Our talk this month was from Bob Bridges, and related the fascinating sequence of research and events which got him into Family History. His initial interest was in old cameras and photography and he purchased a box of glass slides, which he then started to try to put into context. They showed scenes of some … Read more

We had a departure from our usual format this month, which worked very well. We had 4 short talks, and time for the usual social time. The first speaker was Bob Bridges with a harrowing tale of domestic abuse, suicide, attempted suicide and a trial, but also compassion and pragmatism.  All worked out in the … Read more

I gave the talk this month as our scheduled speaker had to pull out, but hopefully we will have his talk later in the year. My story, “Dan the Dreamer”, was based on a Civil Court case in 1917 where the authenticity of a will was challenged. Initially no will was found but one of … Read more

Our talk this month was from Dennis Cook and on a slightly different theme to our usual talks. So far most talks have been stories based on the research and findings on the lives, events and social history of our ancestors. Dennis’s fascinating talk was about his experience as a transcriber for FreeReg. Like several … Read more

Another good turnout of 30 despite the cold weather. The topic for this meeting was “The Sea” John Hammond shared his “voyage of discovery” as he investigated the long absences of a relative who turned out to be a Master Mariner and later owner of ships sailing to places as far away as Australia, North … Read more

With a turnout of 29 and six speakers we had a real variety of information on various aspects of service and some good exchanges adding information and insight. The last two October meetings had the theme “those who served in the two world wars” as October is the last meeting before Remembrance Sunday. This time … Read more

A record turnout for an August meeting, 30 people. Barry Newman gave another very different exciting talk starting with the familiar refrain that my ancestors were boring and there is nothing exciting to talk about. Fortunately for him, and for us, he persevered. Checking ancestry hints, other people’s trees and, to my mind, one of … Read more

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 … Read more

This month we had a record number of speakers, 33 in total and everyone was an active participant. The idea this month was for everyone to bring in an object or photo which had some meaning in their family history. We split up into groups of about six, so everyone in the group had about … Read more

A virtually full room this month no doubt in anticipation of another talk from Gill Freer. This time the title was the mysterious “From Castle to Workhouse”. The castle in question was Bamburg, possible better known as Bebbanburg  from “The Last Kingdom”, and the temporary resident was in the 19th Century as opposed to Utred … Read more