SUFFOLK Family History Society

SAXMUNDHAM & DISTRICT GROUP

At the meeting held on 21st April at the United Reform Church, Saxmundham, a new committee was not formed due to the lack of volunteers. It is with regret that I have to inform you the said group is now closed.

JeanEvans
Chairman

HAVE YOU AN ANCESTOR OF WHICH YOU ARE PROUD?

Gail Dixon, Freelance Journalist and Editor, is trying to find people who have traced their family tree and unearthed an ancestor of which they are particularly proud. This doesn't have to be anyone famous, it could be someone who died in battle, an inventor, someone who faced a lot of challenges in life, or any ordinary person who lived an extraordinary life.

If you interested in taking part in an interview and appearing in the "Who Do You Think You Are" magazine, then contact Gail Dixon on 07969 257493 or email gaildixon1@tiscali.co.uk

SUFFOLK FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY ONLINE SHOP

We are pleased to announce that Suffolk FHS have opened their own Online Shop. This will enable you to purchase all our products online. We are using PayPal which enables secure payments to be made online using a credit card. This used in conjuntion with a secure server gives you double security.

You will also be able to pay your subscription online!

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

Unfortunately incorrect subscription rates have been published in the March 2008 edition of 'Suffolk Roots'. The correct rates can be found here: http://www.suffolkfhs.co.uk/join.html. A membership form is available for downloading.

SAXMUNDHAM & DISTRICT GROUP

Please note that the meetings of the Saxmundham & Distict Group scheduled for 17th March 2008 and 21st April 2008 at the United Reform Church, Saxmundham are cancelled.

On the 21st April, there will be no speaker, but members are invited to the United Reformed Church at 7.30 pm to try to form a new committee.

'SUFFOLK ROOTS'

Due to family illness Patricia Turner is unable to continue as Editor of 'Suffolk Roots' for the foreseeable future. Until further notice please send any articles, letters etc to: Mike Durrant, 2, Kipling Way, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 1TP or Email. Articles can be submitted by any member and should be of interest to local or family historians.

NEWS FROM FFHS

1.   Due to ongoing building work the National Archives at Kew will be closed to the public from 21 to 27 January 2008 inclusive.

2.   In response to growing demand, The National Archives has agreed free onsite internet access to the birth, deaths and marriages indexes, through findmypast.com, the UK family history website. From 1 November 2007, users at The National Archives´ Kew site, and on the first floor of the Family Records Centre in Myddleton Street, up until 15 March 2008, will have free access to the digitised indexes, for an initial one-year trial period.

3.    For anyone who missed the Radio 4 series ‘Tracing Your Roots’ program broadcast last year, the series producers in collaboration with the BBC’s 'Who Do You Think You Are?' genealogy magazine have created two CDs, each featuring three programmes from the first series of Tracing Your Roots. If you would like a copy of the CD’s all that's required is that you send a large (preferably padded) self-addressed envelope, to:

Postage will be paid by ‘Tracing Your Roots’

TIME FOR A FAMILY REUNION?

"The BBC is currently working on an important documentary series following the reunion of a large extended British family. Our hope is to explore the fascinating past and present that every British family has at its core and to discover the importance and strength of family bonds in modern Britain."

"The celebration will offer one family the chance to discover their collective history over the course of an all-expenses-paid weekend in Spring 2008."

"This is a unique opportunity for anyone interested in reuniting their extended family. If you’d like to find out more or think you might be interested in getting involved in the series, call Annabel on 020 7267 4260 or email aborthwick@blastfilms.co.uk"

ROOTS

At the Federation of FHS General Meeting held in Durham in September, 'Suffolk Roots' was runner up in the Elizabeth Simpson Award for Society Magazines.

Patricia Turner spends endless hours to produce our Journal and I think you will all join me in congratulating her on this achievement.

MILITARY ANCESTRY

The Military Collection at Aldershot Public Library numbers approximately 20,000 books, of which approximately 18,500 are available for loan, either directly from the library itself or through the inter-library loan system at your local public library.

The Collection includes a run of Army Lists, the earliest of which dates back to 1740, and several regimental histories giving a wealth of detail about the regiment's service, particularly during periods of conflict.

There is also a facility to search the 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' and the 'Army Roll of Honour - World War II' databases and print out the Scrolls of Remembrance for individual soldiers who died in either of those wars. Contact Stephen Phillips, Military Librarian, at the museum with as many details as you have of the person you are researching (name, regiment, date of death, service number). You will be sent a facsimile reprint of the appropriate Scroll, printed on quality paper. There is a charge of £1.50 per printed Scroll.

