While searching Ancestry a few months ago, I noticed that the array of Births, Marriages and Deaths from Berlin had been expanded. Births were now available up to 1906, Marriages up to 1936 (formerly 1920) and Deaths up to 1955 (formerly 1935 I think). Quite a bonanza! I had high hopes of tracking down the […]
New Release of Berlin BMD Records Read More »
I’d never heard of the tooth-to-tail ratio before. It’s the ratio of the number of combat soldiers (tooth) to the number of soldiers involved in a support capacity (tail). I guess I knew that every army needed support and logistics but, in my mind, when someone is a soldier, that means they are in a
Court Martial of Josef Jakobs – Stenographer – Sgt. Bertram Anthony Balment RAOC Read More »
Several months ago (April!) I received an email from a German researcher, Heinz-Jörgen K.-v.H. who has been tracing the lives of the Katz family. Those who follow this blog might recall that Lily (née Katz) Knips was a Jewish widow living in Berlin, who in 1938, was introduced to Josef Jakobs by friends. Josef tried
A few years ago, I posted a blog giving a bit of background about the officers who served as the Members of the Court at Josef’s court martial in early August 1941. I was able to track down fairly good info on all but one of the officers, drawing a blank on Major R.C. Alexander,
A few months back, I received some very kind feedback on The Spy in the Tower. I’ve been meaning to share the comments for a while and my weekly Mailbox blog post seems like a good place for that. Winston Ramsey, After the Battle Magazine Winston was the first person I reached out to back
I may have tracked down another one of Ziebell’s black market passport clients – Alfred Gutmann. The 1939 German Minority Census on Mapping the Lives has only one Alfred Gutmann living in Berlin at the time. While I am not 100% sure that it is him, I thought that I would dig a bit deeper,
Black Market Passports – Alfred Gutmann Read More »
I seem to be on a bit of a Stephens streak at the moment. While re-reading Chris Bilham’s Medal News article on Stephens, I noticed this bit: “Stephens was awarded the OBE which was apparently ungazetted but was probably awarded at the end of the war.” That same information appears in the DNW write-up for
The OBE of Robin W.G. Stephens Read More »
I thought I’d tuck an extra blog post (or two) into my monthly schedule. A Friday revisit of correspondence from the week (or month). And this doesn’t include my regular correspondents like Traugott V., Tony K. Nick H. Tony P. and Adrian B. I’m reporting here on new correspondents… mostly because I am always intrigued
When Robin W.G. Stephens applied to join the Security Service, he claimed to have been awarded the Star of Abyssinia medal for his service with the Red Cross during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in the mid-1930s. The funny thing is… there is no such medal in the United Kingdom. A mystery calling out for investigation.
The Medals of Robin W.G. Stephens Read More »
If you look for Robin W.G. Stephens on the internet, you will likely come across this photo. I think it originally comes from the Imperial War Museum. Stephens, for those who may not know, was the commandant of Camp 020, MI5’s secret Second World War interrogation centre at Latchmere House (Ham Common). Stephens was a
Another View of Robin W.G. Stephens Read More »