Trace Your Family History
We meet on the 3rd.Tuesday of the Month in the Flint Avenue community centre, Forest Town 2pm - 4pm.
Leaders: Julie Rowbottom and Andrew Rowbottom. You can contact Julie and Andrew by clicking on the bird on the right >>>>
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The Trace Your Family Tree Group enjoyed a Coronation treat at their May meeting courtesy of Julie & Andy.
The meeting set off by looking at the family trees of our Royal family.
Questions in recent quizzes had sparked this off and made us realise how little we all knew about them.
Pauline told of how she is keen to discover more of her uncle's time in the RAF, he flew in Lancaster bombers but his service number is so far unknown and will be difficult to find.
After very enjoyable refreshments Malcolm told of the 'brick wall' he had encountered in his family history and everyone attempted to come up with ideas and answers.
Once again it was a good meeting report by Pauline Marples.
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Order of Merit
Sometimes pieces of historical family information can be hiding in plain sight.
One member discovered a certificate of merit hiding behind a photograph in a frame.
It had been awarded to her Grandmother for a piece of embroidery displayed at the Popular
Handicrafts Magazine National Competition at Olympia in 1953.
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Research goes on, the ten members attending the Trace Your Family Tree Group’s January 2023 meeting reflected on what they had done, or had not done with their research over the Christmas period.
Ann explained that she had found looking at American obituaries on the web more informative than the UK ones.
Chris had rediscovered his father's driving licences in a box, these gave the various addresses his father had lived at, unlike today, when one license lasts for a number of years, back in time a new one was issued each year.
Pauline had renewed her subscription to the British newspaper archive and within half an hour found a report on her grandparents’ Golden Wedding in 1958, how lucky was that!
Malcolm had sorted out a mix up with his Stringers (or was it Adams?) family.
Sheila had found the birth dates of some of her family that had previously eluded her.
After tea/coffee we had a good session on looking at the value of using the free web site Family Search.
Andy with the use of his computer and the wall screen was able to demonstrate the various aspects of this.
Malcolm, Julie and Andy have all used this website and were able to tell of their experiences. We were all encouraged to go away and use this, especially as it’s free!
Report by Pauline Marples
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1028 and all that!?
When you say to people that you are researching your family history, they often ask: “How far back have you got?” Well, most of us will say early 1800s or late 1700s, if we are lucky!. However one member of our Trace Your Family History group, Ann Alcock, surprised us all this March by bringing along one line of her family tree that went back way beyond the 1700s.
You can read the full story in the April 2022 newsletter.
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Click on a picture below to see it full-size with more details.
