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Collings

Finding and dating unknown family photos

Posted on 26th September 2018

As anyone interested in family history will know when facts come to light that enable a name to be added to a family tree it is not long before starting to wonder what this person might have looked like Many of us will have photographs back to our grandparents and some are lucky to be able to go back to the great grandparents but beyond this it may well be much more difficult It is often tricky too to travel out sideways as great uncles and aunts and all the associated cousins are likely to... more

Intriguing Photographs (- first in series)

Posted on 25th June 2017

We cannot help but be intrigued by mystery photographs They may be of people staring out at us from long ago or they could be of buildings or locations now completely unknown to us I would like to challenge you with two photographs found in one of those lovely old Victorian albums which, if we are very lucky, are found to exist somewhere in our family The album belonged to my great, grand aunt Ada Collings born in Nether Compton in 1869 and I have reason to believe it was a gift, possibly... more

Creating and printing your own personalised family tree

Posted on 18th May 2017

I fell into using a desktop publishing package quite by chance In the village in which I was living a skilled resident had taken the local parish council newsletter, sent three times a year to all residents, and the parish church news, distributed six times a year, to church parishioners, and turned them into very satisfactory publications from the cutting and pasting of paper and photocopying that had been done before He liaised with a helpful local printing company and the results were much... more

Collecting and Sharing Family Photos

Posted on 16th March 2016

On Saturday (19 March) we will be holding our first Photographic Project Open Day at our Family History Centre in Sherborne (for details see below) Barbara Elsmore describes her own rewarding search for family photographs which she will be adding to the SDFHS database Imagine my surprise last week when I was leafing through A Dorset Camera 1855-1914 in the library at the SDFHS Family History Centre, and a photograph of my great grandfather, George Collings, leapt off the page at me He was... more

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

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