Easter is over, the clocks have been put forward and this is the time of year that family history research sometimes has to take a back seat with other pressures on our time. The garden needs tending and will not wait - unlike family history which actually will wait until you have the energy, time and motivation to tackle it. That said, conversely, it is easier to make those visits you have been promising yourselves:
- to County Record Offices to check the original documents which have been transcribed and to pick up the extra information on them which hasn’t been transcribed.
- Have you seen the new Online Catalogue for the Somerset Heritage Archive of the South West Heritage Trust? – Useful if you are hoping to see a document when the North Somerset Archivist next visits the Library.
- to the area where your ancestor lived or worked to get the feel of the area and to witness the actual countryside – maps, although brilliant, rarely allow you to appreciate the effort it took with a horse and cart to climb that steep hill between two villages frequented by your family.
- There is a map on Familysearch which you can use to find parishes, poor law unions, civil registration districts etc. It has several layers and is useful for identifying neighbouring parishes or which parishes are included in a Civil Registration District. The parish boundaries are those in operation in 1851.
- to Military and other specialist Museums for an insight into the conditions and artefacts experienced by your family through the ages.
- This is a site intended for visitors to this country but for a day of Military History take a look at these ideas
- Locally, a visit to the Jet Age Museum in Gloucestershire might also be of interest
- Ideas for visits in the South West of England can be seen on the Old & Interesting Site and while the Weston Museum is closed for renovation why not try the Radstock Museum, King John’s Hunting Lodge at Axbridge, Blaise Castle in Bristol, the excellent Museum of Somerset in Taunton or the Brick & Tile Museum in Bridgwater to name a few with interesting and inspiring exhibits.
During our Members’ Evening in March, Peter de Dulin, talked about the 1939 Register but if you missed it there are some short films about it on youtube. This one was published by FindmyPast when they first released it in Nov 2015 and is a good background description.
Peter also mentioned the Newsetter published by LostCousins. The latest one published on March 26th has an interesting comparison between the methods of finding records on Ancestry and FindmyPast.
Milton Road Cemetery
We are very happy to announce that with thanks to Ian Edwards the Cemetery CD has recently been upgraded and will now work on all Windows PCs and contains information from the Burial Registers and the Memorial Inscriptions for all the 30,000+ burials in this cemetery since 1856. Obtainable directly from our Society or through Parish Chest
The Weston-super-Mare Cemetery was opened in 1856 in response to the increasing need for burial space in the rapidly expanding town. At the same time the burial grounds of St John’s Church and Emmanuel were closed to new burials and ChristChurch and other newer Churches like St Paul’s and St Peter’s never had a burial facility. Therefore, with the exception of the villages of Uphill and Worle, all people who died in this town were likely to have been buried in the Cemetery.
The Weston Gazette of Saturday 28th June reported
The Cemetery.—The first interment in that part of the new Cemetery intended for the use of the dissenters, took place Saturday last, the Rev. R. C. Pritchett officiating on the occasion.
From our CD I am able to confirm that on Saturday June 21st 1856 John LANGWORTHY was buried in Plot Tu 167. “Tu” stands for “Top Unconsecrated” , the area intended for Non-conformists as stated in the Newspaper. John was the son of George & Sarah LANGWORTHY.
His wasn’t the first burial in the Cemetery – that took place on 28th May 1856 when Robert DUNSCOMBE, nine-year old son of John & Elizabeth DUNSCOMBE was buried in Plot Tc 3809. “Tc” standing for “Top Consecrated” the area intended for members of the Church of England.
The cemetery was laid out with paths and trees to make it a beautiful place common with other Victorian Cemeteries. Just last month one of the original trees – the Monkey Puzzle Tree – had sadly to be cut down but it had lasted 160 years. It can be seen in this drawing of the time.
Additional Help Sessions
As was suggested last month plans are now going ahead to hold additional Help Sessions in Portishead Library, Worle Library and The Healthy Living Centre in Weston. They will operate monthly starting during the Local History Month which is held in May – provisional dates are :
- Portishead Library - on 2nd Wed afternoon of each month starting May 11th between 2.00pm and 4.00pm.
- Healthy Living Centre - on 3rd Tuesday mornings of each month from 11.30am - 1.00pm starting May 17th.
- Worle Library - on 4th Thursday afternoon of each month starting May 26th between 2.00pm and 4.00pm.
If you are able to offer your help please contact Maureen Harvey for more information. The Help Sessions in the main library each Saturday continue to be quite busy and rewarding to those who volunteer. We learn a lot from the questions we get asked and rejoice with those find the missing relative. It is often helpful to share a research problem with someone else so if you do have a query why not come in one Saturday afternoon to see if two (or more!) heads are better than one?
Society Matters
Please let us know if there is anything you think we should or could be doing to assist you in your research. We realise that many local members are not researching Somerset families and so how can we help those with other interests? Any articles about the successes you have met with while researching and tips you can give to others would be welcomed for Buckets and Spades.
At our next meeting on April 26th we are delighted to be welcoming back Dr Janet Few who will be talking about Til Death Us Do Part: a look at the history of medicine 1300-1948. One thing that all but our most recent ancestors have in common is that they are dead. This talk looks at killer diseases, cures and medical theories from the Black Death to the NHS. It also suggests records that may be used to provide information about how an ancestor died. For those of you who have enjoyed Janet’s previous talks and for those who have yet to hear her you may find her web site The History Interpreter interesting. Do look at her monthly “latest news” on her site as well.
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