Ancestry Adds RNLI Records: my experience

The new UK and Ireland, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution Records, 1824-1989, with 58,227 records, is one I wasted no time checking out — and I mean that in a positive sense — https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/28/lose-no-time/.

A search returns Name, Record Type, Residence Date, Station, Occupation, and Description. There are links to the original record image from RNLI Records. Poole, Dorset, England.

Here’s the story of how I found the collection useful.

Until age 9, I grew up near the RNLI lifeboat station in Gorleston, Norfolk. Our neighbours were the Harris family. I knew Ellery Harris was a lifeboat crew member, although I recall nothing else about him. FreeBMD has only 70 Ellery birth records for that memorable name.

I found Ellery Harris in the RNLI database with entries in 1909 and 1922. It was a surprise the years were so early. I’d always thought he must be the same generation as my parents, but 1909 was before they were born!

A FreeBMD and Ancestry search showed only one Ellery Harris, born in 1871 and dying in 1930. Who was the Ellery next door? I’m now into the latest rabbit hole.

Ellery Harris married Priscilla Benns in the December quarter of 1895. In the census of 1901, there was a daughter, Ellen, age 4, and a son, Edward. In 1911, there was a son, Ellery, age 6. He didn’t appear in my FreeBMD search, as Ellery was his middle name. He was born Albert Ellery, it’s the right person as a GRO search shows the mother’s maiden name as Benns. He, too, appears in the RNLI records.

Using a middle name is always liable to lead to a rabbit hole. Thanks to the online records we now have, scrambling out of this one was relatively straightforward. Without them, I likely wouldn’t have bothered to explore this puzzle and forever have remained (mildly) ignorant!