Jackie Cotterill

NEWSLETTER NO. 9 January 2021

It’s hard to believe it is the end of January 2021 already! Where did that month go? My mom used to say that the older you get the quicker the years fly by and that certainly seems to be true.
As the Covid situation is not getting any easier, the Trustees have put back any decision on re-opening our Groups and of course, the Family History Centre, until Easter. Hopefully by then the picture could be clearer.
ONLINE TALKS
I know that many of you enjoyed the talk given by John Titterton via Zoom (We had 100 viewers). Some years ago I read his article on pinpointing where an ancestor came from and tried it on my husband’s Cotterill’s. They came from around the Stafford area and I had managed to get back to about 1700 in my own research. This is where my investigations came unstuck because there are so many Cotterill’s in Staffordshire, all with the first names of Matthew, Samuel and Thomas that I was spoilt for choice and could go no further!
For those interesting in reading John’s article it is available online by going to the Local Historian Magazine website https://www.balh.org.uk/. You will just need to search in publications. Thank you, Kate, for telling us.
I also logged in to the Bromsgrove Group’s talk on the Whittall Street Explosion of 1859 last Tuesday and I know that one or two people had ancestors who were killed in that explosion. Very interesting and thought provoking. We forget nowadays that these types of accidents were quite commonplace.
FEBRUARY TALKS
Coming up next month we have three talks well worth joining.
9 February, Bromsgrove Group will be presenting Paul Hudson of Worcestershire Archives. I know that lots of you will never get to The Hive at Worcester, but it is a place I love mainly because it is open seven days a week! l was lucky enough to be invited to the Opening ceremony and managed to get the chance to see the Archives from the back – so to speak!
10 February, the Kenilworth Group will be hosting Mary Bodfish who will be presenting ‘The baby in the Locket’. As well as being a member of the Society, Mary is a well know speaker on the Family History circuit.
17 February, Jacqui Kirk, another member and a speaker we have had before, will be presenting ‘My Ancestors Were Boring – They were only Ag Labs’. Jacqui will endeavour to show that their lives were anything but boring.
(Details for these talks are available on the website, https://midland-ancestors.uk/category/events/ click on the Calendar and scroll down to the talk you want to join in with). Don’t forget to check the times and registering details.
Because we had so many people join at the last one, Phil, ably assisted by Gareth, said he will probably open registration earlier. If you want to join, please sign in when you can and don’t leave it until the day of the talk as you could well be disappointed.
Forthcoming Events (not Midland Ancestors)
• EVENT : St Philips , an Introduction to the Heritage of Birmingham Cathedral with Jane McArdle.
Online talk given by Birmingham Civic Society:
Non-Members £5.98
Birmingham Civic Society Members Free
Fri, 5 Feb 2021 12:30pm – 13:30pm GMT
Book at http://ow.ly/ztj150D7sg5 Information on the rest of the talk programme will follow soon.
• EVENT:25 – 27 FEBRUARY, 2021 RootsTech Connect: A **Free Online **Conference Experience
For the first time ever, the world’s largest family celebration event will be entirely virtual and completely free. Get ready to celebrate shared connections with people from around the world. Connect with friends, your family, your past, and your heritage and homelands—all from the comfort of your home and in your browser.

RootsTech Connect is different than any other virtual event—no boring speakers or falling asleep at your computer screen. Rather, enjoy dozens of inspirational learning sessions, uplifting messages from celebrity keynote speakers, and hands-on activities to help you celebrate your heritage all year long.
Register for free at: https://www.rootstech.org.
• EVENT: SATURDAY, 10 APRIL 2021 FROM 10:00am -18:00pm
Really Useful Family History Show
https://www.fhf-reallyuseful.com/
Early Bird tickets available now
• THE FAMILY HISTORY FEDERATION WEBSITE A variety of free podcasts is available on, as well as a collection of useful literature to help in your research. You will also find details of other talks given by Family History Societies up and down the Country. https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/
Thanks to Jacqui Fielding for posting the following on the Birmingham Ancestors Facebook page.

