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Bigden Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'bigden'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 9 records (displaying 1 to 9):

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British merchant seamen (1835-1836) At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act this large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. Each seaman was assigned a number, and the names were arranged in the register by first two letters of the surname (our sample scan shows one of the pages for 'Sm'); in addition, an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. But no effective method was devised to prevent the same man being registered twice as he appeared in a second crew list; moreover, the original crew lists were clearly difficult for the registry clerks to copy, and some of the surname spellings appear to be corrupted. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and this register was abandoned after less than two years: but it is an apparently comprehensive source for British merchant seamen in 1835 to 1836. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (master, captain, mate, 2nd mate, mariner, seaman, fisherman, cook, carpenter, boy &c.); and the name and home port of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all (for instance, Charleston and Stockholm appear in the sample scan). The final column 'How disposed of' is rarely used, and indicates those instances where a man died, was discharged, or deserted his ship during the voyage. BIGDEN. Cost: £8.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
British merchant seamen (1835-1840) At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the original register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen's (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. During 1840 this series of ledgers was abandoned, and a new set started with names grouped together by surname. BT 112/6 BIGDEN. Cost: £8.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Insolvents (1855) Insolvency notices for England and Wales: insolvency often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links BIGDEN. Cost: £6.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Insolvents (1855) Insolvency notices for England and Wales: insolvency often caused people to restart their lives elsewhere, so these are an important source for lost links BIGDEN. Cost: £6.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Outstanding soldiers of the King's Royal Rifles (1881-1901) Each year the best soldiers of the regiment were chosen for long service and good conduct medals. This register gives rank, name, regimental number, and date of recommendation. (The sample scan is from the East Surrey regiment). The register is essentially a register of recommendations, annotated with details of the issue of the medals. Where no gratuity accompanied the medal, the entry is marked 'W. G.' (without gratuity); where, for one reason or another, the medal was not issued, the entry is marked 'N. S.' (not sanctioned) and struck through. The rifle depot was at Gosport. The corps had four line battalions. The 1st battalion returned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2 January 1877, and was based at Limerick; it embarked for India 25 November 1890, and was stationed at Peshawar. The 2nd battalion returned from Bengal in 1882, and by 1885 was at Devonport; it embarked for Gibraltar 1 December 1891, and in 1895 was on Malta. The 3rd battalion embarked for Natal 19 February 1879, and in 1885 was on Cyprus; it returned from Gibraltar to England in December 1891, and in 1895 was at Shorncliffe. The 4th battalion embarked for India 2 November 1876, and in 1885 was at Ferozepore; it returned from India 4 December 1892, and in 1895 was at Dover. During the period of these records the corps fought in the Boer war (1881), the Egyptian war (1882) ("Egypt, 1882", "Tel-el-Kebir"), the Soudan campaign (1884: El Teb and Temai) ("Egypt, 1884"), the Hazara, Miranzai and Burmese expeditions (1890-1891), the Chitral relief force (1895) ("Chitral"), and the South African war (1899-1902: Talana, Rietfontein, Lombard's Kop, defence and relief of Ladysmith, Colenso, Spion Kop, Vaal Krantz, Pieter's Hill, Laing's Nek, Belfast and Lydenburg) ("South Africa, 1900-1902", "Defence of Ladysmith", "Relief of Ladysmith"). BIGDEN. Cost: £8.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Naval Officers (1920) The alphabetical list of officers on the Active List of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (RM) and of the Retired and Emergency Officers serving gives: number of ship or where otherwise serving; name (surname, first christian name and initials); rank; and the dates of their seniority. This is the list from the March 1920 edition of the Navy List, corrected to 18 February 1920. BIGDEN. Cost: £4.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Residents of Poole, Longfleet and Parkstone (1934) Kelly's Directory of Bournemooth, Poole, Parkstone, Etc. includes this list of private residents in Poole, Longfleet and Parkstone (inclusive of Branksome). An asterisk before a name indicates a Parkstone postal address; a dagger, Bournemouth. BIGDEN. Cost: £4.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Naval Officers (1939) The alphabetical list of officers on the Active List of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (RM) gives: where serving; name (surname and initials); rank; and the dates of their seniority. This is the list from the March 1939 edition of the Navy List, corrected to 18 February 1939. BIGDEN. Cost: £4.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Naval Officers (1957) The Navy List for 1957, corrected to 18 January 1957, includes this main catalogue of 'Officers on the Active List of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines and Retired and Emergency Officers Serving'. The first column gives surname and initials. The second column is rank, with a profusion of abbreviations, most of which are self-evident, often qualified by a specialisation, in brackets. The third column is for specialisations not demonstrated in rank. Fourth column is date of seniority (those given in italics are of ranks held previous to 1 January 1957 by Special Duties Officers); and fifth column, where serving. BIGDEN. Cost: £4.00.	Sample scan, click to enlarge

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