VISITORS' BOOK

Date SentComment
13th May  2008 I am not yet a member but use the website quite a lot, as most of my ancestors come from the Island (Snellgrove family).
I am always amazed at how good the site is, it very rarely lets me down.
For example, it has taken me half an hour to find the children of a marriage, their marriages and their children.
Fantastic! Thank you all.

Mr K H Day

10th May  2008 Many thanks for this most helpful service. (The BMD Index). A chance comment by an IOW resident visiting Northumberland has enabled me to trace my brother's death on the IOW in 1965.

I now hope to trace his unmarked grave and visit where it is located...

Neil Milburn, Northumberland
16th April  2008 Just to say thank you for such a helpful website and society. I asked for help in tracing a relative on your "Help wanted" page and have been contacted about him by another relative. Thank you for being the means for putting us in touch with each other -- Sue Lawrence.
13th April  2008 A very useful site. Now looking forward to visiting. Particularly intersted in Horace Colyer of Denbigh House, Ryde. Dental Surgeon, born in London.-- C. Houselander.
16th March  2008 I am tracing my maternal side of the family in the name of LIPSCOMBE. I have looked at this site and have found it very helpful, have even found my own birth! I am also interested in the HAYTER family and have obtained numerous links to the Island including the murder of Percy Hayter at the Barracks Field in Newport. Thanks for all your hard work. Unfortunately I don't live on the Island otherwise would be a volunteer. This is a good site, easy to use, thanks again.-- Valerie Hayter
17th Febuary  2008 I am not a member of the IOWFHS but have used this web site on many occasions to research family members on my mother's side who lived on the island. I have found this site to be absolutely brilliant and very easy to use. Thank you all. -- Mr K.H. Day
11th January  2008 have used this BMD index to trace relatives born on the Island. I think it is fantastic, and gives so much information. I wish all counties used your system. Keep up the good work -- Frances McMeeken
31st December  2007 A most impressive web site! Just back into family history again after a long absence. Visited IOW about 20 years ago very briefly and found the PRO the most helpful and organised of the many UK PROs visited during that trip. I will get a bit serious about the research in the near future. -- Jennifer Bell
10th December  2007 This is a very well laid out site. Easy to find what you are looking for. Thanks to the volunteers who entered all the data in the BMD index. Even though I did not find what I was looking for, I was impressed with what you have transcribed. Thanks -- Margaret Mundy
18th November  2007 Your site is fantastic - I love anything like this that records the history of not only the families but the area. I live in Southampton and the IOW is my second home - i still have the fondest memories of family hols in Shanklin as a lad in the late 60's/early 70's (when caravans were caravans not mobile homes like today). Keep up the great work - Regards Cliff Mould.
18th November  2007 Both my Great Grandfather and Grandfather were born on the Island and I have found the your site very useful. The oldest relation goes back to 1794 and was a Thomas Wheeler.-- Brian Wingfield, Coleford, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, formally of Bournemouth.
9th November  2007 A first class website.-- Dennis James Winsor
7th November  2007 Once again, I have reason to use your site...............and again, I find it one of the easiest and most informative sites I have visited, concerning geneology. I wish they were all as easy and straightforward as yours. Well done.-- Gloria Hearn
28th October  2007 As the daughter, grand-daughter, g.g.daughter & g.g.g.daughter of Islanders (The TILBURY & SHARP families of Cowes) I really enjoyed visiting your site. I have added it to my favourites and will look at joining your society in the new year to help in my search for my IOW roots -- Nicola Sharp
7th October  2007 Congratulations on your excellent website. I was really stuck with my family history research but think (fingers crossed!) that I may have made a breakthough thanks to your brilliant site. Many thanks.-- Trish Pickford
30th September  2007 One of the best FHS sites I have used. Everything easily presented. Looking for Dyer,Osmond, Clarke. Have found some of them;expect others will turn up in time.-- Alan Brown
22nd September  2007 Great site, am tracing my grandfather's (my mother's father) family who came from Isle of Wight, and Gosport, name of Orchard. My great great grandfather Francis Orchard went to Isle of Sheppey, then to London. My grandfather went to Australia in 1892.-- Rosemary Eden
13th September  2007 Excellent BMD Index! Thank you.-- Godfrey H. Broad
2nd September  2007 Thank you for an excellent web site - so easy to use and very informative, thanks.-- Peter Nobbs
11th August  2007 As someone who spends a lot of time trying to trace my families histories I would like to say that of all the websites I visit and use, this one is the best. Firstly, it is broad based and easy to follow and secondly, although I imagine you could use the money, you do not demand money for access to information. Thankyou from a member "down under" and please keep up the excellent work.-- Margaret Gallen
