September 2008
I ntroducing the theme of Education, Guinevere looks into the history of the teaching profession and the various resources that can be used to trace teacher and pupil ancestors and Georgette examines the role of the governess.
Merry Monty Montgomery, Marjorie Dawn and Roger in Sussex provide stories of their academic ancestors, whilst Jill on the A272 shares with us the entries in the Victorian logbooks from the school where she works in Haywards Heath in East Sussex.
In this issue we look at the theme of reunited families, Yummy Mummy of 2 and Gloryer share their stories, whilst Sherlockslovechild draws from his expertise providing tips and advice on tracing living people.
We finish the trilogy about the Bluett family from Paul Barton, Special Agent, with an article about the untimely death of Thomas Bluett in 1846 and Cath RJ shares the story of her great x4 grandmother, Ann Banton, who lived to the grand old age of 101. Continuing the My Kind of Town and Family Treasure features, Jennie writes about her home town of Boston in Linconshire and Tom Tom explains how the memorial card of his great x4 grandmother came into his possession.
If any of these articles have inspired you to write one of your own, then please contact Velma Dinkley.
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Searching for living people
S earching for living people involves adopting a clear, methodical and detached approach to the subject. Despite a possible personal or emotional involvement, the process of tracing needs an open minded and pragmatic attitude. People are surprisingly predictable sometimes and certain 'tendencies' can help us narrow down our search fields. Consider the person as
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Family reunited
A fter my dad died in 2006, my sister and I had to sort out his bungalow. While doing this we found an assortment of old photographs from the 1940s and 1950s, some of which had names and dates on the back. I knew from what my dad had said that some of the family were in Surrey and, as I had some names, I searched the birth, marriage and death indexes on Ancestr...
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I found my grandmother
I started my family research almost five years ago with a short course of adult education called ‘How to Trace your History on the Net’. I wasn’t really interested in family history, but it was the only course which fitted in with my work pattern at the time. However, It didn’t take me long to get hooked. With my mum being born in New Zealand and raise
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| My Kind of Town |
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Boston
W hen you say to people the name of my home town, Boston, the first thing they think of is the parish church, St Botolphs, otherwise known as ‘The Stump’. Built in the 12th century, this is the largest parish church in England, with the tower (or 'stump') being 272ft tall. It is believed to be called 'The Stump' as it was originally designed to be a lot hig...
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| Education, education, education |
Schoolteachers
T he rich have always believed in the value of education and there were schools in England from as early as the 14th Century. These early schools were intended to prepare boys for entry into the uni
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The Governess
W hat were women and girls from genteel backgrounds supposed to do if they fell on hard times and had to earn a living? Into this category often fell the daughters of lesser clergymen, young widows an...
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School Logbooks
I n the archive cupboard at St Wilfrid’s School, Haywards Heath, East Sussex, is a shelf of old logbooks in varying states of repair, together with some old school exercise books. The logbooks w... Read More >> |  |
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Doodles
H enry Robert Clark was my great grandfather and was born in 1854 in Bristol. I have always been unsure as to how Henry started down the path to becoming a schoolmaster; his father was a factory wor
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Bluestocking
T owards the end of the nineteenth century, both my grandmothers went to the local school and when they were old enough were sent away to board for a short time at a young ladies boarding school whe
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Pupil of Ongar Academy
M y interest in family history was first awakened many years ago while I was still a teenager, when my grandfather told me that as a child he had lived for some time in Epping with his grandparents.
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| The Thomas Bluett Trilogy: Part Three |
The death of Thomas Bluett
I n the August issue we published the story of Thomas Bluett and his work as a lithographic printer in New Zealand. After he left his wife Mary destitute in Hong Kong, she returned to England in 184
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| Family Treasure |
Memorial card
M y family treasure is something that has only recently come into my family, by which time it was nearly 150 years old. It was a nice warm sunny day in August 2006 when I visited Coleorton Parish Ch
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| Her faculties were as sharp as ever |
Ann Banton
I am often asked what started off my interest in family history. It was the photograph shown here, together with an article, which appears to be from a church magazine or almanac, which I found in
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