The Society of Genealogists (SoG)
What is the Great Western Railway shareholders index?
This is not an index of railway staff, but shareholders in the Great Western Railway. The index contains details for 77,000 shareholders, with a total number of 292,000 names plus addresses (where given) entered into the registers.
The Great Western Railway
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.
Read more about the Great Western Railway.
A century of records, including some pre-dating civil registration
The registers were started when the GWR was created in 1835 and the series continues through to 1932. Each volume contains between 450 and 600 individual entries, which may relate to an event occurring up to 20 years earlier than the making of the entry.
In almost all entries, the name of the shareholder is given together with an address, the names of the other parties (executors or legatees for deaths; husbands for marriages) and dates of death, probate, marriage or other event.
Search for Irish, Scottish and overseas ancestors, as well as English and Welsh
The majority of events are deaths in England and Wales, but the other events and home addresses are:
Marriages 2.0% Scottish 3.9%
Change of name 0.8% Irish 1.1%
Power of Attorney 1.0% Overseas 0.8%
In addition there are a very small number of other categories of events where the shareholders are specifically identified:
- Lunatics 14 in number
- Bankrupts 21 in number
- Divorce etc 14 in number
Nearly 300,000 names – find names, dates, places for key events.
The Index lists names, dates, places and the event or role of the person listed. Some people appear on two or more occasions, for instance those solicitors who acted as professional executors to estates. At the present time, the index covers some 77,000 events recorded by the railway up to 1910 with over 290,000 names.
