News & Information

It’s always interesting to see the research queries posted on our site – Thank you to those who have contributed queries, please keep them coming and if you have any ideas about how to solve some of the questions please add a comment.   Do take a look at the Surname Interests  as well – sometimes people have put additional information under their entry.  For example,  look at the TILLEY entry with its link to another site. 

National Libraries Day – Saturday February 7th.  Why not visit Weston-super-Mare Library on this Saturday from 2.00 until 3.30 pm as we will be taking part in National Libraries Day with our Help Session.  The full range of activities available in the Libraries of North Somerset during February can be seen here.  Come along if you want to see what is available for researching local families – parish records for North Somerset Parishes, censuses, local newspapers, maps, books, directories, electoral rolls, family trees etc. can all be views in the Local Studies Room.  Access by computer to the Library Edition of Ancestry and to all the other online sites made available by the Library can be found here. It doesn’t matter from where your family originates we should be able to find something to help you. 

History of Worle Exhibition - If you missed the excellent Exhibition of Worle History put on by the Worle History Society during the Summer there is a chance to catch up with it again during the 10th – 14th Feb at Weston Museum from 10.00am until 4.00pm each day.  Free entry to the exhibition.   Even if you did attend before – go again - there is so much to see.  For more information about the Exhibition see here.

Visit to The National Archives on Thursday, March 5th. Travel details as before i.e. pick up 7am Locking Road Car Park, Lidl, Worle at 7.10am and Kenn Rd., Clevedon 7.30am.  We will leave Kew at 5.45pm and hope to be back in WsM about 9-9.15pm.  The cost will be £20 for members and £25 for non members.   Please let Brian Airey  know as soon as possible if you are going.  We need to fill the coach to make it viable.  We only go to Kew once a year and it is a good opportunity to see original records and to download documents for the cost of printing.  Someone said to me “Oh everything’s on the net now there is no need to go!”  Yes, a lot of it is – but not everything

• To see what is available use the Discovery Catalogue,   There are many documents which are available to download free of charge while at the National Archives.
• Try searching for the parish of your ancestors, limiting the search to the National Archives and just seeing what is available there.  I have found some interesting reports on schools.
• Try also searching for your surname coupled with the place they lived – I’ve found and will be looking at the attestation papers of one of my family which are not included in any of those available online.   
• Ancestry and Findmypast are also available for use at Kew - free of charge. 

New Records available

With so many additional records becoming available it’s always a good idea to search regularly to see if there is anything new.

• Do you have relations who worked in a Coal Mine?  Take a look at the Coalmining History Resource Centre   This is a free searchable site for mining disasters and casualties.  Well worth spending some time seeing what it has to offer. 
• If you have someone who died during WW1 - Ancestry has an index of the UK Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929.  This lists any money owing to deceased soldiers but next of kin and sometimes occupations are listed so can fill in gaps or enable you to identify men with similar names.  
• A  web site has been launched called “Prisoners of the First World War” comprising records from the International Committee of the Red Cross.  The belligerent countries involved provided lists of prisoners to the ICRC, which created an index card for each prisoner and detainee. You can search through all 5 million of them.
• I was recently in Thornbury and was told about this site called Thornbury Roots    If any of your ancestors come from around Thornbury in Gloucestershire you will find this to be a rich source of information.
• Also outside our area but possibly of interest to our members - There was a great deal of publicity in January  about a grave yard attached to the Bristol Workhouse at 100 Fishponds Road.  The records of these burials have always been available in Bristol Record Office but a group has now put an index to them online.  It was unusual for a Workhouse to have its own burial ground - most Union Workhouses sent the bodies back to their home parishes where they would have been buried in local churchyards .  The Bristol Radical History Group has made a valuable searchable database available and it is interesting to note that, contrary to the media’s interpretation, each burial is in a numbered (but unmarked) grave – not a mass grave.  Unmarked graves were not uncommon - Many of us will know that probably most of our ancestors’ graves do not have memorials on them either.  The site of this Burial Ground should be recognised but I think that making the list of burials available online is the best way of remembering those who were buried there.  It should be noted that the list is not a complete register of deaths in the Workhouse but it is a list of those buried in this site.
• Ancestry has just published an England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2013 but this is not a complete index – it contains approximately 55% of the total number of deaths and has been compiled from a database of information obtained from newspaper obits and Undertakers’ records.    A similar partial index for a Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2013 has been published from the same source containing about 45% of the deaths in that area. This index also includes a small number of records for people in Jersey and the Isle of Man.  These indexes do not contain a GRO Reference but nevertheless they can be useful if your relation is included.
• More changes on Findmypast  to assist with the ease of searching.  Like all changes they will take a little getting used to – but they do allow you to gradually narrow your search.   Watch out that the default search is “World” you may need to change that “Britain” before you start.

Our Monthly Meetings

January finished with our first meeting of 2015 when Christine Thomas talked about the Colonial Cemetery in Hong Kong.  She has done extensive research about this cemetery and she traced the history of three men who had lived and worked in Hong Kong. As with all family history it was the richness of their lives which gradually evolved through her research.  Not just dates and names but aided by some relatives of these men who attended the meeting she was able to paint a full picture of their lives both in the Colony and in this country.  

At our meeting on the 24th February, the next edition of Buckets & Spades will be available for those of you who have opted for a paper version.  Other members will be able to read it online.  Our speaker in February will be member, Alan Bateman, who will be talking about his research into the Panton Brothers of Leicestershire and their purchase of a Lancaster Bomber in tribute to their elder brother who was killed during WW2.

Looking forward to March which is our AGM and Members’ Evening – We are looking for Members to share their tips and experience in researching their families. If you have found a useful source of information please share it with us during that evening – If you have a question which you would like discussed at the meeting please let Brian Airey know beforehand.