Interested in Family History? Discover your Ancestors from Birmingham, Staffordshire, Warwickshire & Worcestershire.
Midland Ancestors
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025
will be held in person
In the BMI at 9, Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS.
Saturday 3rd MAY 2025 at 11.45pm BST
Participants will need to be paid up members of the Society in order to vote.
Full details of the Agenda, Reports and Trustee nominations, as well as the option for a postal vote,
will be posted on an update to this page by 1st April.
Click this Calendar link for details of the two talks that have been arranged and the format for the day.
The MA Family History Centre will be open for general enquiries for a short while during the lunch break.
Following the recent departures of key personnel, the Board of Trustees has been reviewing the structure and governance of Midland Ancestors. The Board believes that fundamental reforms in management and governance are necessary in order to safeguard the organisation’s future.
With this in mind, the Board is proposing to redefine the roles of Chair and General Secretary and to create several additional roles, in order to spread the workload more evenly.
The available vacancies include the following:
In addition, the following new positions are being created:
We also have other volunteer opportunities available. Some can be carried out remotely making distance no object, if you would like to help.
To discuss any of these vacancies, informally and without obligation, please contact the Trustees at trustees@midanc.uk.
Or by post: Midland Ancestors, 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham. B3 3BS
Today is my birthday! I won’t say how old I am, but my youngest granddaughter, aged 7, asks things like did we have YouTube or MacDonald’s when I was little. I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies, my mother used to get asked if they had electricity and running water when she was small!
FORTHCOMING GROUP MEETINGS
BIRMINGHAM – *Due to proposed rail strike – Rearranged*- 15 April 2pm
The Staffordshire Enclosure Award Maps Project – Presenter – Richard Totty
NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE – 3 April @ 7.30pm – Research Evening
WOLVERHAMPTON: 26 April @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
The Families of Charles Street, Wolverhampton, in the 1800’s – Speaker: Penny Smith
Kenilworth: Wed 12 April @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm (Live) –
Military Matters Speaker: Mick Rawle
BROMSGROVE – Tue 11 April – No meeting because of Easter
STOURBRIDGE: Tue 25th April @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
A ‘virtual’ tour of Dudley’s graveyards: Speaker: Craig Deniston
CHANGES TO PROGRAMME IN MAY
NORTH STAFFS – 8 MAY – Cancelled because of the Coronation.
The talk Shot at Dawn by David Bardell will now take place on July 3rd
KENILWORTH 10 MAY – 7.30 p.m. Wednesday 10th May: Annual Business Meeting plus
“The Last Letter I Ever Received; Epistles, Emotions and the Family Archive in Eighteenth Century England”
speaker: Dr Imogen Peck, FRHistS, FHEA; Assistant Professor in British History, Department of History, University of Birmingham (Our meeting on 8th March was cancelled due to the snow that day).
ZOOM Workshops
Following the success of our first Zoom self-help Workshops, these will now be held every month, except August, on the third Wednesday of every month starting at 2pm. Whatever is discussed will be decided by you, our members as long as it is family history related!
Trip to National Archives – 20 May 2023
Phil has asked me to remind you about the next trip down to National Archives in London, which is the final resting place of all files and documents produced by the various departments of H.M. Government and its predecessors. Your Ancestors could well be in there somewhere, if you haven’t found him or her then perhaps you are not using the search engine to best advantage. If there is enough interest, Phil will be running a Familiarisation Session beforehand in the BMI. Contact Phil for a booking form.
Anniversary Lunch – Sun 14 May 2023 12noon for 12.30pm £30 each
Interest in our lunch is coming along quite nicely, but we would, of course, like to get as many members as we can to attend. Details of the menu can be found in the March journal and once you have selected your menu choice, please send to me with either your cheque in payment, or you can pay via our online shop using your debit/credit card.
I am so looking forward to seeing you all and a Sunday meal that I don’t have to cook!
SOCIETY AGM – 13 May 2pm
The day before is the Society’s AGM and now is the time for members to put themselves forward to join the Executive Committee. If you would like to join, you can get a nomination form from me.
We are hopeful to use ZOOM for those members who cannot attend. See page 05 in the March journal for full details.
Afterwards Mike Sharpe will be talking about the Society’s first 50 years.
DOUBLE MARRIAGES
There’s an interesting article this month in the Lost Cousins Newsletter on Double Marriages, the causes of which are discussed. Sometimes this could be due to the groom being in the army and had to obtain permission from his commanding officer; or perhaps the Banns were incorrectly called or some of the information was incorrectly given, although nearly all the marriages that I have seen where this has happened, the Vicar has just made an amendment in the margin.