A talk on Traditions of Death and Burial. Which can now be viewed on You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwYuC1aNHvc&feature=youtu.be

This is something I didn’t know but may explain why sometimes you can get discrepancies between various sites.
FreeBMD provided Ancestry with their transcription of the GRO indexes for the period 1837-1915, but subsequent corrections to the FreeBMD database have not been uploaded to Ancestry.
Thanks to the Peter Calver and the LostCousins newsletter.
I know that many of you are wary of using social media platforms such as Facebook, there are so many specialist Groups available, you may find of interest, so why not dip your toe in the water and join. We also have a Twitter page, but this is not in my remit, but check it out if you are a Twitter user. Don’t forget to check out YouTube as well, this is useful for just about everything!
If there are any more websites or events that you think our members would be interested in, please let me know or get in touch with Linda for the Midland Ancestor.
Talking of which, I know that Linda is always on the lookout for articles for the magazine, so if you would like to submit an article get in touch with Linda at editor@midanc.uk
Finally, I know that many of you have already done so, but your subscription for 2021 is now due. To renew there are various ways to do this. Firstly you can complete the form in the December journal and send it to the address shown on the form with either a cheque or your card details; or you can renew via the online shop https://midland-ancestors.shop/ or you can telephone me and renew over the phone. My phone number is on the reverse of the Midland Ancestor.

Jackie
PS – This is for ladies only: Today my 10 year old granddaughter was watching the film Hairspray which was set in the 1960s. It took me straight back: the hair, the dresses, the make up !!! On the downside I remember ironing and starching those net petticoats, going to bed with rollers digging into your head, the stockings. I think I prefer todays fashions when anything goes!

NEWSLETTER NO. 8
December 2020
Happy New Year! Let’s hope that in 2021 some form of normality will resume to our lives.
I thought I would share with you some very kind words sent to me from Ann Simcock who would like these included in my monthly newsletter.
“I wondered if it would be possible to add a message from myself, and I would imagine, all those of us who have benefited and enjoyed all the Zoom meetings, in your next newsletter to say thank you to Phil for all the time and effort he has put in to make the Zooms possible. I know how much time it takes up to try and sort out the technology. Thank you Phil”.
I would also like to give my thanks to Phil, he has been a star this year! Not only dealing with our Zoom talks (and me!), helping Groups to master Zoom and as Chairman, managing the Society during these difficult times. Our thanks must also go to all the Executive Committee who thought their term of Office ended last May, but because of the pandemic agreed to carry on until the next AGM in May 2021. More about this will be in the March journal.
I would also like to say thank you to all of you who have sent in your good wishes for Christmas and the New Year via our Face Book page. It has been a terrible year, but I hope that we have been able to keep in touch.
The nicest thing is that using Zoom we have been able to reach members from across the world that we don’t normally see. It also amazes me how many of our members have taken on board using Zoom, not just for our Society but other organisations, church services, etc. I think it has opened up the world to an awful lot of people.

The Exec had hoped that our Groups would have been able to re-start for the New Year, but this is not going to happen. Some of our Groups are holding online meetings and talks, details of which will on the Calendar on the website.
I know that the Bromsgrove Group are hoping to put all their talks on Zoom, so look either at their page in the yellow programme booklet, or their website, http://www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk.
Phil has another talk scheduled for January. On 20 January at 2.30pm John Titterton will be talking about ‘Pinpointing the Origin of a Surname’. This presentation looks at surname origins and distribution, explaining how a surname origin can be pinpointed statistically. Doing a one name study, John has traced his surname to a point in North Staffordshire around 1400. This should be interesting; I am looking forward to this.
Full details are shown on the website under the Events/Calendar tab.
Bill Harrison, Chairman of our North Staffs Group, has asked me to tell you that the North Staffs Group Newsletters are online for anyone to read.
http://www.bmsgh.org/branches/northstaffs/index.html
There are also some other categories on the website I would like to draw your attention to.
How many of you have filled in your ‘Members Interests’ forms and sent them to Haydn Lewis? When you joined the Society you would have been sent a form to complete. The first ten names on the form would be included in the next available journal, but that does not mean you cannot add or include more names. If you want to add names, either download a form from the Members Area of the website under Useful forms, complete and send to Haydn Lewis, full details on the website or just email Haydn. Although only members of the Society can enter their surname interests, Viewing of the database is open to anyone.
Whilst you are in the Useful forms area, there are lots of other forms and charts you might find useful for your research. They are free to use.
Something else you might be interested in. In the Members Only section you can download back issues of The Midland Ancestor dating back to 1983. There are also two useful indexes, one alphabetical and the other by contributor. This index currently includes the years 1983 (September) to 2020 (March).
I know that we are probably all full of Christmas cheer and good food, but can I remind you that Linda is looking for articles for the March journal. The deadline is 10 January 2021.
I received an email recently from member Robin Bird. Robin is a member of our Birmingham Group. He is researching the names on various war memorials within the Birmingham/West Bromwich area.
He would like to hear from anybody who had ancestors listed on the following WW1 or WW2 Memorials, so he can add their details to those he already has on the memorials.
• City of Birmingham Police Roll of Honour
• George Dixons Grammar School in Birmingham
• Or people from West Bromwich who served in the RAF in WW2.
If you would like to contact me in the first instance, I can pass on your details.
GRO extend birth indexes to 1934
If you use the GRO birth index for England and Wales online, you will know that there is a gap in the indexes. (I normally use the GRO online index and Freebmd to check entries) The GRO have now added all the remaining entries from the registers that have been scanned and indexed, taking them up to 1934.
Unfortunately for the period 1921-1934 it does not show the mother’s maiden name, but the quarterly indexes do. The one reason for using the GRO indexes after 1920 is to find out the full middle names of your relatives, as these are always shown in full; this information is not shown in the quarterly indexes.

