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Family History

Family History in Focus

Posted on 7th September 2014

I’m not sure where to start in summarizing yesterday's brilliant talks about early photography and family history, held at our Family History Centre in Sherborne - there were so many fascinating facts and wonderful images that any summary is bound not to be fully representative All of the three speakers gave well-thought-out and wonderfully illustrated presentations and they were all fluent, interesting and entertaining - it isn’t often that you can say that about a multi-speaker... more

The Greenwood Tree – August 2014

Posted on 20th July 2014

The August issue of the SDFHS journal, The Greenwood Tree, is now at the printers and will be distributed to all members shortly The Editor, Bob Barber, previews the contents of this very special edition As the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War approaches we will be subject to a rolling barrage of books, newspaper articles, television and radio programmes and local and national events and exhibitions The SDFHS is no exception in attempting to acknowledge the sacrifice... more

Sherborne’s vanished pubs

Posted on 18th July 2014

Yesterday evening (17th July) saw Barry Brock, the Manager of our Family History Centre, suitably kitted out in a luminous safety jacket, guiding a group of us around the streets of Sherborne, on the trail of the town’s vanished pubs This was the first of four such pub walks (definitely not pub crawls!) that the Society has organized this summer We originally set three dates but these all booked up so quickly that we recently added a fourth - on Thursday 7th August (places still available... more

Heritage Alliance Open Day

Posted on 14th June 2014

What a wonderful day the Heritage Alliance Open Day held at the Family History Centre in Sherborne on Saturday 31 May turned out to be It was the first public coming together of the newly established Sherborne heritage group consisting of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society, Sherborne Museum, St Johns’ Almshouse, Sherborne Boys' School Archives and Sherborne Steam and Waterwheel Centre It was a lovely day and I was particularly excited as I had been working on my exhibition of... more

The Greenwood Tree May 2014

Posted on 26th April 2014

Bob Barber gives a preview of the next edition of the Greenwood Tree We start the May edition of The Greenwood Tree in seasonal mode with an account by Maureen Bowler of the social history of the celebrations of May Day This brings back grim memories for me of having to learn country dances at school, but the folk customs surrounding May Day spread much wider Bob Evered has unearthed a very nice etching of St George’s church Dunster by Elizabeth Piper, an etcher and painter... more

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