June 2017 Update

After our May Meeting, I received three messages from members apologising for missing it because of our change of timing.  For smany years our meetings have been on the last Tuesday of the month that they had forgotten that from last September we had changed to the 4th Tuesday.  Please make a note of the dates in your diaries and if you happen to be on holiday in Weston in June, July or September why not choose a date which matches our meeting?

Drawing Family Trees

Sometimes I’m asked about drawing family trees but not using a commercial Family Tree programme such as Family Tree Maker.  The Somerset & Dorset FHS has published some guidance for building a family tree which you might find interesting:  It uses Publisher but you might have other suggestions about how you would go about it. 

The National Archives

Would you be interested in a visit to the National Archives at Kew ? – we did not get sufficient members to make this worthwhile the last time we offered this but we have had some enquiries.  Please will you let our Secretary, Brian Airey, know if you would be interested in going to do some research.  When we know approximately how many would like to go on a visit then we can estimate a cost commensurate with the possible numbers involved. 

Family History Fairs

Although we are not having a Fair this year you may be interested in attending events from these two societies.

• Shropshire FHS Fair  on Saturday 03 June 2017, 10:00am - 04:00pm at The Shire Hall, Shrewsbury
• Wiltshire FHS Family History Day  on Saturday 10 June 2017, 10:00am - 03:00pm at the Steam museum - Fire Fly Ave, Swindon SN2 2EY

 Irish Ancestors?

It is often difficult to trace your Irish ancestors but Irish Genealogy News  is a useful site for keeping up to date with the ever-increasing amount of resources which are becoming available for Irish research.  It includes a link to an Irish Genealogy toolkit which is very helpful and takes you to the Top 10 free Irish genealogy databases online 

Changes to the availability of online facilities at home 

• Each month I look for new items for the Update but sometimes it’s time to revisit some favourite resources.  One of mine was the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography which until very recently was accessible at home via my North Somerset Library Card.   I note that Bristol and Somerset Libraries still have it available for their users so do check with your local library whether you can use it.  I already miss the ability to look up the lives of people whose decisions and actions may have influenced my family.  Similarly, the British Newspaper Archive is no longer available at the Library.  This is a great loss for those who have used it to discover, births, marriages, deaths, inquest reports, criminal proceedings and other events – even the results of flower shows -  in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries and earlier which featured our ancestors.  People who live in Somerset still have access to the 19th Century Newspapers.
• One facility which is still available however is Zinio –  which enables you to read a large number of current magazines free of charge at home – it includes a magazine called “Your Family History”.  The May edition of which contains a very helpful article covering several pages on "Servants" and another on “The Catholic Heritage Archive” which is being promoted by Findmypast.  A new database of Catholic Records is being released in October but some are already available.  This site also allows you to read back copies so you might well find something which is useful to further your own research.

Help Sessions

Our Help Sessions in Weston, Portishead and Worle continue – please feel free to come along – you don’t have to be a member to bring your problems or to ask for help.  We are at Weston every Saturday afternoon, at Portishead on the 2nd Wednesday of each month and at the moment at Worle on the 4th Thursday but when the Worle Library moves location possibly in July it will not be open on a Thursday so we will change our day to the 4th Friday of each month.

Research Forum

Looking through the Research Queries for this month I noticed one which has had no replies - Doesn't anyone have any suggestions about KNOWLES of Yatton and Kingston Seymour? Where would you look for information about this family?  

Society Meetings

We had a very interesting and informative talk at our May meeting from Lynda Hotchkiss about finding Black Sheep in our family,  She outlined the various resources available and noted how crimes had changed over the centuries as had the treatment of miscreants.

At our next meeting on the 4th Tuesday evening of June, our speaker will be Sue Burne, the Chair of the Taunton Branch of the Somerset & Dorset FHS who will talk about her own family history which took her From Ag. Lab to Royalty – I’m not sure in which direction!