News & Information

Although Pat has stepped down as Chair she has not left the Committee. How could she? She is the embodiment of the Society. She has found the speakers for the year and will continue to undertake research on behalf of members. Thank you Pat for all your hard work over many years and we look forward to many more!

It was announced at the AGM that the Society had won the Federation of Family History Societies' (FFHS) Geoff Riggs Award for the best website.  This is due in no small way to our Paul Tracey who has worked tirelessly with Kevan, our professional web designer, to produce what we have today.  Well done and thank you.

My thanks to the remainder of the Committee for their work throughout the year.  We now welcome as co-opted members  Maureen Harvey, Tony Horry,and  Bill Caple.  I'm sure they will bring new ideas.

If anyone has suggestions for a project to commemorate 100 years from the start of WW1 I would like to hear from you.  Many county organisations are organising something, but I wondered if we could focus our minds on something local.

Brian

We start a new month with a new Chairman and we welcome Brian Airey into that post.  He has served the society extremely well for many years as Secretary and now, for the second time, he takes the Chair and we wish him a happy and successful term of Office.  We also welcome Dave Milner back for a second spell as Treasurer.  At the moment the post of Secretary remains vacant.

The Society was thrilled to learn that our web site had achieved 1^st place in the Medium sized Societies category of the annual Geoff Riggs Award for Family History Web sites.  We have been concentrating on developing the web site over the past two years – to make it more accessible and of use to our members - but we are still open to suggestions for other changes.

Well, we’ve put our clocks on so it is now officially British Summer Time - surely the weather in this country must soon catch up and behave as it should for this time of the year!  Perhaps you have taken the opportunity of the Easter Weekend to catch up with relations and quiz them about the past or are you just enjoying yourself eating chocolate? In writing up our family history it is interesting to look at traditions which have been handed down and how they have changed over the years.  As you read this – it is probably April 1^st but we can assure you that there is not a practical joke in sight!

During April the Weston Cemetery will re-start its monthly opening on the 2^nd Saturday afternoon of each month on the 13^th April.  The Chapel will be open from 2.00pm and members of the Friends of the Museum and of this society will be on hand to identify where individuals are buried. – For more details about the Cemetery see this site    On the following day – Saturday 14^th April our Society will be represented at the Family History Day held by the Wiltshire FHS – For more details about this day click on  this site  where you will can out who else will be there.

Weston Museum is holding two meetings at 12 noon on April 17^th and at 7.30pm on April 18^th at the Museum to explain the situation regarding Lottery Funding and to get your opinion on what you want from your local museum.  As numbers are limited, if you would like to attend please let the museum know email .  There is currently a fascinating exhibition at the Museum depicting “The Singing Landscape” and is a photographic celebration of Cecil Sharp.  Many of us may have ancestors who sang and some may feature in this exhibition. For more details about the background to this event visit this site .  Please note that Exhibitions are free at the Museum.

We are looking forward to our April meeting on Tuesday the 30^th April when we will be welcoming Dr Janet Few again who will be telling us about her experiences taking part in “Who do you think you are?”  - Janet is a popular, entertaining and informative speaker who has visited us several times.

The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) annually present awards relating to the best Society Website and Journal.

In 2012 the Society decided to enter our Website into the Geoff Riggs Award (formerly the Best Website Award).

The award is given to the society which, in the opinion of the judges, presents the best website according to a variety of criteria. Details of this criteria can be found at the FFHS website. The awards are split into three sections according to the total membership of the society. We fall into the Medium Societies section.

We are very pleased and proud to advise that our Society has been awarded the Winner of the Medium Societies section. The certificate to this effect is shown below.

I have added a document which describes the Masters and Matrons who controlled the establishment throughout its existance from 1836-1930.  It includes a photograph which names all the staff who were in post when the Axbridge Workhouse closed (as a Workhouse) in 1930. As this photograph also names the Guardians of the Poor who represented each of the Parishes making up the Axbridge Union at that time it may interest those of you who have no connection with the Workhouse through its inmates but do have members of their families who were in positions of authority administering the Poor Law.

As a result of the last visit of the North Somerset Archivist who brought the original register of births in Axbridge Workhouse to the Library, I have been able to check, correct and add a number of additional records to this transcription, including still births.  Where no name was entered in the register at birth - I have obtained some from the GRO index or Baptismal Records and entered them in squared brackets e.g. [Mary]. 

The notes contain information from a number of sources and as with all transcriptions they need checking before accepting into your family trees. The Workhouse authorities, at one stage, decided to mention how many illegitimate children individual women had given birth to and I am not sure that all these statements are accurate!  It's worth checking to see if a surname in which you are interested is included in this transcription as most of the 38 parishes which make up the Axbridge Poor Law Union are mentioned.

The transcriptions can be found under Research Aids & Transcripts - and then under Various Institutions.

February may be our shortest month but it certainly finished on a high.  Following a successful visit to the National Archives we had an excellent talk from Clive Burlton on "Trenches to Trams" the story of his wife's grandfather's life.  It demonstrated almost a text-book method of family history research starting with information held within the family - (and it must be said, these were of the highest quality!) through resources held in other archives such as the Bristol Record Office, Bristol Museums and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum to name but three.  More information about the Gloucesters can be found here and for those of you who missed the talk a brief summary of his book can be found here.

The February edition of Buckets and Spades was another fascinating publication - having whetted our appetite about what can be discovered from postcards last time, Colin Middle has certainly provided food for thought with his article about people portrayed on postcards.  Sheila Mills also contributed a piece about her family and family photographs including a plea for all of us to name our photographs! Weston Rugby Football Club researched by Rod Crocker is another interesting item and is full of names of players and officials of the club. Thanks to those who have supplied items but Paul is always happy to receive more for the next journal.

On March 7th the North Somerset Archivist will be visiting the Library - her visits are not so frequent these days so please make the mose of them - Check with the online catalogue what is available and order in advance of her visit. Order your documents from  Jane de Gruchy, North Somerset Archivist: Tel: 01823 278805 email

Weston Museum is entering the next phase of its Heritage Lottery Funding application and will be consulting the public about its requirements of a local museum.  Look out for invitations to visit the museum and to offer your thoughts on a questionnaire. More information can be obtained here. 

Keep up to date with what is available on the Internet - more documents are appearing almost daily - yes, I know that you do have to pay for some of them but set that against the cost of traveling and the time saved by digital indexing.  Please bring along the links to any sites which you have found helpful to the next meeting because after the AGM we will be looking at this topic.  Nominations for Chairperson, Treasurer and committee members are required by the secretary, Brian Airey, one week before the AGM.