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Great Western Railway Shareholders Index now live on findmypast.com

Findmypast.com has been working in partnership with the Society of Genealogists (SOG) to publish online records held at the Society’s London headquarters. The Civil Service Evidence of Age records are already live on the site and now the Great Western Railway Shareholders Index has been added.

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.

Search the Great Western Railway Shareholders Index now

A century of records including some pre-dating civil registration

The GWR called the ledgers Probate Books, which reflects the fact that the great majority of such share transfers (approximately 90%) 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 around 75%; this is because the railway shares were regarded as gilt-edged stock to be held for the long term.

Please note that the GWR Shareholders Index is an ongoing project. This first release covers the ledgers for the period 1835 to 1910. The indexes to the registers for the period 1911 to 1932 will follow in due course.

The index currently contains details for 77,000 shareholders, with a total number of 292,000 names plus addresses (where given) entered into the registers.

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

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 90%
Marriage 4%
Power of Attorney 4%
Change of Name 0.5%
Lunatics 0.2%
Bankrupts 0.1%
Others 1.3%

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 95.2%
Scotland 3.5%
Ireland 0.7%
Overseas 0.6%

Search the Great Western Railway Shareholders Index now

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.

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