Two events for your 2021 Diary!

FHF REALLY USEFUL Virtual Family History Show – Saturday 10th April 2021
www.fhf-reallyuseful.com
The early bird tickets are priced at £7.50.
If you attended the last one and had any suggestions on how to make it better, I hope you made your opinion known to the Federation. It worked well, but I can only say that from the Society point of view, I did not see it from the visitor’s viewpoint. I don’t know if the same format will be repeated, we will have to wait and see, but we are sure to be there again.
Familysearch have announced that RootsTech, will be online for 2021 and will be completely free. The dates are 25-27 February 2021 and to register your interest, go to https://www.rootstech.org/?lang=eng
Well, that is all I have to say for now. If you are celebrating the New Year, please remember social distancing and stay safe.

Jackie

I don’t know about you, but I had hoped that by Christmas we would have seen some light at the end of the tunnel as far as Covid was concerned, but it is not to be. We will be going into the New Year under some sort of restrictions, although I know this is not the case everywhere.
The Trustees have met to discuss the opening of our Groups and the Family History Centre but have reluctantly concluded that it would not be safe to do so in the current climate. Therefore, all our venues and Groups will remain closed until at least Easter when the Trustees will look at the situation again.
Just in case we were able to open in the New Year, we did ask our Groups to put together a programme for 2021. This will be included with your December journal. It is hoped that even with our venues closed, Groups may be able to take their talks online via Zoom. So please either check with the Events page on the website, our Facebook page (BMSGH Members only Family History Group), or via my newsletter.
For our next online talk on December 2 (2pm), Penny Smith, Chairman of our Wolverhampton Group, will be talking about researching criminal records. Penny will outline in this talk how to investigate the criminals in our ancestry. For further details log on to the website https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/online-event-criminal-records/.
Phil has organised an online talk for 20 January at 2pm. John Titterton will be talking about Pinpointing the Origin of a Surname.
John’s presentation looks at surname origins and distribution, explaining how a surname origin can be pinpointed statistically. John has carried out a one name study and traced his surname to a point in North Staffordshire around 1350. As usual, register by first going to the event on the Midland Ancestors Calendar.
I know that some of you do have trouble logging in to the talks. Remember you must download the Zoom app to your computer first before you can join in. www.zoom.us/ download. Open the Midland Ancestors website, www.midland-ancestors.uk, go to the Events tab/calendar and scroll down to the talk you want to view. Click on the word that is highlighted in red, which will take you to the registration page. After you have completed the registration page, Phil will send you a link to the join Zoom. On the day of the talk and at the appropriate time, all you have to do is click on the link in that email and that will take you into the Zoom page. You then wait and Phil will let you into the meeting.
He is willing to do familiarisation sessions if enough people would like to do this. Contact phil to arrange.
FHF-REALLY USEFUL SHOW
To all those of you who visited the fhf-reallyuseful-show online, it was certainly different! Not sure what I expected, but it was all a little surreal. Nobody, of course, could see each other. All we could see from our side was the list of other Societies until a message popped up in our inbox. A learning curve I think you would say but we did get to talk to visitors from across the globe. Hope we were of some help in answering your questions. It could not have been too bad from the organiser’s point of view because they are doing it all again next year on 10 April 2021.
I hope some of you managed to listen to the talks either on the day or afterwards. The actual talks may not come as a surprise to you, but I always think there are little snippets you pick up that are interesting.
On Amelia Bennett’s talk on ‘Hidden in plain site’ she talked about the FamilySearch Catalogue. I am sure we are all familiar with Familysearch, and we know that there are some images available, but normally only through a designated library. (Our own library is an affiliated library where you will be able to view the images when we reopen). Amelia suggests that instead of just using a general search, you use the catalogue and filter for ‘online’ record sets under Availability. There, If there are images available you will see a camera symbol. These are not just limited to Parish Registers or Bishops Transcripts and don’t forget to check out the Familysearch WIKI www.familysearch.org/wiki.
You may not be aware that there is an index of places (mainly parishes) connected to Familysearch. Although it is not complete, it is useful to search for a particular parish. For further information, go to http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/index.htm.
She also recommends viewing Andrew Millard’s indexes to English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Probate Records where you can search for specific probate jurisdiction. http://community.dur.ac.uk/a.r.millard/genealogy/probate.php
I may have mentioned some of these before, but it is always worth looking at:
GENUKI – http://www.genuki.org.uk – Go to County then ‘Towns and Parishes’
Dusty Docs – http://www.dustydocs.com – Covers UK as well as Australia and New Zealand and links to websites containing parish records.
Online Genealogical Index – http://www.ogindex.org – links to records available for each parish.

