Newsletters

The Clocks went forward this week, so the days will be getting longer than the nights. It also means that the weeds in the garden will be springing up quicker than the plants! Shame our missing ancestors don’t pop up so easily.
Opening of Groups:
Lockdown is being eased slightly this week with more easing next month. I know that many of you are impatient for our Groups and venues to be opened, but we do have to continue to be cautious.
There are lots of things to consider before any of our Groups can open, we may still be dependent not only about social distancing but health and safety items such as how many people can be accommodated at one time: sanitising chairs and equipment, etc. and it should not be assumed that these tasks will be done by our volunteers, attending members could be asked to help.
To those who have visited our centre in Birmingham will know that it is not the largest space in the world, so there may have to be a booking system in place, you will not be able to just ‘pop in’. How many people can be accommodated in the library? Again, there is the sanitising of chairs and equipment. Books may have to be quarantined. All these things must be considered before we open our doors.
All these options will be discussed by the Exec. Committee, Group Leaders and volunteers, but at the end of the day I think we just need to be patient. If you attend one of our Groups, make sure they have your up to date contact details, so they can let you know when they will be re-opening.
AGM ONLINE
As you will have seen in the March journal, our AGM will be held online on May 5th. For those of you who do not wish to participate online, send me an A5 SAE and I will send you a postal vote.
The format of the online event will be run along similar lines as our normal AGM but this time, all our members will be able to participate either by Zoom or sending in a postal vote. From 5 April 2021 there will be a page on the Members Area of the Midland Ancestors website giving you full details. Registration will close on 28th April at 23:59 so allowing 7 days for validating memberships and emailing out confirmations. Full instructions on how the polling feature will work will be available on the website.
Postal voting forms must be returned by 28th April 2021.
Lockdown has provided us with an online platform so we can reach those members who are not able to attend our Groups. Even our Exec Committee meetings are held on Zoom, it saves on travelling and is much more convenient. This is where I hope we can persuade more of our members to stand as committee members at the AGM to help with the running and decision making in the Society. If you feel you would like to contribute in any way, please put your name forward and become a committee member.
The Trustees will also be putting forward a proposal to revise the Society’s Constitution to bring it more in line with the 21st century. The last revision was about 30 years ago, so this is long overdue. The revised Constitution will be available on the website, so please read and if you have any points to make, email me or Phil Lamb.
Online Talks:
Next month we have three brilliant talks for you.
On 13 April Online Event – Bromgrove Group presents Jan Pick talking about the Craythorne Family. Go to the Bromsgrove Group page on our website for more details. http://www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk/cms/events/details/
13 April @7:30pm -9:00pm

On 14 April, Online Event – Kenilworth Group presents Professor Rebecca Probert talking about Marriage law and practice in the Midlands, 1837-1900. A very popular speaker.
14th April @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

On 21 April, Online Event – When the Lights Went Out – Birmingham goes to War Speaker – Andrew Lound
Andrew will be talking about Birmingham people during the 39-45 war, focussing on W.T. Avery’s famous Soho Foundry as well as the darkened streets of Birmingham. Andrew is a member of the Society and gives lots of talk around Birmingham and about Birmingham.
21 April @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Sarah Moody gave us a very interesting talk on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission last month. Looking at their website, it has been completely revamped and includes links to their extensive online archive which contains over 10,000 items including personal correspondence, photographs, etc. Why not look at www. https://www.cwgc.org/
I would also like to mention the War Graves Photographic Project. This project involves volunteers travelling the world taking photographs of war graves. My husband was named after his uncle who died in Tunisia in 1943. We always said we would go and see his grave but were advised not to travel to that part of the world, so instead I asked the TWGPP to photograph the headstone for us at a cost of £4, which they then emailed to me. Wonderful. https://www.twgpp.org/
Last month I said that War. County Record Office had refilmed their parish register collection. This was not strictly true. WCRO have given Midland Ancestors copies of their parish register collection as scanned by the Latterday Saints in the 1970’s and 1980’s which we are rechecking and discovering hundreds of missing pages (or blurred and unreadable), which are then rescanned and including with our transcriptions.
Although we know that Ancestry, Findmypast and The Genealogist already have these images and transcribed on their sites, we can provide a free download of WCRO transcriptions to date, and you can view a list of all free indexes via the Midland Ancestor Shop Page on the website.
Unfortunately, we cannot publish these missing pages until 1 December 2021 as Findmypast have an exclusivity agreement in place, but we have already added loads of missing pages to the shop to go live on 1st December.
Transcription of these registers has been going on for 3+ years with 60+ volunteers. More volunteers are needed to finish this mammoth task, so if you feel you can help (does not matter where you live), contact our project manager, Kim Walker at email address littlealne@hotmail.com, and she will send you a register and a spreadsheet to complete.
As a reward for helping, once you have transcribed several registers, Kim with send you a discount code giving you 20% off shop purchases (excluding memberships). You do not have to be a member to help with transcribing.

