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Somerset & Dorset
Family History Society

Family History

Reflections on a Family History Journey

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...
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The Sherborne Pageant of 1905

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...
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Tracking down John Deacon – basketmaker in Bristol

Barbara Elsmore is researching the Deacon family of basketmakers  and here describes how enlisting the help of other SDFHS members helped her to track down a missing son On Saturday 16 May Barbara will be talking in Sherborne about basketmaking as an occupation in the first of our occasional series of events What did your Ancestors Do The other speaker will be John Damon on 'Families in the Utilities': full details I have just read Patricia Spencer's excellent article in the latest Greenwood...
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William Rashley: was he a scoundrel?

Jane Harrington, a member of the SDFHS, tells the story of her great grandfather and the unanswered questions about his life and marriage My great grandfather, William John Rashley, born in Burton Bradstock in 1861, died quite young We knew that because my mother had never met him and that’s what she’s been told She thought she’d been told that, anyway She’d certainly never heard him talked about Her own mother, Annie Laura, had lived with a maternal aunt and uncle, Laura and...
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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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