News & Information

As so much of our family history research is centred on Church Records it is fitting that we remember that during April we celebrate Easter.  Perhaps you will be visiting with relations and catching up on family events.  It’s a time for a fresh start and although you may have other commitments such as gardening, eating Chocolate eggs and Simnel cake and other activities taking priority you may be able to start planning a visit to a Record Office or to the area in which your family lived. 

AGM – New Committee

At our AGM, on Tuesday evening, as our constitution limits the time a Chairman can hold office, there was a change to our Committee in that we welcomed Mark Sayers as our new Chairman, Brian Airey became our Secretary  with David Milner continuing as Treasurer.  The remaining committee was returned unopposed. Our thanks must go to Brian who has been an Officer of the Society for many years.  

The AGM was followed by interesting offerings from members –

• Mark Sayers opened the proceedings with an illustrated description of his successful search for the elusive Albert SAYER and in doing so highlighted various helpful web sites, and how visiting the National Archives had enhanced his research.
• Peter Towey spoke about the GOONS, the Guild of One-Name Studies, describing how the Society functioned, the benefits to its members and others who may be researching the names which are covered by it.  More details from the GOONS web site 
• Arlene Pilgrim rounded off the evening with a personal look at her own research techniques.  Besides using some of the more usual web sites she also stressed the importance of looking at original records which may pick up comments which are not included in transcriptions.  Her visits to Record Offices have been particularly worthwhile with archivists suggesting records which she may not have considered.  Arlene showed an infectious enthusiasm for her subject as she took us through her various sources and illustrated her experiences with examples from her own family.

Both Mark Sayers and Arlene Pilgrim are amongst the volunteers who are to be found at the Library every Saturday afternoon (but not Easter Saturday). Even before the visitors arrive the blue shirted volunteers can be found practising their research skills!   If you are in Weston on a Saturday afternoon between 2.00 and 3.30 why not come along and see us – perhaps we can suggest the next step in your research.  We get some really interesting problems put before us and in tackling them the Volunteers learn a lot too!  Although we are based in the North Somerset Studies section of the Library it doesn’t matter where your family come from because the Library has access to Ancestry with its world-wide record access.

You can also get help of course by using our Research Forum.  I seems that many of the requests for help come from relatively new members - does that mean that the rest of you have no problems at all?!  Whilst thinking about our Research Forum please can I suggest that you type the SURNAME which you are researching in uppercase.  It does make the name stand out and may attract the attention of the casual viewer.

A couple of months ago the Society was represented during the opening week of the Big Worle Project and this photo has appeared in the current edition of North Somerset Life - we reproduce it here with permission from the magazine. Our presence in the Library every Saturday (as mentioned above) is an ongoing commitment but if you know of any other events in the neighbourhood where we might have a stand to publicise our society please contact Graham Payne who coordinates our appearances at Open Days etc.

The SWAG Fair at the Winter Gardens here in Weston on the 16th May 2015.  A description of what is available can be found on the SWAG web site.  SWAG stands for the South West Area Group of Family History Societies and this fair is held every other year and has over 40 stands, not only representing Family History Societies but also commercial enterprises which support research into genealogy.  There will also be lectures during the day on research techniques and allied subjects.

Visit to Kew

Last month, those of us who went to the National Archives at Kew had an interesting and profitable day.   I printed off some marvellous photographs of Weston-super-Mare which I hadn’t seen before.  I was able to look at (and photograph) some original records of people who had been recommended for bravery awards during WW2.  But, my attempt to read some 17th century chancery documents was less successful but nevertheless an experience!  Even those who were visiting Kew for the first time profited from their time there.  The archivists on duty were extremely helpful and patient with everyone.

Record Offices etc

• The Somerset Heritage Centre now has a Facebook Page where you can keep up to date on what is happening there.
• If your family have any connections with Bristol I hope you have looked at the Bristol Record Office Site and read some of the articles about what is on offer there – it includes an exhibition entitled Postcards from Bristol which will be on view from 17th March until the 17th July.  This exhibition is linked to the Know Your Bristol project which is such a rich resource combining and overlaying maps of the area and incorporating the Bristol Postcards. 
• There are plans to extend this project to cover “Know Your Place – West of England ” which would extend the maps to cover the old Avon County.  In the same round of Lottery Grants when Weston Museum  was awarded £1,096,000 to completely refurbish and modernise – South Gloucestershire was granted some funding towards their part of the project.

Social History

A personal bee in my bonnet -  The BBC is currently showing a programme – Back in time for Dinner  – looking at the changes in family food over the last 60 plus years.  I know that many who actually lived through the 1950s found the opening episode rather disappointing as it didn’t portray life as we remember it!  I realise that it is primarily an entertainment programme where a modern family was trying to recreate the 1950s and the result could not represent what everybody experienced at that time, but it did bring home to me the problem of getting to grips with the social history of our ancestors. 

I found fault with the programme because it

• Served cold liver - did anyone ever actually do that?
• Didn’t have a table cloth on the table,
• Had a mother who seemed not to have any basic cooking skills,
• Showed children who turned their noses up at bread and dripping!
• Took no account of the amazing resilience of the population to the hardships and shortages which had been experienced since 1939.

How much more difficult is it to portray what life was like in the Victorian, Georgian or even Elizabethan times when nobody can actually claim to know firsthand what life was really like?  The subject of Social History can be seen debated in this edition of History Today,  however this article is actually dated 1985 so perhaps attitudes and thinking have changed a bit since then? 

New Resources Online

• The scanned images of parish records which are appearing on Ancestry are filling in a number of gaps in my own research.  My mother’s family came from Gloucestershire and I have found some events concerning my great grandfather’s siblings which have made some interesting links.  The latest additions to Ancestry can be seen here.
• Among the latest additions to Findmypast are the Registers of the Bedlam Hospital in London.  You can read more about the Bedlam Hospital without a subscription (scroll down past the advertisement to join Findmypast) and it gives a fascinating background to life at that time for some people.
• The March Newsletter from Findmypast  is of particular interest because it talks about the plans to publish details from the 1939 Register which contains information about who was living in Great Britain during one weekend in September 1939.  This was later used to issue identity cards and was also used to create National Health Service Numbers in 1948. 
• If you have Irish ancestry - try this summary of Irish Ancestors which lists some of the Irish records which you can find online

Next Meeting

Our Speaker for the April meeting is Jonathan Pinnock who was intrigued to find a reggae singer who shared his surname.  We will hear his account of how he traced not only the reggae singer but also his own family history.  I will be particularly interested in this because my maternal grandmother's surname was PINNOCK but although both his relations and mine were living in Bedminster, Bristol at the same time I don't think that they are related.