Family History Research is unending, sometimes surprising, often frustrating, but always rewarding in the insight it gives to our ancestors’ lives. With possible family gatherings over Christmas and the New Year perhaps we can look forward to linking with current members thereby adding to our knowledge. One avenue of discussion might be the 1939 Register – I expect many of your older relatives will be able to quote the reference allocated to them at that time and used on their identity cards and later as their National Health Numbers.
I've been looking at the 1939 Register and although I knew my identity number OANB 12 4 and where most my other relations were living in September 1939 it has filled in a few gaps with information about their full birth dates and occupations. I didn't know that at that time my father was a designated ARP Warden and was trained in First Aid.
I have my mother’s Identity Card .  Her number was OANB 12 3 and and I can see the same number against her entry on the Register – My record is officially closed - and I won’t be able to see my own entry until I’m 100 years old – or dead!
One family story was authenticated – my grandfather, Ashton HILL, OANB 12 1, always said his birthday was on the 14th November 1881 and that was the date he gave on the 1939 Register. When he applied for his Old Age Pension in 1946 he had to get a copy of his Birth Certficate and was horrified to find his birth date was given as 21st November 1881 - he was extremely annoyed because he had to wait an extra week for his pension. Births in England and Wales have to be registered within 42 days of the birth. His birth was actually registered on the 27th December which was 43 days after his actual birth on the 14th November – so to comply with the requirements the informant, his mother, simply added a week to his birth date!
November Meeting
Our November’s Society meeting was slightly different this year – we have now rearranged our Financial Year to end in July and so we have changed the date of our annual AGM to coincide with the Members’ Evening in November. This means that we are able to have the updated and audited financial statement presented to the members just before the start of our membership year which remains unchanged – starting on January 1st when your subscriptions are due. The November edition of Buckets and Spades which was available at the meeting contains a membership renewal form but if you have your Buckets and Spades digitally you can download a renewal form from the web page and send to Graham in the usual way.
- The Committee elections were passed unanimously and resulted in myself resuming the position of Chair, Brian Airey reverting to his role as Secretary and David Milner remaining as Treasurer.
- The other 3 re-elected committee members are Paul Tracey, Graham Payne and Bill Caple.
- We have a number of co-opted members who are Peter de Dulin, who has agreed to be Vice Chair, Maureen Harvey who is the cashier at our meetings, and Roy Smith who is to act as assistant Secretary. Sue Dury and Tony Horry make up the committee along with Jim & Margaret Nigh who manage to Exchange Journals. They all support the society in different ways and any one of them would welcome ideas from the membership about what it is you want from the society.
I would like to pay a special tribute to Brian Airey, who throughout this year has been the mainstay of the committee acting as Chair as well as Secretary and overseeing the Library. Brian always works indefatigably behind the scenes on our behalf. Thank you Brian (and Pam!).
The highlight of the November meeting – apart from the seasonal refreshments and the outstanding raffle and quizzes! – was the chance for some of the members to talk about items which had a special meaning in their family research .
- I was particularly taken by the chance finding by Peter de Dulin in the archives of the SS Great Britain in Bristol of a poem written to Isambard Kingdon Brunel by Peter’s great great grand father, Joseph Earl JAMES, about the building of the great ship SS Leviathan (later known as the Great Eastern). You can read the poem on the Great Britain Blog. On the reverse side of the poem is another poem about conditions in Islington Workhouse where Joseph Earl JAMES was a resident at the time of writing.
- There were several other interesting contributions including a booklet written by member Annette Morris about the background to a photograph which she had spoken about last year. For those who were not at the meeting it concerned a photograph of a young soldier killed in WW1 who had been engaged to marry Annette's grandmother. He had always intrigued Annette and as she writes in the booklet "Our family would not be here if Jesse had not lost his life when he did.". As a result of her research she produced this booklet copies of which she has given to members of her family. Touchingly her young granddaughter on recieving her copy said that she would keep it and hand it down to her children as an heirloom. Annette has given a copy to the Society’s Library.
