December 2005

National Maritime Museum at Greenwich

We have been sent the 2005-06 Prospectus for the Adult Learning Programme of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. We are to late for the Autumn courses but the summer ones include such diverse topics as :-

• The Early Trading Companies
• War in the Pacific 1900-45
• War art from 17th C to Present Day
• Inigo Jones, Architect

Reconditioned Microfiche Readers

As well as giving us a very interesting talk, "Murder, Marriage and Madness", in September Kelvin Law also took the opportunity to tell us of his part time venture selling reconditioned microfiche readers.

The New Curiosity Shop

We have been contacted by Noel Chidwick at The New Curiosity Shop (http://newcurioshop.com). They are operating a new online course in family history that explores how to make the most of the technology and information from the 20th century to build a solid and reliable foundation for further family research. The course costs £70.00 to petrol and lasts 7 weeks. you will be expected to work for around 4 hours a week over 2 or 3 evenings. I have a lot more information if any one would like to know more.

Chipping Norton Family History Group

During 2003/04 the Chipping Norton Family History Group recorded the M.I.'s at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, London Road, Chipping Norton. Copies of the microfiche of their findings are now available for £2.00 including p&p.

The Brewery History Society

The Brewery History Society has now completely revised and rewritten their flagship publication which is now available entitled "A Century of British Brewers plus-1890 to 2004". A comprehensive locations index lists over 2,100 towns and the index by brewer and brewery runs to over 9,500 entries. The cost is £13.95 plus £2.00 p&p.

Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain

Rosemary Wenzerul, Publications Dept, Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, PO box 180, St, Albans, Herts. AL2 3WH have many new books available including "A Beginner's Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Great Britain" and "Reading Hebrew Inscriptions and Documents".

Family Photographic Index of Surnames

From Mrs. Anne Matanle, 13, Kingston Villas, Chiddingly Road, Horam, East Sussex, TN21 0JL come news of her "Family Photographic Index of Surnames". This is a database containing information written on photos dating from about 1860 into 20th C. In some cases the only information is the surname of the sitter but more often than not there is more. Sometimes they are dated, if not, Anne can date them from the clothing. Anne does not search by area because, so often, our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors had their "picture took" while on holiday or out on a day excursion.

Anne's price list is as follows :-

• Up to 5 different surnames £5.00
• Photo copies of a signature £1.50 per A4 sheet which might be able to hold about 4 signatures.
• Photo copy of the photo, £5.00 per A4. This would be an ordinary black and white photo copy of the front and the back.
• Up to 2 Cartes-de-visite or 1 cabinet size on 1 A4 sheet.
• A black and white copy photo at £25.00 per photo. 35 mm copy negatives are made of the front and back of the photo and 2 black and white 10x8 of the front and back are supplied for this cost.

www.familyrelatives.org

www.familyrelatives.org have transcribed over 150 million BMD records, 1866-1920 and a further 150 million, 1921-2002. The web site also offers, in association with the Oxford University Press and Readers Digest, free access to some fascinating essay pages on family history. There is also detailed information about the history of names.

Origins Network

Origins Network wish to inform us that their 1841 Census database has added some more counties and also they now have available "Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-1744" Over 350,000 apprentice records from all over Great Britain (about 20% are Scottish) are now available exclusively on British Origins. These records contain -

• The name of the apprentice
• The name of their parent or guardian (in most cases)
• The place that he or she came from
• Their father's trade
• The name of the Master to whom they were indentured
• The Master's trade
• The place where the Master lived, and
• The value of the premium paid to the Master for taking on the apprentice.

To preview and see more information on this and Origins other collections please visit - www.britishorigins.com/signup-info.aspx
or if you are a current subscriber visit the following and login to search the new collections - www.britishorigins.com/login.aspx

Ancestry24 in South Africa

We have received a total of 13 A4 sheets of information from Heather Macalister of Media24 in Cape Town. They have a huge list of books and CD's on the early South African settlers. As well as publications on the British, Irish, Dutch and Germans there are the Indians and the slaves.

If you are interested you can contact -

Post Office On-line Record Catalogue

Following an enquiry to the Post Office about some of her ancestors, Mauren Faubel has obtained the following -

"Our on-line Catalogue is just that, a catalogue of many of the records which we hold here (We are still developing it so not all are on it yet). The records are themselves are not available on-line, you will have to visit us to see them. Of interest to family historians would be our Pensions and Gratuities Records. Employees of the P.O. were awarded a pension, usually upon the retirement age of 60, although many worked for longer, e.g. in wartime. Gratuities were generally given to the families of those who died in service, while still working for the P.O., and to female workers who were leaving to get married. These records go up to 1959 and can sometimes contain information such as birth, years of service, appointments held and amount of pension/gratuity awarded. They do not usually contain any personal information like address or next of kin. Also in the archive are appointment books, minute books and staff magazines".