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If you are a NWKFHS member, please login, if not, please join today.

Feb
25

Lets Talk Family History Zoom meeting 2.30 pm on 28th February 2024.

Chance for you to talk about anything to do with Family History that puzzles you or may help you solve your family line brick wall. Perhaps you wonder about the big FH question! How come I'm here and how did my ancestors survive, the Black Death 1350, the plagues of 1665, the Spanish Flue of the 20th century and Covid of the 21st century? 

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Feb
25

Royal Arsenal Woolwich introduction video

 The video produced for the Family History Federation Really Useful Show last November (2023) has now been put on our web site. There is a button link on the Royal Arsenal Woolwich page. https://www.nwkfhs.org.uk/resources/data-sets/royal-arsenal-woolwich North West Kent Family History Society includes the area that was the Royal Arsenal Woolw...

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Feb
17

Recording of the talk on the 14th February now online

 The talk was about the Sevenoaks to Swanley Railway and the Eynsford Viaduct's need for Labourers, their wages, living and working conditions all were mentioned by David Cufley in his talk. It was recorded and has now been put in the Members only area. The railway brickfield at Eynsford provided bricks for the Viaduct and other structure...

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Jan
28

BDBW – I cannot find my ancestor in post 1837 records

On Wednesday 31st January 2024 at 7.30 the Breaking down brick walls workshop will cover the question that has been raised at a number of discussion sessions 'Why can't I find my ancestor in Post 1837 records when I know he was alive as I have other events in his life and when he dies'. The second case study during the workshop will be helping to l...

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  161 Hits
Jan
26

Three things you should want to consider – Really Useful Bulletin No 41

The Latest RUBulletin has two articles and an offer that may help your family history research. The Family History Bookshop (FHB) has obtained big savings on four DNA tests done by FamilyTreeDNA. AtDNA the autosomal test Family Finder. YDNA 37 marker test for men. Family Finder plus the 37 marker YDNA test MtDNA the mitochondrial test to trace your...

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  142 Hits
Dec
04

Segments are pure Gold - Really Useful Bulletin No 39

oson The Latest RUBulletin has an article by Martin McDowell that is part of 'Really Useful DNA Notes'. It explains how the segments of the Chromosome can be compared with your matches. Martin talks about uploading your results and the advantages of doing so with numerous companies. This is one of a series of periodic articles to help readers devel...

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  221 Hits
Dec
04

Through the mists of Time – Really Useful Bulletin No 39

 The Latest RUBulletin has an article by Nick Barratt entitled 'Through the Mists of Time' which  tells of the sources for searching your ancestors in pre 19th century England. Nick takes you through the English economy, the disadvantages of Latin, land and the manorial records and into local government. He shows what is online and availa...

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Nov
30

‘Discovering’ the TNA. 20th December Zoom 10.30 am.

 An additional zoom session put on at the request of one of our members. This extra discussion session will explore the National Archives web site and its search engine 'Discovery' Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Over 9 million records a...

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  146 Hits
Nov
30

Lets talk about Christmas Traditions. 13th December 2023, Zoom 7.30 pm

 This is a session when we can talk about our family Christmas Traditions. What did your family do before to prepare and what special activities did you have over the Christmas period. It's a chance to tell us about those special memories passed down in your family. Was your father's line doing anything different from your mother's line? Membe...

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Oct
23

Whats the best time for you?

The Society has produced the 2024 program of Zoom talks, discussion groups, workshops and coffee meetings which will be published in each quarter Journal as well as the Enews.. Now that more Face to Face meetings and events are occuring a number of members have asked about changing times for the Zoom sessions. Please can you ema...

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  431 Hits
Oct
22

Really useful Bulletin 38 has article for SIG group.

The Really Useful Bulletin No 38, October 2023 has an interesting article 'BMDs in Scotland before 1855' by Emma Maxwell which will prove to be of interest to our Scottish Interest Group (SIG). As usual the RUB has a lead article of interest to our members. You can access the Bulletins by subscribing to do this go onto the main FHF w...

