Newsletters

Last month I announced that we had good news, with the restrictions on the library being lifted. Unfortunately after our last meeting in Birmingham, some of our members and librarians went down with covid.

Restrictions have not been re-introduced, but can I remind you all that if you are feeling unwell, it is safer to stay at home. Although national restrictions have been lifted, it is still up to us all to try and keep each other safe. Take a test if you want to, wear a mask, sanitize your hands, we need to try and make sure that everybody that comes to our meetings or to the library are as safe as we can possibly be.

Although traditionally August is our holiday month, the library will still be open daily apart from the Bank holiday Monday/Tuesday at the end of the month. The library hours are Monday to Friday10:15 – 12:30 and 12:45 – 15:00.

The librarians on duty each day are:
Monday – Liz & Steve
Tuesday – Bernie & Gareth
Wednesday – Sue & Linda
Thursday – Mark & Pat
Friday – Caroline

Changes to these opening days and times take place when a bank holiday occurs, sometimes including even the Tuesday. If travelling from a distance you are advised to check first, preferably a few days in advance. You can do so by phoning 0121 236 8977.

Full details can be seen on the Society website, https://midland-ancestors.uk/about/libraries/

As you may know, we are also a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, and last week I was on temporary duty and had chance to view their images. Unfortunately, some of what I wanted to look for was not there, so it will be a trip to the Record Office for me, but there were many that helped me, especially records from far flung places.

Last Saturday, I also went on a tour of the catacombs in Key Hill and Warstone Lane run by the Friends of KH&WL. I have always wanted to see inside although no bodies (ghoulish as I am), but the tunnels themselves were very atmospheric. Richard, our guide, did a wonderful job painting such a graphic picture of their use. When money allows, they are hoping that more of the tunnels will be uncovered. It is thought that in Key Hill there is the remains of a disused lift that was used to drop the coffins down from the chapel into the catacombs. You can see pictures on their Twitter page https://twitter.com/FriendsKHandWL

There are more tours planned, so keep an eye on our Facebook page.

North Staffs Group
Rob Carter of our North Staffs Group has asked for help photographing headstones and internal monuments of churches in the North Staffs area. This has been an ongoing project of Rob’s for many years, but it is not something he can do on his own. If you are able to help, Rob can be contacted on Robcarter@hotmail.com.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sunday 25 September 2022 10:00 – 16:00 – The Birmingham Local and Family History Fair

This is a Society event and so far we have 35+ tables featuring community groups, history groups, genealogy groups, small commercials, postcards, photographs, memorabilia, books, souvenirs and local artwork.

Phil is currently looking for some assistance with distribution of flyers for this event. He has identified about 70 libraries in and around the city with display facilities. He has a list of them but he won’t be able to get to them all. Already 15 members have volunteered to assist and that has been most welcome but he could do with more help in some postcode areas. You might get an email from him. If you do and you can help it would be much appreciated.
You can see a flyer for the event here – https://birminghamhistoryfair.uk/about
And a list of exhibitors here – https://birminghamhistoryfair.uk/exhibitors-in-2022/

Heritage Weekend – 17 September.

As I have already mentioned The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries will be at Warstone Lane Cemetery on 17 September. If you are interested in going on one of their very popular walks, you will need to book early.

Further details can be found on http://www.fkwc.org/
Bookings are by Eventbrite.

I shall also be there manning a table promoting the Society. Don’t know what will be on it yet, but if you would like to come along to help, please let me know.

SoG lunchtime talk
I know this may seem a bit far off, but I just wanted you tell you about this event as I don’t know how popular it will be.
Caroline Mason, who many of you may know via the library or online, has kindly agreed to speak at one of the Society of Genealogy lunchtime talks about tracing Midlands Ancestors and our Society on 12 October (2-3:30). Lori Weinstein of the SoG advises that this event is only normally open to SoG members, but they will allow members of Midlands Ancestors to attend for a registration fee of £1.50.

If you are interested in attending, the booking link is here:
https://societyofgenealogists.arlo.co/w/events/289-lunchtime-chat-tracing-your-midland-ancestors

Friday 11 November 6:00pm – 10:00pm GMT and Saturday 12 November 10:00am – 6:00pm GMT – Really Useful online Family History Show
Organised by the Family History Federation
Full details can be found on www.fhf-reallyuseful.com

NEWS FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Nearly 100,000 more Second World War service records are now available to order from The National Archives in Kew, including records from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.

The series, ‘War Office: Selected Smaller Corps Other Ranks: Service Records’, has the reference number WO 421. It can be searched via TNA’s online catalogue Discovery at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C17682287.
The series consists of 94,234 service records of soldiers (excluding officers) who served in the Army Air Corps; the Royal Army Veterinary Corps; the Royal Military Police or Corps of Military Police; the Royal Army Pay Corps; the Royal Army Physical Training Corps; the Military Provost Staff Corps; the Royal Corps of Army Music; the Royal Army Education Corps; the Royal Pioneer Corps; the Intelligence Corps; the Officer Training Corps; and the Non-Combatant Corps. It only includes soldiers who were discharged because they were over age.

In February 2021, the MOD began transferring all 9.7 million historic service records to TNA. In April 2022 the first tranche was released on Discovery, covering the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, in series WO 420. (Thanks to WDYTYA magazine for this information.

