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The SDFHS Blog

The Greenwood Tree – June 2023

Posted on 28th May 2023

The theme of the June issue of The Greenwood Tree was Poor Relations – The Struggle to Make Ends Meet Editor Paul Radford previews the edition which will be mailed to members at the end of May and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members’ Area of the Society’s website There are several unusual stories in the Poor Relations edition though by no means all of them involved poverty as such Ted Udall did some deep research into the desperate plight of the... more

Snapshots in Time – (second in series)

Posted on 12th April 2023

In the first article in this series we looked at some of the old photographs likely taken by Adam Gosney and collected together by George King (1859-1932), Sherborne Abbey Verger from 1892 until 1929 George lectured on Sherborne and Sherborne Abbey to raise funds for the restoration of the Lady Chapel His photographs, on glass plates and lantern slides, have been located in the library/muniment room in Sherborne Abbey and these have been scanned by Rachel Hassall, Sherborne School... more

The Greenwood Tree – March 2023

Posted on 26th February 2023

The theme of the March issue of The Greenwood Tree was Setting Sail and members responded with tales of their seafaring ancestors and stories of those who took the long voyages to the New World, Australia and New Zealand Editor Paul Radford previews the edition which will be mailed to members at the end of February and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members’ Area of the Society’s website There are several unusual features in the Setting Sail edition,... more

Snapshots in Time (First in a series)

Posted on 14th December 2022

In July 2022 Rachel Hassall, Sherborne School Archivist, was invited to examine a collection of glass plate negatives and lantern slides located in the library/muniment room in Sherborne Abbey Rachel used a scanner to take high resolution digital images of all that was discovered, and she takes up the story: ‘The majority, if not all the photographs, appear to have been taken by the Sherborne photographer Adam Gosney (1844-1921), who apparently picked up photography while working as a... more

The Greenwood Tree – December 2022

Posted on 25th November 2022

The theme of the December issue of The Greenwood Tree was the 1921 Census but members contributed articles on a wide range of other family history tales Editor Paul Radford previews the edition which will be mailed to members at the end of November and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members’ Area of the Society’s website The leading article, written by the editor, explains the perils and pitfalls involved when you delve into the latest published census to... more

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