News & Information

The following Cheddar parish transcripts are now available for society members to view online.

Baptisms 1842-1875

Marriages 1754-1812

Please report any transcript errors to the author of this news article

Thanks to  Raymond Dunn I am now in possession of a number of copy birth certificates, a marriage certificate and a death certificate as they proved not to be connected in his family research. If you are interested in possessing them please let me know how they fit into your family.

Birth certificates for 1) Eliza dau of William & Eliza  HUTCHINS in Hackney 1844  2) Blanch dau of John Edward and Sarah Ann HILES in Gloucester 1865  3) Charlotte dau of William and Elizabeth NASH in 1847 in Kensington Town  4) Thomas son of William & Elizabeth WELLS in Islington 1842

Marriage certificate of Thomas HILES to Mary Ann SOUTH in Pancras in 1850

Death certificate Thomas Charles WELLS 1897 St Pancras Workhouse

Brian Airey

pambrian125@talktalk.net

Last week I told several of you how to search the 1939 Register without a subscription by using the TNA Registration number.  Unfortunately on Saturday that number was removed from the results.  However you can still find it by looking at the URL.  This page describes the process quite clearly and may be of help to those of you who were as frustrated as I was when the Ref No disappeared.  Findmypast say that it will be returned.

The big news this month is the availability from November 2nd of the 1939 Register.

This Register of population which was taken in September 1939 and was used to issue National Identity Cards, Ration Books and later was used when the National Health Service was introduced in 1948.    Information about How to search the 1939 Register is a helpful guide.  The disappointment is that it is being offered on a Pay for View Basis by Findmypast or free if you visit the National Archives at Kew.  Although many of us who were born before September 1939 will be entered on this register we will not be able see those entries until we are over 100 years old or dead! 

Just one year (1856) of The Weston-super-Mare Gazette and General Advertiser is now available on the British Newspaper Archives and FindmyPast.  The full run of this newspaper can be seen in the Weston Library on film so if you find something online but haven’t a subscription you can see the newspaper in the library.  It is worth checking the newspapers which have been added to the BNA.  This is just the first of several local newspapers which they have promised us.  And yes, for those of you have spotted several members of the HASE family in a slight altercation with the police in July 1856 they are from my husband’s family - I only married into this family, they’re  nothing to do with me!

One of the lost Research Queries on our site asked which  Manors were in this area. A Guide to Manorial Records is available on the National Archives site, which gives the background to these collections. The National Archives Manorial Documents Register is being updated. You don’t need to know the actual name of the Manor you can search by parish and county.  If you can locate an ancestor in these early records you can find some very valuable information

Just remember that not all parishes have surviving manorial Records- some parishes have more than one Manor, some parishes have manors with different names, some psrishes are in more than one manor. The records can be almost anywhere - TNA, Local Record offices or Archives of large estates or Universities etc.

For example if you search for the Manor situated in Kewstoke - you will find that there is only one Manor and that was called Norton Beauchamp Manor - there are nine surviving collections of documents for this manor dating from 1471-1671 but they are situated in the National Archives, Somerset Heritage Centre, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre and surprisingly in the North Yorkshire County Record Office.

• Worle has its own Worle Manor which has 12 collections of documents dating from 1471-1848 deposited in 5 different archives 

There are 3 Manors in the Parish of Banwell –

• Banwell Manor - 72 Collections dating from 1342-1910 deposited in 12 different archives
• Woolford ‘s Hill Manor – 3 Collections dating from 1482-1718 in 3 different archives
• Rolston Manor – 45 Collections dating from 1481-1847 in 3 different archives.

Newsletters

• Keep up to date with newsletters such as the one from Lost Cousins As you would expect a lot of this one is devoted to the 1939 Register but as always it is a valuable aid to research
• Another free Newsletter comes from Genealogyintime   It can be searched for new records either by date of Country of origin.   It also has a section on Breaking Down Brick Walls.

From my Inbox

I’ve recently had a request for information about the military changes which were made to Weston during WW2 aside from the usual blackout precautions. Was the beach fenced off with barbed wire and were there other defensive precautions such as mines, anti-aircraft guns around the town?   Where was the WVS Canteen?  Was the promenade used as a parade ground for billeted forces.

You can add comments to this Update or contact me through the website if you have any information.

Society Business

The Society was represented at the Glamorgan FHS Open Day in October and has continued with its Saturday afternoon sessions at the Library.  The numbers attending with queries have been disappointing recently – does that mean that you have all finished your research?  The number of Research Queries on the site during October was only 6 which again seems to be on the low side.  Perhaps as members of the society there is something else which you would like to see the society doing? 

Our October talk by Ann-Marie Wilkinson about the photographic collection at Wells Museum and the work done by her and Steve to digitalise and index the collection to make them available for research was fascinating and thought provoking.   You never know where images may be stored but the work done by volunteers to make them available  is increasing so it worth returning to Archives from time to time to see what has been added.

We are looking for an Assistant Secretary - if anyone is interested or can recommend someone please let one of the committee know.

November Meeting

The additional AGM to bring the financial end of year to a more manageable date will be at the start of the November meeting but the rest of the time will be a normal members’ evening and we ask you to bring in some family heirlooms which have added something to your family history.  There will be seasonable refreshments!

Do you have any Liddiard, Lidiard or Lydiard (or any other spelling) amongst your ancestors?

We would like you to join us for a family gathering to celebrate the family.
There are lots of activities planned for the weekend, including displays of trees, photographs, talks on the Liddiard family and many other activities.
A bus trip to other Liddiard locations is planned on the Sunday .Please R.S.V.P. for the planned bus trip only by 30 April 2016.

13th & 14th of August from 10.30 am
Aldbourne Wiltshire England – meet at the village green 10.30 am Saturday

For any enquiries contact:
Karen Rogers Liddiard@one-name.org - by mail 33 Peat Place Lower Portland NSW 2756 Australia. On FaceBook- Liddiard Family Gathering

We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Some of you may have seen a report in the local newspaper, the Weston Mercury, this week, that there is a proposal to combine the North Somerset Registration District with the Somerset Registration District.  This would mean that the Historic Registers would be moved from Weston-super-Mare to Taunton and the service administered from there although retaining the local offices. To see more details of the proposal and to answer the very brief questionnaire go to The Proposed Sharing of Registration Services.   Please take a look at it but my concern is that it doesn't show the whole picture.  The Mercury quotes that there is a considerable difference in the charges currently made for weddings and civil marriages by the two authorities and that the Somerset rates are about 75% higher than the North Somerset ones. I would like to see more information about the effect of these proposed changes.  The consultation finishes on Oct 21st so you haven't long to contribute.  

As users of this service we have benefitted from the advice and help given by local staff with access to the old indexes who understand the problems and concerns of reseachers and who recognise local names and families.  Can a call centre do this?