Society e-mail addresses

We have now standardised the e-mail addresses for our Committee Members - in the form "webmaster@isle-of-wight-fhs.co.uk". This has been done to provide a consistent view to members or non-members alike, but also to ease the work required to amend the website when Committee Roles are re-allocated. New e-mail addresses can be found on the Contact Us page when you click on the links, or whenever you see a hyperlink for Committee Members on other pages. Existing e-mail addresses will still reach the Committee Member concerned, so you don't have to amend your e-mail address books. There is also a "Contact Us" at the top of the principal web pages so you can easily get to the Contact information.

Geoff Allan (Webmaster)
[3rd August 2009]

Church Burials Index

The Society is pleased to announce that the Church Burials Index is now available - see the Index page for details. As with any such data, there are bound to be some errors in transcription, so please feel free to let us know (send to the Webmaster) so we can correct it. There is also provision for a photograph, so if you have any photographs of headstones or people, please send them for inclusion. Thanks to Dave Gladdis for the original transcription from the Record Office registers, and Gwynn White for the programming.

Geoff Allan (Webmaster)
[21st July 2009]

Website changes

The website has been revamped to change the position of the main menu options which now appear at the top of the pages for the main screens. This change has been made to allow more menu options to be shown, but also to get round some technical problems associated with the use of frames. It should also free up a little more "screen real estate". The opportunity has also been taken to rationalise some of the lesser used web pages and to harmonise the headers. Let me know if you find any discrepancies or anomalies -

Geoff Allan (Webmaster)
[1st July 2009]

As at 8 July 2009 : Known problems :

menu panels on some pages do not align correctly in some browsers (not critical) - this depends on whether a scroll bar is required on longer pages.

Internet Explorer 8 menu navigation behaviour is not consistent with Mozilla / Chrome browser behaviour (not critical)

Committee Roles

At the Committee meeting of 10th June, the majority of the Committee members indicated that they were happy to continue in their existing roles, although there has been some reallocation of roles. Jon Matthews agreed to take on the Vice-Chairman role, and Pat Phillips will become Programme Secretary. Hazel Pullen takes over the Bookstall Manager role from Jon Matthews, and she has now agreed to also cover the Librarian and Strays roles. Betty Dhillon takes on the role to Exchange Journals with other Societies. Peter Spencer has been co-opted to take on Publicity. All agreed roles are now given on the Committee Members page

[11th June 2009, amended 6th July]

Changes to Committee

At the recent AGM, it was announced that Rosemary West and Dina Broughton would be standing down from the Committee. Thanks to them both for their work on the Committee on behalf of the Society.

Angela McMurtry, Hazel Pullen and Pat Phillips were nominated and elected along with the existing committee members to serve for the forthcoming year. The roles which will be taken by the Committee members are yet to be decided, but Angela will be the new Journal Editor. Since she lives in Queensland, Australia, please allow a little time for any replies to e-mails sent to her. We wish all the new Committee members well in their roles.

Dina's long standing contribution to the Society, in a number of roles, not least as the BMD Index Coordinator and Webmaster, was recognised by a short presentation at the AGM. A bouquet of flowers and some wine were presented by our Chairman, Janet Griffin. It is hoped that Dina and her husband David enjoy their "retirement" although we are sure they will not be idle.

Click on image for larger version

[12th May 2009]

BMD Index
Dina Broughton reports :
Until recently all our Births and Deaths from 1837 to 1989 gave the estimated year for the event. The IW Registrar has now allowed us access to more detailed information, and we are now able to present the correct year and these have now been entered up to 1870. An extra decade will be updated approximately each week over the next few months.

[18th April 2009]

ATTRILL One Name Study
Robin Lewin (member no 1813) has taken on the task of managing the ATTRILL One Name Study. For details see the Members' Family Histories page.

[15th April 2009]

Policy with respect to the Data Protection Act 1998 (United Kingdom)

A statement has been included on the website - see Policy with respect to the Data Protection Act 1998 (United Kingdom)

[10th March 2009]

Mr Roy Middlebrook 1936 - 2009


It is with regret that we have to announce the death of Roy Middlebrook on 8th March 2009. Roy was a long standing member of the Society and was our Vice-Chairman and Librarian. A tribute to Roy can be found on the Obituaries page

[9th March 2009]

Mrs Di Harding


It is with regret that we have to announce the death of Di Harding, on 15th December 2008. She was a long time member of the Society, and a former Editor of the Journal. A Memorial Service is planned early in 2009. Our thoughts are with her mother and her partner, Roy Middlebrook, at this sad time. An appreciation by Janet Few of her life and contribution to the Society and the Royal Yacht Squadron, of which she was the Archivist, has appeared in the February 2009 Journal, and can be found on the Obituaries page.

[7th January 2009]

IOW FHS gains award for its website



The Society's Website has been Highly Commended by the Federation of Family History Societies. Thanks to all those people who contributed to this award, especially Dina and David Broughton, who built the website from scratch.

For full details of the winners in 2008 see FFHS Awards.

[7th September 2008]

Articles on the web

A new section has been added to the website for the presentation of Articles related to the Isle of Wight. See Articles.

[6th August 2008]

The Isle of Wight Family History Society on Facebook

A group has been created on Facebook (see www.facebook.com) for the Society. This a social network website which is described on its website as follows :

About Facebook

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Anyone can join Facebook

All that's needed to join Facebook is a valid email address. To connect with coworkers or classmates, use your school or work email address to register. Once you register, join a regional network to connect with the people in your area.

Discover the people around you

Facebook is made up of many networks, each based around a company, region, or school. Join the networks that reflect your real-life communities to learn more about the people who work, live, or study around you.

