News & Information

Over the last 5 years a project was undertaken to photograph and transcribe all the memorials at St Peter's Church Portishead.

This project has now been completed and the transcripts have now been published on the Portishead Parish Website.

We have also inserted a link under Places/Churches/Portishead St Peter's Church

The latest Lostcousins Newsletter, which is always an excellent and helpful read, mentions our society this month under the heading "Brick Wall Busting" . Don't overlook the opening item either which offers free use of its site until April 23rd.

Each month I try to publish a newsletter on the 1^st of the month.  April 1^st has its own problems with its links to All Fools Day.  I can assure you that whatever I write in this newsletter will be as truthful as I can make it.  What memories do you have of April Fool Jokes?  Were you taken in by any?  Did you create any yourself?  Read more about April Fools Day 

Mothering Sunday

During March we celebrated Mothering Sunday, another old custom, which may have inspired you to look again at your female ancestors.  With different resources becoming available it is often surprising how new information can shed light on our families. I decided to look again at my gg grandparents who lived in Wraxall, within our area.  Charles and Lavinia STOKES née SPERRING were married at All Saints, Wraxall, on the 24^th of May 1846.  They had 15 children, so Mothering Sunday may have been very busy for Lavinia and the possibility of DNA matches should be relatively high if I can identify each one. A little while ago I posted a document "My Wraxall Connections" on the Web site under the Place, Wraxall which outlined this family.   Why not include some information about your research under the place where your ancestors lived on our web site?

DNA

Talking about DNA – I hope that some of you managed to catch some of the excellent talks (including the one on DNA by Blaine Bettinger) which were available under the project “History for Ukraine” which raised over £52,000 during last week. Today, 30^th March, there have been further talks about Railway History and WW1 Battle of Somme and many other topics.  They are still available on youtube for 48 hours. 

Welsh and Irish Research

With both the Patron Saints of Wales and Ireland being commemorated during March, I decided to see where my own research featured in these countries.  I knew that Charles PUDDY, born in Mark, and a Great Uncle of my husband, became a Police Sergeant in Cardiff.  The free Welsh Newspapers  enabled me to identify some of the cases in which he was involved and learn about an Award with which he was presented for saving someone's life.

When considering Irish Ancestry this site is a useful one and so to a certain extent is "Dusty Docs" which, of course can also be used for other places in the British Isles.

Research Forum & Facebook

There have been no new entries in our Research Forum in the last month and the Facebook Group has also been very slow.  However, a request which was received through our secretary, Brian Airey, for a photograph of the Town Surveyor Harold BROWN was successfully answered on the Facebook Group by John Crockford-Hawley who found one in the Souvenir Programme for the initiation of the Borough of Weston-super-Mare in 1937.  Are any of you related to members of the Administrative Staff of the Borough at that time? I have included named photo of all of them employed by the Borough in 1937, taken outside of Drove Road Hospital which hopefully may be useful.

Schools

I have often mentioned an interest in the schools of Weston and district and there has been a request on the Facebook Group for info and photos for Winterstoke Girls' Secondary Modern School, which was not answered.  Can anyone help?  Initially it was known as Locking Road Girls' School but by 1952 took the name of Winterstoke.

Questionnaire about Workshops

Members should have received a questionnaire to assist in the planning of Workshops for the Society.  Please make sure that you reply as these are designed to make sure that these events meet the needs of the majority.

Next Meeting

Our next Society meeting on Wednesday 13th April - full details on our web site  The Speaker will be David SKIDMORE a member of the famous Worle Family which celebrated 100 years of trading in 1919.

Your Comments

Please take this opportunity to add any helpful comments which you may have about the society and whether it meets your needs. There are some very helpful members who are willing to answer any queries you may have about your research. Thanks go to Sue Maguire for another excellent Buckets and Spades, to Graham Payne who continues to provide transcriptions of records and Memorials, and to all those who have struggled with the challenge of new IT coupled with the rules and regulations of providing meetings during these difficult times.  