5th August  2007 What a brilliant web site. My grandfather was born in Mottistone so researching my family using your site has been amazing. Thank you so very much for all the help you have given me.-- Maria Osman
14th July  2007
I read about this site in the Family Tree (Aug 2007) magazine and I am very impressed with how organised and user friendly it is. Thank you! -- Frankie Maclean
14th July  2007
What a brilliant site !! Very useful and wel constructed.-- David White
11th July  2007 BMDs is great. Thanks very much. Got site from Family Tree August 2007. Well done.-- Sheila Middleton
7th July  2007
What a fantastic web site and so valuable to someone like myself who lives so far away (New Zealand). I thank you all for your hard work as I know the hundreds of hours all of this information must have taken.-- Anna Arrol, New Zealand
Researching Coape - COAPE-ARNOLD and ARNOLD
30th June  2007
This is a great site with so much information, which has helped us enormously in the reseach of our family on the Isle of Wight. Thank you so much - Jill Picton - grand daughter of Major Sydney Charles Picton
8th June  2007
I have found your web site extremely helpful! Thank you very much. I have found out an awful lot about my family that was lost to me before. -- Joy Hunt
16th May 2007
What a fantastic website, in particular I was able to find the dates that many of my ancestors had died, with very little effort -- Alison Trelfa
16h April 2007 Thank You for the Great Website! Keep up the good work. I live in the united States and have been told that my Great Great Grandfather was from Isle of Wright, England. I never knew if this was true or not. But with what little hints my family gave me I might have found my ancestor by browsing your site. I will keep checking back. I found this site by going to Cindi's List. com. Thank you once again.-- Marlene Petty Polster
7th April 2007 Many thanks for a really good website; assisting me with my research into the Gregory branch of our tree! -- Lynda Cairns
8th April March 2007
Excellent website, I am a decendent from the rather Large NEWNHAM Family I now live in Australia with other Newnham Decendants who I found. My great Gran was called Helen and lived on Pan Estate, My Grandfather was one of the eldest siblings named Frank Newnham.-- Jamie Lyones
24th March 2007 I am a LOWE by birth and have traced the family tree back to the 1700s around brighstone /chale.have found the site useful..and love the photo identifiv=cation section...wish I had some to help hazel21@hotmail.co.uk -- hazel swain
21st March 2007
Great Web Site, I visited the Isle in 2001, and found some information on our family, but now need to dig further, so hope you can help, keep up the great work. -- Keith Woodford
16th February 2007 I have just discovered your web site, whist trying to find information on part of our family that went to the Isle of Wight. In fact I remember visiting them in the 60's when I was a child. Your informtion is well set out, and I have found it really helpful. Thankyou to all who have put in so much effort. Many thanks. -- Gloria Dean-Hearn
21st January 2007
Great Web Site, I visited the Isle in 2001, and found some information on our family, but now need to dig further, so hope you can help, keep up the great work. -- Keith Woodford I keep coming back to your website. This is a wonderful site. I have got many of my husband's names from it (Salter's) keep up the good work - from down under in New Zealand. -- Margaret Carroll
13th January 2007 Excellent website just wish there were more like this one in other parts of the country - it has helped me enormously. Keep up the good work.-- Jenny Wade
11th November 2006 Extemely helpful site. It has helped me considerably to locate unknown Grt-grandparents and grandparents that I never about. Thanks to all concerned -- April Clark (nee Morris)
8th November 2006 I would just like to thank you for the information on Births, Deaths,and Marriages. This has allowed me to trace my family on my mother's side back to 1823 and seven generations. It was great and I have now been able to produce a file for my daughter to keep and add to which she can show her children.-- Jane Wavell
10th October 2006 This web site is the best I have ever used. It is very user friendly and it is setup to make tracing relatives easy also the links to other sites is helpful. Thank you.-- Myrtle Padfield
10th October 2006
The best FHS site I have come across,supplying most comprehensive and interesting information. It has proved most useful in my research of my husband's Woodford/Beck families (as was Ann Barrett when I hit a brick wall! Thanks again, Ann). Will be joining soon, and hope to visit your island next year. Congratulations and keep up the good work! -- Margaret Woodford
8th October 2006
I stumbled accross this site by recommendation and have passed the link onto some one I know who is tracing their family from the IoW. It is a very good site and I know they will join the IWFHS. Keep up the good work. -- Bev
5th September 2006 I have found this site very very useful in tracing my IOW ancestors thankyou for making it available. -- Anthony Brown
30th August 2006 Thank you for a very, very helpful site and very helpful researchers. I appreciate very much all the kind assistance I have been given to locate family ancestors that I never knew existed on the I-of-W or Mottistone. I'm sure there are many others who appreciate the BDM section too. -- April Clark (nee Morris)
