Newsletters

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Well I hope it will be a Happy New Year as personally 2021 was a disaster and Christmas was even more disastrous. I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say in the words of the song “Things can only get better”.
This will only be a short newsletter as I just wanted to tell you about decisions that have had to made about meeting up in January.
Firstly, the Family History Centre will not now open until Monday 10 Jan. This is due to the rising infection rates and the omicron variant and to keep our volunteer librarians safe when they travel backwards and forward into Birmingham city centre.
The reopening decision will be dependent on any government restrictions or guidance that may be in place at that time, so please check before you travel.
If you wish to visit the Family History Centre after that date, please remember that you need to use the online booking in system. To register, email fhc.bookings@gmx.com

MEETING CANCELLATIONS
We also have two meeting cancellations for January. Paul Handford’s talk on The Friends Ambulance Unit scheduled for Saturday 15 January at the BMI in Birmingham will not now take place. This is due to the uncertainty of what the Government intends doing in the New Year about placing further restrictions on us.
Also cancelled is the visit to the Foundling Museum on 8 January organised by our London Group and again is due to the large numbers of covid cases in London. The London Group’s next meeting will be on 2 April at their new home, Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission in City Road, London. (See programme booklet or website for details).

OTHER MEETINGS
On the plus side, most of our other Groups will be holding their meetings later in January or on Zoom, full details are either in the programme booklet or on the website.
Kenilworth Group are holding their monthly meetings on Zoom up until April, mainly due to the dark nights. Full details are in the programme booklet.
On Wed 26th January Myko Clelland from FMP will be telling us how to get the best out of the 1921 census. Time 2pm – 4pm. Booking arrangements are now open on this website under events or follow this link – 1921 Census
As you know this will be the last census for a while. The 1931 census was destroyed during WW2 and there wasn’t a 1941 census, so the next one will be the 1951. I don’t think I will be around to see that released!

THANK YOU
Thank you to those members who came up with suggestions for my elusive Millward family. They must have come from somewhere, but where I have no idea! Apart from Worcestershire, there are a great many in South Wales, Derbyshire and Warwickshire. So it is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
My daughter has pointed out that there are some trees on Ancestry that go back further than I have done, but as I pointed out to her: A. you don’t know if the information is true and B. whether it has been proved. I’m afraid that I don’t believe anything I cannot prove myself.
One thing I meant to mention during my talk was that one of my ‘remote’ ancestors was tried at the Old Bailey for murdering his wife. He was a boatman travelling back from London and apparently when two barges using horses pass each other there is a well-known system to do so, but that didn’t happen in this case and his wife was knocked into the canal and was drowned. He was accused of her murder but was acquitted on the evidence of the other boatman. I must admit that I didn’t find this by chance, this was another ‘tale’ told to me by my aunt which, of course, I had to investigate. Old Bailey records are available on line: Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 online. https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ Something else that you may not be aware of, is that individuals who intended to serve food and alcoholic beverages in a public house had to apply for an annual licence. From 1522, a person wanting to sell alcoholic drinks had to apply for a licence from the Quarter or Petty Sessions and it is from these courts records that most publican records originate. Most records and documents are held at County Record Offices and are arranged by the name of the pub and not the name of the publican. Trade and street directories as well as electoral registers can help track down the name of the pub and location. Simon Fowler, who is a long-established author and editor in the world of family history publications has written a very comprehensive book called Researching Brewery and Publican Ancestors. It costs £5.95 and is available through our online bookshop.

REMINDER
Can I remind you that your subscription is due on 1 January. The cost is still £14.50 and there is a renewal form in the December journal, or you can renew via the online shop or better still set up a regular payment via your bank. If you bank on line this is quite easy to do.
That all folks, Happy New Year to you all. Hopefully 2022 will be better than 2021.
Jackie

Christmas is just around the corner, and I don’t know about you, but this year seems even longer than last year but then all of a sudden, we are at the end of the year. Just when we felt we were getting back to normal, it is still in the lap of the Gods when that will be.

RECENT TALK
Did you manage to listen to John Hanson on ‘Why Pay for Information from the Internet?’ Amongst many of the interesting facts that he mentioned was that on the Ancestry and Findmypast only carry BMD indexes up to 1983 although births are up to 2007.
When the BMD books were first digitalised, and the Family Records Centre in London closed, there was a hue and cry from people saying that they could not access the up-to-date indexes, so provision was made for various centres around the country to hold up to date indexes (within six months of the present date). These were: • the Library of Birmingham • Bridgend Local and Family History Centre • the City of Westminster Archives Centre • Manchester Central Library • Newcastle City Library • Plymouth Central Library • The British Library (you’ll need to register first)
They were on micro-fiche the last time I looked in Birmingham (that may have changed).
‘Normal’ BMDs are not the only indexes available, there are many non-standard indexes available for the Army, Navy, Overseas, etc. Findmypast hold many of these additional indexes. These are also available to view at National Archives.

FORTHCOMING TALKS
2nd December, 5pm to 6pm
This is not one of ours, but I feel many of you would be interested in joining in and this has come to me from Lesley Plant of Kenilworth who tells me that Rebecca Probert is releasing a new book and will be giving a talk via Zoom on it on Thursday 2nd December and it’s free. (Apparently the first trench of tickets went very quickly, but capacity has been increased, so you may be lucky to get one).
To register go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rebecca-probert-getting-married-the-legacy-of-legal-history-tickets-199688492657?utm_sour .

