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Friday 31 May 2013

Free NWKFHS E-Newletter for June 2013. North West Kent Family History Society Library & Resource Centre. Scotland: The 1895 Valuation Rolls

NWKFHS E-Newsletter for June 2013 is now available to be read/downloaded for Free at Newsletter.

The North West Kent Family History Society Library & Resource Centre is located at Summerhouse Drive, Joydens Wood Estate, Bexley, DA5 2EE. It is open every Wednesday, 10am-4pm.  

It is open to Members and Non-Members and there are Society Volunteers who will help you with your research. The Society has a room separate from the main library, where our complete collection of books and other reference material is now available on open shelves. This includes microfiche, data CD's. 

There are  computers with internet access, including Ancestry and other on-line genealogical databases. The material available primarily covers parishes within the Historical North West Kent area, but includes the rest of Kent and other parts of the Country including London. Material is constantly being added.

A Catalogue of the holdings and other information can be found at NWKFHS Library

Other News:

Scotland: The 1895 Valuation Rolls containing  2,095,707 indexed names and 75,565 digital images. The Rolls cover every kind of building, structure or dwelling that was assessed in 1895 as having a rateable value, and provide a fascinating picture of Scottish society during the late Victorian era.

More details can be found at ScotlandsPeople website

Thursday 16 May 2013

WDYTYA?LIVE 2014 new dates- 20th February to 22nd February 2014. Over a million Kent records on line. Marden History Archives and Mid-Kent Marriage Index 1754-1911. Chartist

WDYTYA?LIVE 2014  has announced that there has been a change to the dates for next year's show. The new Dates will be from Thursday 20th February to Saturday 22nd February 2014.

It is hoped that the change to a Thursday instead of a Friday and making the last day Saturday instead of Sunday will make the show more accessible to visitors. Research  has clearly identified that visitors would prefer a weekday to a Sunday and this, coupled to better public transport during the week, means that we can expect a significant increase in footfall.

Findmypast now has over a million Kent records on line.
 
The records on Findmypast (subscription payable) include those from North West Kent FHS, Kent FHS and those from the Canterbury Archives.
 
Along with with the Medway Archives which has Parish registers of the Rochester Archdeaconry area, extending from Dartford and Gravesend in the west to Rainham in the east and focusing on the Medway Towns (Which is available free to all at City Arc ) this means that a large part of the parish registers for Kent are now available to search.
 
The Canterbury Parish registers and those on the Medway Archives site City Arc are copies of the original parish registers. Many of the others are indexes and transcriptions provided by Family History Societies. Copies of many of the original parish register for North West Kent are available to purchase at NWKFHS Publications
 
If you look round there are also other indexes for Kent parish registers on the Web that are free, such as the Marden History Archives and the Mid-Kent Marriage Index 1754-1911 which has transcriptions of the marriage records of seven registration districts in the mid Kent area: East Ashford, West Ashford, Cranbrook, Elham, Hollingbourne, Romney Marsh and Tenterden. Also included are marriages at Maidstone (All Saints).
 
Chartist. William Lovett, from The London Working Men’s Association and five ‘working men’ plus six members of Parliament published the People’s Charter in 1838 seeking the vote for all men. In 1842 a petition of some three million signatures was presented to the government, which was rejected. In the early 1840s, economic depression and dissatisfaction lead to strikes and several Chartist leaders being arrested.  Chartist activity culminated in 1848 when a mass meeting on Kennington Common was organised.
 
There is a good chance that one of your ancestors signed the petition and or belonged to the Chartists.
 
The website ‘Chartists Ancestors’ has a list of some 5,000 subscribers from all over the Country to the Chartists Movement

Saturday 11 May 2013

NWKFHS E-Newsletter for May 2013. Dictionary of Occupations.

NWKFHS E-Newsletter for May 2013- An electronic publication available on-line to anyone interested in Family History can be read/downloaded at Newsletter. You can also download/read previous Newsletters at the same place.

NWKFHS has a new publication for Sale, Dictionary of Occupations Published by Family & Community Historical Research Society.

This CD ROM was originally published by the Open University (OU) as part of their courses 'Studying family and community history: nineteenth and twentieth centuries'.  It was first published by the UK Ministry of Labour in 1927, has been available in only a few specialist libraries.

This CD-ROM reproduces all of it. It defines 29,106 terms, covering 16,837 different occupations of people who worked in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of these occupations, and the terms used to describe them, are today generally unknown.

FACHRS (Family and Community Historical Research Society) have given our Society permission to distribute the CD ROM. The disks are available from the Society at Branch meetings or by post. Cost by post £10.00 plus postage and packing of £1 for the UK and £2 overseas. Details can be found at NWKFHS publications

Operates with Windows XP and Windows 7 operation systems using Adobe reader 11 and Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software.

Thursday 2 May 2013

North West Kent FHS talks for May 2013. Kent Family History Fair Sunday 19 May 2013. The National Library of Wales will no longer claim ownership of copyright in digital copies of items in its care.

North West Kent FHS talks for May 2013.

Bromley Branch: main hall, Bromley Methodist Church, College Road, Bromley BR1 3NS. The hall opens at 9.45am.

Saturday 18 May 2013 Jerry Toop The National Archives - further resources identified.

Dartford Branch: Dartford Technology College, Heath Lane, Dartford DA1 2LY. Open from 9.45am

Saturday 4th May 2013 Gerald Toop Using the National Archives (website) for family history research.

Sevenoaks Branch: Sevenoaks Community Centre, Otford Road, Sevenoaks, TN14 5DN. Doors open at 7.15pm.

Thursday 9 2013 May Mari Alderman Protestant Nonconformity.

Visitors are welcome, a donation is appreciated. All the Branches have a bookstall and all the helpful advice that you might need. More details can be found at  NWKFHS Meetings   Please check the website for any changes before travelling to any meeting.

Newsletters for Dartford and Sevenoaks Branches can be found at  Branch Newsletters a Society Newsletter can be found at  Society Newsletters they are all pdf and can be read and or downloaded.

NWKFHS will also be at the Kent Family History Fair Market Hall, Barker Road, Lock Meadow, Maidstone, Kent. ME16 8RG on Sunday 19 May 2013 from 10.00am - 5.00pm.

If you are at the Fair please call by our Stand for a chat and to see how we can help with your Family History research.  Fairs and Events 

Other News:

The National Library of Wales will no longer claim ownership of copyright in digital copies of items in its care.

The Library will be implementing a policy that will mean the public can use thousands of images on its website without any restriction. Though many images will still be subject to third party rights that need to be cleared before use, the Library will not impose additional copyright restrictions unless it owns the copyright in the original work. High resolution versions of the images will still be available under licence. National Library of Wales where you can also access Wills and Newspapers Free.