The Rothschild Foundation Europe has recently launched Yerusha as a Europe-wide portal for Jewish archival heritage.
It contains descriptions of more than 12,000 collections supplied by institutions in 27 countries, reflecting 1,600 years of Jewish history.

The National Archives contributed 36 catalogue descriptions as part of the Mapping Jewish London project, led by AIM25.

Yerusha

Finally, don’t forget to send Linda our editor anything you have for the Journal. Unfortunately, Linda has gone down with Covid, so the journal may be a little late in being released.

That’s all folks – run out of time! I won’t be around much during August, off visiting Record Offices.

Jackie

Mid Summer here and for once the weather is glorious (sorry if it is the middle of winter wherever you are). Now is a good time to tell you about what’s coming up in the next month.
SOCIETY TALKS
London: Sat 2 Jul, @ 10.30am – 12.30pm: Karen Evans on using DNA research in your family Tree. Meeting held at Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission, 49 City Road, London EC1Y 1AU
Birmingham: Weds. 6Jul, @ 2pm – 4pm: Karen Evans on Where does my family come from? Unlocking the secrets of DNA testing. This will be a Zoom Hybrid Meeting taking place in the BMI Margaret Street, Birmingham B3 3BS and virtually.
Kenilworth Wed 13 July @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Summer Social Members’ Evening. Meeting held at the |Kenilworth Centre, Abbey End Car Park, Kenilworth CV8 1QJ
Stourbridge: Tue 19 July @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (Meet at St. Peter’s Church Centre)
Visit to St Mary’s Church, Kingswinford for a guided tour by Margaret Penn. St Mary’s Church Kingswinford has been in existence since 12th Century and probably longer. Cost £4 (advance booking essential)
Wolverhampton: Wed 27 July @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Coroners’ Inquest Records Talk by genealogist Liz Palmer Meeting held at Perton Civic Centre, Church Road, Perton WV6 7PD
North Staffs: Mon, 4 July @ 7.30pm – 9.30pm – Research Evening. Meeting held at St John’s Centre, Newcastle Road, Stoke on Trent ST4 6QD
Bromsgrove: Are now on their summer break. They reconvene on 13 September, 7.45pm at the Methodist Centre as usual. Speaker is Sandra Taylor, ‘Flowers in the Field’, about nursing in the First World War.
Full details of most of these events can be seen on the Society website, in the yellow programme booklet or by visiting individual Group’s websites.
Since the pandemic, as one would expect, attendance at our Groups has greatly reduced, to such an extent that some groups are contemplating closing. We are hoping that by ‘getting back to normal’ members will once again attend in person, not only to hear some particularly good speakers and, of course, ‘the chat’, so if you live on your own, to be able to leave the house once a month Is good for your mental wellbeing.
As you may be aware, the Birmingham Group has split its meetings to Wednesday afternoon and a Saturday afternoon. A suggestion had been made that we should drop the Wednesday meeting and only hold Saturday meetings. Before we do anything, we need to know what the attendees (you) would like us to do, so can you please let me have your views. Nothing will be done before the end of the year at least.
The Family History Centre is now back to opening five days a week, but as we are now coming to the holiday season, if you intend visiting the library, it might be a good idea to check just to make sure the library is open.
Other Forthcoming Events
The Genealogy Show is holding an online Summer event on 1-3 July from 12 noon. There are different areas available, Main stage talks, on demand talks, reading room, speakers, corner. Full information is available on their website including how to purchase tickets. https://thegenealogyshow.uk/
-oOo-
The Society of Australian Genealogists are starting a seven week online course on 2 July on Intermediate Research methods presented by Danielle Leutrec.
They have another online course which may be of interest on Tues 12 July 8.00pm-9.00pm AEST Tracing Welsh Family History – The Basics (ST) presented by Eilir Ann Daniels
-oOo-
The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane Cemetery are holding Catacombs Tours. This is a rare opportunity to view the interior of both Warstone Lane Cemetery catacombs and Key Hill Cemetery catacombs on Sat 23 July at the Jewellery Quarter Festival.
No human remains or coffins will be visible. The first tour is at 12 noon viewing the interior of Warstone Lane catacombs, then walking to neighbouring Key Hill catacombs. The same tour is repeated at 2pm. Pre-booking essential. £6.00 plus booking fee. Places are limited.

