The famous actor Sir Christopher Lee, made his name often playing the villain in a career in film spanning more than 60 years. To some he was Count Dracula, appearing in the role in seven Hammer Horror movies and ultimately taking the part of Dracula nine times. To others he will be remembered for portraying the bad guy Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). In real life he was actually related to Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, the two being step-first cousins.
It is fascinating what can be found in the records known as RAF Operations Record Books (ORBs) and released online by TheGenealogist. They not only deal with the wartime functions of air force squadrons, but they also extend into the 1950s and 60s. Thus, for those of us with relatives who had served after the war, we can make use of the entries in these official daily journals to discover about our RAF ancestors and what happened on a daily basis in their unit or squadron.
Irish records can be problematic for family historians when they are found to be missing or destroyed. The 1831 Irish census is an example in case, almost completely destroyed in 1922. Researchers therefore have to turn to a set of records that can act as a substitute source. A useful stand-in for this missing census is the 1831 Tithe Defaulters database now online at TheGenealogist.
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