Southern Ways Visits S&N

The BBC, Southern Ways, film crew came to Chilmark to see how the world of genealogy has improved with the use of computers and CDROMs.

The presenter, Roger Finn, set us the challenge of helping him find his ancestors in Suffolk.

The obvious choice was to search the Suffolk 1891 Census. He was also interested in comparing it with the original fiche version. The piece number for the area his ancestors came from was located in the CD Area index. This piece was then loaded on both fiche and CDROM. One of the benefits of the CDROM is the high contrast image and the searchable indexes.

The Eureka moment that makes any family historian leap for joy!

Roger Finn pic

Roger finds his Great Grandfather, a Baker, and learns more about the family.

Could there be blue blood in your veins?

We invited customers to tell us about their personal research successes and John Bancroft was just one of our local customers that came forward and participated in the filming.

Roger Finn pic

He started his research just a few years ago with a program from S&N and quickly built up a tree of several generations. At this point his son took up the task of researching the connections at Hever castle archives. A local genealogist helped in his quest and helped him make the connections Boleyn's of King Henry VIII fame. The royal links followed thick and fast and soon he had a tree linking through the Butler family to King Henry II and onwards to King Alfred the Great. Another line links him with William the Conqueror!

Roger Finn pic

So has his family research altered him?

No, he hasn't put on any airs or graces.

Has it made any difference then? Well yes! One of his ancestors has set up an educational grant for his descendants. That's definitely a real benefit to his grand children.

BBC Radio Solent

Julian Clegg, their morning presenter, set me a challenge of finding his great grandfather, James Clegg, in the Bournemouth area.

I had various references to Births and Marriages but as actual certificates are not online, this would have taken too long as ordered certificates can take a week or more.

The census has a lot of entries for James Cleggs, but none in the right area. So I searched the S&N CD containing the 1899 Kelly's Directory of Hampshire and found him listed as a Wesleyan minister in Romsey.

Julian confirmed that this was indeed his ancestor.

Directories can prove a boon in providing that missing link to get you to an address.

All the best with your research and don't forget to email us with any interesting research stories as they will be featured on the website (See our News page).

Nigel

S&N Genealogy Supplies

See more about BBC South Today here