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Oct
10

Ratcatchers zoom talk 11 October at 7.30 pm

As requested at a discussion group meeting I'm putting out this aide memoir for this talk which was previously given to the Society 7 years ago. It has changed and been extended by further research. It was requested by the previous workshop coordinator and Trustee Carolyn Barclay. A talk on the 19th century profession of ratcatchers using Enfield a...

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  355 Hits
Sep
24

Do you have a burning question?

There are moments when you have a burning question or you just want to share a family history fact. These can be voiced at any of the discussion groups held every Wednesday. The next session with an open agenda is the 'Lets talk family history' on the 27 September when any subject can be discussed. Sometimes voicing a family history query the act o...

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Sep
24

What did your ancestors earn?

Do you know the wages your ancestor earned and how many hours did they need to work to get these wages? Two books that may give you answers to these questions are:- 1) The Economy of Kent 1640-1914 edited by Alan Armstrong as part of the Kent History project published jointly by the Boydell Press and the Kent County Council in 1995. ISSN 1352805X. ...

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  341 Hits
Sep
24

All you need to know about DNA

 The FHF has issued the latest Bulletin No 37 September 2023 with two articles about using the four types of DNA tests and their results to help prove and or disprove family history documentary research. Go to https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/ and click on the banner heading for the 'Bulletin' and don't be put off because it says subscr...

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  324 Hits
Aug
27

Zoom Session discussion Migration and other...

The 5th July discussion zoom 'Migration' session went on till 12.40 and ranged from the 20 min presentation that was recorded to other topics:- Occupations and how did people know there were jobs to go to. Word of mouth, Newspapers, trade links, parish correspondence. Religion and its prosecution forcing people to leave their native area to safer p...

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  448 Hits
Aug
27

What’s a “Cadre”

The members of the cataloguing team were looking for a collective name for themselves as a group of people.  In our mind the Cataloguing Cadre is a small group of people specially trained to carry out a particular purpose, which in this case was cataloguing the Society Library books.  They are the 'Fundi' of cataloguing our books. Fundi i...

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  344 Hits
Aug
27

Tyler not only a surname.

Tyler is usually used for someone who tiles a roof. It was also 'tiler' which not only is the person who covers building roofs with burnt clay tiles but also a tile layer or a tile maker. The Penguin Dictionary of surnames (1979) says it's chiefly a Leicestershire and Lincolnshire surname. Sir William Addison in his book 'Understanding English Surn...

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  327 Hits
Aug
27

Standing in Granny’s footsteps.

Have you ever visited a place and stood on the same spot as one of your ancestors. You look around yourself and either its as they would have seen it or as in my case its now totally disfigured. Three generations of my family were costermongers/fishmongers on Beresford Square, Woolwich. Recently I visited Woolwich and from memory and old photograph...

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  374 Hits
Aug
27

Who was Tommy Atkins?

TOMMY ATKINS In 1815 a War Office publication showing how the Soldier's Pocket Book should be filled out gave as its example one Private Thomas Atkins, No. 6 Troop, 6th Dragoons. Atkins became a sergeant in the 1837 version, and was now able to sign his name rather than merely make his mark. By the 18805 the expression 'Tommy Atkins' was in wide use ...

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Aug
27

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred and one of your family ancestors

Three of the WW! British campaign medals, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal are affectionately known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred. These medals were primarily awarded to the Old Contemptibles members of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). and by convention all three medals are worn together and in the same order from lef...

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  397 Hits
Aug
27

Were Mutt and Jeff in your family?

"Mutt and Jeff" Among your family heirlooms is there the two WW1 British campaign medals commonly found and nicknamed Mutt and Jeff: They are the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. When only the British War Medal and Victory Medal are on display together they are sometimes known as "Mutt and Jeff". 