There was also a talk on The Gentleman’s Magazines, which can be worth investigating. If you have not come across these before, they are very useful if your ancestors are middle and upper-class (could be high class trade). They contain births (not many), marriage and deaths and were first published in 1731 right up to 1922. They are available to view on Ancestry. There is an index available, but Alan Rushton suggests that you use the Hathi Trust website as it is free. https://www.hathitrust.org/

Another tip I may have already mentioned is that on all paid sites you can search their catalogue for free, which of course you can then look at other sites such as UKBMD, freereg, freecen, Parishmouse and if you have Warwickshire ancestors look at Pickard Trepass’s Pink pages, http://hunimex.com/warwick.
Also remember many of the paid sites have free sessions, especially with Christmas coming up, so make a list of what you need to look at, wait until these come along and blitz your list.
With all these websites it is worth ‘drilling down’ their catalogues to see what is available. You never know what you will find lurking underneath!
National Archives are still making available free digital documents at least until the end of the year. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/
FOLLOW UP
You may remember from my last newsletter that I mentioned an enquiry I had had about a Worcestershire cricketer. Well, Alan Smith, this is for you! I received this from Tim Jones, the Historian at Worcestershire Cricket Club. “His name was Major (first name) Davis and in his one and only first-class game for Worcestershire, he acquitted himself OK, 29 is a reasonable start for a first knock.
“He played just three second team games for Worcestershire but with little success, however, he had more success playing in The Birmingham league with Stourbridge. It looks like he was a good run getter for them over many seasons, the Birmingham League being the first ‘step down’ from the professional game….so he must have been a pretty good player to have played at that standard for the length of time he did.”
GROUP’S NEWS
BROMSGROVE – Mike Sharpe
The Bromsgrove Group’s monthly meetings during 2021 will be held on online via Zoom. Full details are contained in the yellow programme booklet, which you will receive with your December journal. Registration links will be posted on the main Midland Ancestors site and the Group’s own website, www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk, nearer the time.
WOLVERHAMPTON – Penny Smith
Wolverhampton Group are moving to new premises in 2021. (See programme booklet for details). The new venue is at Perton, Wolverhampton and there is also a change to day as well. The first meeting is not until the end of March as the venue is closed until then, but if you have not attended the Wolverhampton meeting before or not for some time, please go along and support the Group. Penny has said that if you would like to be added to her email list to be kept up to date regarding meetings at the new venue for 2021, please email Penny on wolverhamptongroup@midanc.uk.
LONDON – Dave Kerr
The London Branch is finding it very difficult to see when meetings can begin again so in the meantime encourages its members to “zoom in” on the meetings of the other Groups. However, advance planning could suggest that 3rd July 2021 is worth putting in your diary for a potential first meeting. This will allow the winter period of possible high infection to end and, being optimistic, allow for the vaccine distribution start to set in. Of course this depends on the decisions of the SoG and also for transport to and from London to start to look safe. Meetings next year will be talks by members and there are several volunteers so far. Although we can start planning with a little more optimism firmer decisions will have to be taken as the situation becomes clearer.
ONLINE SHOP
Steve Freeman tells me that there is an error on the shop page in the December journal. The My Family History Record Book, ref V517v2, should say it is on offer for £8, usually £9.99. The shop price will be correct at £8 from 01/12/20. These make excellent Christmas presents if you want to introduce somebody to family history.
Steve also sends out newsletters on shop sales so If you would like to receive Steve’s regular newsletter, go to the online shop page on the website and sign up.
Can I also remind you that if you pay your subscription by cheque or bank card, could you please add your telephone number just in case Steve has to ring you to get authentication and you may have noticed that we are not using our we are not using our normal address for subs.
On a sad note, can I just mention the deaths of two of our long-standing members. Albert Watkins, who with his wife June were stalwarts of the Society for many years. Albert ran the bookshop and June did my job, General Secretary. The other person to die was Olive Haddleton. Olive was our subscription secretary for many years and was a well-known face at the Birmingham meetings.
Your December journal should be winging its way to you shortly. We are in the middle of transferring the old database to a new model, so hopefully everybody who should be on my mailing list is actually on it, but if you don’t receive your journal within a reasonable time frame, let me know and I will send you another copy.
Finally, I know this has been a very difficult year, and we can all hope that 2021 will be bette, but can I, on behalf of everybody at Midland Ancestors, take this opportunity of wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a safe and Peaceful New Year.

