Family History Societies

 On a recent visit to Lincolnshire archives and spotting some volunteers transcribing records it reminded me of the unsung work carried out by family history societies.  These records are carefully transcribed and checked and are much more reliable than some other transcriptions. Buying the resultant CDs or on-line downloads is well worth the money, not only to support the FHS financially, but can generate links or ideas on the home computer which may not be seen with on-line sites.

It's great work you are doing and much appreciated. In this case to the Lincolnshire Family History Society, but to others also.

 

Here's another really useful resource for Lincolnshire marriages (post 1837)

https://mi.lincolnshiremarriages.org.uk/

 

 

Ethel Allis and Paul Page

 Found a nice photograph of Ethel Allis with her new husband Paul Page from around 1930 on ebay. This was a publicity picture for Paul presumably since he worked for Fox studios as an actor at that time. They look happy.

Given the age of the picture would copyright still apply to it? It would be good to put it on the web-site. 

web-sites!

 Just caught out by thinking that a page on a web-site would stay there. So instead of the nice transcription of an early will I wanted to refer back to, I now just have the catalogue number. 

It was for a peripheral family so didn't seem that important to keep a copy at the time but has just gained importance.

Note to self: keep everything. 

Back again

 It has been a while. 

I can recommend the IHGS correspondence course in genealogy which has taken up quite a lot of time. 24 lectures completed at your own pace. Naturally some lectures are of varying amount of interest but there has always been something to be learned. The course is now nearly finished.

The book is also being updated from the 2020 edition - again occupying a lot of time. How can you check chapters a couple of times and still find typos and poor grammar? (no need to answer)

I also thought it would be of interest to produce a database on the lines of Custodian. The sqlite database was relatively easy to get going but a front-end for it has proved more challenging so the use of DBeaver has proved most useful in providing a place to enter and organise data.  Sqlite studio and DB browser are other apps that have proved really useful for that exercise too.

After another two trips to Lincoln archive and one to Essex archive there are many documents to read properly and transcribe.

In the past I have tended to only enter families into the Master Genealogist (and from there the web-site) when there has been enough of a group. I think this will change to include more individuals and couples, if only to get them recorded.

Another concern has been the Alce families of Sussex. Alce was a contraction of Alice and the two (with Allis etc.) were interchangeable for a time. Then the spelling appears to have become permanent - has the pronounciation of the name changed over time? Some early Alce/Allis families will be recorded to get going. 

Audrey Allis and "The Cyclist" magazine

 Some letters for sale on ebay recently caught my eye. They were to Audrey Allis from some servicemen and addressed to contact corner at "The Bicycle" magazine.

It seems that Audrey was a pen-friend to a large number of serviceman interested in cycling during WW2 and after the war she organised a large gathering or gatherings of those friends.

She was mentioned in the Daily Mirror of 6 April 1946 as the hostess of the "contact corner" party at Bayswater, and a photograph was included. A note about the party in "The cyclist" of June 1946 says that her uncle was the writer "Ragged Staff" aka Reginald Burgess "Rex" Coley who wrote a great many articles and some books on cycling. Rex was born in Walsall in 1898 and married Annie Palmer in 1929.

Who was Audrey? There are few candidates but after the party mentioned she seems to have disappeared with no references back to the magazine.

A wedding notice from 1837

 A marriage notice from the Yorkshire Gazette of 8 April 1837 was a little out of the ordinary:

"The blooming bride has withstood the blasts of upwards of fifty winters, whilst her lord has not yet escaped from the thraldom of his legal infancy,—being, we understand, above thirty years her junior."

 

Love as a surname or forename

 Having an ancestor's surname as a christian name is obviously useful in following family lines and can provide useful pointers.

Having come across Love as a surname (7114 of them in 1881 and well spread across the country) could Love as a forename indicate a family connection, or is it a christian name in its own right? (In 1881 there were 344 instances).

If used as a middle name is that more likely to be a naming after an ancestor?