The museum is pleased to assist with any military-based enquiries and can be found at 109 High Street, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 1DQ
Tel: 0845 6035631

FRAMINGHAM CASTLE POORHOUSE DESCENDANTS

Karen Bali needs help with a research project for English Heritage. The research concerns the records of Framingham Castle poorhouse. English Heritage is planning an exhibition at the castle at the beginning of next year and wants to trace living descendants of people featured in the castle poorhouse records between 1980 and 1817. I have pasted below the extracts featuring names from the records.

Paupers in Framlingham House of Industry -
Beginning on 6 June 1809: John Beales/Bales, Robert Brown, Hannah Burrows, Mary Button the elder, Mary Button the younger, Ann Barker, Samuel Barber, Hannah Barber, Susan Barber, Mary Barber, George Bryanton, William Chandler, Samuel Catchpole, Esther Day, John Emmerson, Joseph Hearn, Martha Jessup, Francis Kerridge, Ellis Keer, John Keer, Mary Mayhew, Peter Mallows Senior, Elizabeth Mallows, Thomas Mallows, Robert Mallows, James Mallows, Child Mallows (no name), Mary Paxman, Ann Read, Mary Read, Hannah Wade, Priscilla Woodward.

Over the course of two years one birth occurred in the workhouse. The child, Harriet Pipe, was born on 2 December 1810 to a mother, also named Harriet, who had been admitted to the workhouse, heavily pregnant, on 31 October, only four weeks before. Harriet Pipe was still in the workhouse in May 1813. Elizabeth Woodward (March 1811), Deborah Mallows (April 1811), Charles Woods (April 1811), Hannah Pendles, child (May 1813)
Spring of 1817, paid for work: Thomas Mallows, George Bruning, Thomas Mallows, James Gooding, Robert Markum, Samuel Newson, John Keer
Overseers, 1817: John Fruer, Joseph Benington

If you can help, then please contact Mrs Patricia Turner at
48 Princethorpe Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8NX or Email

COLINDALE NEWSPAPERS MIGRATION STRATEGY

The British Library announced in March 2007 major plans to move its historic newspaper collection from Colindale in North London to Boston Spa in Yorkshire. The full text of the press release can be read on the Internet at http://www.bl.uk/news/2007/pressrelease20070301.html.

It is anticipated that by 2011 access to the Newspaper Library will be at St Pancras by means of microfilm or digital copies (referred to as surrogates), with access to the original documents being allowed only in exceptional circumstances.

HISTORICAL GRAVESTONE EPITAPH

Extracts from a press release by the "BBC History Magazine":

Grave concerns have led to a search for Britain's most surprising, enigmatic or bizarre historical gravestone epitaph, to be launched tomorrow, 24 July, by BBC History Magazine. The call for action aims to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of gravestone inscriptions as Britain's gravestones come under increasing danger.

It's estimated that there are around 6 million gravestones in England, but less than half of these have been recorded, and a staggering 25,000 are thought to be lost to weathering, relocation and vandalism every year.

The public are being asked to send in any 'Mysterious Memorials' they know of or find to BBC History Magazine by 1 September 2007. Submissions must include the text of the epitaph, along with a picture of the gravestone, and details of where it is. The person who sends in the most surprising, enigmatic or bizarre gravestone epitaph will win a Canon Digital IXUS 70 camera worth over £200.

Please send Mysterious Memorials by 1 September 2007 to: memorials@bbchistorymagazine.com or to Mysterious Memorials, BBC History Magazine, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN

The winner will be announced in the October issue of BBC History Magazine.

NATIONAL FAMILY HISTORY CONFERENCE

The Family History Societies of Essex and Suffolk are jointly hosting a conference from Friday 29th August to Sunday 31st August 2008. For more details see here.

Meet family historians from all round the world. Explore the lives of your ancestors in urban, rural and coastal areas.

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

Due to a technical fault, the Chairman's Message in the June 2007 edition of 'Suffolk Roots' which should have been on Page 2 has been duplicated with Page 4. Please accept our apologies. The Chairman's Message is as follows:

"I am overwhelmed at the response I received following my message in the March edition of Roots.

Thank you to all those who took the time to write, email and telephone me with much appreciated comments of praise for the Society and its many volunteers. The majority of messages gave a special mention to this Journal and how informative it is. All have asked to give a special thank you to the Editor Patricia Turner.

The Society entered into a venture with the Wortham Research Group and jointly published the book ‘ Parson and People in a Suffolk Village’. The book launch that took place on 24th March at Wortham village hall was a great success. Special thanks go to Dr. David Dymond, Nick Smith and Mike Durrant for their endless hours spent on bringing together years of research into a wonderful publication.

