01935 429609

Somerset

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

‘The Greenwood Tree’ 1975-2015 – now available as PDFs

Posted on 16th August 2015

All editions published to date of the SDFHS award-winning journal The Greenwood Tree are now digitally available in fully-searchable PDFs, as the Editor, Bob Barber, explains In the August edition of The Greenwood Tree we announced that we are making available for sale the set of 40 years of the journal in digital format, as PDF files The digitised set covers the years 1975-2015, up to and including the August 2015 edition The November 2015 Greenwood Tree will in due course be made available... more

SDFHS 40th Anniversary

Posted on 8th August 2015

We are celebrating our 40th Anniversary in 2015, reflected in the content of the latest edition of The Greenwood Tree, as summarised by the Editor, Bob Barber 40 years on, and to mark the occasion this anniversary edition of The Greenwood Tree has 40 pages As well as lots of original articles, news and regular features, there are several pieces looking at the early days of the Society, and musings on the enormous changes that have taken place in the pursuit of family history I would like to... more

The US Civil War

Posted on 14th April 2015

2015 marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the end of the US Civil War and to commemorate this we had four talks at our Family History Centre in Sherborne on Saturday 11 April The event was the inspiration of our Librarian Emeritus, Robin Ansell, who has had an almost life-long interest in the War and who brought along part of his extensive collection of books and memorabilia Fittingly Robin was the... more

William Rashley: was he a scoundrel?

Posted on 7th April 2015

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... more

Member and Guest Blogs Welcome