DNA
I was talking to one of our members recently about DNA. She had done her DNA through Ancestry but had not got very far with any matches. I suggested she tried Gedmatch to see if she has more success. Gedmatch.com, is a free online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies.
To make use of it you must open an account with Gedmatch, download your raw data from your DNA testing company and then upload it to Gedmatch. You can then use the matching criteria, such as ‘Onetomany’, to come up with a list of matches. What you are looking for is the matches in ‘Total CM’ column. The higher the number the better the match.
One thing you are now able to do is upload a Gedcom table and search other Gedcoms. Member Jacqui Fielding refers us to a blog on Gedmatch http://blog.kittycooper.com/2018/06/getting-started-with-gedmatch/
In May Karen Evans will be giving a talk on ‘Using DNA testing to Trace your Family Tree’. See our Journal for details or details will be on the website shortly.
Jacqui Fielding, who also belongs to The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries Group, says a new magazine being published on the Jewellery Quarter. Called the Jewellery Quarter Heritage magazine. It is issued quarterly and costs £6. If you are interested go to https://jqheritage.co.uk/
Changes to the Marriages Register

From 4 May both the mother’s and father’s names will be included in the marriage register for the first time under reforms to the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths Act 2019. Currently, only the father is named on marriage certificates.

Other changes from May, however, mean that the Clergy will no longer complete the formal register for the marriage nor issue the legal marriage certificate. Instead, they will be required to create a marriage document or obtain the marriage schedule before the date of marriage and return this to the register office for electronic registration before the certificate is issued.
Clerics will no longer be responsible for corrections in marriage registers, and quarterly returns for marriages in the church building will no longer need to be completed.
Hmmm …. Wonder if we will be able to see marriage certificates via Archives in future?
FHF Really Useful Family History Show

The FHF Really Useful Family History Show will be held on 10 April 2021. We are not attending this year, as we need to concentrate on the AGM. Apart from a plethora of speakers, Family Tree Magazine are hosting two exclusive online family tree study club meetings. For tickets and further information go to www.fhf-reallyuseful.com.

I would also recommend reading the FHS Really Useful Bulletin. It contains lots of news about websites, Societies, and general interest. Send an email to Debbie Bradley admin@familyhistoryfederation.com and ask to be put on the mailing list.

In the latest edition it tells you about missing census returns and where you can check for missing pieces.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/census-for-england-wales-and-scotland-missing-pieces

Online Conference by The Dugdale Society
You may not have heard of The Dugdale Society, but this Society, based in Stratford upon Avon, has been publishing edited transcriptions of Warwickshire’s important local historical records dating from the 11th to the 20th Centuries and making them accessible to family, local and academic historians for over 100 years. (We hold some in our library)
They are holding an online Conference on the weekend of the 15/16th May 2021 and it is free. The Conference is called Warwickshire’s Changing Past and for further details go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/warwickshires-changing-past-dugdale-centenary-conference-tickets-147765377221

The Midland Ancestor

Once again, don’t forget to send Linda Newey any articles you may have for the journal. The deadline is Monday 5th April 2021.

Finally, it is my birthday today and as I have missed the last two birthdays because of lockdown, does this mean that those birthdays don’t count !!

Jackie

Newsletter No. 10 – February 2021

This week has been a beautiful week, I actually heard my first sky lark. Such a welcome sound. We have blue skies, the snowdrops and crocuses are out, but it still has been freezing in the mornings. At least it would appear that the weather is going in the right direction (sorry if you are heading towards winter), the days are getting longer and hopefully with the vaccine roll out, things are looking up.

I must apologise to those members who received a reminder letter, but had already paid their subs. We are installing a new database and on transferring the old data, some of the information was not uploaded. This has now been fixed so next year (fingers crossed) it won’t happen again.

Thank you to all of you who chose to ring me, it was so nice to have a chat, especially those who live some distance away and cannot get to our meetings.

Talking of which, our February talks went well. Phil had over 100 viewers for the talk on Ag Labs. It is surprising just how much you pick up when listening to somebody else. One thing not mentioned in the talk was that if you are looking for baptisms of their children, widen your search. Sometimes, Ag labs may travel from one farm to another, so children could be baptised in the nearest church to where they live. Plus, and this could apply to everybody, if the couple married in the bride’s parish, look there for the birth of their first child. Quite often, the bride went home to mother when she was expecting her first child.

Paul Hudson gave an interesting talk on the Archives at Worcester. It is a shame we cannot interest Worcestershire Archives in using our expertise, we have tried.

We do hold the Worcestershire marriage index with some records dating back to 1533. We also hold some marriage licence indexes from between 1660 – 1754. These containing not just the couple’s names, but also in some cases, ages, occupation, where married and abode. There are also details of the Bondsmen and sometimes witnesses. These cover Anglican, Roman Catholic, Quaker and other non-conformist entries.

We also hold the Worcestershire burial index. This formed part of the National Burial Index, which is available on FMP, but sometimes our index gives other information, age, relationship, etc. and quite possibly covers later dates.

If it is baptisms for Worcestershire you are after, contact Malvern FHS. They have been transcribing the baptism for Worcestershire which are available on the Genealogist website. One other thing to remember is that some parishes in any county may originally be somewhere else. Shipston on Stour comes to mind, this is now in Warwickshire, but originally was in Worcestershire. This also applies to some places in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire.

