The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.1 | June 2023

Local Group Programmes

family tree. Pedigrees are not private and if another member makes a contribution, like attributing names to a photograph, traceable members can receive alerts and perhaps find out some new information. She recommended two particular internal resources. The www.familysearch.org/mapp section provides UK maps from 1851 overlaid with a modern map. And the ‘research wiki’ contains about 100,000 articles. Sharon said that research has found that about 70% of family history members are over 65. Furthermore, some 80% of their records are kept at home on paper or computers. Only about 5% have digitised documents. She encouraged us all to add our best missing information or photographs to our grandparents’ records found in family trees thereby making it available for future generations. (March) Members’ evening – bring an object or talk about an ancestor The evening provided a chance for the membership to share some of their research with others. Clifford told us about his ‘Cushen’ family and had brought along an old birthday book belonging to Florence Cushen. Many relevant parish records in the IoW are missing and this book had proved invaluable in verifying facts and finding new people. Richard displayed his great grandfather’s Thomas Jones’ Imperial Service Medal, and a photograph of him proudly wearing it. He told how Thomas had lived in all four home countries as an ordnance surveyor, having ten children as he continually moved around over 35 years. Margaret told how a female Bowman ancestor mysteriously walked from Pamber Heath near Reading to Kent, without shoes or stockings. She was found and lived in the Knowle mental asylum thereafter but outlived her husband by more than 30 years. Pat showed a bastardy order for her grandfather which provided details of his alleged father, Roger Talbot. A later DNA test has since showed this relationship to be true but there was also a change of name involved to complicate matters. Jenny has written a book about Goodworth Clatford. After its success, she has begun a second one lamenting how few early photographs there are of locals. It was very much a transient farming area, with families moving, so she is writing about the houses instead. Jacky’s grandfather, John Coombes, served for 20 years in the Navy before joining the coastguard service. She could not find any records of him in the coastguard service until she found an unlikely reference to him in a memoir by Winston Graham. She later found a journal and photograph of them both in a Cornwall museum. Melenie showed a 1904 letter found in her grandfather’s possessions. None of the names meant anything at first but Melenie went on to uncover a mystery involving a retail jeweller’s pension collapse, a mystery annuity and a subsequent asylum admission.

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