Can you help me find the house where my parents lived in England?
 

My brother and I are planning a trip to England to try and find where my parents used to live in the 1940's. My father was in the US Air Force. He and my mother lived in a home called Sunglint. Apparently they went by house names instead of addresses. Anyway, Sunglint was in Great Kingshill near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. I have no idea how to go about trying to find if Sunglint still exists or where it is located. I Googled it, but no luck. It would be wonderful if my brother and I could find this home and take photos for our mom, who is now 90 years old. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks so very much!

Check with the local post office. Most likely they would have delivered mail to that house or address.

Many MANY houses are named - and the names usually don't change. So once you get to Great Kingshill, you will probably will be able find the house unless it has been knocked down. And even if it is gone, long time residents will know of it.

Great Kingshill is a fairly small village so just drive in and stop by the local shop (if there is one) or the pub http://www.redlion-greatkingshill.co.uk/index.htm and ask.

AFAIK there is no post office in Gt. Kingshill. The village has a website but the 'contact us' link doesn't seem to be functioning

Great Kingshill Residents Association(UK) is on facebook. Perhaps someone there can assist you in your search. Good luck.

Also, as per one website, a Mr. Norman (Nobby) Timpson is something of a local historian on Great Kingshill. Perhaps he can be of help--if he can be located via web or once you get to the area itself.

There's no Sunglint in Great Kingshill, according to the national address register. This might mean either the name's been changed or turned into a number (both regularly happen) or the house has been demolished. Or it might mean it's close by, but not given a Great Kingshill postal address. You might try browsing at www.postoffice.co.uk/postcode-finder

There is a post office just outside the centre in the Nisa shop at Cryers Hill. But village post offices rarely know much about local houses. Only a very few - and then in the absolutely remotest parts of Britain - have any connection with delivering mail, and there's little reason for them to know about house names in any of the business they transact. In your case, the delivery office is most likely to be High Wycombe, and the reception desk will be manned by someone who's very unlikely to know much about houses that once existed, or now have a different name.

If the local history guru can't help, it's unlikely a visit to the local pub or newsagent will either. Your best bet is to go physically to the Buckinghamshire County Record office in Aylesbury beforehand (http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/sites/bcc/...e_Studies.page). They have back copies of street directories, though the house you're looking for might be too far out of High Wycombe to have got into one. They offer no better access to census data (inaccessible after the 1911 census) than you can get online, so it's worth browsing the 1911 census as the house might have been built by then. However, the word Metroland was invented to describe the 1920-1935 explosion in house building around this part of Bucks: statistically, the house is likeliest to have been built after 1911.

Your question is probably one the Bucks record people won't research for you ahead of time, but will be delighted to point you in the right direction about once you're in their office, and may have other pointers if you email them.

PS:

It's also well worth while to interrogate your mother as intensively as possible. She'll almost certainly remember the place in far better detail than she remembers what she did last week. Little things such as how long it took to get to the shops, how big it was, the name of the house next door or which direction the garden faced will be invaluable when you're talking or emailing to local enthusiasts or archivists.

Also ask if there's any possibility the house had another name. In Maidenhead, we lived in one of a string of cottages that had one name according to the post office and another name according to everybody in the neighbourhood (and the name that was painted on the center cottage). Some of the junk mail we received used the post office name; some used the other. There were also a string of cottages that had very similar names - given that our posties changed regularly and tended to come from outside the area, misdeliveries were common. Part of the local social fabric was meeting up with the neighbours to hand over their mail and to get ours.

Really good advice, all of it, from flanneruk.

Does she have letters or photos from the period?

Have you looked up your father's military records? Googled the base where he was stationed?

If all else fails, there are people who will research this for you for money (my daughter's inlaws do exactly this kind of thing, but only in Scotland).

Another thought. At that time certainly, perhaps still today, foreign residents had to register annually with the local police and, I believe, get an identification card. Who would have these records for Bucks?

Ditto driving license and number plates, if they had a car. Who has the auto registration records? You should be able to work from your father's name or from the number plate if you know it (background in a photo maybe?) Another place that should have these in the archives would be the RAC or AA, the organizations through which drivers purchased insurance and road service. Our number plate, I remember was JUD 973 from 1954-57. Who will be the first to identify our family and the two places we lived in Witney?

Hello Krinklebee, my father was stationed at High Wycombe at one point. He was with the US Eighth Air Force and spent most of his time flying out of Molesworth which is near Cambridge. I believe his time at High Wycombe was doing data assessment so it may have been just a complex of offices. He hated that time, says it was boring as all getout. Good luck with your search.

re Ackislander'spost: US forces didn't need drivers licenses nor have to register for an ID. But if they had a personal car they would need number plates.

www.genforum.genealogy.com/uk While your question isn't quite geanalogy, the site is free. Where names are usually listed, just type in the name of the town and then ask your question. You may be suprised at how many people are out there trying to help. While free, you will need an ID and password. Richard

Thank you so much to all who have sent replies so far! I never dreamed I'd get so many replies! I will try and get more info from my mom and will definitely follow through with the suggestions. You are all wonderful ambassadors for England -- so friendly and helpful! Thank you again!

Krinklebee - Does your mother remember the name of the landlord? Or did your parents own the house?

You could check census records for the time before and after they know the house was standing.

Happy hunting - it took my a few years to track down my Mothers half brother (even though his Father received the Victoria Cross in WW11), it was an obscure link that completed the find. DO not give up!

"You could check census records for the time before and after they know the house was standing."

You couldn't.

Census records are not published till 100 years after each census. That's why I said they're available only up to 1911. We're told the poster's parents lived there at some time between 1942 and 1945.

There may be other sources in the Bucks Record Office with this information - but the censuses of 1931 and 1951 (there wasn't one in 1941) aren't among them.

janisj, my mother as the dependent of a US military member registered with the police within a week of arriving in the UK in 1954, and I believe she renewed annually thereafter. She also had a UK driver's license which allowed her to drive not only our car but a steam lorry, to our great amusement. I assume from your statement that my father, as a serving officer, did not have to go through those steps.

"flanneruk on Jan 26, 12 at 2:26am
"You could check census records for the time before and after they know the house was standing."

You couldn't.

Census records are not published till 100 years after each census. That's why I said they're available only up to 1911. We're told the poster's parents lived there at some time between 1942 and 1945."

Take a breath! I was trying to help.
I suppose I should know that having been born and bred in the UK but my research here in the US is unhindered by the 100 year rule and I've manged to do a lot of research into our 1875 home purely through census records.

And whose to say the house wasn't built and occupied before 1911?

I still say that it's the obscure link that could be the vital link.

This forum might be of use, being specific to Buckinghamshire:

http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk/index.php...ard&Itemid=198

That name is quite unusual and reminds me of the sort of names given to the very distinctive 1930's art deco houses (or white houses as they are sometimes called) - 'Sunspan', 'High and Over' and so on. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out it is from that era and of that very recognisable arhictectural style, in which case it might be easier to track down.