There is a new Know Your Place photographic exhibition at Weston Museum, Burlington Street, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1PR.  It’s titled ‘Weston & Area Then & Now’ and features some wonderful images selected by museum volunteers.  It’s a real trip down memory lane (and beyond!) with images of old pubs, shops, the town centre, the seafront, Worle and Uphill.

It is situated upstairs in the function room and there is lift access to the 1^st floor.  It will be open until Saturday 2^nd April (last day) but please note that the museum is closed on Saturday 26^th March.  Otherwise they are open Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 4pm.

Further information at https://westonmuseum.org/ and http://www.kypwest.org.uk/

During February there have been some interesting developments in local family history research.  I received a communication that some genealogical papers – possibly from a house clearance - had been purchased as part of a lot which included local postcards and other local memorabilia.

What to do with your Research Notes

On investigation they were identified as being the work of a Weston man who had been actively researching in the 1980s and 90s.  He had no children and had moved away from Weston after the death of his wife.  The bundle included original birth, marriage and death certificates, some copies of certificates, a few photographs and several family trees compiled in the familiar hand of Brian Austin, who at that time had been running consultation sessions in Weston Museum and Library and remembers helping this man.

This set me thinking about what happens to all our work if we do not make sure that it is passed on to an interested party. Perhaps some of you can advise on what should be done with this type of research.  It also highlighted the contribution that Brian’s family trees, which can be seen in the Weston Library, can make to our research. 

The other aspect of these papers was the number of families in Weston which had connections with this man through marriage with his relations.  One even married into the CRANDON family and was related to one who married a HASE!

Since the original research was done more documents have become available online and it might be easier to discover the roots of the family today.  This one family had a link back to the MUGGLEWORTH family, (of Weston Worthy Fame), 3 illegitimate children born in Axbridge Workhouse, someone who changed his name by Deed Poll,  From London Gazette.

and two different women who married German musicians who entertained in Weston, one of whom had difficulties when WW1 started and she was classed as an alien. There are many other connections to the local history of the area.

British & Black History

At the beginning of February, FindmyPast published a Blog about British and Black History  to augment knowledge about Slavery and I have previously written about some residents of Weston and district who had been the owners of Slaves.

A teacher enquired on our Facebook Group about the effect that the arrival of the Windrush had on Weston and Worle, so that he could use local memories in his teaching.  Nobody responded which I think probably was indicative of the lack of recognition of the effects which those immigrants had on the Weston area.   Pre WW2, Weston did have several people born abroad – Many were the wives or children of men serving in the Army in India or Africa.  In 1911 only three people in Weston were born in the West Indies, similarly there were only three residents born in the West Indies in 1921.  These appear to be quite well off and living on their own means.  How would you ensure that children today were familiar with the effects of migration from the Caribbean on this part of the world?

RAF Records

The Genealogist has published some new RAF Records   Over 4.2 million transcripts for RAF Operations Record Books (ORBs), have been released – they are fully searchable by Name, Rank, Aircraft, Squadron, and Date plus many other fields, making it simpler to find your air force ancestors. There is a short video to show how this works 

Portraits & Photographs

Ancestry has connected with the National Portrait Gallery to offer a collection of photographs and paintings    It is worth looking – just in case you have someone in your family whose portrait is included.  My Grandfather always maintained that Edwin LONG RA was a member of our family and there are three portraits of him included.  Can anyone see a likeness to my gg grandfather who is reputed to be a cousin of Edwin?

Thomas LONG                   Edwin LONG RA  

RootsTech 2022

Here's what you will find at RootsTech 2022.  March 3rd - 5th   
Register today!  https://familysearch.me/RootsTech22gb

Next Society Meeting

On Wednesday the 9^th March at 2.30 p.m. at Our Lady Of Lourdes Church Hall, Baytree Road, there will be a meeting of the Society when the Speaker will be Alan Bateman. He will be talking about how to research the villages in which your ancestor lived.  Some Covid restrictions will still be in action.  Please bring a mask and conform to requirements.

It is with regret that I have to inform you that - due to technical difficulties - we were unable to live stream or record yesterday's talk on DNA for Family History.

We desperately need a couple of people to help us out with the technical side of streaming and recording talks - offers of help are very welcome.

Jenny Towey