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The SDFHS Blog

The Greenwood Tree – June 2021

Posted on 27th May 2021

The front cover of the June edition of The Greenwood Tree shows a 19th century painting of a lawyer’s office to illustrate the theme of Wills The caption “Where There’s a Will … There’s a Won’t”, suggests that some of the most revealing information we extract from ancestral wills may involve those who are deliberately omitted from an inheritance or left something derisory Distant family feuds are hard to find in other ways Editor Paul Radford previews the edition which will be... more

Victorian Utilities

Posted on 5th May 2021

Under the Floorboards at Beaucroft House, Wimborne Following on from the House Histories Edition of the March 2021 Greenwood Tree Magazine and subsequent blog about the Victorian Loo, I would like to expand a little further When the family moved into "Court House", the Western wing of "Beaucroft", there was some modernisation required to the plumbing and electrics Up came the floorboards and revealed all sorts of pipes and cables installed since 1876 There was a network of bare... more

‘Chilliswood’ Connection

Posted on 15th April 2021

Your recent feature on house histories in The Greenwood Tree reminded me that amongst my grandfather’s (Leonard Guy Bradfield) possessions was a set of 1913 auction particulars for ‘Chilliswood’, a residential estate in Trull, near Taunton in Somerset I often wondered why he kept these and whether there was any family connection with this house It was a substantial estate In its centre was a Tudor manor house dating from 1594, along with gardens and a tennis court There was also a... more

Women, ‘Gateway Ancestors’, and Sources

Posted on 22nd March 2021

Many of us, when we first become interested in family history research tend to focus on our surname and try to trace it back as far as possible Certainly this was my approach when I first started some fifty years ago A few years after I began I found a distant 'cousin' Hugh Pitfield who was also researching our family We combined forces and have co-operated ever since Image - Fine Art America The result is that we now have a comprehensive genealogy of the PITFIELD family that Hugh has... more

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Posted on 11th March 2021

As I set out to encourage you to take up writing for our Family History Society's blog I realise that perhaps I should explain how I came to the personal realisation that I enjoyed writing stories and how having a computer and getting it to work for me has greatly enhanced my abilities and enjoyment overtime I should begin with my first introduction to a computer back in 1991 when one was set up in the corner of the office I was working in I was sent on a morning’s course... more

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