For many years Senior Archivist Gwyn Thomas has attended both Executive and Management Meetings as a representative of the Suffolk Record Office.

At the end of March he retired. To show our appreciation for his regular attendance at meetings and keeping us informed with the up to date news of the three County Record Offices, we held an informal get together on 28th April where he was presented with Honorary Membership of the Society. We all wish him a long and happy retirement.

The ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ three day event at Olympia was a great success. The Society was represented on two days and my thanks go to volunteers Jim & Patricia Turner, Sheila Piper, Dave Daldry, Albert Browne and Joan & David Horton who gave up their time to ‘fly the flag’ for the SFHS.

A further 100,000 entries have been added to the Suffolk Burial Index Search Service and are now available from Ann Youngs.

Suffolk Marriages 1754-1812 have been transcribed and are now in the process of checking. As the checking is completed CD’s will be available. Already for sale we have the 12 Parishes of Ipswich on one CD. Also a full search service is available from Pamela Palgrave.

With Summer approaching the gardening seems to take priority but for some it will also be nice to get out and about and visit a few of the pretty villages and towns where our ancestors once lived. If you come across anything interesting on your travels and would like to share it with us please send it in to the Editor.

Thank you
Jean Evans"

BURIALS INDEX

Release 12 of the Suffolk Burials Index is available for ordering on CD. It contains over one million entries and costs £16.00 including VAT & postage.

Release 13 has been issued, but it has been decided by the Society Projects Committee that a new CD to supercede the Release 12 CD will not be published for the time being. The new Release 13 will only be accessible via the Society's Search Service.

HELP WANTED IN PLYMOUTH DEVON

The Society would like to attend the following Fair which will incorporate the Federation of Family History Societies AGM & GM.

Family History Fair Future Inn, Plymouth on 29th March 2008, 10.00am - 4.00pm. Free Parking and one mile from the A38 Expressway.

We have two volunteers willing to bring the Society bookstall to the Fair. However, one of the volunteers will be attending the Federation AGM & GM as the Society representative which will mean one person manning the bookstall from about 1.00pm

If any member is willing to attend and assist please contact Mrs Patricia Turner at
48 Princethorpe Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8NX or Email, as soon as possible.

All items for sale have price labels. Reasonable travelling expenses will be paid and there is a meal allowance payable.

GWYN THOMAS

For many years Senior Archivist Gwyn Thomas has attended both Executive and Management Meetings as a representative of the Suffolk Record Office. At the end of March he retired. To show our appreciation for his regular attendance at meetings, and keeping us informed with the up to date news of the three County Record Offices, we held an informal get together on 28th April where he was presented with Honorary Membership of the Society. We all wish him a long and happy retirement.

ANCESTRY.COM

The three branches of the Suffolk Record Office and all Suffolk Libraries now have access to the Ancestry Library Edition of Ancestry.com. It has been added to the Gold Standard Reference Services on the Suffolk Libraries website. However, unlike other Gold Standard Reference Services, it can ONLY be accessed on the Library and Record Office computers with internet access and will NOT be available to customers using their home computers.

PEOPLE OF THE BRITISH ISLES

PoBI aim to collect blood samples from between 100 and 150 people from about 30 different rural regions throughout the UK. To try and make sure that the sample is representative of the area throughout the ages, they are looking for people whose parents and grandparents were all born in the same locality.

They are still looking very actively to recruit more volunteers. If you know anyone who fits the criteria please do tell them about the project. As a reminder, to qualify, volunteers must be unrelated people from a rural area with all four grandparents born in the same region.

If you would like more information, they have produced a newsletter, which you can read here. You will need Adobe Acrobat to read the newsletter. Also,they have a website at http://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/.

BAPTISMS

The list of parishes available for searching has been increased. Parishes indexed during 2006 are now listed. See the Search Services page for the revised list (Suffolk Baptism Search).

SUFFOLK FHS HONOURS

We are pleased to announce that, at the AGM on Saturday 7th October 2006, Elizabeth Arkieson was made an Honorary Member of the Society for all that she has contributed to the Society over the years.

Certificates of Appreciation were awarded to the following:

Margaret Ebeling for work and support of Sudbury group.

Robert Brown for work with the Society's finances.

Raymond Green for work with the Saxmundham group.

Brenda Garner for work with the Strays Index.

FAMILY RECORDS CENTRE TO MOVE TO KEW

The National Archives and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today made a joint announcement about the provision of services to family historians. As part of a review of strategy, which has focused on the huge changes in information management over the last 10 years, The NationalArchives is announcing its intention to move its Family Records Centre (FRC) staff and services to Kew from their current location at Myddelton Street, Islington, by the end of 2008.

