This year the month of May brings the biennial SWAG Fair which will be held on May 16th at the Winter Gardens and brings the chance to refresh your research by talking to members of Family History Societies from all over the South West and South Wales plus commercial companies offering aids to research. Three talks on family history related subjects are also available throughout the day. Come and say hello at our own stand where we will also be offering advice and listening to your problems.
Society News
Having welcomed Mark Sayers as our new Chair in the last update, we had our first committee meeting under his guidance. Now, however, sadly we now have to announce that due to a work commitment he has had to resign from the post. He is moving to the Mediterranean (well, someone has to do it!) We do wish you well Mark, and thank you for all the support you have given the society over the past few years – we will miss you and your wife.
We have never had a vice-chairman, a situation which we will have to resolve. In the meantime, Brian Airey has reluctantly agreed to carry on as both chair and secretary until November – the revised date of the AGM. If there is a local member who is interested in taking the chair (or can recommend another member who might be approached) please will they let us know so that they can be co-opted on to the committee before any election takes place.
Paul Tracey does a marvellous job editing our Journal, Buckets & Spades, and it is very well received, however, the content is up to us, the members. If you have broken down a brick wall, discovered something interesting or amusing about an ancestor, looked into some aspect of the place where your family lived or worked please share it with us. Reading about someone else’s experiences often gives a clue as to what we can do next to discover more about our own families. Paul would prefer any articles to be submitted electronically as an email attachment (so that he doesn’t have to type the whole article again) using a 16 Font. Contact him through the web page if you have any queries.
New Research Aids
- A companion to FreeBMD and FreeCEN - A new version of FreeREG has become available with an enhanced search facility and is well worth investigating. Freereg2 enables you to search for baptisms, marriages and burials in transcribed parish registers. Surnames are optional which does mean that if, from a census, you know a wife was born in a parish between certain dates but do not know her maiden surname you can search for example for all the Marys christened in that parish at that time. Not all parishes are included yet but you can find out whether a parish has been transcribed by clicking on Database Contents at the top of the page. As with all transcriptions it comes with the warning that original records should be consulted to check the accuracy and to see any additional comments which might have been made at the time.
- If you have been following the queries and answers to problems on our web site you will be aware that recently it was highlighted that some marriage banns have been included in a database of marriages England Marriages, 1538–1973 being used by Familysearch, Ancestry and Findmypast – this can lead to a date and place being attributed to a marriage which hasn’t taken place in that particular church. Banns are called in the parish of both the bride and groom.
- During April Familysearch has added more parish records with images – always a bonus to be able to see original records
- Cornwall and Devon Parish Registers 1538-2010
- Derbyshire Church of England Parish Registers 1537-1918
Unfortunately the first one I tried which was for a marriage of an Israel GENT in 1863 in Derbyshire gave me the Banns register and not the marriage! I was more successful with subsequent searches.
- I happened to be looking for some Essex records last week and came across the web site called “History House” which contains information about the history of Essex. If you scroll down the page you will come to a section entitled Law & Order under which you will see a link to some searchable Essex Police Records.
- Whilst looking at Police service records try the Met Police site which has some helpful advice. If your ancestors were known to the Police rather than served with the Police you might find the Black Sheep Ancestors site of interest.
Local News
In case anyone was thinking of visiting Weston to go to the Museum it has closed for 2 years to undertake a complete renovation but in the meantime anyone researching North Somerset families will find a mass of information in the Library which is now in the Town Hall. The Local Studies section includes parish records on fiche for all the North Somerset Parishes, Electoral Rolls, Street directories and maps. It is the only place where you can consult local newspapers which are available on film. The earliest Weston Newspaper is from the 1840s and there is a complete collection of The Mercury and the Gazette right through the 20th century.
Every Saturday there are members of this society on hand in the Library from 2.00 until 3.30pm to give free help and advice to anyone (you don’t have to be a member) about family history research and we have access to the Library edition of Ancestry to assist the search.
Our next meeting, on May 26th will feature a return visit from Dr Diane Brook who has been researching ways of finding and interpreting pictures of our ancestors.
I am looking to book speakers for 2016 soon - if anyone can recommend a speaker or identify a topic which they would like included I would be very happy to hear from them.
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