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Somerset & Dorset
Family History Society

The SDFHS Blog

Keeping Occupied

Keeping occupied during these strange times is a major challenge so I would like to take you back to the day I saw a wooden box of dominoes in the window of a charity shop and I bought it for the princely sum of £10 The dominoes came in a baize lined wooden box with a satisfactory brass catch and on the base it said ‘hand crafted by Tiverton craftsmen’ I gave the box a polish and put it up on a shelf in the sitting room The following week I was passing the same charity shop and there in...
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A Family Tradition of Bakers

When I first tasted the delicious mince-pies on sale at The BakeOut my interest was sparked mainly because of the welcoming smiling face of Marcus, who is a great communicator, and so I asked him a couple of questions and I discovered that the mince-pies are made to an old family recipe and he showed me the machine that is used I found all this very intriguing —the 100 year old machine, the fact that I could buy items in Waitrose with the name Thomas Fudge on them and I was...
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Dorset’s Poldark?

The Captain Poldark of Winston Graham’s novels and the television series is well-known to many He was not though the only such military officer to have exciting adventures at the time of the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards Dorset too had such a hero Naval General Service Medal 1847          Photo courtesy of Hugh Pitfield - see below Joseph Edward Chilcott PITFIELD was baptised in 1788 in Buckland Ripers, the eldest son son of Joseph Pitfield and Mary SLADE,...
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Old yet ever Young

We have been presented with a magnificent new book for our library in Yeovil - Old Yet Ever Young - A New History of Sherborne School by Patrick Francis and David Ridgway Those of us who live in Sherborne often see the boys going about their daily lives as they walk from one part of the school to another We are invited to attend special events, such as the regular plays that are staged by the school together with Sherborne Girls' and Leweston School and the town is sometimes full of the...
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Brian Jackson 1943-2020

We should like to pay tribute to one of our favourite speakers and we are sure we speak for many We have learnt of the recent death of that wonderful speaker of all things to do with transport, Brian Jackson Here at our South Dorset branch, he was a regular and popular addition to our monthly programmes and we will greatly miss his visits Brian was a brilliant and entertaining speaker whether it was on trains, buses or ships, his knowledge was phenomenal and you could always guarantee a good...
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Member and Guest Blogs Welcome

We welcome guest and member blog posts on any topic with a family history connection and invite you to send your contributions, which should include photo/photos, to the editor Barbara Elsmore

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