Jackie
28.11.2020

Newsletter 6 – October 2020

It never ceases to amaze me the things I get asked. I realise that this is because I am the ‘font of all knowledge’, but some things stretch even my knowledge a little too far!

Last week I had an email asking if I knew anything about a certain cricketer that played one game for Worcestershire Cricket Club in 1900. Now I like cricket and technically because we live in Worcestershire, perhaps I should know more than I do, but my knowledge of its players is very limited.

Luckily, I did a search on Ancestry and as it happened somebody had this chap in his family tree, so I was able to help after all, but it set me thinking. If I get a tricky question like that, I always put the name, place or whatever into the Search engine I use and just click. You would be surprised just how often an answer comes up.

Along the same vein, how many of you stick to the same websites, even the paid ones? One of the most useful free sites I find is UKBMD https://www.ukbmd.org.uk. If you listened to my talk on Civil Registration, you would know that I am fan of this site as well as its sister sites, Freebmd, FreeCen and FreeReg. They may only be indexes, but they are always a good place to start to begin your search.

I see that FMP has put on some Birmingham cemetery burials, but according to some answers/questions on Facebook it is not complete, so if you cannot find your ancestor remember that we have transcribed the burial interment registers for Key Hill, Warstone Lane, Handsworth and Witton. The indexes can be viewed on our website in the Members area. Normally I would say that you can go into our Centre and look up the relevant pages, but that is not going to happen anytime soon, so you can obtain a copy for £5 via our online shop.

So many organisations from National Archives to Family History Societies are now using video conferencing, webinars, podcasts, etc. If you are wondering how they work, look on YouTube and put in a key word, Zoom, Teams, you will soon get the answer and all free.

ONLINE TALKS

Which brings me to our own online talks. We have a bumper month scheduled for November.

On 4th November at 2pm – Phil Lamb will be giving a talk entitled ‘Searching for Uncle George, lost in France 1916’. The talk centres on George Marquand Truss who died at the battle of the Somme and Phil will explain how he tracked his movements to find George’s final resting place.

Our Bromsgrove Group’s monthly meeting online is entitled ‘What’s in a Name – Talking Butts’ given by Anthony Paulton-Smith and will be held on 10th November at 7.30pm. Go to the Bromsgrove Group website for more details.

On 11th November at 7.30pm, Kenilworth Group will be hosting their first zoom talk. The talk will be by Jacqui Kirk, who is a well-known professional Genealogist based in Warwickshire and will be sharing some of her experiences in researching family history.

Lesley Plant, Secretary to the Group says: “If you’ve read any of the genealogy detective novels, such as the Morton Farrier ones by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, you may be wondering what does this occupation really entail, and is it really as dangerous for the genealogist as the novels suggest? The Kenilworth Group posed this question to Jacqui, and she agreed to tell us some of her experiences.

Dave Kerr, Chairman of our London Group will be presenting a talk entitled ‘Tompson or Thompson’ on 18th November at 2pm. He will talk about how differences in the spelling of family names can lead you up the wrong road.
For further details go to the Calendar on the website. Register no earlier than seven days prior to the talk via the Calendar.

PARK STREET BURIAL GROUND

Considerable interest was generated by the ‘Dig’ at Park Street, Birmingham shown on TV. Just to reiterate, the burial ground is being excavated because of the HS2 station and was an extension to St. Martin’s Parish Church. As such any burials at Park Street are contained in the main registers for St. Martin’s.

You may be aware, that some years ago the Society re-filmed all the records for St. Martin’s (including some that had been missing from the original filming) and these are available to purchase via our online shop. There are in total about 1 million entries and the registers have been split into various chunks., which we sell as downloads, but the original DVD of the total register is still available to purchase at a remarkable price of £30. The records include:
Baptisms 1554-1929
Marriages 1554-1903
Burials 1554-1915

Go to our online shop https://midland-ancestors.shop/ for further details

Phil has been sent information about webinars to do with the archaeology of the HS2 project covering the Midlands.
Go to HS2 archaeology webinars on YouTube
The Archaeology of HS2 – Uncovering Park Street
The Archaeology of HS2 – Uncovering Mercote Marsh and Fosse Way
The Archaeology of HS2 – Uncovering Coleshill
The Archaeology of HS2 – Uncovering finds from Fleet Marston Recording
The Archaeology of HS2 – Exploring the Landscape Evolution of the Colne Valley
An Introduction to Archaeology of HS2 Phase 2a – Fradley to Crewe

PROGRAMME 2021

Our Groups have been sending me their programmes for 2021, which will be issued with the December journal.