Please reserve each ticket in the attendee’s name and bring each eticket to the sales and information stall 20 minutes before the tour begins.
Also note whilst there is no charge for those who hold a current subscription to the Friends for Guided Tours of the cemeteries this does not apply to the catacomb tours.
Reserve you place – for catacomb tours https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-rare-opportunity-to-view-the-interiors-of-the-birmingham-catacombs-in-war-tickets-370410246017?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Ensure you wear suitable footwear. There will also be an information and Sales stall.
-oOo-
The Guild of One-Name Studies is holding its next seminar on Saturday 30th July 2022 at Swindon Village Community Hall, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL51 9QP
Entitled ‘The Invisible Roots’ – finding the women in your family history
This seminar, consisting of 5 presentations during the day, and will explore legal changes, the impact of raising children, and women’s work inside and outside the home. It will discuss how women are recorded in a one name study and hear some members’ stories of a significant and maybe unconventional woman in their family.
One of the Speakers is Janet Few the President of the Federation of Family History Societies
Full details of the programme and booking information are available at https://one-name.org/seminar-events/
-o0o-
NOT FORGETTING – of course! Our very own LOCAL AND FAMILY HISTORY FAIR
Sunday 25 September 10am to 4pm at: The Theatre, Midland Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH
Download the flyer from our website and pass it around – www.birminghamhistoryfair.uk
-oOo-
Marriage mining in the West Midlands
Member Keith Percy has asked me to update you on the article above which was first published in the March edition of the Midland Ancestor in 2011 with a follow up article in the Midland Ancestor Dec 2021 (Back issues are available via the Members only area on the website. Both articles are well worth reading:
Peter Loach has extended his Tables of GRO page ranges of marriages by which a marriage falling within a particular GRO page range for a particular quarter of a year can be reconciled with a particular Anglican church and a few “Authorised Persons” non-conformist churches or chapels.
They now cover Solihull Registration District churches 1837-1912. All the “Loach Tables” can be downloaded from Keith Percy’s website https://www.whitehousefhc.org: go to “Articles” and “MARRIAGE MINING W MIDS 220528”. Peter has sent printed copies to Birmingham Archives and Warwick Record Office.
 On Keith’s website are other articles which members may find of interest, such as Marriage mining in Yorkshire and Nottingham.
He also mentions the Diana Grant apprentice index, published online by the Staffordshire Record Office (SRO), and gives the forename and surname of an apprentice, his age and parish, but only the surname of the master. See https://www.staffsnameindexes.org.uk/
NB There are a lot of Cotterills (+var) listed, but none from my husband’s family unfortunately! Lots of other indexes available on the SRO website.
FindmyPast
Findmypast, has announced it will be offering free webinars to support new members, offering helpful tips and advice, as well as addressing specific queries.
The sessions will cover:
• Getting started with building your tree and important tips for success
• Getting the most out of Findmypast’s core record sets
• Delving deeper into sub-categories and record-specific searches
• Uncovering rich stories through connected platforms, such as The British Newspaper Archive
• Understanding the varied range of tools and records available through your Findmypast subscription option
• https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_R2vUKyiSQryV-j3eZJFeqw
-oOo-
The lost Children exhibition – July 14th to end of October 2022 at The Back to Backs at Hurst St, Birmingham B5 4TE No disability access – steep stairs (National Trust property, needs booking).
2022 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Children’s Emigration Homes in Highgate, founded by John Middlemore. Between the years 1873 and 1954 they emigrated over 5000 deprived children chiefly to Canada but also to Australia aiming to give them the opportunity of a better life. For many years the children went to farming families in the remote backwoods of Canada and then later to Fairbridge Farm Schools in both Canada and Australia.
An article about the Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School, Vancouver was written by Kay Whalley is in the December 2019 edition of the Midland Ancestor.
-oOo-
On Keith’s website he also mentions the Margaret Higgins Database of Catholics In England And Their Friends 1607–1840.
 See Keith’s article in Midland Ancestor Dec 2017
Produced by The Catholic Family History Society, this is a collection of records relating to approximately 274,500 individuals and transcribed from England’s ‘Returns of Papists’ and a good many other sources. Available through Genfair. https://genfair.co.uk/product/the-margaret-higgins-database-of-catholics-in-england-and-their-friends-1607-1840
-oOo-

On the Family History Federation website you can listen to various podcasts to help with your research. The present one is on getting the best out of newspapers. There are many other articles under the Resources tab. https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/
-oOo-
Member Steve Burrows tells me he has produced a book of Brummie (and Black Country) sayings and slang called “Ta-ra-a-bit our Kid” which he hopes may interest members. It is available on Amazon but if there was enough interest he could supply the online shop. He says: “It has proved very popular with Brummies (of which I am one – 4 generations at least)”.
Finally (I am getting to the end I promise!)
I’ve had a request for old magazines – The old family tree magazines, WDYTYA magazines. If you have any that you would like to get rid of (don’t send them to me!) contact Paul Wilkins on paulwilkinsbarmouth@gmail.co.
Jackie

GOOD NEWS!
Some good news for a change, all restrictions have now been lifted for visitors to the Family History Centre at The Birmingham & Midland Institute.
The library is open every day, Monday to Friday10:15 – 12:30 and 12:45 – 15:00.
The librarians on duty each day are:
Monday – Liz & Steve
Tuesday – Bernie & Gareth
Wednesday – Sue & Linda
Thursday – Mark & Pat
Friday – Caroline

Changes to these opening days and times will take place when a bank holiday occurs, sometimes including even the Tuesday. If travelling from a distance you are advised to check first. You can do so by phoning Bernie on 0121 454 4307. If unavailable, telephone the BMI on 0121 236 3591.

