Another new month and another new update! The Help Sessions at Weston Library, Worle and Portishead are continuing - see the Events Calendar for details. You don't have to be a member to come to one of those sessions - everyone is welcome If you know someone who lives in Worle or within an easy distance of Portishead let them know what is happening in their area.
Two BBC Programmes
- I have been relishing the latest series of "Who do you think you are?" The edition concerning Sir Ian McKellen was particularly enjoyable and really highlighted the need to talk to your current family about the past before it is too late. Finding hitherto unknown ancestors who shared his interests, talents and concerns was particularly poignant. This programme is available on BBC iplayer for another 3 weeks.
- Another current BBC programme which you may find interesting is "Further Back in Time for Dinner". This time set in the early years of the 20th century it concentrates on the domestic and social arrangements of the era in particular the food. Depicting an aspiring middle class family they now have a "maid of all work" who is made to produce meals fit for their status in life. I am not sure whether a family who could afford to eat and entertain in this way would have had only one maid - surely they would have had least a maid and a cook. However, the effects of WW1 soon saw changes in their situation and the programme does raise the issues and concerns of this period.
Research Aids
GRO Index
If you haven’t used the new GRO Index of births to find the maiden name of the mother from the time that civil registration started you will find this so helpful. If you have a family where your direct ancestor was born before 1837, and therefore has no birth certificate, but has a younger sibling with the same mother born after 1837 you can see the mother’s maiden name of the sibling. It also enables you to find those children who were identified on the 1911 census as having already died. Now you can search for all the family with the known mother’s maiden name and find the missing ones. Be careful when checking for their deaths because on this index sometimes a death, for example, at 14 months is sometimes recorded as being 14 years! To find the index go to the General Register Office site and follow the directions as if you were going to Order a Certificate online and then click on "Order Certificates Online and search the GRO historic birth and death indexes" - You will then need to Log in or Register before you can search.
UK Research on Ancestry
Ancestry has a Blog directed at UK Research It contains many interesting contributions and although probably directed at people from outside the UK who are researching families from this country it is well worth looking at – you might find an archived article which answers your questions.
New Records on ScotlandsPeople
I have written before about the updated ScotlandsPeople site and I do recommend it but beware of its costing methods – plan your research carefully but the initial search is free. From the start of this year it has added birth records from 1916, marriage records from 1941 and death records from 1966. These records go up to 2016.
The British Newspaper Archive
This has introduced a trial of a search facility for pictures - see here for details. Using it I discovered an advertisement for one of Alfred Leete’s children’s books "The Dragon Book" in The Graphic of Saturday 12 December 1931.- describing it as an ideal Christmas Present for Young Folk. If you would like to see an illustration from this book there is (or was – the last time I was in there) one on the wall in the Dragon Inn in Meadow Street, Weston-super-Mare. Read more about Alfred Leete on our own web site .
Familysearch Reminder
Recently, in the library, we have been challenged by visitors who have been researching Venezuelan and Hawaiian relatives (not the same person!) In both cases the LDS site Familysearch came to the rescue. Do not overlook this free site in your research. Use the Research By Location pageand then click an area of the world to start researching in a specific location. This reduces the number of results and enhances your chances of success. A knowledge of Spanish was useful with the Venezuelan Records!
Links between Family and Local History
After our last monthly meeting when Bill Caple exhibited his vast collection of postcards with views of the locality several people commented to me about the value of understanding the background of the area in which our ancestors lived. The bald narrative about the name, date and event concerning a relative does not take into account what it was like to live in that area.
- What was the geography of the area?
- What sort of development has taken place over the last 100 years?
- How has that changed the area?
Looking back to the time of the 1881 Census and considering the area where your family lived – the following questions may add to your knowledge of the conditions in which your family lived
- Did your family live in a town or in the country
- Was the head of the household born in the same area?
- How many houses were there in 1881?
- How many people lived in shared accommodation?
- Who were the landowners? – did they employ many people?
- Was there a large estate with accommodation for its workers
- What sort of transport was common?
- Where was the nearest market?
- What were the occupations of the majority of the men who lived there?
- Did the women have occupations?
- What religion were your family?
- What schools were in the neighbourhood?
- How far away was the nearest Union Workhouse?
- Was there a Hospital nearby?
Weston Museum is looking forward to its re-opening later this year. Keep up to date with its progress on its Web Page . Go to its Blog for the latest news. The Friends of The Museum meet monthly in the Blakehay and on February 22nd at 1.30pm Derek Venn and I will be talking to the Friends about his project to record the memories of Westonians who experienced the blitz in Weston during WW2.
Our next Monthly meeting on February 24th is about "Breaking Down Brick Walls" - a couple of members have already emailed me with their problems but please feel free to add yours to those which we deal with that evening. In looking at these families it may be that suggestions which are made might be useful to others. My email address to use if you want to add attachments. If you are unable to attend the montly meetings why not post your "Brick Wall" on our Research Forum?
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