Where there’s a will, there’s usually an argument

Reading Branch meeting 29th September 2022 Speaker: Sue Ellis Sue took us on a liberally illustrated look at wills, what they look like, what terminology they include and what information they can give a family historian. Wills were first recorded by the ancient Greeks mainly to explain how to dispose of a person's estate of there were no male heirs. Roman wrote wills too. 272-337AD saw the start of the church's involvement in wills. From the Middle Ages, there are two wills still in existence, those of King Alfred and his nephew. During this time wills were proved exclusively by ecclesiasts. Wills have been used to estimate that 60% of the country's population of 60,000 died in the black death. Wills cover land (real estate) which id 'devised' to beneficiaries, and personal estate (belongings, jewellery, clothes, furniture, etc.) which is 'bequeathed'. Prior to 1837, wills that included real estate only covered land that belonged to the testator up to the date of the…

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Canal People – Joint meeting with Bracknell & Wokingham

Joint meeting 20th November 2020   Speaker: Martin Buckland   A canal is defined as an artificial waterway which may join up rivers whilst rivers are natural waterways. Canals have locks and need to be able to climb hills such as The Cotswold Canal for example which climbs 106.68 metres. Canals were good at moving fragile goods such as pottery. A horse carrying about 2 cwt was slow and could break the product compared to a barge with a horse pulling 20 cwts in safety. Irrigation was the origin of the canals. Between about 520 and 510 BC the Persian Emperor, Darius I built a canal linking the Nile and the Red Sea and the Grand Canal in Venice built between 3rd Century BC and 13century AD is used for irrigation and transport. The Pont du Gard the ancient and highest Roman aqueduct bridge  built in the first century AD to carry water over 50 km used only basic surveying equipment. Britain’s canals were started by the…

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Photographs and memorabilia

Reading Branch meeting 29th October 2020, conducted on Zoom Speaker: Members - Peter Caton, Richard Brown, Richard Croker and Graham Vockins Peter Caton chose a 200 year old jug which had been handed down through the family from an Aunt Emily. He had researched documents which involved not one but three marriages by one ancestor. He again reestablished links to the entertainer Wattie Hildyard of whom Peter had previously spoken.  Richard Brown told members of his Grandmother's WW1 Medal. Emily Brown was born in the Parish where Charles Kingsley was a Minister in 1869. Through various links with Thorneycroft engineering. the London General Omnibus company and the College Arms pub in Pamber End. Emily joined the V.A.D. as a Nurse in 1915 and  clocked up 3457 hours of unpaid voluntary service. Richard Croker spoke of Lorne Campbell Reid, the Stepfather of his mother and his piece of memorabilia was a small wooden box engraved JC to Lorne Reid. Via the internet he managed…

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Some Wallingford Crooks

Reading Branch meeting 24th September 2020, conducted via Zoom Speaker: Margaret Crook Margaret explained that her research into her husband’s family tree started before the internet and the computers had become the tool of choice it is today. From a family bible handed down by her father-in-law dated 1896 it gave her a start into the Crook dynasty. Margaret’s started collecting names of Crooks from the Berkshire Record Office, at that time in Shire Hall, checking parish records of churches in Wallingford, Cholsey, Britwell Salome etc. She adopted the method of collecting all names and references to relationships in the records to build seven Crook families and from there make the connections between them using probate and wills. She purchased the 1881 census on 25 C.D’s in 1998. Margaret had developed flesh on the bones by using newspaper archives particularly the Abingdon Herald. With the coming of the internet she made contact with an Australian historian who had a relative who had been…

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The Colin Spickett Experiment

Reading Branch meeting 25th June 2020, conducted on Zoom Speaker: Mark Bowman This presentation was a display of how much can be achieved for free in a short space of time. Mark showed that starting only with a name (albeit an unusual one) and a rough date of birth, you can, using free, online resources, construct a pedigree going back 250 years, all in a few hours. As usual, Mark’s talk was engaging and generated quite a discussion afterwards.

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Jane Austen and the Thames Valley Connection

Reading Branch meeting 28th May 2020, conducted on Zoom Speaker: Joy Pibworth Joy outlined the family background of Jane’s life and the places where those people lived. She painted a picture of her parent’s lives and those of her close relatives. They involved places as far away as America, Russia as well as Oxford, Tonbridge and Bristol in the U.K. There were stories of Fishing Fleet (female passage to India to seek marriage) and the scandal of trials for stealing lace which resulted in acquittal.  One of her ancestors, Sir Thomas White, who was born in Reading in 1492 was a clothier and educated at Reading School, he served an apprenticeship to a wool merchant and went on to found St John ’s Baptists College. Jane’s father George was raised by his uncle Francis, and her mother Cassandra (nee Leigh) was the daughter of a Rector. They were married in 1764 in Bath and raised eight children including Jane who was the second…

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A Caribbean Journey: experiences of researching Barbadian ancestors from the UK

Reading Branch meeting 27th February 2020  Speaker: Guy Grannum  Guy gave an interesting talk on how he came to research his Barbadian roots and the types of documents that can aid with Barbadian ancestry. Guys started researching for his parents 25th wedding anniversary, and discovered an international family covering South Africa, Gibraltar and Majorca. Unfortunately, early civil registration records gave no clue to the origins of the family name, as there were only a handful of entries. Most entries date from 1955 onwards. Through his work at The National Archive (previously the Public Record Office), Guy discovered his grandfather and great-uncles listed in Colonial Office Lists, stating that they were all born in Barbados. As Barbados was a British colony, and now an independent state within the Commonwealth, many of their records have a British base. The hardest thing is to work out where the records are held and what the access is to them. Some are available through subscriptions sites as well…

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