  357 Hits
Aug
27

Missing from Britain? Migration of Mormons

The Really Useful Bulletine No 34 June 2023 has a fascinating article 'When the Saints go marching in' by Ian Waller on the Mormons and the emigration of their British Church members. Predominately the British and Scandinavians migrants were among the 65,000 early church members who travelled across America to finally settle in Salt Lake City. The ...

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  353 Hits
Aug
16

Every family has them …

As we were closing the DNA discussion Zoom meeting today (16-8-2023) a number of members asked about NPEs (Non parental events) to be discussed not only as a DNA subject but also within the normal family history research. David mentioned the article in the Journal Vol 16 No 2 page 77-78 which is available on the web site in the MOA. There is also a...

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  438 Hits
Aug
06

Breaking Down Brickwalls Workshop 9 August 2023.

 This Zoom BDBW Workshop will have three case studies. John Moore's family, John Shaw's family and 'Windycroft' and its occupiers missing from the 1939 register. The case studies will be recorded for the MOA on the web site. John Moore's family is a modern case of a person still living although the internet says she's dead. John Shaws family a...

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  462 Hits
Jul
13

Kismet and Serendipity are important parts of family research

On Wednesday (12 July 2023) the workshop was on Visitations and Hatchments; now available in the members only area of our web site. At a talk by Celia Heritage entitled 'Above and below: exploring a pre-reformation church and churchyard' she showed a picture by the Artist Samuel Prout 1738-1852. The name of the church was not given but the interest...

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Jun
07

Enquiry on Royal Arsenal Woolwich Foundry and proof marks.

A visitor to our web site is doing research and asked "I wonder if you can point me in the direction of records for Woolwich Arsenal for the 1700s please. A friend in the USA has a cannon which was on the HMS St Lawrence and then Diana in 1775... and we are trying to trace it back as to when it was made and despatched to the ships off Boston". Than...

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Apr
07

The Myth about Breaking down Brick walls, 12 April 2023.

 The myth is that attendees don't need to submit their brickwall. So why don't you attend this workshop to learn about how to solve research queries and methods of research others use. Make sure you have booked to get the Zoom link. Contact workshop.booking@nwkfhs.org.uk.

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Mar
29

Look what you missed.

The 'come and talk FH' zoom today (29-3-2023) had topics that varied from the usual Zoom talks getting to know you pre-chat, RAW people with changing names, Migration into Woolwich, Plaistow Bike shop, Hobbs, Wireman, assisted passage in 17th c, drawing up time lines, 1780 Clerkenwell records, How DNA could show up on matches when there was possibl...

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  560 Hits
Mar
28

Basic Excel Workshop 26 April 2023.

During one discussion session members asked for a repeat of the 'Basic Excel' Workshop so they can understand how it can be used for family history research. Microsoft 'Excel' is a spread sheet program that is a useful tool for organizing and researching your family history. If you want a method for organising your records or trying to break d...

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  520 Hits
Mar
22

‘Endogamy’ a word from todays DNA discussion group.

At todays (22-3-2023) DNA discussion group the chance of your lineage having two people on both the maternal line and paternal line was considered as likely where they had come from a 'tribe', 'clan' or a small community. Endogamy means marriage between one's own tribe or similar unit. An example is a brother and sister marrying a sister and b...

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  606 Hits
Mar
22

Proposed subjects for future Discussion Groups.

 Our Discussion group leader Ann asked for subjects for the next sessions. She has received and agreed the following subjects for discussion for the next three months. 5th April...... Migration. 3rd May....... Apprenticeships 7th June...... What record types have we been surprised to find and how effective have they been? Out of one session me...

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  546 Hits
Feb
17

The FHF Really Useful Bulletin No 30 now available.

If you have not heard about the Family History Federations free 'Really Useful Bulletin' then take a look at the latest edition. This edition has a fantastic article on Postcards by Helen Baggott. Helen tells of her motivation to research the family that sent/received the postcard and their background. It brings a new source from which if we are lu...

