The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.2 | Sept 2023

HGS News

HGS visit to York for family history show "Newly-elected HGS Chairman, Tony Sinclair, together with the also-newly

Terry had also brought along some "Yorkshire Parkin", which is similar to Jamaican Ginger Cake, but Yorkshire Parkin is made with oats. It was very tasty and went down well with a cup of tea! During the day, we were very pleased to meet HGS members who live in Yorkshire but who saw on Facebook that we were going to be there; a very pleasant surprise for all of us. One HGS member couple, Mr and Mrs Cullum, brought along a Death Certificate for Andrew Cullum's mother, Edith Annie Noakes, who had sadly died in Knowle Hospital in 1967. He was quite young at the time but remembers family members coming to take his mother's body away for burial elsewhere. He hadn't been able to track down the grave so far. We took his details, plus those from the Death Certificate, and promised him our resident expert on Knowle Hospital - Jane Painter - would look into it for him and send him a reply in due course. Another couple, Mr and Mrs Whittaker (of the 'royal' Whittakers, apparently!) approached us with a query about a Hampshire ancestor who, rather amazingly, actually ENJOYED his National Service as an Engineer at Liss. I think Mr Whittaker was saying that his ancestor worked on the MoD railways that served the Camp that used to be there. Again, we promised that someone from HGS would look into it and get back to him in time. He was so impressed with our offer to help him that he joined HGS there and then! His details have been passed to our Membership Secretary, Margaret Bowman, and she has very kindly offered to research Mr

elected Vice Chair, Kay Lovell, drove up to York Racecourse on the morning of Friday June 23rd, en route to the Racecourse for the "'Discover your Ancestors' Family History Show", set for the following day. We arrived in plenty of time that Friday afternoon to set up the HGS Bookstall / Exhibition Stand before leaving to find our hotel for the night. Setting up the previous afternoon meant that, on the morning of Saturday June 24th, we could sit back and relax with a cup of tea while watching the other Exhibitors continue to arrive and unpack as quickly as possible before the Show's start! We soon realised that, coming from Hampshire, we were the only representatives of a 'southern' Family History Society! However, it worked in our favour because so many other Exhibitors and visitors commented positively on our presence, remarking on us having come such a long way to be there. We were soon joined by two HGS members who live in Yorkshire: Pauline Witton and Terry Knight. They had kindly volunteered to help us on the day and they were both soon talking to visitors to our Stand. Pauline was originally from Berkshire but lives in Yorkshire so her accent was quite soft. Terry, on the other hand, is 'reet Yorksher' (can I say that?!) and his accent was a bit harder to follow, especially when he was talking to fellow Yorkshire people who had come to our stand!

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