Clergy of the Church of England database
If you are looking for a particular Clergyman, there is the Clergy of the Church of England database. This database covers the period 1540-1835 and is free to use. Other Clergy records can be found in Crockford’s Clerical Directory and we do have some in our library for 1927, 1987-1988 and 1991-92. There are some earlier ones on Ancestry. I have also just noticed that in our library we also have Dentist Registers 1944-1984. (Thanks to Peter Calver for the information on the Clergy database.)
Talking about double registrations, I have two birth certificates for one of my ancestors. I can only assume that this was because the parents were not married so one has just his mother’s surname and the other his father’s name (no mother’s name) on the certificate. He also has two death certificates; 1. his death was registered by an aunt and 2. It was then re-registered by his father. It took me a while to sort that one out and find him, although to be honest I had a great deal of help from the Registrar in Birmingham.
OTHER UPDATES
Irish genealogy.ie have updated their online records:
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/
Society of Genealogists Live online Events for April
The SoG have revamped their events booking system making it easier to browse all their events. Once again there are some interesting talks, etc. whether you are a member or not. Some of the talks are being recorded. They are also introducing a Wednesday Workshop for hands-on learning and talking to other course members.
Further information can be found on: http://www.sog.org.uk/events
FREE WEBSITES
I had to give a talk this week on starting your family history and came across some free websites that I have not seen before and thought these may be of interest.
Connected Histories https://www.connectedhistories.org/
Hunt for ancestors who were clergy, Londoners, transported convicts, witnesses at the Old Bailey and learn more about where they lived with the Victoria County History, Survey of London and Charles Booth Archive also on this website.
The Digital Panopticon https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/
This free genealogy website lets you search millions of records across several datasets covering London convicts in Britain and Australia from 1780 to 1925.
Interment.net http://www.interment.net/
Unlike BillionGraves and Find a Grave, this website is a strange combination of headstones transcribed by volunteers and cemetery records provided by local authorities and private organisations. Although the site doesn’t include any images, it does have information not available elsewhere online.
The Internet Archive https://archive.org/
This giant library of a website is such a mish-mash of material that it often gets overlooked by family historians. It has some obviously genealogical material, such as old published parish records, but it also has unusual material from archives around the globe, such as The Gazettes of India. It helps if you know what you are looking for but you can also try random searches on topics or areas. (I use this one a lot).
Wellcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/
The website of this medical museum and library in Central London has plenty to offer family historians, although it is not the easiest website to navigate. As well as reports from local Medical Officers of Health that can give you a picture of the health of your forebear’s area, a number of mental-health institutions have had their records digitised and made available here including Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries, Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow, The Retreat in York and Ticehurst House Hospital in East Sussex
If you come across any more that you think our members would be interested in, please let me know.
Jackie
Now that Christmas is well and truly behind us, my thoughts turn to our forthcoming anniversary lunch at the Tally Ho, Birmingham. In the March journal you will find a copy of the menu choices for you to pick one of each selection. The cost is £30 per head. This is slightly up on what I thought simply because there is a more choice. If you make your cheques payable to Midland Ancestors/BMSGH I can make one payment to Tally Ho.
Interestingly, I looked back at our 50th Anniversary lunch and that was also £30 per head for a set meal so this seems good value. (You can look back at the old issues of Midland Ancestor by going to the Members section of the website).
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We had a very interesting talk by Sharon Hintze of FamilySearch recently in Birmingham. Sharon’s talk was about ‘What was new in FamilySearch’. Did you know that FamilySearch is the biggest genealogical organisation in the World, covering the world, but only about 2% of their holdings have been digitalised.
Sharon introduced us to two members of the church who are here for two years. They were undertaking a research project here, which has unfortunately fallen through. They are willing to come into the BMI and demonstrate ‘what’s new’ in FamilySearch as well as to revamp our library catalogue, so you might see them in the library.
The library is fully staffed again and open five days a week, although we could do with back up librarians – see my article below.
ZOOM Workshops
Now we are back to physical meetings, we don’t want to forget our members who cannot attend group meetings, so we are holding Zoom self-help Workshops on the third Wednesday of every second month (Feb, Apr, June, Aug (possibly), Oct and Dec with topics suggested by members, such as brick walls, new internet websites, etc. Starting at 2pm. See calendar on website for details.
This does not mean that we won’t be holding any more Zoom meetings, it is just nice to see our members again!
Because of the ongoing train strikes, all meetings may be subject to change, so please keep in touch the Group you attend or check on the website.
FORTHCOMING GROUP MEETINGS
BIRMINGHAM – 4 FEBRUARY 2pm
Kingsley Norris Memorial Lecture – Genealogy Modelling Kinship – are we related?
Given by Dr. Alan C. Smith FinstP FIET FRAS
Research Evening.
Dianne Shenton says, “It is a research evening, but I will take my 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”.