You can search the indexes on all the major pay to view sites for free, it is only when you want other information that you must pay for it.

I know I have mentioned this before, but I always use http://www.dustydocs.com/. ; Enter your interested place and a list comes up of suitable indexes, some of which may be local indexes.

Familysearch uses batch numbers for their parishes, so if you use Archersoftware, you just click on the relevant batch number for the timescale you are looking for.

Once you click on the film for the parish you are looking at, insert the surname you are interested in. Click on the record details, which is just like a normal Familysearch page. If there is a film available there is a box in the right-hand corner saying “This record came from this set of images. You will need to look through several images to find this record”. You just click on the film. At the top of the page it will tell you how many pages are in the film. To change the page number, I alter the number in the box and press return and keep doing that until I get to the page I want. I have found this useful when looking for early records, not sure about later ones. They may not cover all records, but I have been lucky to find the ones I want.

If it is Warwickshire parishes you are interested in, Warwickshire County Record Office have rescanned all their registers, and we are checking transcribing and indexes each parish. Once completed these complete parishes and indexes will be available through our shop, but you can purchase various parishes now as a download without an index. If the parish you want is not shown, send Steve Freeman an email and ask if it is available.

Another set of records worth perusing is those of Internet Archives. https://archive.org; Put in the county of your choice and it comes up with image of transcripts of parish registers. They may not contain the images, but at least it gives you a helping hand to find your ancestors.

I must also mention the UKBMD indexes. We host the Staffordshire and the West Midlands BMD projects on our website. These are a collaboration between Family History Societies and local Registration Services to make the BMDs freely searchable via the Internet. This is not just on our patch but is available throughout the UK. Go to UKBMD for more information. You can also order certificates through your local registration office. Sometimes by checking on these local indexes, you will find entries that can be missing from the GRO index.

We also host the Staffordshire burial indexes, details provided by the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service. Whilst it is only a index, there is an extensive list of all cemeteries it covers with dates.

March Talks

For our March talks online, on 17 March we have ‘the work of the War Graves Commission’ given by Sarah Moody. Sarah is public engagement co-ordinator at the CWGC and will tell us of their work. This is another talk I am looking forward to. Talk starts at 2pm.

On 23 March, the Bromsgrove Group will be hosting a talk on The Bromsgrove School given by Philip Bowen. Bromsgrove School is a co-educational, independent school within the town, very well known. Please note the date has been changed from 9 March.

For more details, go to the website and Click on the events/calendar.

Phil has been busy, when is he not. He has put the indexes to the 1888 Maps of Birmingham on our website. The index contains street names, churches, schools, pubs, etc. To find it hover your mouse over Resources drop down/ Hover over Birmingham and the maps tab with open.

Another useful set of Records are those of Staffordshire Archives. They now include Staffordshire Police Disciplinary Register Index 1857-1886 and 1904-1923 to their Staffordshire names index. Useful as well for criminal records relating to Staffordshire. www.staffsnameindexes.org.uk

I think that is about all I have to say now. (That is enough I hear you say). We appreciate all the feedback and encouragement you have given us. If you have anything you would like to cover in the newsletter or in the journal, either contact me or Linda Newey, who is always waiting for your contributions.

The UK 2021 census is being held on Sunday 21 March. We know as family historians just how useful previous censuses have proved, but I wonder if these censuses will be as useful in future years. In many ways, to me at least, it seems that there will be less information available about people in future. less marriages, less baptisms, no telephone directories or electoral rolls that we can view. Where would we be without previous censuses, electoral rolls, or other directories? We already know there is a big gap between the 1921 census and the 1951 census. The only thing in between is the 1939 register.

So when you complete the 2021 census (and it is against the law not to), keep a copy with your family history papers, it might prove invaluable in future.

Jackie

NEWSLETTER NO. 9 January 2021

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

RootsTech Connect is different than any other virtual event—no boring speakers or falling asleep at your computer screen. Rather, enjoy dozens of inspirational learning sessions, uplifting messages from celebrity keynote speakers, and hands-on activities to help you celebrate your heritage all year long.
Register for free at: https://www.rootstech.org.
• EVENT: SATURDAY, 10 APRIL 2021 FROM 10:00am -18:00pm
Really Useful Family History Show

Landing

Early Bird tickets available now
• THE FAMILY HISTORY FEDERATION WEBSITE A variety of free podcasts is available on, as well as a collection of useful literature to help in your research. You will also find details of other talks given by Family History Societies up and down the Country. https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/
Thanks to Jacqui Fielding for posting the following on the Birmingham Ancestors Facebook page.

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

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

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

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

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

Two events for your 2021 Diary!

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

Jackie

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

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

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

Jackie
28.11.2020

Newsletter 6 – October 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

ONLINE TALKS

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

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

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

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

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

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

PARK STREET BURIAL GROUND

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

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

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

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

PROGRAMME 2021

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

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

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

WOLVERHAMPTON GROUP – Penny Smith

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

LONDON GROUP – Dave Kerr

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

FORTHCOMING DIGITAL FAMILY HISTORY SHOW

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

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

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

Jackie Cotterill

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