Dunkirk
We hope you enjoyed watching Dunkirk, the captivating first episode of Find My Past the TV show.
David Greene, Lu Lu Alexandra and Lara Lawson discovered that they all share a link to the mass evacuation of British soldiers from Dunkirk by sea during WWII. As the episode demonstrated, there are plenty of records on findmypast.co.uk which can help you to trace your seafaring ancestors.
Birth records
We found David Greene's grandfather's birth record on findmypast.co.uk. Alfred Gilder was one of the soldiers rescued from Dunkirk, and his birth was registered in Shoreditch, London. View Alfred's record here, and click on it for a larger version:
Lu Lu Alexandra's great-uncle Leslie V D Osborne was a fisherman on one of the 'little ships' which rescued soldiers from Dunkirk. Leslie was born in Rochford, Essex. See his birth record below – click on the image to enlarge it:
Merchant Navy Seamen records
Lara Lawson comes from a seafaring family and has many fisherman ancestors. We discovered Lara's great-great-uncle's brother, Edmund Dench, a fisherman on one of the 'little ships' involved in Dunkirk, in the Merchant Navy Seamen records on findmypast.co.uk. Here is his record – click the image for a larger version:
From this one record we can learn lots of useful details about Edmund, including his name, birth place and date, rating (sailor), height, eye and hair colour, his complexion was 'dark', he had health insurance with Prudential and he served in Orontes in 1930.
Search the Merchant Navy Seamen records now
Royal Naval Officers Medal Roll
As the episode mentioned, Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay was in charge of the evacuation of Dunkirk, or 'Operation Dynamo', working from Dover Castle's underground tunnels. The decisions he made would have affected the fate of Lara, Lu Lu and David's ancestors. We've unearthed Ramsay's Royal Naval Officers Medal Roll record on findmypast.co.uk which you can view below. Click on the image to enlarge it:
Ramsay's record tells us that he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. At this point he was Commander of the Benbow.
Search the Royal Naval Officers Medal Roll now
1911 census
The 1911 census includes records of Royal Navy personnel who were on ships at sea. We discovered Ramsay in the 1911 census on findmypast.co.uk. He is recorded on board the Bacchante and the ship's position at midnight on Sunday 2 April 1911 was recorded as Malta. At this point in his career, Ramsay was a flag lieutenant and the census reveals that he was born at Hampton Court Palace.
See Ramsay's 1911 census record and the address page of the census below – click on the images to enlarge them:
Other useful records
Other records that are worth searching for your seafaring ancestors are the WWII Prisoner of War records and our 1796-2006 death records.
Honour our heroes
Were any of your ancestors involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk? We're building an online collection of photos to honour our heroes, and we'd love you to add pictures of your ancestors. It's easy to upload your photos on our Facebook page – be a part of this tribute to those involved in key events in WWII.
Go behind the scenes in our blog
Read our exclusive 'behind the scenes' interview with David Greene, as he tells us about his experiences of taking part in the show.
Go behind the scenesThere's a lively discussion about the show taking place on our Facebook and Twitter pages – we'd love to hear what you think, so please do get involved! If you missed the first episode, it will be repeated on the Yesterday channel (Freeview channel 12, Sky 537, Virgin Media 203) on Friday 21 October at 1pm and Saturday 22 October at 6pm.