Do more

Facebook's Platform enables anyone, anywhere, to build complete applications that you can choose to use. The possibilities are endless. Define your experience on Facebook by choosing applications that are useful and relevant to your world.

Keep it private

At Facebook, we believe that people should have control over how they share their information and who can see it. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. You can use our privacy settings at any time to control who can see what on Facebook.

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The group is private, and you need to request to join it - once you have created your Facebook Profile, if you search on "Isle of Wight Family History Society" you will be presented with a panel with a link "Request to join".

[1st July 2008]

New Postal address for the Federation of Family History Societies

Please use this address when corresponding by post with the FFHS

Federation of Family History Societies
PO Box 8857
Lutterworth
LE17 9BJ

Any correspondence sent to the old PO Box in Coventry will be returned to Sender and could be delayed by up to 6 months.

E-mail address : admin@ffhs.org.uk

Website : www.ffhs.org.uk

(10th June 2008)

BMD Index updates

The volunteer team are still working on checking the BMD Index and every week Dina Broughton goes in to the Register Office, and after doing some checking and looking up corrections that have been sent to her she uploads the corrected files that have been done during the week (quite a large number of errors are found). Please check the Indexes and advise Dina of errors you might find. Click for email address

[17th May 2008]

EXTENDED ACCESS TO GRO INDEXES

Registration Officers may wish to be aware that following the closure of the Family Records Centre in March 2008, GRO has entered into an agreement with a number of libraries and record offices in England and Wales to host the full range of GRO Indexes.

The indexes are available in microfiche format and cover the following events: births, deaths and marriages from 1837 - 2006, overseas from 1761 - 2005, adoptions from 1927 - 2007, civil partnerships from 2005 - 2007 and provisional indexes for births and deaths for 2007.

The libraries and record offices who host the full range of indexes are Greater Manchester County Record Office, City of Westminster Archives Centre, Plymouth Central Library, Bridgend Reference and Information Library, Birmingham Central Library and The National Archives at Kew.

Each of these libraries/record offices will be updated with the more recent indexes for each event type as and when they become available and these arrangements will continue until such time as GRO are able to provide free access to its indexes via the internet.

For a full list of public bodies holding some or all of the GRO indexes, please visit
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/research/groindexes/where_can_i_access_gro_indexes.asp

- Message from the Superintendant Registrar at Northwood House

[8th May 2008]

NEW WEBMASTER

You will see from Dina's message below that I have now taken over the day to day maintenance of the website. I'd like to thank Dina and her husband David for the tremendous achievements they have made in getting the website up and running. I hadn't realised they had been doing it for so long. I trust that Dina and David will continue to enjoy their retirement for many years to come. Dina will continue to make corrections to the BMD Index for the time being, while Jon Matthews will maintain the membership details. I don't expect to make any dramatic changes to the site but I will be ensuring that it presents a consistent and relevant "shop window" for the Society. I'd be happy to consider any suggestions you might have on improving the website - please contact me by e-mail using the address you can find from this link : -

Geoff Allan
[21st April 2008]

It is now ten years since, with expert help of my husband, I designed and set up the Isle of Wight Family History Society website. The website has grown considerably since those days and I have very much enjoyed being its Webmaster. However the time has now come for me to resign from this position and to pass it over to someone who is younger than I am. We are fortunate in being able to recruit the services of Geoff Allan to take over the position. Geoff has been a member of the Society for many years and has a very sound background knowledge of the Island and of family history. His special interest is of the War Memorials on the Island. He has a website on which he has information and pictures of all the memorials on the Island. Geoff will be taking over as Webmaster on Monday 21st April 2008. I am sure that he will do an excellent job of running the Society's website and I look forward to watching its progress.
Dina Broughton

John Mitchel HALL - a request for help from Australia
I am trying on behalf of my mother to trace her father whose last known whereabouts were on the Isle of Wight in the 1970s and possibly 80s. His name was John Mitchell Hall and he would have been aged in his 60's at that time, if anyone has any information I would be very grateful. Thank You
Veronica Glasgow Email: ladysunshineau@yahoo.com.au

Bembridge photographs for sale
Simon Amyes has recently bought a lot at a local auction that included some photographic plates (negatives) taken in the Bembridge area 1912 and 1913. He plans to sell these individually on ebay and wondered if any would be of interest to our members. If so he would be happy to alert them when they become available.

They include:
Stephen and Amelia LUFF and their children Violet, Lillian and Edwin.
Mr STICKLAND and his hens (I believe he is Amelia Luff's father)
The Nook (could this be the Luff's house?)
Mrs POPE's cottage
There are also photos of Bembridge windmill and harbour; Whitecliff; Bonchurch; Culver Cliffs; beach hut and tent; Canoe lake Ryde; Yarborough Monument and flagpole; Lover's Lane (Place not identified); Stony Field, (place not identified); Hermit's Cave (place not identified);
Simon Amyes Email: s.amyes@tiscali.co.uk

New Wootton book
Hilary Gosden has published the final part in her 'A History of Wootton Bridge' series. Part Six is entitled 'High Days & Holidays' and follows the same A5 format as the previous parts, illustrated in black and white. Chapters include the Carnival and Regatta; Woodside and the Holiday Camps; Wootton Farm and the 1969 Pop Festival, etc.

For details of the other booklets in this series which are still available see Wootton Bridge Series

Born to be a Farmer
One of the earliest members of the Isle of Wight Family History Society, Christine Broom, has just written "Born to be a Farmer". This is an account of her life as a farmer on the Island. It contains much local knowledge and is an example of how many smaller farms derived a way of living and cared for the countryside plus some lighthearted parts.

The Price is £9.95 and post and packing £1.55. It will also be available at IWFHS meetings or by phoning Christine on 01983 840665 evenings or answerphone.