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The SDFHS Blog

Do you have a carpenter in the family?

Posted on 9th October 2015

Barbara Elsmore describes how learning a new trade enabled her great-grandfather, George Collings, to improve his own life and that of his descendants Many of his carpentry tools are still in the family and some are now on display in the SDFHS Family History Centre in Sherborne In 1862 fourteen year old George Collings signed an apprenticeship form and for the next four years he would learn how to become a carpenter How could he possibly have known how this would change his life from that of... more

‘The Greenwood Tree’ 1975-2015 – now available as PDFs

Posted on 16th August 2015

All editions published to date of the SDFHS award-winning journal The Greenwood Tree are now digitally available in fully-searchable PDFs, as the Editor, Bob Barber, explains In the August edition of The Greenwood Tree we announced that we are making available for sale the set of 40 years of the journal in digital format, as PDF files The digitised set covers the years 1975-2015, up to and including the August 2015 edition The November 2015 Greenwood Tree will in due course be made available... more

SDFHS 40th Anniversary

Posted on 8th August 2015

We are celebrating our 40th Anniversary in 2015, reflected in the content of the latest edition of The Greenwood Tree, as summarised by the Editor, Bob Barber 40 years on, and to mark the occasion this anniversary edition of The Greenwood Tree has 40 pages As well as lots of original articles, news and regular features, there are several pieces looking at the early days of the Society, and musings on the enormous changes that have taken place in the pursuit of family history I would like to... more

Reflections on a Family History Journey

Posted on 26th July 2015

In spring this year Kerri Curtis made the long journey from Tasmania to the south-west of England, tracing the history of her family back to villages in Somerset and Dorset It was my mother who inspired in me an avid interest in our family history When I was a child, she told me stories about her father’s migration to Australia from Wales in the 1920s The rest of his family – mother, father, sister and brothers, had followed a few years later, settling in a small country town in New South... more

The Sherborne Pageant of 1905

Posted on 12th July 2015

In 1905, to mark the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the town of Sherborne by Bishop St Aldhelm in 705, the local Church Council decided to mark the event with a historical pageant which, during the planning, grew in size to involve 900 local people and was staged in the grounds of Sherborne’s ruined 12th Century castle A team of researchers at King’s College, London is currently studying historical pageants for a major AHRC-funded Research Project and on Saturday 4 July Dr Tom... more

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