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Births, Marriages, Deaths

6. Great Western Railway Shareholders Index

What is the Great Western Railway shareholders index?

This is not an index of railway staff, but of shareholders in the railway. The Society of Genealogists produced its GWR Shareholders Index from ledgers created by the Great Western Railway and now in the Society’s possession. The Great Western Railway’s original ledgers were compiled by the company for transactions relating to all shareholdings which changed hands other than by simple sale.

The GWR called the ledgers Probate Books, which reflects the fact that the great majority of such share transfers (approximately 95%) were as a result of the death of a shareholder and their shares changing hands during the administration of the deceased’s estate. The proportion of the GWR’s total number of shareholders included in the Society of Genealogists’ GWR Shareholders Index is not known but is estimated to be between 50% and 75%; this is because the railway shares were regarded as gilt-edged stock to be held for the long term.

The index currently contains details for approximately 440,000 individuals, with a total number of 570,464 records and 153,569 events entered into the registers. A record is an entry for an individual in the database, including not just shareholders but executors, beneficiaries and others involved in the transfer of shareholdings. An event is a disposal of a shareholder under a will or an intestacy following death, or otherwise than by simple sale during the lifetime of the shareholder.

These records have been contributed by the Society of Genealogists (SOG).

Read more about Society of Genealogists

The Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway, also known affectionately as “God’s Wonderful Railway”, was built to link London to the West Country, South Wales and the South West of England. Bristol merchants were desperate for effective transport links to London, to prevent the emergence of Liverpool as the country’s second port.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the engineer on the project, personally surveying the route. He was also a shareholder, and appears in the Index following his death in 1859.

Read more about the Railway

A century of records including some pre-dating civil registration

The registers were started when the GWR was created in 1835 and the series continues through to 1932. Each volume contains between 450 and 600 individual entries, which may relate to an event occurring up to20 years earlier than the making of the entry.

In almost all entries, the name of the shareholder is given together with an address, the names of the other parties (executors or legatees for deaths; husbands for marriages) and dates of death, probate, marriage or other event.

After 1910, a number of entries relate to the change of trustees of Friendly Societies as a result of a death.

Events dating back to 1806

It appears that there were 4 to 6 volumes in use simultaneously after 1870, each covering a one to two year range of entries.

The date range covered in each volume starts about 10 years before the entries were made, but there are a number of earlier entries dating back up to twenty years in most volumes, with the earliest entry seen being a baptism in 1806, but this is an isolated exception. There are a few entries for the return of documents after 1932.

The Registers, which the Railway titled "Probate Books", appear to be a record of documents produced to the company in support of the change of ownership or name and frequently the disposition of the documents is recorded.

Search for Irish, Scottish and overseas ancestors, as well as English and Welsh

The majority of events are deaths in England and Wales, the split of events within the records is as follows:

Event

  • Death 94%
  • Marriage 1.4%
  • Power of Attorney 0.8%
  • Change of Name 0.8%
  • Lunatics 0.1%
  • Bankrupts 0.07%
  • Others 2.83%

Most events relate to individuals in England and Wales, but there are also a significant number of Scottish, Irish and overseas records. The figures are:

Location

  • England & Wales 93.6%
  • Scotland 4%
  • Ireland 1.4%
  • Overseas 1%

Nearly 571,000 records – find names, dates, places for key events

The Index lists names, dates, places and the event or role of the person listed. Some people appear on two or more occasions, for instance those solicitors who acted as professional executors to estates.

The number of events, records and individuals are:

Number of events Number of records Approximate number of individuals
153,569 570,464 440,000

Further detail on the indexes

The Registers, which the Railway titled “Probate Books”, appear to contain a record of documents produced to the company in support of the change of ownership or name and frequently the disposition of the documents is recorded.

Column Title in index Meaning (where this may not be obvious)
Surname

First Names Entered as shown in the Register, so William may be in full or
abbreviated to Willm, Wm.
Title Sir; Lord; Capt; Rt Hon; Rev; etc - Mr and Esquire are not shown.
Place As given some entries refer to a town or village, others give a
full address. If a street name is shown in the index, then the place
is probably in the Middlesex or Surrey area of London.
County The Chapman County Codes are used for counties in England,
Wales, Scotland and Ireland. LND refers to the City of London.
Date of Event Self-explanatory
Event / Role

Column entry

Death

Marriage

Change of
Name

Exec

Regr/Clergy?

Recipient

Declaration

Joint Holder

 Generally, these are self-explanatory, but for some an explanation
is given below to aid understanding of the index.

Comments Address given?
Death or Burial, with date. Most entries
Date, with addresses of bride before and after. Almost all entries.
By Deed Poll or by means of advertisement in the
London Gazette. Both names given and indexed		 Most entries
This may be an Executor, Administrator or
Legatee. In some cases a relationship to the
deceased is given. The date given is that of
probate or administration.		 Some entries
This is used where it is not clear from the original
book whether the individual was a civil registrar
or a clergyman.		 A few entries
This is the person to whom the documents were
sent by the Railway Company. In some cases an
individual has signed for the receipt of the
documents, and their signature appears in the
volume; however, some signatures are unclear
and have not been included in the index.		 Half the entries
These are the names of people who have made a
declaration that John Smith is the same person as
John Arthur Smith. The date given is the date on
which the declaration was made.		 Never

These are people who held shares in partnership. Most entries
Volume
Fol Some early volumes do not have printed folio numbers on the top
left and right corners, but numbers have been assigned.
Entry From Volume 1 to volume 24, a single set of numbers was used,
but thereafter each volume has its own series starting at 1. Where
numbers are duplicated, these are differentiated by a suffix e.g.
349.1, 349.2. Where the original has a suffix this is in the form of
a letter e.g. 350.a.
Col The Column number has been inserted as a guide to locating the
name quickly when searching the books.

Occupations are given for about 75% of the individual shareholders, but with a large number being “Gentleman”, “Widow” or “Spinster”; at an early stage in the work, it was decided to omit occupation from the index.

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