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  607 Hits
Dec
04

Heralds' Visitations Workshop Wednesday 14 December 2.30 pm

This workshop will look at the Heralds Visitations which were collected and compiled from the 16th century. From 1530 at intervals of approx. 30 years the Heralds made tours of the country to examine the claims to have arms and had the right to destroy all unlawful arms and crests. The visitations continued until c1686. Although some are suspect ma...

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Sep
26

Variations on family expressions

In a discussion today we were talking about expressions used in the family that were variations on the normal public and familiar versions. Try out these three variations. A problem shared is a problem doubled. Give a man enough rope and he will hang you. I'm not paranoid. I'm mononoid, there's only one person to distrust but nobody will tell ...

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  745 Hits
Sep
16

Why can you not find a birth registration?

At the talk by Anthony Marr on the 15th September he was asked this question. Apart from a lack of registration in the 19th century he made a suggestion that is obvious when you think deeply about it. He said that perhaps the child was registered with a surname that was one that they did not use in their life time. Why could this be? Our thoughts a...

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  710 Hits
Jul
05

Brick Walls are not a hurdle but a learning experience

At the recent 'Breaking down brick walls' workshop a member said that she thought you had to submit a research problem to attend. Not so.The workshops are designed to explain sources and how you can organise your research to help find that elusive ancestor. Other members' 'brickwalls' can be of help to other family historians as the think...

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  933 Hits
Jun
15

Families remembered in bricks

Emma Smith has created an art installation at the Brickworks Museum, Swanwick, Hampshire to remember all those people that were employed in the brickmaking industry. On the 31st May the mayor of Fareham opened the exhibition to the public. The installation consists of thousands of brickettes each made by hand by Emma with the initials of a person t...

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  990 Hits
Jun
13

Sevenoaks Railway Camps

In 2016 this blog was written but again cropped up recently when discussing Eynsford Viaduct. Its amazing what areas family historians venture when ancestor hunting. One of our members asked about the temporary camps set up to house the navvies working on the railway in the Sevenoaks area. The answer to the query is given in 'Sevenoaks, an his...

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  1050 Hits
Jun
08

Great Storm of 1703 by Daniel Defoe.

The Federation's Bulletine available to all family historians that subscribers see https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/. The June edition contains an article'The Great Storm of 1703' by Wayne Shepherd. Our area of South East London and North West Kent was damaged. Daniel Defoe mentions that part of the wall to Greenwich Park having been blown d...

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  897 Hits
Apr
10

Online Probate Search Service

A member wrote to HMCTS (Her Majesty's Courts and Tribune Service) Wills Help desk because of a problem obtaining a Will. The member said and asked, I was searching for GRACE WINIFRED PAILTHORPE who died 19 July 1971 Ninfield, Sussex. The Probate index on Ancestry has the entry but on the www.gov.uk/search-will-probate it returns 'no record found' ...

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Feb
16

King of the Costers, Frank Russell.

 The 1917 Daily Mirror had pictures of military figures mentioning their exploits with a picture entitled 'King of the Costers' of Frank Russell who had died, He was a stall-holder on Beresford Square Market, Woolwich and lived in Salutation Alley, a convenient location to store his barrows and move them into the market. He had resided in Wool...

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  1079 Hits
Jan
26

What’s a blog about?

A blog gives news, details of events and workshops, talks about research and advice on doing your family history If you want to get regular updates why not subscribe to the blogs to Stay Informed by clicking on the boxes and filling in 'your name' and 'E-mail address'. To get more out of our web site learn about the Talks, Workshops and Discussion ...

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Jan
18

Scottish Interest Group Discussion

The Society has a Scottish Interest Group (SIG) that discusses aspects of researching their ancestors that were born, lived married or died in Scotland. At the last Zoom meeting on the 12th January, we discussed the highland clearances and the families that were affected by them. This raised a question about the timeline for this period of tho...