Full details can be seen on the Society website, https://midland-ancestors.uk/about/libraries/
As you may know, we are also a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, and I can’t wait to go in to view the images of the original records that go with the LDS historical indexes. There are an estimated 400 million + images of original records that you cannot see at home. My list of things to do in the library grows longer by the minute. Perhaps I should take in my bed!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sunday 25 September 2022 10:00 – 16:00 – The Birmingham Local and Family History Fair

Now all restrictions have been lifted (and we hope it stays that way), Phil has organised another Birmingham Local and Family History Fair at the Midland Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham. There will be 35+ tables featuring community groups, history groups, genealogy groups, small commercials, postcards, photographs, memorabilia, books, souvenirs and local artwork
More details here – www.birminghamhistoryfair.uk
 
Friday 11 November 6:00pm – 10:00pm GMT and Saturday 12 November 10:00am – 6:00pm GMT – Really Useful online Family History Show

Organised by the Family History Federation
Full details can be found on www.fhf-reallyuseful.com (Early bird tickets available now)
18 June 2022 – Online Event 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM – In Search of…My English Ancestors

Presented by Society of Australian Genealogists
Cost: Members – AU$70.00
Non-members – AU$110.00
This may be of interest to our members abroad, a one-day virtual conference with presentations on how to research your English ancestors.

For further information go to https://www.sag.org.au/events

Saturday 11th June 2022 – Local history in Britain Day

To be held at the Conway Hall, London or will be available online. Guest-speaker for the day, lecturer and BBC broadcaster Dr Janina Ramirez.

For further details go to https://www.balh.org.uk

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS
Wednesday, 1 June 2022 – 2pm – 4pm – Lost industries and businesses of Birmingham – Keith Clenton
To be held at the BMI Birmingham or available online.
For many years Keith has been involved with Carl Chinn Birmingham Lives Photographic Archive. Keith will present photographs that outline the decline in manufacturing resulting in the closure of many firms.
To register go to https://midland-ancestors.uk/events click on the calendar and scroll down to the appropriate entry.

North Staffs Group – 6 June – Research evening

Wolverhampton Group – 29 June – Members research session

Kenilworth Group – 8 June – Richard Churchley presents My Churchley family: a typical West midlands family?

Stourbridge Group – 21 June – Paul Hudson presents Stories from the collection at the Hive, Worcester

Full details are also available in the yellow programme booklet.

OTHER NEWS

You may or may not be aware that a new system for registering marriages came into force last year which includes the names of the couple’s parents. That’s the good news and there are two bits of bad news. All records will now be kept electronically and although churches may continue to have marriage registers, they will no longer fulfil any legal requirement, and any certificates issued by the church will be ceremonial rather than legal. At least as family historians we may still be able to see the registers.

The other bit of bad news is that although the mother’s details will be included, they will only include her married name and not her maiden name.

(Talk about one step forward and two steps back).

Thanks to Peter Calver in his Lost Cousins newsletter for this information

-oOo-.

Oxfordshire family history Society have sent me details of a huge list of Facebook genealogy groups, containing 16,700+ links (updated in January 2021) https://moonswings.files.wordpress.com/…/genealogy-on-Facebook-Jan-2021.pdf

Based on Cyndi’s listing, and starting with the USA, it is worth searching and we are in there!

-oOo-.

Something else you might be interested in reading is a blog from David Annal. David is a very well-known Family Historian, member of the GoONS and AGRA and head of Lifelines Research.

Following various discussions about the quality of the 1921 census, David has penned a blog on Transcripts and Indexes and the question of charging users for an imperfect transcription.

He points out that the idea that it might be possible to create a commercial transcription which even approaches 100% accuracy, is a pipe dream, especially as the work itself if not checked when transcribed.

Even the 1881 census which was a collaboration between the LDS and Family History Societies, although checked and re-checked, contains what we would call transcription errors and the reason being is that transcribers were told to transcribe what was written. Any error could be on the part of the enumerator who could not know the area, only writes down what he ‘thinks’ he hears but also people didn’t necessarily tell the truth!

So please read David’s blog. There is also an interesting one of Key Hill Cemetery. https://lifelinesresearch.co.uk/2022/05/22/transcripts-and-indexes/

-oOo-.

An interesting article has popped up on my Facebook page from National Archives. It is called Recovering the record: Beyond 2022 at The National Archives. A century ago on 30 June 1922 the Four Courts in Dublin were destroyed in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil War.
This is where the seven centuries of Irish archival history was stored and in the main, destroyed.
Now, however, technological advances and a renewed interest have made it possible to assess fully what has been lost and through a project called Beyond 2022, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland will launch on 27 June 2022.
Comprised of historians, archivists, computer scientists, heritage scientists, and conservators, based at Trinity College Dublin, it has five core partners (National Archives Ireland, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, The National Archives of the UK, the Irish Manuscripts Commission, and the Library at Trinity College Dublin), alongside the participation of over 70 memory institutions worldwide.
For the last five years work has been ongoing to assess fully what was in the PROI when it was destroyed, before searching for records that act as replacements for those that were destroyed in 1922.
Fascinating stuff and I know that technically it is not ‘in our area’, but I am sure that most of us have some ‘Irish’ in our family somewhere.

