We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our Open Day on Saturday 12th July. It will be opened by the Town Mayor, Councillor Ros Willis, at 10.00am and entry is free.
 We have noticed lately that the attendance at other Family History Open Days in neighbouring counties has been less than in the past – possibly due to all the advertising which tells you how easy it is to trace your family? But, those who do come always seem to remark – “I didn’t know so much help was available!”
If you are thinking twice about coming to ours – please think again because not only do we have stands from Family History Societies and Local History Groups (The full list of exhibitors can be seen here) but we also have an exhibition put together by Caroline from members’ own research about WW1. It’s not too late to contact Caroline with anything which you have for display.
If the excellent edition of Buckets & Spades which Paul has just produced on the same theme is anything to go by the exhibition will be fascinating. If you are not yet a member there will be copies available at the Open Day for sale.
Some of our members will be at the Library that afternoon as usual for the Free Advice Session from 2.00 until 3.30, but we will also have a Help Desk at St Paul’s running all day so if you are stuck, or have not started to research yet, you should be able to get individual help in either place.
Whilst talking about Open Days - The annual “Who do you think you are? Live” is moving from London in 2015 and will be at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham from 16th-18th April. This is a little nearer us so you might consider a visit if you haven’t done so before. As this date clashed with the one originally chosen for the SWAG (South West Area Group of Family History Societies) Fair at the Winter Gardens in Weston - that will now take place on May 16th 2015. So make a note of that date in your diaries for next year.
At our last meeting I mentioned a problem I had discovered with a small part of the transcription and images of the 1851 census of St Paul’s Bristol. Ancestry has only filmed every other page, and out of the 54 pages involved FindmyPast has omitted 30 of them. I wondered whether some of the originals had been lost - but no – The Genealogist has filmed the complete set! I spotted this because a family I was looking for went over two pages and of course both Ancestry and FindmyPast produced only half the family (not the same half!) making a complete nonsense of their transcriptions. However I did find the complete family on The Genealogist and this led me to wonder how often this happens especially when we say we cannot find a person on a particular census – do check that the page numbers are consecutive and that no schedule numbers are missing. This can’t be the only time it has happened.
- Ancestry has gone over the WW1 Service Records and Pension Records for 1914-1920 and re-indexed them to include the names of spouses, next of kin and other family members shown on these records. This might enable you to narrow down the records for a man with a fairly common surname by searching for next of kin etc.
- Should you be researching Canadian records – Familysearch has just added births from Ontario from 1869-1912
- The Welsh Newspapers now cover 1804-1919 – free online and are responsible for this July Update taking 3 times as long to write as I get side-tracked finding relations I didn’t know I had!
At our next monthly meeting – on 29th July - Life member and Local Historian, Brian Austin, looks back on the characters and events he has chronicled during his 50 years of Weston research. He’s called his talk “50 years and still at it!” This society grew out of some adult education classes he ran at Weston College when he shared his great enthusiasm and knowledge with eager students - some of whom are still members today. He also single-handedly ran research sessions both in Bristol and Weston Libraries. This was before computers when Brian will say you had to do the research the “proper way”! To help people research Weston families he did the original transcriptions of the censuses and other local records which are still available in Weston Library along with many files of family trees of local families.
We do not have a meeting in August but don't forget that anyone can ask for help via our Research Forum and of course any member can offer help by replying with a comment. If you have any ideas for Speakers you would like to listen to or topics you would like included in 2015 I would be glad to hear from you.
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