The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.2 | September 2022

Local Group Programmes

Contact: Tony Sinclair Tel: 07518 183211 winchester@hgs-online.org.uk

Winchester

Meetings are normally at 7:15pm on 3rd Thursdays in the Littleton Millennium Hall.

(May) Bringing History up to date – Dave Annal Dave started with the comment “let as many know you are the family rubbish bin for photos, certificates etc”. So often these records are destroyed unwittingly or the owner doesn’t know what is in the tin box under the bed! His words of advice were to use the free BMD website or the GRO’s online index. The date of birth is a vital tool to prove records and said the GRO death index shows all middle names too. Ordering certificates through the GRO or local Registry Offices is much less expensive than going through the online archive companies, but the GRO index does not include marriage certificates. Parish Registers continue to be held by local record offices or churches. There is a right to view records in churches, with the fact that after 1969 certificates include the dates of birth. The 1939 National Register taken on 29th September 1939 was used to enable the issue of ID cards and ration books, similar to a census but not a census as it was not held under census rules. The entries give dates of birth rather than actual ages. As an aside to this, people in “heavy work” were given extra rations! Anyone not in the country on 29th September or in the Services were not listed. Those who didn’t register didn’t receive a ration book, so there were many late requests. Another source of information is to search through Probate records. If using Ancestry there is a listing as well as listings of wills, costing £1.50. Electoral registers are also available on line with Ancestry and Find my Past, which are very useful sources of information. For property information, the 1910 Valuation Office Survey is another useful link to more facts, as is the use of old maps, with the number on the maps can lead to the entry in the field book. These can be found in the Hampshire Record Office. Once again, we were joined by members from overseas who are more like friends. (June) Quarantining and Social Distancing in the Tudor Times – Dr Cheryl Butler Cheryl spoke about and praised the records held in the Southampton Archives on the subject! In the 16th Century there were no vaccinations and it wasn’t just one disease that was rife. She named the pox, the plague which was endemic and sweating sickness too. The latter was a form of Covid. All of these illnesses were happening across the country but by 1603/04 they had all disappeared. The sweating sickness in 1551 and the plague too were well documented. It was part of three pandemics that started in China in 1346 and was used as a chemical weapon and arrived in Southampton in 1348. Cheryl said the plague had three variants - pneumonic, septicaemic and bubonic. There was also the Pox, in the form of French Pox which was a form of

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