News & Information

March 1st and St David’s Day – Let’s look forward to the daffodils which herald the spring and celebrate this day with our Welsh cousins.  Many of those who consider themselves to be Welsh today may find that they came originally from Somerset and other counties.  This site  shows the extent of migration into Wales during the 19th Century.  If you search the 1901 census you will find that 36,000+ people living in Wales said they were born in Somerset out of a total of just over 2,000,000.

I’m also looking forward to our visit to Kew on March 5th.  Through our Research Forum and coupled with a query from someone who came into the Library one Saturday we have been able to assist in some research being undertaken by TNA.  It involves this Research Query and I am hopeful that the people involved in some of this work will be on hand to talk to us about it. If anyone who is going to Kew would like to meet them please let me know beforehand.  This group of Railway Memorabilia is an important collection and it is interesting to realise that it had previously been housed in a garage about 100 yards from where I live and I knew absolutely nothing about it!  No one responded to the WINDEATT query but it is not too late if you know anything about this family or the family of Wilfrid Edwin HAYWARD they would be delighted to hear from you so that they can let family members know what is happening to the collection.

North Somerset Archivist's Visits to Weston

Unfortunately the date of our visit to Kew clashes with the visit of the Somerset Archivist to Weston Library.  The dates for 2015 are as follows :

• 5 March 2015
• 4 June 2015
• 3 September 2015
• 3 December 2015

If you are researching a Somerset family or location - Please contact Jane de Gruchy, North Somerset Archivist:  Tel: 01823 278805  or E-mail: Archives@somerset.gov.uk by Tuesday March 3rd to ask for documents to be brought to Weston for you.

You never know where an interest in family history may lead you. 

• The fascinating talk we had in February from one of our own members, Alan Bateman, about the PANTON Brothers and their tribute to their brother who died in WW2 was a mixture of research and history which was very well received by the Society.  You can read more about the subject of the talk - the Lancaster Bomber “Just Jane” on this site
• During February, I was excited to find a photograph on an Ancestry Family Tree of the tomb stone of my 7 x great grandparents Joseph & Ann TURNER in Winterbourne Churchyard near Bristol.  Joseph died in January 1726/7.  In a book entitled “The Goods and Chattels or our Forefathers” published by Phillimore in 1976 I found a transcription of an Inventory (the original document is in Bristol Record Office) of his belongings - to the value of £176.2s.4d. This was published as a result of an Extra-Mural Course run by Bristol University for the Frampton Cotterell  Local History Group  which surveyed the wills and inventories for the parishes in that area and now clearly demonstrates the links between family and local history.
• Later this year I have agreed to give a talk to the Local History Group of the Weston U3A about Weston High Street.  If any of you have ancestors who lived at any time in the High Street and/or have photographs of the High Street I would be delighted to hear from you.  A review of the High Street in 1923 shows some very familiar shop names – Mac Fisheries, Lance & Lance, Walker & Ling, Coulsting’s Bazaar, Brown’s Cafe, Podger & Davis, Leaver, Woolworth, Butter, Salisbury the Tailors, Over, Lipton, W H Smith, Boots, Stead & Simpson, Maypole, Marks & Spencer, Rossiter & Sons, Dossor, Cecil Walker, etc. etc.  – some of course are still there.  

New(ish) Web Sites

• The British Newspaper Archive  which you can access free of charge in Weston Library continues to add to its total online.  I’ve found it particularly useful for finding information about Inquests and Divorce Cases.  Obituaries are also very often extremely enlightening in the way in which they list the past history of the person who has died as well as the names and relationships of people attending the funeral.  Of course if you have a relation who fell fowl of the law you can also trace their progress through the courts!
• Some months ago I drew your attention to the Genealogist which had added the Tithe Map Apportionment Lists to its site and was promising to add the maps themselves.  Take a look at this background article What Land did my ancestor own?  The maps for Middlesex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire have now been added and more are to come – watch this space!
• The Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services, 1900-1928  are now available on Ancestry.  Just to try it out, I searched for “SMITH” as a surname and found that the first two entries were using SMITH as an alias!
• A number of Parish Records for Gloucestershire have also been added to Ancestry during February these also include Wills and Inventories but here is a problem in that they are only the records of parishes under the Bishop of Gloucester and several parishes in South Gloucestershire are actually under the Bishop of Bristol and will not be included.  The Bristol & Avon FHS  has transcribed these and they are available for purchase on CD – However, you can also consult also these CDs in Weston Library or on the free site Familysearch the link I have given limits the search to English records.

We have received the following from the FFHS  - I am repeating it in full because of the useful advice it contains which applies to most counties not only Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire records arrive online

The first batch of images from Northamptonshire parish registers and bishops transcripts has arrived on the Ancestry website.

They relate to the period 1813 to 1912 and include these records, many of the earlier ones being duplicates:

• 781,205 Baptisms
• 478,523 Burials
• There are also details of 463 confirmations of people from four parishes.

The collections have all been indexed, so they can be searched and individual images downloaded in the ways already familiar to Ancestry users. A browse facility allows you to select a specific parish, choose between parish registers and bishops transcripts (if both are available) and proceed page by page as though you were looking through the original records.

Some key uses of the collections are:

• Locating vital events before the advent of civil registration in July 1837 – and later ones that you cannot find in civil registration indexes.
• Identifying children who did not live long enough to appear in a census (the alternative being to buy expensive civil registration certificates).
• The opportunity to check alternative sources, even where a record has been found.
• However, parish registers and bishops transcripts do not supply a complete roll call of births and deaths that took place in the county during the century starting 1813. Points to bear In mind are:
  • The practice of submitting bishops transcripts tended to die out in the latter part of the 19th century – about half of the parishes in Northamptonshire ceased to send in returns at some stage between 1865 and 1880.
  • Therefore, many events are recorded twice in the earlier decades, but considerably fewer as time goes by. For some places and years, parish registers are not available either.
  • Northamptonshire was a hot-bed of nonconformity, where many children were not christened in the Church of England.
  • Cemeteries were established in Northampton and elsewhere in the county from 1847 onwards. Their burials do not appear in parish registers.
  • As with most family history sources, it is great to have this data so readily available – but think about how you interpret it. 

Our next meeting will be on the 31st March which will include our AGM.  Do look at the latest edition of Buckets & Spades for the Agenda and for an amendment to the Constitution which is being proposed.  Following the AGM is a session on Research Techniques and Problem Solving – Please come with you own ideas on these topics to share with other members.