Obviously, we do not know what is going to happen in 2021, and when we will get back to some form of normality, but if the worst should happen and we are still not able to meet personally, some of the Groups can give their talks online.

Please do check the relevant Group pages on our website before you travel to any of the venues.

WOLVERHAMPTON GROUP – Penny Smith

Our Wolverhampton Group will be moving premises in 2021. Their new address will be The Perton Civic Centre, Perton, Wolverhampton. They are also changing the day they meet to the last Wednesday of the month. Some meetings will be in the evening and some in the afternoon. Please note Perton centre is closed for January and February, so the Group’s first meeting will not be until 31 March in the afternoon.

LONDON GROUP – Dave Kerr

The London Branch continues to monitor the situation and has enough volunteers within the group to speak at any meetings that might be able to take place at short notice. Of course the “rule of six” and future restrictions on the group size at the Society of Genealogists will determine when we can meet again. The use of public transport to attend a London meeting is somewhat undesirable at the moment though I understand that there are few travelling from Bedford nowadays. There are even spaces in the car park during the week! For anyone desperate enough to want to see and hear your chairman again there will no doubt be a reminder in this newsletter about his zoom appearance! (Must finish the talk off in light of new information!)

FORTHCOMING DIGITAL FAMILY HISTORY SHOW

If you are a Facebook user, you may have seen that the Family History Federation are holding a virtual Family History Show on 14 November 10am to 4pm with lots of very well-known speakers, family history societies, Ask the Experts etc.

I think that how it will work is a bit like using Zoom, Exhibitors will have their own ‘channel’ and visitors can chose where they want to go. There are 25 well known speakers and if you cannot get round them all, their talks will be available for 48 hours after the event. If you are interested in attending, tickets are £7 each. For further details, go to https://www.fhf-reallyuseful.com/

Finally, Linda our Editor of the Midland Ancestor, has asked me to remind you that she is always looking for contributions for the magazine. If you need to contact Linda, you can on editor@midanc.uk.

Jackie Cotterill

Copyright © 2020 Midland Ancestors, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are a members of Midland Ancestors

Welcome to Newsletter No. 5

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Trustees held an online meeting to discuss the viability of Groups re-opening. After consulting with our Groups, it was decided that all Groups would continue to be closed, including the Family History Centre in Birmingham, until at least the New Year. The Trustees will meet again in November to review the situation and then make a further decision.
SOCIETY AGM
Normally the Society’s Annual General Meeting is held in May. However, for obvious reasons, this year’s AGM was cancelled and the Trustees have been discussing how they can facilitate safely holding the AGM. As the Society is a charity, we must be guided by the Charities Commission who have said that we should hold an AGM when safe to do so. As it is unlikely we will be back to normal anytime soon, the Trustees have considered all options and have decided that the safest and easiest option would be to hold the 2021 AGM on our normal date of 5 May 2021. This will allow time for the present situation to resolve itself so we don’t have to alter the date.
ZOOM TALKS
We are continuing with our online talks for October. Full details are on the Society’s website under Events. All events start at 2pm UK time. Registration for each talk will open 7 days before the event.

On Wednesday, 7 October: Online Event – Writing Your Family History @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Mike Sharpe, Chairman of our Bromsgrove Group; a professional researcher and genealogist will be describing how to build basic facts about your family into an engaging narrative.
On Wednesday 21st October: Online Event – The 1939 Register @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Member Ann Simcock will explain to us how the Register came about and how it can be used to assist with researching our more recent ancestry. She will also highlight some of the frustrations associated with its use.
The Bromsgrove Group will be using Zoom for the rest of its 2020 meetings. As members of the Society, you are all entitled to attend any of the groups’ meetings, and this would also apply to the online talks.
On 13 October 7.30pm: John Butterworth will be talking about the Boer War

You can register for this event by going to www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk and following the link.
I have been asked about accessibility to these talks via our website. Some of the talks, such as the ones that I and Mark Thursfield present belong to the Society, so we can publish those. The others, given by outside speakers, are the intellectual property of the speakers themselves and it depends on whether they will give us permission to publish.
POLICEMAN OF BIRMINGHAM
Was your ancestor a policeman within our area? If so, you might like to look at this video of all the fallen officers from West Midlands Police and its predecessor forces: Coventry City Police, Wolverhampton Borough Police, Walsall Borough Police, Birmingham City Police and Dudley Borough Police, as well as members of the Night Watch, who died whilst on duty or in relation to their police duty

UK’S BIGGEST DIG

If you are in the UK you will be aware of the building of the HS2, a railway line running from London to Birmingham and beyond. One of the consequences of this build is that along the way many churchyards and cemeteries are having to be excavated and the bodies reinterred somewhere else.