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  1190 Hits
Nov
24

National Burial Index has 300,000 new entries from NWKFHS

The Society has now submitted over 300,000 burials to Find My Past (FMP) for the National Burial Index. These are burials from our area but the site has other Family History Societies submissions. You can also find details on our web pages such as Ladywell and Brockley  Cemetery.

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Oct
06

Brickmakers in Octobers WDYTYA magazine

The Who Do You Think You Are? magazine in its October's edition the 'Ancestors at Work' series features an article on Brickmakers. The article gives some basic facts about the trade and sources that may help you find your brickmaking ancestors. There is also a short list of resources and link to the British Brick Society.

  1174 Hits
Jun
28

So why do you study family history?

Dick Eastman's Newsletter of 7 June 2018 asked the question 'Why do we study genealogy? Genealogy is defined as the direct descent of an individual or group from an ancestor. It is a simpler question than 'Why do we study family history'. Family History I believe is to research not only our lines of descent but also the details of our family member...

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Jun
28

Teaching an old dog old tricks.

At the AGM 2018 I purchased one of the surplus books from the Society Library. At 20p it was too good to pass over and it had so many interesting subjects, which I had still to learn their value. It's a copy of English Genealogical Congress, Selected papers given at the Congress of 1978 and 1984. Published by English Genealogical Congress c/o Socie...

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  2060 Hits
Mar
18

Bromley 22nd September meeting now on 15th September

Due to an unfortunate sequence of events that were out of our hands, we have had to change the date of our September meeting from Saturday 22nd to Saturday 15th. The venue is the Methodist Church as usual. Meryl Catty will still able to visit us, but we have had to change the title of the talk, as Maureen Binks will be on holiday on the 15th. Meryl...

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Mar
11

Insight into occupation records

Everyone of your ancestors had to earn a living to survive, no social services and little parish support. So if you want to learn more about occupational records then Jean Stirk's workshop on 21 March 2018 will help you. Contact workshop@nwkfhs.org.uk. There are places available for members. Sorry, due to lack of workshop space we cannot accept non...

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Mar
10

Calendar Photographic Competition 2019

Each year the Society produces a slim wall calendar using images submitted by members. Contributions after costs from the sales of the calendar become income for the Society. This year you can sponsor the cost of the printing by making a donation. This will reduce the cost and enable us to sell the calendar at a lower price. The names of all the sp...

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Mar
06

3rd March 2018 meeting CANCELLED

Guest speaker Peter Calver of Lost Cousins Our meeting on Saturday 3 March was cancelled as the venue, Dartford Science and Technology College, had been closed due to snowfall. It was hoped to hold the meeting this Saturday 10 March as the speaker, Peter Calver, of LostCousins is available. BUT UNFORTUNATELY THE COLLEGE HAS TOLD US THAT THE HALL IS...

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  3376 Hits
Jan
20

General Data Protection Regulations

The Data protection regulations come into  force on the 25 May 2018. Family History Societies like NWKFHS need to consider these regulations. Help on the regulations is available on the Federation of Family History Web site.

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Jan
19

Bedfordshire Parish Registers

If you have an interest in Bedfordshire you can find the F G Emmison published parish registers  online at www.archive.org. These transcriptions were published in the 1930s to 1940s and run to about forty volumes. Some volumes deal with a single parish while others combine a number of parishes.

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Jan
19

Mapping Family Locations

At the mapping workshop on Wednesday 17th January 2018 one of the queries raised was to do with a brickmaker in 1911 at Kilsyth, Stirlingshire. Checking the Brickmakers Index there were two entries for sources that refer to Kilsyth. The first was Gartshore Brickworks at Kilsyth, Dunbartonshire. The second was for Gartshore Brickworks at Kiltsyth St...

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  3530 Hits