The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 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.

(July) A change from the advertised speaker. The July speaker was Peter Calver, the founder of the Lost Cousins website

www.lostcounsins.com who kindly stepped in at short notice to give a talk, via Zoom to the Winchester group. Peter explained how, in 2004, he set up the website to help solve brick walls often suffered by family researchers. It seems the longer we research the more brick walls we create and often the best way of resolving these is to share your research with someone who has a common ancestor, thereby halving the work. It also encourages information sharing of family photos, stories, bibles and letters. Sharing of certificates also has a great benefit cost wise. In the UK in 1801 the population was approximately 9 million. By 1901 it was 32 million. Ancestry tells us that, on average, we have five first cousins but 174,000 sixth cousins. Lost Cousins is the place to connect with experienced family historians who have a connection with one or more of our ancestors. Peter showed how the website works and how to complete the form on the "My Ancestors" page. After inputting your dead ancestors with information gained from the 1881 census (which is free to access online at www.findmypast.co.uk) the Lost Cousins software outputs living cousins onto the "My Cousins" page. (August) Workshop The August meeting was quite different as we had a workshop for the experienced to share their experience with those less experienced in August. There was a Show & Tell, explaining how a very impressive folder was put together to show the history of a family member and his experiences at Dunkirk. It had all the facts to support the story which impressed those of us yet to get that far! The mystery of Ancestry, when the tree gets so large, was demonstrated Dr Mike Esbester ,a Senior Lecturer from Portsmouth University, talked of a major research project ‘The Railway Work, Life and Death’ and its aim to discover who the people were who were injured or killed in accidents at work. An accident in Winchester in the early 20th Century formed the basis for the talk about the dangers of railways and staff accidents. He quoted an accident in 1906, the Salisbury disaster, when the boat train ran into the back of a stationary train, which was investigated. by one member, by building sub trees in the main tree and so much more. (September) The Railway Work, Life and Death – Dr Mike Esbester

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