The excavation of two of these cemeteries has been filmed and can be seen on BBC iPlayer, and is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIL-HT1YNJ0

The London site, St. James Churchyard, contained an estimated 50,000 bodies and one of which, which will be of interest to our Australian Members is explorer Matthew Flinders who first circumnavigated Australia and who the Flinders ranges and the wonderful Flinders railway station in Melbourne are named after. The whole churchyard had been grassed over and made into a park, so nobody really knew where he was buried. Luckily, his coffin had a wonderful breast plate, so he could be identified.

At the other end of the line, Park Street cemetery was an overspill cemetery to St. Martin’s parish church containing many pauper graves. It was first opened in 810 and closed in 1873 and contains over 6,500 bodies, mainly from the poor of the City. It brought back memories for one of our members, David Pullar, who transcribed the burial records for the Society.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

As you are aware all fairs, shows, etc. (including our own) have been cancelled for this year. Now what do we do with the spare time?

A couple of events coming up that you may be interested in:

The Family History Federation Really Useful Family History Show virtual family history event is on 14 November 2020. Early bird tickets are available now for £5 (up until the end of October) and includes a virtual “goody bag”. The list of speakers that I have been sent are impressive, so if this is of interest to you go to https://www.fhf-reallyuseful.com/

RootsTech, is a genealogy conference organised by Familysearch and normally held at Salt Lake City each year, although there was an event in London this year. Because of the present pandemic restrictions, RootsTech Connect will be a free virtual event online from Thursday 25 to Saturday 27 February 2021.
I must admit I have not attended a RootsTech event, I have always found the tickets expensive, especially adding to it travel costs, so in order to take advantage of this being free, I have already booked up for this event on line. According to the website: “There will inspiring keynote speakers as well as a virtual marketplace where visitors will be able to discover a variety of family history tools. Although all classes and webinars will be free to watch, participants will still need to reserve a place at the conference via www.RootsTech.org.

BRITISH HOME CHILDREN DAY – 28 SEPTEMBER
Today is British Home Children Day and if you are looking for a child sent to Canada between 1869 to 1939 (1948 to British Columbia), there is a register you can search. The webpage is http://britishhomechildrenregistry.com/
FINALLY …….
The deadline for the December edition of The Midland Ancestor is 5th October, so if you have a story you would like to tell, or even just a snippet of a few lines, then email Linda Newey a line on editor@midanc.uk.
Jackie Cotterill

Welcome to Newsletter No. 4.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Trustees held an online meeting this week to discuss the viability of Groups re-opening. After consulting with our Groups, it was decided that all Groups would continue to be closed, including the Family History Centre in Birmingham, until at least the New Year. The Trustees will meet again in November to review the situation and then make a further decision.
ZOOM TALKS
We are continuing with our online talks for September. Full details are on the Society’s website under Events. Registration for each talk will open 7 days before the event.

On Wednesday, 2 September Mark Thursfield will be talking about Wills before 1858. It can be quite a complicated subject and until 1858 there were more than 200 church courts, each of which kept separate registers of Wills. Mark’s talk leads us through the labyrinth of trying to determine which Court is appropriate to finding your ancestor’s Will. He will also show that people did not have to be rich to leave a Will. https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/online-event-wills-before-1858/ Registration for this talk is now open.

