Welcome to Newsletter No. 4.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Trustees held an online meeting this week to discuss the viability of Groups re-opening. After consulting with our Groups, it was decided that all Groups would continue to be closed, including the Family History Centre in Birmingham, until at least the New Year. The Trustees will meet again in November to review the situation and then make a further decision.
ZOOM TALKS
We are continuing with our online talks for September. Full details are on the Society’s website under Events. Registration for each talk will open 7 days before the event.
On Wednesday, 2 September Mark Thursfield will be talking about Wills before 1858. It can be quite a complicated subject and until 1858 there were more than 200 church courts, each of which kept separate registers of Wills. Mark’s talk leads us through the labyrinth of trying to determine which Court is appropriate to finding your ancestor’s Will. He will also show that people did not have to be rich to leave a Will. https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/online-event-wills-before-1858/ Registration for this talk is now open.
On Wednesday, 16 September I will be talking about Civil Registration. We all know that it started in 1837, but how and why and where you can find this information for free is what I want to show you. https://midland-ancestors.uk/event/online-event-civil-registration/
The Bromsgrove Group will be using Zoom for the rest of its 2020 meetings. As members of the Society, you are all entitled to attend any of the groups’ meetings and this would also apply to the online talks.
Bromsgrove meetings will be held at the original dates and times but will be hosted on Midland Ancestors’ Zoom account. The upcoming meetings and speakers are:
– 08 September: Almshouses: A Home for the Poor – Ned Williams
– 13 October: The Boer War – John Butterworth
– 10 November: What’s In A Names; Talking Butts – Anthony Paulton-Smith
– 08 December – Christmas Social – to be confirmed.
You can register for these events by going to www.bromsgrovebmsgh.co.uk and following the link.
PROJECT WORK
One area I would like to mention is the Society’s Project work. Just because we are not meeting does not mean that our project work stops. Our transcribers continue to work come what may and I just want to tell you about one or two of our transcribers and their work.
Marion Hall is working on transcriptions for the Staffordshire Parish Records Society, which are sold via our shop as well as will be available in our library when finished.
Robin Bird has been working hard on his war graves/memorial project. He has told me: “Some of our members might have people on some of the memorials I am researching and have information I can add to that which I have already got”. You can contact Robin through me if you think you are able to help.
Kim Walker is leading the team that is working on the Warwickshire Parish Records and Rob Carter of North Staffs who is leading a project to photograph memorials in the churches of North Staffs. (see below)
I also have two ongoing projects, when I get a bit fed up with one, I continue with the other one! Firstly I have been transcribing memorial inscriptions sent to me by members of a local church and I am also transcribing Methodist baptisms for Birmingham.
If you have any spare time and would like to keep busy, let me know. Your help is always appreciated.
ARCHIVES OPENING
Archives across our region are slowly opening their doors, but to a very different visiting system than before. If you are planning on visiting any archives, here or abroad, please check ahead and you will probably have to book a time and date.
If you are one of our Facebook members, I do publish links to various Archive offices within our area that I think may have items to interest you, so if you have not joined us on Facebook, please do.
Unfortunately, as you will have read above, we are unable to re-open our own Family History Centre, mainly because we feel that we cannot adhere to the Government’s guidelines on social distancing and keep our librarians and members safe. We will, of course, advise you when we feel it is safe to re-open.
There are some very interesting talks available online. I regularly subscribe to National Archives and Society of Genealogists, together with local Archives. Just do a Google search for your chosen website and see what comes up.
The Society of Genealogists have released their September programme and again there are some very interesting talks coming up. Not all purely family history related, but some more social history. To find out more why not sign up for their monthly newsletter which is available at: www.sog.org.uk/about/newsletter.
National Archives also publish a newsletter, dealing with more general items to do with its online services, opening times, etc. but still worth reading. https://www.archives.gov/publications/email-newsletters.
A recent article that came to me on our Facebook page was about divorce records in Birmingham. One question I get asked quite often, is about divorce records, and although Birmingham Archives do not hold any divorce papers, they have published this article. https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2020/08/24/divorce-records
I have also been asked to mention a book that was released just as we went into Lockdown about The Lost Children Project, which is the story of 5000 children emigrated from the Middlemore homes in Birmingham to Canada between 1873 and 1948 written by Val M. Hart and Rowena Lyon. It costs £4 plus post and packing and can be obtained through the website www.balsallheathistory.co.uk
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE DECEMBER
Steve Freeman, our Bookshop Manager, tells me that the Banks are tightening their online security where card payments are concerned. All online card payments will eventually need to be authenticated, usually by sending a text to the customers’ mobile phone with a one-time passcode. (Not sure what happens if you don’t have a mobile phone) If you do pay your subscription by sending card details by post, which is not really a safe option, he suggests that you also write on your phone number so we can call you if necessary.
The two safest options for paying your subscription are to either pay by Standing Order, easily set up on line with your bank for payments to be automatically paid at the beginning of each year, or to pay via our online shop where payments are taken by our partners over a secure encrypted internet connection.
I will write further about this in our December journal, but it may be something you need to think about.
GROUPS
Dave Kerr, Chairman of our London Group writes:
London Group continues to monitor all the conditions surrounding the resumption of talks at the SoG along with the Executive Committee. The SoG is now open and one of our London Group members has reported back on a visit he made, and he tells us “It all went pretty normally. I was able to read a fiche. I looked at several books and dropped them into a bin to be quarantined or sanitised when I had finished. I think advance booking of a computer was required, but I did not use one. There were volunteers and staff present.”
However before any visit you should read what they say on their web site as restrictions will be ever evolving. http://www.sog.org.uk/about/coronavirus/
The meeting room is not back in full use however and no talks are planned during the remainder of 2020. When we can return for meetings, they will be member led until we are sure that life is returning to some degree of normality and regularity. Travel to the capital remains a major issue in the London Group’s considerations.
From Rob Carter, North Staffs Group.
More and More churches and chapels are being lost or turned into restaurants or residential properties, so this begs the question were do the memorials go?
Can you spare a little time to photograph or transcribe:
* Memorials located inside churches, chapels etc.
* Photograph any war memorials
* Headstones within churches or chapels
* Headstones in churchyards
* Photograph any war memorials
* Headstones within churches or chapels
* Headstones in churchyards
If you feel you can help, please email me and I will let you know which churches/chapels need to have their memorials photographed
Message from our Linda Newey, our Editor:
Can I invite you all to submit your contributions please, hopefully in good time for the December submission deadline which is Monday 5 October 2020
Finally, can I say a big thank you to Phil Lamb. Not only is Phil organising all the Zoom talks, he has now put my newsletters on the website. If you would like to read previous one, these are available in the News Section.
Jackie Cotterill
