daughter's birth, it looks to me as though bandsman was his wartime occupation and tramcar motorman his pre-war occupation.

[kiterunner]

Also did you try the suggestion on this Rootschat thread of trying to get his service record?
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=674342.0

[Uncle John]

Clutching at straws, but it's just possible that Glasgow Corporation Tramways employment records have been deposited in the Archives (Mitchell Library, I think).

[kiterunner]

Fiona, have you tried contacting local newspapers in Glasgow to ask whether their readers can help? There are some listed on this Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_in_Glasgow#Newspapers