The Events of May 26th 2006.
On visiting Exeter in May, I was reminded of a chance remark made by my Grandmother that my Great-Grandfather, Thomas Pedlar, was buried ‘near Tavistock’. The Exeter Library had an excellent local history building. Going there, I was able to find him on microfilm in Plymouth in the 1881 Census, aged 37. (See Below).
I transferred to a computer, and found Thomas in the 1901 Census, aged 57, still in East Stonehouse, Plymouth. (See Below). From a family tree, I knew that Thomas died in 1908, so I went onto a Free Birth, Marriage and Death database, and quickly located Thomas’s death in the last quarter of 1908 at Launceston. (Also See Below).
I was given the address and phone number of the Registrar of BMD in Launceston, and was able to quote a debit card number over the phone, and I got his death certificate the next day. This showed that he had died on St. Thomas Road at Launceston on the 28th December 1908.The friend I was staying with had hired a car on the Friday. We drove to Launceston and St. Thomas’s church, drew a blank, but were directed to St. Mary’s, where there was a guide. The guide directed us to either the Museum or Town Hall. I saw the curator of the Museum, but he reckoned that Thomas was buried in a private graveyard. However, on going to the Town Hall, and giving the date of death, they quickly located his burial record.
Devon Lane near Topsham, Exeter.
