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The SDFHS Blog

A Ghost in the Family

Posted on 3rd October 2020

To discover that you may be descended from a lecherous murdering ghost is a startling experience and an indication that tracing your ancestry may not lead only to hidden fortunes and extinct peerages! The PITFIELDS are an old Dorset family - there is at least one reference to a ‘Pytfold’ in the Domesday book - which seems to have originated in the Allington area of the county and gradually spread out The first reference to my ancestor Sebastian Pitfield (1625 - 1685) occurs in the... more

The 1642 Protestation Returns

Posted on 10th September 2020

One of the things I thought I could usefully do during lockdown was to transcribe some of the wills and other old documents that I’d collected over the past few years I’d never made much progress with this as I’d found most of them unreadable; partly because they were often in Latin but mainly because of the early English scripts in which they were written Despite having attended excellent workshops led by the SDFHS Secretary, Ted Udall, on ‘Reading Old Documents’, I hadn’t put... more

The Greenwood Tree – September 2020

Posted on 26th August 2020

Members came up trumps once again with their tales of the Black Sheep of their respective families in what proved to be a popular theme for The Greenwood Tree’s September edition For the second successive issue (and for no extra charge) four more pages were added to provide a suitable platform for some intriguing stories Editor Paul Radford previews the edition which will be mailed to members at the end of August and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members Area of... more

Lord Dorset’s Recompense

Posted on 7th August 2020

Serendipity (unexpected and fortunate discoveries) can be a marvelous feeling, not least in the course of family history research Some years ago at the British Library, I noticed, quite by chance, that it has an Index of Names associated with its Manuscripts Collection Such indices are invaluable to genealogists Nothing ventured, I inserted the name ‘PITFIELD’ and the search referred me to an amazing document This is a letter from Thomas SACKVILLE, first Earl of Dorset, who was the Lord... more

The Joys of the Family Picnic

Posted on 30th July 2020

In a recent Sunday Telegraph there was an article headed 'Back on the menu: the great British motoring picnic' It was accompanied by a wonderfully evocative photo of a couple sitting inches from the roadway enjoying a cup of tea This sent me scurrying through my old family photos, and I found one just like it probably taken in about 1955 You can see the thermos flask and there is also a blue picnic case that belonged to my grandparents The picnic case was made by Sirram which was... more

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