The National Archives and ONS have for some time managed the FRC as a joint operation in Myddelton Street, Islington. Users can access historic census returns in The National Archives part of the Centre and establish basic details of births, deaths and marriages in the indexes maintained by ONS prior to ordering copies of relevant certificates.

ONS has an extensive project in hand to digitise registration records and modernise other aspects of service provision, but has not yet made data and documents available online to the same extent as The National Archives. Over the coming months ONS will be reviewing its future requirements for services at FRC in the light of this project and The National Archives' plans to relocate its service to Kew. The review will be carried out in close collaboration with The National Archives to ensure that service delivery by the two organisations continues to be as closely aligned as possible.

James Strachan, Director of Public Services and Marketing for The National Archives, said: "We have already made most of our material housed at the FRC available online. We remain committed to providing high-quality services to family historians, and are therefore planning to develop new online services that reflect customers' needs, and to integrate FRC onsite services at Kew during 2008. We will retain a dedicated family history service, and retain the jobs of our FRC staff in the new service at Kew."

Peter Murphy, Director of Registration Services at ONS, said: "The hard copy indexes of birth, death and marriage registration, which are available at the FRC, remain for now the resource enabling the Registrar General to meet her statutory obligation to make indexes available to the public. Clearly advances in technology now permit other approaches to providing public access and that is what our review will be concentrating on. We will work closely with National Archives colleagues in conducting the review and hope to be able to reveal its main conclusions by the autumn of this year."

NEW PUBLICATIONS

To make it easier to see what has been recently published we have added a
New Publications page. This can be accessed from either the Home or Publication pages.

ROOTS

If still available, back copies of "Roots" can be obtained from Patricia Marshall for £2.00 each including postage. An index of all editions of "Roots" is at present being prepared. When available the index will appear on this website.

Photocopies of pages from the past 15 years of Roots are also available. Please send a cheque for £1 (payable to Suffolk FHS) and an sae to:- Mrs Gillian Woodroffe, 7 Hare Hill Close, Pyrford, Woking, Surrey GU22 8UH or Email with the name(s) you are interested in. This will cover up to 5 sheets (10 Roots pages). Any additional cost will be notified with the initial search.

REDUCED PRICES

With immediate effect, all prices for the 1851 census CD and booklets have been drastically cut. See the 1851 page or the relevant overseas page for contacts and prices.

ARE YOU DESCENDED FROM ROYALTY?

Shine Limited, a TV production company are looking for people who think they may have a royal or aristocratic connection in their family tree. They want to take seven families on a journey through their family tree to find out if there is a connection and find out about other interesting people along the way. With their two presenters, a historian and a genealogist they want to bring your family's history to life. It may be purely a story that has been in your family for years or you may have started to look into it.

Maybe you are related to the Bowes-Lyon family, the Parker-Bowles or the Fergussons? Maybe you are descended from a royal mistress? Maybe you are related to Grace Kelly or the French royal family directly? Are you black and have reason to believe that you may have blood links with a white plantation owner?

If you have any royal stories from the past 300 years give Shine a call on 0870 726 8873 or email Emma Beckwith here.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Many new publications are now available. There are an additional 13 churches covered for monumental inscriptions. There are more parish records and there are now some marriage bonds for Ipswich and Sudbury. Up until now, most of these have only been available on fiche. However, we now have various CDs available with parish records, monumental inscriptions as well as the popular CD containing the 1851 census for Suffolk. Check these out on the Publications page.

Also now available is Mike Durrant's new book, "A History & Genealogy of BADLEY, Suffolk". For more information click here!

STANDING ORDERS

Suffolk FHS can now accept payment of subscriptions (in sterling) by standing order. This would save the society some bank charges.

If you are interested then contact Robert Brown by Email.

HISTORICAL DIRECTORIES

Another useful website! Historical Directories is a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales, from 1750 to 1919, owned by the University of Leicester. Within the digital library you'll find high quality reproductions of comparatively rare books, essential tools for research into local and genealogical history. The site will remain freely available for the next 3 years (from Novemeber 2004?) There is a search engine which enables you to search on individual names. The search engine works but has some problems. You need to perservere!

The site is listed on our links page and can be found here.

If you find any websites with Suffolk genealogy information, then please send me an Email.

SFHS PUBLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE

Did you know that SFHS publications can now be purchased on-line from the FFHS Family History Bookshop (Genfair)? See our Publications page for details of this and other purchasing methods.