One hundred years ago the country was horrified to learn of the deaths of so many of its young citizens at Passchendaele. On 31st July 1917, the opening day of this battle, 6528 deaths are recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site including these from Weston-super-Mare
- Lt Neville Ernest BAKER, the son of Ernest BAKER, the Solicitor and local historian, who had also lost his eldest son, Aubrey Halliwell BAKER, the previous year.
- Private Frederick Theodore PFAFF from the family of German origin who later had a well-known shop in Meadow Street.
- Private Stanley TAYLOR, who lived in Palmer Street
A neighbour of mine, used to recount his experiences of that first day. I wish I had paid more attention. A Corporal in the Royal Field Artillery, he told us that his horse was shot from beneath him and he was thrown down into the awful mud but what a struggle it was to survive. The courage and suffering of those men and the enormous loss of life during WW1 is really hard to grasp and the effect it had on the lives of our families is equally difficult to imagine. Focussing on Passchendaele, a project has been set up to discover graves in the UK that belong to British soldiers who were wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele, Belgium, but who died of their wounds in the UK. Passchendaele at Home outlines the project and perhaps someone might be interested in co-ordinating some research on behalf of the Society. Please contact me if you would be interested in looking into this.
Membership of the Society
Three of the main benefits of being a full member of this society became apparent during July.
- The first was the Members’ Meeting. The Speaker Dr Geoff Swinfield led us gently and with humour through the intricacies of DNA for Family History Research as only someone with a complete grasp of the subject would be able to do. He stressed that DNA should only be regarded as another valuable tool at our disposal and must be supported by traditional paper-based research, but can verify or sometimes disprove family links. For further information Dr Swinfield recommended the web site of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy and its Wiki site.
- The second was the availability of first of the transcriptions from the Burial Books of Weston Cemetery at Milton Road. This is a marvellous addition to our transcriptions as so many of the early burials did not have memorials - or they have not survived – but many of the entries in the Burial Book give relationships, addresses and/or occupations. They can be found with the transcriptions for the Church Records for Weston-super-Mare
- The third isn’t new but there are more Memorial Inscriptions with photographs of the actual graves included under the Church Records Transcriptions. For example, the latest one to became available can be found under Bleadon (and includes one of my PUDDY family!) If you search for “MIs” in the search box at the top of the home page you can see a list of the parishes which have them.
There is a 4th benefit – last month, FindmyPast announced that they would have more transcriptions of Somerset Parish Records – yes they cover a larger area than we do (and have other records) but the cost for our full membership is really quite reasonable! We do also welcome Affilliated members who do not get the same opportunities but can ask and answer queries on our Research Forum.
New Resources
St Michael's Free Home for Consumptives, near Axbridge
I had a query recently about someone who had died at St Michael’s Home at Axbridge in the late 19th Century. We discovered that the home which was founded in 1878 by Mrs Matilda Blanche GIBBS of Tyntesfield in Wraxall after the death of three of her children from tuberculosis. You can read more about the building as it has now been listed as a place of special interest. The home was run by the Associate Community of St. Peter, an Anglican-Catholic Sisterhood from Woking, London, who had looked after the Gibbs’ youngest daughter before her death in 1874. There was a cemetery within its grounds for their patients but I was unable to find any record at the home or at the Somerset Archives about who had been buried there.
Last week, looking for something else, I was looking through our transcriptions of the Burials for Cheddar, I noticed that there were 83 whose abode was listed as St Michael’s Home and that those burials had all been taken by the same minister, Thomas H F HICKES, who is listed on censuses as the Chaplain to St Michael’s Home. I suspect that although the Home did have its own Chapel that it was linked to the Parish Church in Cheddar and that the burials were in the Cemetery at St Michael’s. One of the burials turned out to be the nineteen-year-old brother of my grandmother from Gloucester who I knew had died at the home but had not located his burial!
Welsh Tithe Maps
The National Library of Wales has digitalised their Tithe Maps and they are now available free of charge on their web site. You will need to use their Help Page to get the most from this but for anyone with Welsh ancestors it will be very useful and helpful in locating them. The site includes a satellite view of the area, a modern map, a map of the turn of the 19th & 20th centuries as well as the tithe map.
FreeCEN
We are all very familiar with FreeBMD for civil registration and FreeREG for parish registers but perhaps FreeCEN is not so widely used. The number of census records available has increased recently and I note that North Somerset places are well covered.
For Somerset they now have:
- 100% of the 1841 census
- 67% of the 1851 Census –BUT - All of the Axbridge Registration District and the Somerset part of the Bedminster District
- 100% of the 1861 Census
- 56% of the 1871 Census – BUT - All of the Axbridge Registration District (Weston is listed under Banwell as a sub division of Axbridge) All of the Long Ashton, Yatton and St George’s divisions of Bedminster
- 0% of the 1881 Census (this one is available free of charge on Familysearch)
- 37% of the 1891 Census – very little from this area
If you do not have a subscription to one of the commercial sites it is very worthwhile investigating FreeCEN. Give it a try! Coverage for Somerset can be seen here
Free Help Sessions at Libraries
Worle
Please note that although we had previously promised to be at the new location of the Worle Library in August the Library want to restart the sessions on the 4th Friday of September from 2.00 until 4.00 pm with more advertising. This means that there will not be a session at the start of the Bank Holiday Weekend in August.
Weston
The meetings in Weston Library will continue each Saturday afternoon but with the exception of August Bank Holiday Saturday which will see the Re-opening of the Weston Museum.
Portishead
Help Session on the 2nd Wednesday of August as usual.
Next Meeting – Tuesday September 26th
No Members’ meeting in August - we next meet together in September – the topic is listed as:
Follow-up to DNA Testing and How Do You Record Your Research?
Members share experiences with DNA and How members research - Demonstrations of using Commercial Genealogical Programs and other ways of recording your findings including paper based methods. Please bring examples of how you manage your research.
This is a chance for anyone with experience of DNA testing in their research to tell us about their experiences – good and bad. We will also be covering the methods of recording our traditional research findings and the use of commercial programmes. Please bring examples of what you use. Can you let me know if you have any questions you would like answered so that we can make sure that they are covered? Our thanks to Peter & Jenny Towey who have offered to host a small group at their home for people who have an interest in DNA testing - Please contact either them or me if you are interested in being a member of this group.
Wishing you all a great holiday season and perhaps the chance to find something about your family which is new!
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