Dear Members,
Here is my second newsletter that is, for the moment I hope, without any clipart to brighten the script!
The Committee have settled into a routine following Norman’s death and we aim to spend a couple of hours each Wednesday afternoon working on the Archives in the upstairs office of the village hall. If anyone has some time to spare once a month we would appreciate the help. Coffee and biscuits are usually available!!!
We have decided to try and make the general meetings less formal. The seating arrangement will probably remain but we will bring some of the archive files down each month for you to view. Possibly you may be able to assist with the work that needs doing on some of them. At the moment we are trying to arrange the calendar for 2007 and suggestions and comments from you on both matters will be a great help. We had a successful evening at the Church Bazaar selling £76.70p worth of Christmas cards. Some cards will be available at the Christmas party if you have not bought yours yet.
The Christmas Party is our next meeting on the 12th December – dress code optional! Please remember to bring a photograph of yourself as a child (don’t be shy) and hand it to me – in a sealed envelope if you prefer! Other quizzes will be played as usual. Wine, fruit juices and beer will be supplied by the Society, as will hot drinks but we would appreciate members bringing nibbles as in previous years.
Sorry to rush you past Christmas and the New Year celebrations but there are two dates to enter into your new diaries – Tuesday 9th January is our first general meeting of 2007 and Tuesday, 23rd January is the date of our Annual Dinner. The new landlady of the Swan, Angi, has given us a multi- choice menu which the Committee are happy with. The venue has been booked and we only need your choices from the menu. Please hand them to Kay at the Christmas Party and we will do the rest. Oh yes, the time! 7pm for 7:30 – again, dress code optional.
Have you visited the Website recently? Ian Collinge has made several improvements to it and we received 18,000 “hits” last month, many of them from America. Once again we were third in the league table.
Emails come into the Society on a fairly regular basis and we are wondering if you can help us with any of the following:
Alan McGowan is enquiring about N.A. Perkins (1912-1991). Nicholas Anthony Perkins was associated with chess in Scotland and represented Scotland at the 1958 Chess Olympiad in Munich. Nicholas and his wife Gertrude have monument inscriptions in St. Laud’s churchyard.
Kay remembers Gertrude at New Thursday Group meetings – any more information?
From Marg and Dave Laur:
“I have reason to believe my late mother’s father worked as a gardener at Yew Tree Farm. Would you know where I could research who may have lived there in the early 1900’s?”
From Rosie
“I am tracing my family. The 1851 Census show that they lived in Church End, Sherington. The father and sons were agricultural labourers, the mother and daughters were lace makers.
Henry and Lydia HillyerElizabeth Hillyer
Henry Hillyer
Martha Hillyer
William Hillyer
Caroline Hillyer lived with the family and was listed as a pauper, formerly an agricultural workers wife and she was 87 at the time of the census.”
Mark has sent Rosie some information but do you know anything?
Information you may have about any of the emails can be given to Mark.
Finally, don’t throw your empty printer ink cartridges in the bin, give them to Kay who will send them to the Air Ambulance charity.
Sheila Q