For further information go https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/recovering-the-record-beyond-2022-at-the-national-archives

-oOo-

A bit closer to home, were your relations in Burma in WW2 at a place called Kohima? The Kohima Museum have posted on their Facebook page an article about the War Diaries and especially the men in the Worcestershire Regiment who were killed on 11 April 1944. To read the full article go to the Kohima Museum page on Facebook or go to their website http://www.kohimamuseum.co.uk/

Thanks to Avril in my local U3A Group for drawing my attention to this.
-oOo-
Can I mention again our Facebook pages. During the month I do get in lots of information on courses, articles, etc. that are normally too late for me to use in my newsletter but I do post them on to either our BMSGH Members only Facebook page, or our general Midland Ancestors Facebook page. I know a lot of members are wary about signing up to Facebook, but provided you are careful and don’t click on links that you are unsure about, you should not have a problem. So if nothing else why not just sign up to our Society pages:
BMSGH Members Only page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1078784015528807
Midland Ancestors DNA Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/277503292752151
Midland Ancestors General Page https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=midland%20ancestors

Don’t forget to send Linda any articles you may have for the Midland Ancestors.
Steve Freeman has asked me to let you know the current shop offers which are available via the online shop at https://midland-ancestors.shop
This is a list of current discounts:
• Get 20% off all books, new or used, use coupon code book20 during checkout
• My Family History record book was £9.99, so with offer is £8, our biggest seller
• There are lots of other special offers available as well, https://midland-ancestors.shop/index.php?route=product/special
• Dawn has been adding more used books, so keep an eye on the “Latest” section on the shop home page as more will be added over the coming weeks
To use a coupon/discount code, view Shopping Cart (black box top right) and select “Use Coupon Code” and add your code, then go to checkout to complete your order
Finally, a little bit of sad news. Many of you may have known, or at least have heard of Iain Swinnerton. Col. Swinnerton joined the Society in 1971 and was instrumental in the formation of the Stourbridge Group. He held many ‘hats’ within the Society including Treasurer. He was also ‘our’ expert on anything military. Iain died last Tuesday aged 90 and his expertise will be sadly missed. Our condolences to his family.
So that’s it for now. If you have anything you would like to pass on to our other members, please let me know.

Jackie

Well I’m back – did you miss me?
I am going to start by drawing your attention to the forthcoming AGM on Wednesday, 4 May at 2pm being held back in situ at the Birmingham & Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham. This will hopefully be a hybrid meeting with an audience in the room and those joining us on Zoom. It will be lovely to see you all back in the room with us.
Over the last two years Societies such as ours have had to change and adapt, and we need to keep up with changing trends, so we need more members involved with the organisation and running of the Society.
If you think you think you can make a difference in the running of the Society, why not become a Trustee and join the Exec Committee? Now that all the committee meetings are held via zoom, it does not matter where you live, your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Remember this is your Society and your input is greatly appreciated.
Following the AGM Andrew Lound will give us a talk on the ‘Lunatick’ Astronomy – Boulton and the Lunar Society. If you have never heard one of Andrew’s talks before, he certainly enters into the spirit of his talk, so please join us if you can. I will say no more!!
Looking through my programme booklet, I see I have missed some really interesting talks, but there are others coming up which equally sound as interesting. Full details are in the yellow programme booklet or can be found on the Society’s website.
Talking of the website, whilst I was away I didn’t completely ignore the Society. I did keep in touch through our Facebook pages but didn’t have my email switched on. I found it very difficult to log on to the Society’s website and wondered if this was ‘just me’ or do other members abroad have the same trouble. Let me know if you do and which search engine you use as this makes a difference apparently.
There was a programme on the television last week about the children’s emigration service to Canada and Australia. This was the scheme to send supposedly orphaned children overseas for a better life. In many cases this did not materialise. Although this is not related to that programme, 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Children’s Emigration Homes in Highgate, founded by John Middlemore. Between the years 1873 and 1954 over 5000 children were sent chiefly to Canada but also to Australia. Over 100,000 children were emigrated in total by many different agencies.
From July The Lost Children project will be hosting a number of events to celebrate these events. Further details can be obtained from Val Hart of the Balsall Heath Local History Society
Email: info@balsallheathhistory.co.uk
Web: www.balsallheathhistory.co.uk
www.thelostchildren.uk
Facebook: Balsall Heath Local History Society and lostchildrenproject
 