25th August 2006 I managed to spend quite a lot of money on other Web history sites before discovering this one. The BDM Index has been of immense value to me, and it is with a guilty conscience that I hand over a few pounds as a membership fee. -- Edward Edmunds
11th August 2006 I would like to say how wonderful the isle of wight sight is I have made several visits on the net and have found so much information for Family History I just wish it had the Father and Mother's christian names for Births, but the help I have received has been really appreciated. I have been doing Family History research for 4 years and this is the best site I have ever visited Congratulations -- Patricia Pitman from (Australia)
9th August 2006
I think this website is very good. I love to look up my husband's Groves relations. It is a brilliant site for all sorts of data. When I receive more Groves connections to my husband's family i usally go straight to this website. Continue the great work with thanks from me.-- Pamela J Groves
29th July 2006
This is the BEST FH site I have had the pleasure to visit. Thank You! -- Lainy
25th May 2006
I'm very impressed indeed with the work that is represented and accessible via this very user-friendly and convenient website, and I'm absolutely delighted that a distant relative (found through Lost Cousins) recommended it to me - it has totally transformed my knowledge of my Cooper ancestry in the 19th Century. Mind you, I'm a beginner - but what a boost to my researches and enjoyment. If only every area where my ancestors lived had a resource even half as good!
Needless to say, I've posted my subscription to the Society. My sincere thanks and congratulations to all who must have worked so hard to make all this possible.-- Andrew Saunders
10th April 2006 Thank you for all the hard work put in to making this website and research information the best I have ever seen! Keep up the good work. It's a brilliant site. -- Liz Barsdell
10th April 2006 I am new to tracing my family history and find your site one of the most user friendly I have come across. My grandparents lived at Sion Cottage, Sandown in 1904 and I am still trying to find evidence of what their life on the island was like. I may even try to visit Brading and Sandown for more about their past thank you. -- Myrtle Padfield formally Gray
8th April 2006 Just started to trace the family of my husband and this site has been a godsend - in particular the BMD indexes that show women's maiden names. For those who have taken the time and trouble to index all these, rest assured your efforts are much appreciated. -- Mrs Chudley
29th March 2006 This site has been sooo helpful and I have found lots of relevant information. Thank you.-- Anne Jones (nee Wyke)
28th March 2006 An excellent web site you have here. You should be very proud of your efforts. Many thanks or all your hard work, and for making it available.-- Richard van Rooijen
5th March 2006 Best FHS website I have seen. Thank you. I will be joining as soon as I can. -- Maz Lewis
27th February 2006 BRILLIANT,I have just traced the Births of 9 aunts /uncles in approx. 2hrs. EXCELLENT web site THANK YOU -- W.T.Somerset
27th February 2006 I often have a search in your pages & find it of great interest in my research. I wish you luck in your quest for commitee members. I would hate to see such a wonderful org.close. My daughter Celia has just returned from 2yrs in U.K.but to my disappointment never visited the Isle.of Wight where my grandfather was born, but she did aquire his parents mar.cert.from you. Best wishes & thanks for your site.-- Frank Hunt
24th February 2006 I would just like to take this opportunity to say what a great site you have, it's so helpful and informative. I've been to many fhs site over the years and yours by far the best that I have come across. You should congratulate yourselves. I will be joining the society as a memember and hopefully make a trip to the IOW in the spring to further my research and visit the towns and villages of my ancestors.-- Keith Britten
13th February 2006I find your site very well done and easy to get around in. It is nice to see that there are people who are willing to help those from around the world with their search. Your Family History society deserves a pat on the back and a big thank you. -- Billie Friesen
6th February 2006 Would just like to say how useful I am finding the website. Used a few times a couple of years ago, but have done so more lately. It is easy to use and has so much useful information. The BMD index is your biggest asset I think - it saves searching through all the Welsh Jones in the GRO index. If only all FHS had something like it. I also emailed some one listed as looking for Jones on the members' interests and had a very prompt reply. Thank you for such a good website.-- Jose Gibbs, Member 1270
5th February 2006 Well done on a splendid website. A budding genealogist is being spoon fed! It has certainly made the long dark evenings of winter more interesting and informative! I have been able to place more of my Isle of Wight ancestors into the family tree without moving from my home on the mainland. My maternal grandfather came from a long line of islanders based in and around Porchfield, Shalfleet, Brighstone (Brixton) and Whitwell. I will be joining the IWFHS soon for even more information. Thank you.-- Di Whitelock

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