June 2025
Despite the heat we had a turnout of 28 this month. I gave a talk “An Artist, A Missionary and a Soldier”, illustrating what you can find if you are lucky enough to be researching ancestors who belonged to families of substance or have achieved something notable , or both. (not my family tree but research for someone else!) After doing the basic research to get birth, marriage, and death details plus census or perhaps probate, it can be worth checking newspapers, Wikipedia and National Biographies, or simply Google. In this case several not only had their own Wikipedia pages but also had either, published books or diaries or had books written about them. One even had a set of postage stamps issued illustrating her work. With Wikipedia most articles will have several references and links to further reading. Many people will also have their exploits described in the newspapers. The missionary returned from China to give fundraising talks, announced or reported in the local newspapers, which allowed his progress to be tracked all around the UK and gave tantalising hints about his life and writings. The formal records note their achievements, but books and newspapers can give an insight into their characters. In one case I identified unsorted private papers and letters held by National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and in another case private papers and a scrap book held at a university library. Perhaps one day someone with more time or a professional historian will use these to write a book on the people concerned!!
There is no meeting in July, our ancestors are all on holiday! A speaker for August will (hopefully) be announced soon.
Topics for future meetings are, “Emigration”, “Life at Sea” and “Criminal Records”, so if you have any stories on these topics or any other please get in touch. Even if it is only a five minute talk it can be combined with others, and it will allow me to schedule talks for the future.
Rob Green