1921 Census
There have been many comments on social media about the mistakes, errors, call them what you will in the 1921 census on FMP. Many people have questioned why the censuses are not transcribed and released by the Government. In Peter Calver’s recent newsletter he cites the 1901 census as a good example why the Government is not involved.
The 1901 census was released to great acclaim, whereby the site promptly crashed and there were so many transcription errors, etc. in it, it was nearly a year before it was released again. I well remember that the funniest thing I ever found about the census was the biggest surname block was ‘ditto’. Apparently questions about it were raised in the House of Commons. I do have some sympathy with FMP and all those transcribers, it is not easy reading difficult handwriting when you are not used to it.
Society of Genealogists
In order to try and encourage young researchers, the Society of Genealogists are holding a one day conference on Saturday 7 May starting at 8am. Non members of the Society are welcome. There is a full day programme of events. Cost GBP1.50
There are also a number of other courses and events being held in May, some being recorded. The one I am interested in is being held on Wednesdays, 11 May 22 June 6:00-7:30pm
What to do with your Family History – 7 Week evening course
Researching a family history generates a plethora of documents, photographs, stories and information. What should you do with it all? This 7-week evening course looks at how to store and share your family history, how to preserve the documents both physical and digital and how to write the stories which have been uncovered.
What will the course cover?
· Creating a personal archive
· Preparing your research for deposit
· Writing the stories of your ancestors
· Creating source citations
· Conservation and preservation of family collections
· Copyright
· Considerations when leaving research in your will
· Writing a biography
Cost for 7 weeks study: £140.00/£112.00 SoG Members.
1950 USA census
On Friday 1 April 2022, records from the 1950 United States census will be released. The USA release their census records after 72 years instead of the 100 years here. Details regarding access are available from the National Archives and Records Administration: https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950. This census may be of use in finding the whereabouts of “GI brides” who travelled to USA are the War.
Apparently, data recognition software was used to transcribe the records, which may have produced results not quite as bad as the 1921 census, but they are now asking for volunteers to check through the census to correct mistakes. The records are available on Ancestry and My Heritage, but they are not indexed.
Society of Australian Genealogists
The Society of Australian Genealogists are holding a virtual conference on 18 June. Entitled “In Search of… My English Ancestors”
They are looking for suggestions on what sessions to provide. If you are interested, please contact them via email on info@sag.org.au.
To find other Webinars events and course see www.sag.org.au
Local Population Studies Society – Free Workshop & Newsletter
I know this is not strictly Family History, but I am always interested in local population studies and material produced by this Society which proved very useful when I did my Degree through the Open University back in the Dark Ages.
The Spring workshop and AGM will be held via Zoom on 28 May 2022 the subject of which is their project Back to the 404 parishes and beyond ….
A study back in 1981 covered a sample of 404 parishes that were analysed by local population historians. Since then data for many more parish registers that were not among the original 404 have been transcribed and rendered machine readable.
LPSS is hoping to make all the 404 data available via its website and is beginning a new project to gradually augment the database with new additional parishes, whilst ensuring that the data format and quality remain consistent with the original 404.
Sounds interesting …..
As well as that, you might like to take a look at the current Newsletter as there is a very interesting article on ‘New online resources for Methodist history and genealogy’ by Philip Thornborow. The article cites two books produced on the subject of records available, one of which was by our very own member Richard Ratcliffe entitled ‘Methodist Records for Family Historians (Bury, 2014)’. (A copy should be in our Reference library and may be available via the online Shop)
Back In 2010 the Methodist Church of Great Britain set up Methodist Heritage to manage four accredited museums owned by the Church, caring for the records of the Church. There is a website http://www.methodistheritage.org.uk which contains a section on researching, including advice on Researching Methodist History and Researching Family History. In the former category, you will find an online guide to all the primary and secondary resources on Methodism currently freely available online. You will also find contact details for the Methodist Heritage Officer, and the Liaison Officer for Methodist Archives who provide advice.

Further on in the newsletter there is an article entitled FreeREG and Black Country Church, Chapel & Cemetery Registers Online by Dale Braden (Staffordshire Coordinator, FreeREG. stsccfr@gmail.com)
Although the article is remarkably interesting on the workings of FreeReg, Dale was introducing another website that I mentioned in my last newsletter. Black Country & Greater Potteries Area – Church, Chapel and Cemetery Registers online. I have not looked at it myself, but feel it will be a great help with burial records.
www. Blackcountryparishregisters.weebly.com

Well that is all for now, must get back to the day job! If you think of any sites, publications, etc. that you think our members would be interested in, please let me know and don’t forget to send Linda your articles for the magazine.

Jackie

First things first, Phil has asked me to remind you about the Society’s AGM which takes place on 4 May at 2pm. Full details are contained in the next journal, but just to remind you, the AGM will be held at the BMI both in person and online, full details on the website.

This year Andrew Lound will be following the AGM with a talk on ‘Lunatick’ Astronomy – Boulton and the Lunar Society. The Lunar Society was formed by the likes of Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestley, William Small to discuss science and they held their meetings on a Monday nearest to a full moon at the Birmingham & Midland Institute.

Knowing Andrew, it should be a very entertaining talk.

The reason I am reminding you early is, as I have mentioned, probably too many times, my husband and I are going to see our daughter and family in Melbourne, Australia on 9 March. I will be back for the AGM, but if you have any questions before then, contact Phil.

Did you enjoy Kirsty Gray’s talk on Heir Hunting recently? Fascinating stuff, I bet it isn’t as easy as it looks. I only know of one person who has been contacted regarding an intestate estate, and in her case, she was too young to help with the details of the family, but her mother could although she would not inherit. So you see, all our work on our family trees may prove useful at some point.

Kirsty also started the Genealogy Show online events, one of which is coming up on 1-3rd April. All 48 talks have been previously recorded and will be available for one month. You can find full details on https://thegenealogyshow.uk.

I have also been noting that there are a lot of comments on social media about the Government’s Wills/Probate on line service. I have tried it and “If it ain ’t broke, don’t fix it comes to mind”. It was relatively simple before, but now you appear to have to jump through hoops and if you already have an account, you might find that you need to put in a new password.

Dave Annal, well known family history speaker, has made a very helpful video – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgExKFbNXQ&t=13s – which explores some frustrations with use of the new probate site, but gives some cunning solutions for optimising your use of the site.

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS
North Staffs: The Atlantic Telegraph
Talk by Shawn Farrally on 7th March at 7.30pm at St. John’s Centre, Trent Vale, Stoke on Trent. ST4 6QD

Bromsgrove:Tuesday, 8 March 2022 Coroner’s Inquest Records, Stratford Road, Bromsgrove B60 1AS 7.45pm start.