6 December 7.30pm – North Staffs Group
Back at their normal venue, St. John’s Centre, Newcastle Road, ST4 6QD. A talk on ‘Clarice Cliff ceramic artist and the young girls she trained’. I bet that will be very interesting.
8 December, 2pm – KINGSLEY NORRIS MEMORIAL LECTURE – GENEALOGY – THE MILLWARD FAMILY – VIA ZOOM
Kingsley Norris was a pioneering founding member of the Society and after his death, these talks, always given by a member of the Society, was inaugurated in his memory.
I could not escape Peter’s gaze, so this year it is my turn. I shall be giving a talk on my MILLWARD family. This is my paternal line and something I started 50 years ago. Not so much from a family history point of view, because as you will see from my talks that was not much in evidence at the time, but it was more to do with the many tales and stories that we had been told and I really wanted to know what was true and what was a lie.
Door Prize Kindly donated by Steph Russell, today we have a “Door Prize” which is a copy of Family Tree Maker software to assist with recording your family history research. To be eligible all you must do is be in attendance on the day. A name will be selected at random from the Register of Participants at the end of the meeting and the result announced immediately. Family Tree Maker for pc or Mac, download normally priced at £79.95 – thank you Steph.
We had hoped to run both Zoom and, at the BMI, but unfortunately that is not to be, and it will be on Zoom only. Registration is now open. Go to: https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/birmingham-my-millward-family-kingsley-norris-memorial-lecture/

1921 CENSUS
You will all know by now that the 1921 census is due to be released in January through Findmypast. Unfortunately, there is a cost involved – £2.50 for every record transcript and £3.50 for every original record image. For all 12-month Pro subscribers, there will be a 10% discount on any 1921 Census purchases.
26th January 2022: 2pm – 4pm – Myko Clelland – The 1921 Census – On ZOOM
This is a must! Midland Ancestors has been able to get Myko Clelland, Regional Licensing & Outreach Manager at FindMyPast will tell us all about the 1921 census and how we can use it to enhance the knowledge of our ancestors.
Myko (aka The Dapper Historian) has family roots in our area so is ideally placed to be giving us this presentation.
To register, follow this link  1921 Census

This is a little tip, if you are not in a hurry to view the 1921 census, you can view the census for free down at National Archives, Kew. When the 1911 census was released, I made a note of all the references for people I wanted to view, and then ‘blitzed’ the census down at Kew, where it was free to view. The same will apply to this one. One word of warning, according to TNA website, you will not be able to print off copies, you will have to save to a memory stick or email them to yourself.

Hopefully, TNA will allow coach trips again the in New Year. The Family History Federation have a new series of family history podcasts, covering a range of topics and expert guests. Introduced by Joe Saunders. You can find details on https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/podcast It also lists talks given by other Family History Societies. Talking to Jacqui Fielding of the Friends of Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane cemetery this morning, she was saying how busy they are with lookups at the cemeteries. Although their tours have finished for this year, they restart on January 9 with tours round Key Hill cemetery and Warstone Lane cemetery. Well worth it. Look on Eventbrite for details. She also mentioned that you can view forthcoming events on the Eventbrite website, some are free some you must pay for, but there are some really interesting events coming along. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/united-kingdom–birmingham/all-events/

Somebody mentioned on our Facebook page a few weeks ago looking for sailors and ships, so this may be of some help. The Lloyds Register of ships is online and dates back to 1764. Full details on what is available is on https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/lloyds-register-of-ships-online
If you have ancestors in Northern Ireland check out the North of Ireland Family History Society, they are also holding some really interesting talks in the New Year. https://www.nifhs.org/events/
A 2022 programme booklet will be with your December journal for next year, some of the meetings in person and some via Zoom, but please do check before you journey to any of the meetings just in case things change.

Phil had hoped to be able to offer hybrid meetings both on zoom and in person, but it is proving a little more difficult than we thought. It is more than a ‘one man’ job, so if you have any experience in this regard, he would be pleased to hear from you.
I have been asked by a member if anybody can help him decipher a 16th century Will. He tells me it is only one page long, so if you can help, please let me know.
You may have read that we suffered a bereavement recently, my eldest brother died (not unexpectedly). I have been helping his daughter to sort out their house that he and my sister in law (who died last Christmas) had lived in for 60 years. Apart from my sister in law keeping every scrap of paperwork since they married, there were lots of photographs which my niece has given me to see if I recognise the people in them.

So I know I have said this before, but if you have some photographs that you know who the people are, but nobody else does, write on the back who they are, where the photo was taken and the approximate date, so your descendants don’t have the same problem.
The other thing we came across, were lots of Super 8 cine films from the 1960s. Julie had them put on DVD and memory sticks and distributed them round the family. It is wonderful to see people who have long since left us, but I don’t remember ever being that young and SLIM! So if you have the same, get them converted. I am going to do the same to my daughter’s dancing videos and I know how much she will love that!
Not sure if I will send out a newsletter at the end of December, depends how busy I am over Christmas, but I might send one out early in the New Year.
Best wishes to you all.
Jackie