News & Information

We start September with the good news that from the 1^st Saturday in September members of the Society will be offering free advice sessions every Saturday afternoon from 2.00-3.30pm in the Weston-super-Mare Library, in the Town Hall, Walliscote Road. 

• Bring along what knowledge you already have of your family and then by using either the Local Studies Library for North Somerset families or the computers with free access to Ancestry and the British Newspaper Archive and the many other sites now available for other sources we hope to find that missing ancestor. We can perhaps offer suggestions for further research. So if you are just starting out or are more experienced why not come in any Saturday afternoon. We’d like to see you. 

• Your family doesn’t have to have lived in Somerset but the local newspapers, tithe maps, electoral rolls, parish registers, street directories and Brian Austin’s research all are extremely valuable if they have lived here and may give you some idea of what you might be able to find in libraries in other parts of the country.

• If you have Bristol connections you may be interested to learn that the library has recently purchased the CD of parish records 1754-1837 from the Bristol Diocese transcribed and published by the Bristol & Avon FHS.  As so many people travelled to Bristol to be married from this part of Somerset you never know who you may find on those.

• We are very lucky that we have sufficient volunteers to cover each week but that doesn’t mean that we don’t need more! Because the sessions are not booked we never know how many people will come in – it depends whether someone has been inspired by one of the many programmes on the media which highlight the joys and excitement of finding out about your ancestors! – but if we have spare capacity it does mean that we can sometimes do some research for our members who do not live close enough to come in themselves.

• Many of us will probably use Google street view to try to find out where our family lived but of course the houses may well have changed quite a bit since they were there.  Have you tried Britain from Above?   – this is a series of photographs taken between 1919-1953 and although while looking at them I kept trying to zoom in or look at what was slightly outside of the picture they are a very interesting collection.  You can make out features in Weston-super-Mare which have since been lost and not all by the blitz! Look at the Knightstone Theatre, the Non-conformist Chapel in the Cemetery, The gas works and Lance’s Corner (on the corner of Waterloo Street and High Street). Just search for Weston-super-Mare – there are 72 photos.

• A reminder that the remaining Chapel in the Cemetery will be open to the Public on Saturday afternoon, Sept 14^th  The Society cemetery records will be available for you to locate your ancestor’s grave.

• There has been some publicity lately about the release of soldier’s Wills.  They will cost £6.00 each andyou can search from here .  The Soldier’s service number is given on the search page and if there is more than one entry for the name it would be wise to check the number against the Commonwealth War Graves Site  to make sure you have the correct one.  These have been released in time for the commemorative research which will be undertaken next year.

• A reminder that the North Somerset Archivist will be at the Library on Thursday Sept 5^th – if you haven’t already done so you need to order your documents by Tuesday at the latest Tel: 01823 278805  or email.   As her visits are not so frequent as they used to be please make use of this facility.

• The society will have a stand at the AGM of the Somerset & Dorset FHS on Sept 21^st so if you are going do come and say “hello”. 

• With no meeting in August we are now looking forward to our next meeting at St Paul’s Church Hall on Tuesday Sept 24^th when Pete Williams will be talking about his research based in the parish of Brean.