Kenilworth: March 9th at 7.30p.m. KFHS Workshop

*Birmingham On Line Event: Kingsley Norris Memorial Lecture – Shady Rock Clent
Wed 16th March @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm GMT
A History in House Deeds. A Presentation by Linda Newey, BA Dip Gen QA
*Please note all meeting from April will be hybrid meetings, both on line and in person at the BMI, Birmingham.
Stourbridge: Louis Etienne Goulé, Part Two
Sat 26th March @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm GMT

Wolverhampton: TBA
Wed 30th March @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm BST
This will be an afternoon meeting. Doors open at 1.45 p.m.
Details will be announced shortly.

London: Talk on ‘The Startin family and the development of their coach building business’
Sat 2nd April @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission, 49 City Road, London EC1Y 1AU. Doors open 10:00.
Other Events:

If your interests are in Australia, why not visit the Society of Australian Genealogist website. www.sag.org.au. They have a list of events taking place online with may interest you.

Friends of Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane Cemetery are restarting their guided tours: Next guided tours are 13 March and 10 April. Prior booking is essential – Please do not turn up on the day Tour Fees £5.00 per person, per cemetery.

The Society of Genealogists have put together a whole host of talks, not only on Family History but also social history. For more information go to https://societyofgenealogists.arlo.co/w/ You do not have to be a member of the SoG to attend.

The SoG are also planning to publish an index to their collection of 10,000 handwritten family trees. When exactly I don’t know, but if you want more information go to https://www.sog.org.uk/news/our-volunteers-pedigree-rolls-project/

It may interest you to know that the SoG will accept family trees in print or digital format, but only the family trees. They do not want extraneous paperwork, but it is useful to know if you do not have anybody to entrust all your hard work to, they will hold your tree.

I often get questions about the Black Country area, where to find records, etc. mainly to do with records for cemetery and non-conformist chapel registers as well as records dated after 1900. I have found a useful website www.blackcountryparishesregisters.weebly.com. It contains some very useful information and don’t forget to look at the Genuki webpages, but you may have to look under three different counties. https://www.genuki.org.uk/

The National Archives are putting on a webinar on how popular military records can be used in your research. Their experts will draw on the NA collections to explore how using these sources can enrich genealogical research.
Tuesday 15 March, 14:00 GMT. Book here: https://fb.me/e/2dGvEKDUA

Finally, my Ancestry subscription is up whilst I am away, so rather than cancel, I am having a holiday and have paused my account for two months. If you want to do this, go to your account settings to set it up.
Now, where did I put the suitcases …..

Jackie

HURRAH! Hopefully after the end of January all restrictions will be lifted and we will be able to meet in person again.
Having said that we must all be mindful that the virus has not disappeared, so I will still be wearing a mask when I go out and about.
Before I get to the good news, I must tell you some bad news. The February meeting at the BMI in Birmingham on 5 February has been cancelled. Mainly due to the uncertainty of the speaker attending. We had hoped for this talk to be presented online, but the speaker is not keen.
In its place, Phil has organised another online event, on Wednesday 16 February at 2pm with a talk given by Kirsty Gray on probate searching Full details are available on the website.

Satellite Group Meetings:

Our Satellite Groups will also be restarting in February, and here is a list of their meetings:

7 February 7.30pm – North Staffs: Research Evening Meeting at St. John’s Hall, Trent Vale on 8 Feb 2022

• Dianne Shenton has said: Although it is a research evening, but she will take her computer with the new Roots Magic 8 programme and if enough people are interested we can play around with it and look at some of the online tutorials.

8 February 7.30pm – Bromsgrove: A brief History of Small Arms. Speaker Tim Barney Meeting at Methodist Centre, Stratford Road, Bromsgrove B60 1AS

9 February 7.30pm – Kenilworth: Online talk given by David Fray on Fred Hancox – an Edwardian Amateur Photographer from Coventry. Meeting at The Kenilworth Centre, Kenilworth CV8 1QJ

• Lesley Plant of The Kenilworth group has said they are planning to have an initial ‘live’ get-together for their meeting on 9th March – that will be exactly 2 years since the last ‘live’ meeting, pre-pandemic!
• We haven’t got a speaker for that – it is simply intended to be a ‘welcome back’ meeting, an opportunity to catch up with each other, especially those folk who didn’t join us on Zoom. Fingers crossed most people will be brave enough to pop in for a while.
23 February 7:30pm – Wolverhampton: Max Keen, dressed in period costume, talking about Prince Rupert of the Rhine – King Charles I’s pirate prince
Meeting at: Perton Civic Centre, Church Road, Perton WV6 7PD

• Penny has restarted her Family History courses at Perton. Although the one starting 1 February is fully booked, contact Perton Library for more details. perton.library@staffordshire.gov.uk.