KENILWORTH – 8 Feb 7.30pm
The wives and daughters of the Lunar Society
Talk given by Dr. Kate Croft, CWMH
BROMSGROVE – Tue 14th February @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm GMT
A Fascinating Family History
Given by well-known genealogist, Vanessa Morgan
WOLVERHAMPTON: Wed 22nd February @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm GMT
Member’s Research Evening
STOURBRIDGE: SAT 25TH FEBRUARY @ 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM GMT
‘The Diggum Uppers’
OTHER EVENTS
Online – Members Self Help Workshops
Wed 15th February @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
(Other dates are proposed – see Website for more details)
National Archives Introductory Session Cost £5
Sat 18 February – 10:00 – 12:30pm (Please note date incorrect in the December journal)
Cost is just £5 in advance which can be considered as part payment for a seat on either of the next two coaches to Kew.
Places are limited and booking is required. To book a place email Phil Lamb on coachtrips@mid-anc.uk
This of course leads to reintroduction of the coach trips to National Archives. The dates are 18 March, 20 May, 9 September and 14 October. Seat prices are £26.00. If you are interested in going, email Phil on coachtrips@mid-anc.uk
Introduction to Family History Research – Cannock Library
This FREE five week course, held at on Monday afternoons beginning at 1.30 p.m.
Places are limited and booking is required. To book a place please call the library direct on 01543 334 530.
Breaking down Family History Brick Walls – U3A
Wednesday 8 February 2pm
If you are a member of U3A, these sessions may be useful. Toni Neoboard is hosting three sessions looking at family history for beginners. To apply to join go to
ROOTSTECH by Familysearch is back again in March – 2nd – 4th. If you have not attended, it is free with over 300 classes and 100plus speakers. Full details can be found via the Familysearch website.
MIDLAND ANCESTORS SHOP
Just in case you don’t get Steve Freeman’s shop newsletter, he is having a grand sale on all book stock including Staffordshire Parish Register Societies (SPRS) remaining stock of books and some of the Midland Ancestors books. He also has a large selection of second hand books for sale.
The shop also sells books by other publishers. The Eureka partnership publishes unusual and lesser known material such as Canal Boat Records, Nonconformist Registers, Workhouse Records and Pre 1841 Census Data. Other publishers include Shire Books, Coventry FHS, Brewin Books, Women’s Research Group – books about Coventry Women and Cassini maps.
REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS
I don’t know if most of you are aware, but our Society hosts the Staffordshire and West Midlands BMD site, which are part of the Local BMD Project group of Family History and Genealogy web sites.
This is a collaboration with the local Registration Services to make the indexes to these records freely searchable via the Internet.
A new project has been launched involving Kingston on Thames Registrars, but they need volunteers. I have been asked to mention it to our London or Southeast members to see if they would like to volunteer to help. It involves photographing the birth, marriage and death indexes, then checking the typed indexes against the registers themselves. If you can spare a few hours a week to do this, please contact Steve on steve.stutcinskas@sky.com
Talking of volunteers, you will see in the next journal a plea for more volunteers to take on key rolls within the Society. I know that most people think that organisations such as ours run themselves, but they don’t, they need all those background staff to ensure it runs smoothly and we need willing volunteers to do that. I see that the Catholic Family History Society, as well as some others, have disbanded simply because they could not get enough volunteers.
The same could happen to our Society. We have eight Groups and I know that most if not all are not only struggling to attract members back again, but also get helpers to run the Groups. It’s not hard; put out chairs, greet members at the door, make the tea if necessary, all simple things that most of us have done for whichever group we have belonged to.
If you are really ‘brave’ you could offer to stand at committee level, and there’s nothing difficult in that. All our Groups are run by a committee which organise meetings, outings, etc. and I am sure they would welcome you with open arms.
The Society’s main AGM is held at the Birmingham’s meeting on May 13 (note change of date) and more committee members are needed to help organise how our Society is run. If you don’t like the way the Society is run, or have any suggestions on how we could make it better, either tell us or better still, stand for the committee.
I’ll get off my soap box now!
This is particularly relevant this week, The Arolsen Archives are an international documentation centre on Nazi persecution and the liberated survivors. The world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism preserves documents about concentration camp prisoners, foreign forced labourers and the post-war registration of Displaced Persons (DPs). There are now over 30 million documents in the Arolsen Archives which provide information about more than 17.5 million people. Further information can be found on https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/
North Staffs Group
Rob Carter of our North Staffs Group has asked for help photographing headstones and internal monuments of churches in the North Staffs area. This has been an ongoing project of Rob’s for many years, but it is not something he can do on his own. If you can help, Rob can be contacted on Robcarter@hotmail.com.
Finally, keep an eye out for the next edition of WDYTYA? magazine, there could be an article on Worcestershire Records and you might see us mentioned in it.
Jackie