- We can all learn from this – write up you findings, not necessarily in great tomes but perhaps in accessible booklets , each one covering a different aspect of your family’s history. During the Summer I produced a booklet about my own family’s connection with the village of Wraxall to give to members of that part of my family and I found that while putting it together questions were formulated about “Why?” “When?” and “How?” which led to further research and added to the information available.
- Another Booklet was given to the Library that evening - produced by members of Christ Church in Weston with research by our member Rod Crocker - The World War 1 Memorial at Christ Church - This is Part 1 and covers the first two years of the war - it gives a brief outline of each casualty for that period and some background to the progress of the war during those early years
Requests for Help
If you have a question – it doesn’t matter how small – about your family history research, why not ask our membership for help through the Research Forum? We can't guarantee an answer but it's worth a try - after all this is one way in which we may be able to help members who can’t get to meetings or to the Saturday Afternoon Sessions in Weston Library. Very often you can go on looking for an ancestor with no results but someone else may have an idea of an alternative way of researching the problem.
Some queries are still waiting for an answer - In the November Update I included this:
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I ’ve recently had a request for information about the military changes which were made to Weston during WW2 aside from the usual blackout precautions. Was the beach fenced off with barbed wire and were there other defensive precautions such as mines, anti-aircraft guns around the town? Where was the WVS Canteen? Was the promenade used as a parade ground for billeted forces? You can add comments to this Update or contact me through the website if you have any information.
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I also asked for help under the Research Forum for information about any relatives of Walter Henry EAGLES or his widow Again no response so far. Can anyone make suggestions about how to go about finding a connection to pass on the information about that delightful little cross.
New Resources
Graham Payne (with a little help from one or two members) continues to add to the transcriptions available for full members on this site. The aim is to cover the area the parishes covered by North Somerset and the Axbridge Registration District which of course included Weston-super-Mare, Burnham,Wedmore and Cheddar etc. The format used for our transcriptions allows you to search page by page as well as by individual names and so you get a much clearer view of the events as they happened - for example you can see other other baptisms to the same parents and locate others where the name has been corrupted when entered.
If you live locally or have ancestors who lived in Weston-super-Mare itself you may be interested in a new book which has recently been published by Howard and Rosie Smith.- Weston-super-Mare Revisited is a delightful book illustrated by evocative watercolours of the area and is a welcome addition to their other books on the Somerset coastline. Add it to you Christmas List - I have!
- Ancestry has recently published some Membership Records of the Freemasons . I knew that my g.g. grandfather Thomas LONG had been a Freemason from the insignia on his business card.
Over the years I had contacted various places to try to find out information about which Lodge he had attended in Bristol but with no success.
But this time there he was and I now know that he attended the Royal Clarence Lodge in Bridge Street, Bristol between 1856 and 1868. Not only that but his elder brother, Robert LONG was a member of the same Lodge between 1850 and 1866.
You can see more information about the basis of this resource on this site John Lane’s Masonic Records.
- If any of you have relations who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force - there is an excellent free resource where you can find more details. Many young men emigrated to Canada from this part of the world before the first world war (including the Jesse Vincent of Annette Morris's booklet) and then enlisted to fight for their homeland.
- FamilySearch has indexed some 160,000 records or the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) records from 1917 to 1920. These are service records of women who joined WAAC. Each file contains name, date and place of birth, residence, marital status, number of children, occupation, age and date of enlistment. These records can be searched by first name and last name. Access is free.
Society News
There has been considerable discussion recently amongst your committee about what we should be providing for our members.
- We are proposing a trip to The National Archives at Kew which we will open to members of the Weston U3A and the Clevedon Civic Society as before.
- Similarly it has been suggested that a visit behind the scenes in a County Record Office such as Taunton or Bristol would be popular
- If you haven’t already done so please can you let Brian Airey know if you would be interested in either visit.
A reminder that the North Somerset Archivist is in Weston Library on Dec 3rd.
We have no Society meeting in December and we will not be at the Library on Boxing Day nor January 2nd. But the weekly Help Sessions will begin again on Saturday January 9th 2016. Our monthly meeting in January will be on January 26th when we will be welcoming Peter Lamb with an account of his research which includes the momentous loss of the Titanic.
Wishing you all a very enjoyable Christmas however you spend it and looking forward to a peaceful New Year.
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