26 February 2:30pm – Stourbridge: Talk on A Yeomanry Trooper with Lawrence of Arabia given by Janet Byard-Jones

Full details of venues, times, etc. are in the yellow programme booklet or available on the website under Home / About / Local Groups /
• The meeting in Birmngham on 5 March will be a hybrid meeting (both in person and on Zoom) and Phil has asked if those members who live within easy reach of Birmingham could let him know if they will be attending in person. Linda, our Editor, will be presenting her talk on Shady Rock Cottages, Clent.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED BY OUR GROUPS?
Although it is good that our Groups are re-opening, they do need your help. All our Groups are run by a committee and many of their committee members have stood down during the pandemic. If you want your local Group to survive, as well as attending, please step forward to join their committees, otherwise it may mean that the Group must fold. It is not onerous and if you are on your own, it could make the difference of being alone or making new friends. If you would like to help, please get in touch with the Chairperson of the Group concerned.
1921 CENSUS
By the time you read this Myko Clelland will have given us his talk on getting the best out of the 1921 census. Really interesting it was too (If only I could remember it all!)

I know there has been mixed reactions to various aspects of the 1921 census, but it must be remembered that when FMP first started the transcription work three years ago.there was a lot of cleaning and conservation work to be done before it could be filmed and then transcribed. If you want to read about the work involved, go to https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/family-records/1921-census. Those of us that were party to the release of other censuses know that there are plenty of teething troubles to start with. Myko said that if you see any errors in the transcriptions, etc. email transcriptsupport@findmypast.com instead of going through the webpage.

If you have ever transcribed census work, you will know that as a transcriber you do not see the whole page. The pages are split into pieces, and you would only see part of it. I know that one of our members down in Devon spent many a long hour literally going through census pages to spot mistakes and reporting them. I am not suggesting you do that, but every little helps. Also, when you buy an image, check the film strip to see if other images are included.

Luckily there were only two names on the census I wanted to look at for now. My mother in law’s mother and her father who was living with two women at the same time. At one point the two women were living next door to each other and both had babies within a few months of each other. I did find them quite easily, but with the one, I searched using the name of the youngest daughter born in 1920, as this narrowed down the options.

Apparently, you can visit Manchester Central Library where you can view the census for free. You will need to register for a Reader’s card, but you can do this online and book a slot. At the moment only a 2 hour slot is available, but if they are not busy they do allow you to take the next slot.

For more information go to https://www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries

The census is also available for free at the National Library of Wales. https://www.library.wales/

The census is free at National Archives, Kew

According to the latest newsletter from the Balsall Heath Local History Group, a scheme was introduced via the Birmingham Mail Christmas Tree fund to help some of the children of returning unemployed soldiers. The Middlemore Homes had agreed to take in 45 children (30 boys and 15 girls), the main costs for which were paid for via the Xmas Tree Fund.

So if by chance you cannot find your ancestors, just put in their name and year of birth, you might be surprised what comes up.

I also find that sometimes it is better to put in less details than more as you are dealing with a machine which can sometimes throw a ‘wobbly’ when it comes to searching with too much information. Don’t forget to use Wild Cards as well.

FACEBOOK

I want to remind you about our Facebook groups where you can post questions and hopefully get answers that will help in your research. These are:

BMSGH Members Only Family History Group.
Midland Ancestors general page (open to anyone).
Midland Ancestors DNA Special Interest Group

These are also some Groups that we have an interest in:
Worcestershire Ancestors
1921 UK census users Group
Findmypast (Independent) Users Group

Don’t forget to look at the Members Area on a website. There are a number of indexes, charts, downloads, and talks. that you may find useful. The password for the Members area will change on 1 March, and the new password will be in the March journal.

We also host the Staffordshire Burial Index on behalf of Staffordshire County Council. This gives you the name of the cemetery and the quarter the burial took place. For more information see http://www.staffordshireburials.org.uk/

As well as the burial index, we also host the Staffordshire BMD and West Midlands BMD on behalf of UKBMD. These are the indexes for local Register Offices from 1837 as they are the ones that hold the original registers. So if you can’t find what you are looking for on other sites, try looking at UKBMD as they have similar schemes all over the country. At the moment not all the birth registrations contain the mother’s maiden name, but you can hopefully find this via other means.

For marriages, the one good thing is that it shows where the marriage took place, either a civil marriage or a church marriage, so if you wanted to you could go and look at the marriage registers for the church. http://www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk/

ZOOM MEETINGS

Phil has asked me to tell you that he has updated the guidance on how our Zoom events work. You can find these on our Midland Ancestors website by going to: https://midland-ancestors.uk/events-updates. Phil is not able to help with setting up your computer, that is down to you. I know he is good, but he is not a miracle worker!
One of the questions I often get asked is if the talks we present on Zoom are recorded. This really depends on the Speaker. Obviously, some of the speakers make their living by presenting these talks and the fact that we view them online instead of in person does not alter the fact that the talk belongs to them and if they don’t want them shown, we cannot do anything about it.

Also I have nothing to do with the actual mechanics of these events and once I log into the talk, I switch everything else off, so it is no use trying to contact me until the talk is over.

OLD HANDWRITING

I’ve had a few enquiries recently about reading old documents. If you are an expert on this, or any other aspects to do with family research, please let me know and I will place you on my Researcher’s list.

To those that want to have a go themselves, there are a number of online courses available, these are just two:

National Archives; https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography
Future Learn https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ems-palaeography

There were/are several books available, but I think you will have to search for them. Try Amazon it is always good for second hand books.

Finally, or two really!
Don’t forget to send your articles in to Linda Newey for the Midland Ancestor.
Just to let you know, I shall be unable to contact from 9 March for six weeks so there will be no newsletter for March and April. If there is anything you would like me to announce, let me know for next month.
Jackie