On Wednesday, 16 September I will be talking about Civil Registration. We all know that it started in 1837, but how and why and where you can find this information for free is what I want to show you. https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/online-event-civil-registration/
The Bromsgrove Group will be using Zoom for the rest of its 2020 meetings. As members of the Society, you are all entitled to attend any of the groups’ meetings and this would also apply to the online talks.
Bromsgrove meetings will be held at the original dates and times but will be hosted on Midland Ancestors’ Zoom account. The upcoming meetings and speakers are:
– 08 September: Almshouses: A Home for the Poor – Ned Williams
– 13 October: The Boer War – John Butterworth
– 10 November: What’s In A Names; Talking Butts – Anthony Paulton-Smith
– 08 December – Christmas Social – to be confirmed.
You can register for these events by going to www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk and following the link.
PROJECT WORK
One area I would like to mention is the Society’s Project work. Just because we are not meeting does not mean that our project work stops. Our transcribers continue to work come what may and I just want to tell you about one or two of our transcribers and their work.
Marion Hall is working on transcriptions for the Staffordshire Parish Records Society, which are sold via our shop as well as will be available in our library when finished.
Robin Bird has been working hard on his war graves/memorial project. He has told me: “Some of our members might have people on some of the memorials I am researching and have information I can add to that which I have already got”. You can contact Robin through me if you think you are able to help.
Kim Walker is leading the team that is working on the Warwickshire Parish Records and Rob Carter of North Staffs who is leading a project to photograph memorials in the churches of North Staffs. (see below)
I also have two ongoing projects, when I get a bit fed up with one, I continue with the other one! Firstly I have been transcribing memorial inscriptions sent to me by members of a local church and I am also transcribing Methodist baptisms for Birmingham.
If you have any spare time and would like to keep busy, let me know. Your help is always appreciated.
ARCHIVES OPENING
Archives across our region are slowly opening their doors, but to a very different visiting system than before. If you are planning on visiting any archives, here or abroad, please check ahead and you will probably have to book a time and date.
If you are one of our Facebook members, I do publish links to various Archive offices within our area that I think may have items to interest you, so if you have not joined us on Facebook, please do.
Unfortunately, as you will have read above, we are unable to re-open our own Family History Centre, mainly because we feel that we cannot adhere to the Government’s guidelines on social distancing and keep our librarians and members safe. We will, of course, advise you when we feel it is safe to re-open.
There are some very interesting talks available online. I regularly subscribe to National Archives and Society of Genealogists, together with local Archives. Just do a Google search for your chosen website and see what comes up.
The Society of Genealogists have released their September programme and again there are some very interesting talks coming up. Not all purely family history related, but some more social history. To find out more why not sign up for their monthly newsletter which is available at: www.sog.org.uk/about/newsletter.
National Archives also publish a newsletter, dealing with more general items to do with its online services, opening times, etc. but still worth reading. https://www.archives.gov/publications/email-newsletters.
A recent article that came to me on our Facebook page was about divorce records in Birmingham. One question I get asked quite often, is about divorce records, and although Birmingham Archives do not hold any divorce papers, they have published this article. https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2020/08/24/divorce-records
I have also been asked to mention a book that was released just as we went into Lockdown about The Lost Children Project, which is the story of 5000 children emigrated from the Middlemore homes in Birmingham to Canada between 1873 and 1948 written by Val M. Hart and Rowena Lyon. It costs £4 plus post and packing and can be obtained through the website www.balsallheathistory.co.uk
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE DECEMBER
Steve Freeman, our Bookshop Manager, tells me that the Banks are tightening their online security where card payments are concerned. All online card payments will eventually need to be authenticated, usually by sending a text to the customers’ mobile phone with a one-time passcode. (Not sure what happens if you don’t have a mobile phone) If you do pay your subscription by sending card details by post, which is not really a safe option, he suggests that you also write on your phone number so we can call you if necessary.
The two safest options for paying your subscription are to either pay by Standing Order, easily set up on line with your bank for payments to be automatically paid at the beginning of each year, or to pay via our online shop where payments are taken by our partners over a secure encrypted internet connection.
I will write further about this in our December journal, but it may be something you need to think about.
GROUPS

Dave Kerr, Chairman of our London Group writes:
London Group continues to monitor all the conditions surrounding the resumption of talks at the SoG along with the Executive Committee. The SoG is now open and one of our London Group members has reported back on a visit he made, and he tells us “It all went pretty normally. I was able to read a fiche. I looked at several books and dropped them into a bin to be quarantined or sanitised when I had finished. I think advance booking of a computer was required, but I did not use one. There were volunteers and staff present.”
However before any visit you should read what they say on their web site as restrictions will be ever evolving. http://www.sog.org.uk/about/coronavirus/
The meeting room is not back in full use however and no talks are planned during the remainder of 2020. When we can return for meetings, they will be member led until we are sure that life is returning to some degree of normality and regularity. Travel to the capital remains a major issue in the London Group’s considerations.

From Rob Carter, North Staffs Group.
More and More churches and chapels are being lost or turned into restaurants or residential properties, so this begs the question were do the memorials go?
Can you spare a little time to photograph or transcribe:
* Memorials located inside churches, chapels etc.
* Photograph any war memorials
* Headstones within churches or chapels
* Headstones in churchyards
* Photograph any war memorials
* Headstones within churches or chapels
* Headstones in churchyards
If you feel you can help, please email me and I will let you know which churches/chapels need to have their memorials photographed

Message from our Linda Newey, our Editor:
Can I invite you all to submit your contributions please, hopefully in good time for the December submission deadline which is Monday 5 October 2020

Finally, can I say a big thank you to Phil Lamb. Not only is Phil organising all the Zoom talks, he has now put my newsletters on the website. If you would like to read previous one, these are available in the News Section.

Jackie Cotterill