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Showing posts from December, 2012

Pretoria Pit Disaster 1910

Today marks the 102 nd anniversary of Britain’s third worst mining disaster, which took place on 21 st December 1910 in the parish of Westhoughton, around five miles from Bolton, Lancashire. Four days before Christmas, on Wednesday 21 st December 1910, 889 miners arrived for work at the No. 3 and 4 Bank Pit of the Hulton Colliery Company in Westhoughton. Known as the Pretoria Pit, the mine operated five seams. No 3 Pit worked the Plodder, Yard and Three Quarters Mines. No 4 Pit worked the Trencherbone, Three Quarters and Arley Mines, and was connected to the No 3 shaft at the level of the Yard Mine. At 7.50 a.m. a huge explosion swept through the Yard Mine, killing all but two of the men and boys who were working there. The shaft to No 4 and ventilation fans were damaged, causing access problems and danger of gas. There were only two survivors in the Yard Mine, Joe Staveley and William Davenport, who were found alive by the rescue team. In the wake of the blast, afterdamp,

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937)

New Scottish data from Angus and Dundee on Deceased Online With only two weeks to go until Christmas Day, we're feeling festive at Deceased Online. We're looking forward to turkey, crackers, putting up our Christmas trees and booking our pantomime tickets. Our favourite pantomime has to be Peter Pan, and we are very proud that the celebrated author of the original story, J. M. Barrie, is in our main records from Angus Council (click here for details). We have also just added a new range of Headstone Collections, that include 31 burial sites in the Angus region (click here to view) togeher with 6 cemeteries in Dundee City . J. M Barrie (copyright Wikimedia) The administrative area of Angus Council is located on the North East coast of Scotland bordered by the city of Dundee to the south, Perth and Kinross to the west and Aberdeenshire immediately to the north. In this Headstone Collection, there are 34,000 recorded names available to search. With the main Angus

WDYTYA? Live 2013

Deceased Online is coming to Who Do You Think You Are? Live! Like many of you, here at Deceased Online (DOL) we are getting ourselves ready for next year’s WDYTYA? Live event at London’s Olympia. From Friday 22 nd to Sunday 24 th February, we will be exhibiting on Stand Number 924 at the world’s biggest family history show. There will be numerous demonstration computers with our friendly team showing visitors how to get the best from DOL and other special features. Huw Edwards visiting the DOL stand at WDYTYA? Live 2013’s show looks to be the best yet, with an even bigger Military Pavilion and Photography Gallery, fantastic speakers and celebrities from the TV series, DNA advice, workshops, SOG Family History Show, Heirloom Detective, and Ask the Experts.  View of the DOL stand from the balcony at Olympia This will be our fourth year at the show and we’ll be revealing even more exciting new features and records on the Deceased Online database Visitors to