Reading Branch meeting 26th Sept 2019 Speaker: John Leighfield John opened his talk with an anecdote about Einstein and his chauffeur which set the pace and delivery for the evening. He informed the gathering that the earliest maps were around 6000 BC from Turkey, then from 1400 BC Italian wall carving and then 6th century BC from a tablet found in Babylon. Important dates from Britain were 150AD Ptolemy, (1480 print shown) and Matthew Paris 1250. Richard Gough was a notable collector and writer who left a c1360 map to the Bodleian Library which he had purchased in 1774 for half a crown. The big changes came in the 16th century which were brought about by the revolutionary things of printing, military threat (Spanish), the development of surveying as a profession (Henry VIII and Elizabeth I). Christopher Saxton from Leeds in Yorkshire deserves greater recognition. In 1570 he was granted a monopoly by the Elizabethan Court for 10 years on map production. By 1574…

Reading Branch meeting 27th June 2019 Speaker: Members  Four members talked about their ancestors and artefacts. Peter Caton continued a theme connected to Walter Hildyard the circus performer. This time the subject was his grandfather Charles Hildyard Todd of Islington. A check on the censuses found him in 1861 & 1871 with his parents. In 1881 with his wife and daughter and 1901 with all the family but in 1911 Charles was missing. Further investigations traced him to a workhouse in 1910 and Army Service records where his next of kin was listed as a mysterious Octavia Ketera. Angie Catt gave a very detailed account of the tragic and heroic deeds of her grandfather James Augustus Gibbons. In 1882 he was charged with theft of pigeons and received a sentence of 6 weeks hard labour aged just 16. He married Florence Amelia Slingo and had five children. In 1906 whilst employed at a utilities company he saw a boy fall into the flooded…

Reading Branch meeting 30th May 2019 Speaker: Mark Bowman Mark explored the origins of the register and its uses in a highly entertaining and informative talk. On Sunday 3rd September 1939 war was declared, which received Royal Assent on the 5th September. 65000 enumerators were assembled for Registration Day, Friday 29th September to Monday 2nd October, with a population of 41 million people to register. The Enumerators issued Identity Cards. After WW2 this Register was used to set up the National Health Service and the Act was finally repealed as late as 1952. Identity cards were used for rationing during WW2 thus giving incentive to keep records up to date. The N.H.S. Register was kept up to date until 1991.

Reading Branch meeting 25th April 2019  Speaker: Gill Thomas Gill started by outlining the differences one might find when tracing Welsh ancestors. These are language, culture and geography. Parish records are affected by non-conformity, and migration. There are resources online to help. English language has been used since 1733, prior to that you may encounter Latin. There were many Welsh Chapels of differing sects such as Baptists, Strict Baptists, and Particular Baptist. People were married in a Church and required a baptism certificate if they were to be buried in a churchyard. Worship was conducted in Welsh. Other non-conformists include Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers and Unitarians. A synagogue for Jewish worship was established in Goat Street, Swansea c1750. The Catholic faith was only missionary status prior to 1850. Principalities Gwynedd, Powys, etc are different from present county boundaries. In the 1830’s Merthyr Tydfil was the largest town, by 1850 Swansea became the largest city and in 1955 Cardiff became the capital. In 1973…

Reading Branch meeting 28th March 2019 Speaker: Tom Doig  Tom started by suggesting it is more accurate when dating old photographs to look at the type of image created rather than the costumes worn by the sitters. His reasoning is that fashion does not travel very fast around the country and what may be fashionable in a city like London may not reach a town like Reading for five or ten years. Also, the subject’s photographed may be more, or less, well-off and be more, or less, likely to buy latest fashion. Sitters sometimes also used costumes provided by the studio taking the picture. Tom believes that a more reliable method is to look at the materials of the picture and its surrounding mounts. These can quite often be used to accurately identify a certain studio as records are available to compare the styles used. Tom also spoke of the early history with up to fifteen hours exposure and glass plates, through the…

Reading Branch meeting 28th February 2019 Speaker: David Cliffe  David opened by recounting that he had first given his talk, now updated, to our branch in 2014 after encouragement from us and the History of Reading Society which resulted in the publication of his book “Reading Cinemas: Picture Palace to Penny Plunge”. He recalled drawing upon information from Leslie North’s 1958 book and Daphne Phillips’ book which mentioned some cinemas but was far from comprehensive. He set about researching as many picture houses with the help of the records in the Berkshire Record Office and from “Woodeson”. His biggest regret is that no account books have been found, which would give the readers an idea of how profitable these places of entertainment were. He was also disappointed at the lack of “internal” photographs available and has had to use mostly exterior shots in his book and talk. David outlined the historical development of cinematography, from 1896 Luminarie Brothers and its arrival in Reading…