Sharing
genealogical research on the internet has been a major factor in the growth of
the hobby in recent years. Data sites, message boards and personal websites abound
and this is where the greatest caution is needed if we want if you use
information found online in our research.
Can we ever be sure that what we see submitted is true?
Terrible mistakes can creep into our research if we make a connection from a personal
website without verifying the source against the original document.
Some websites such as www.ancestry.com
actively encourage users to publish their research without any recourse to
authentication. Fortunately, the
submitter is often identified and we should make every effort to confirm the
provenance of the information submitted. Similarly we should never take what we
find for granted and always check information against the primary source. The
IGI is known to be riddled with errors and yet researchers treat it as fact
without recourse to the original registers.
When we can’t find what we are looking for on the web we go
to the archives and do a manual search. We should use the visit as an
opportunity to confirm what we have already found on the web.
The really interesting material is in the archives. Where on
the web are we likely to find an ancestors handwriting?
The internet is a really convenient research tool but the
information that we find there should always be corroborated and it remains
only a fraction of the total resources available.
On Friday the 6th May a talk was given by Mr Reg.
Goulding on Mining 1940 -1986. He brought along books, charts and many other
items of memorabilia. One of the pieces of iron he had brought along was 125
year old from the Minnie pit. Anne James pointed out that Mr Goulding had made
a stand for the Society's banner.
Mr Goulding said that his grandfather had farmed at the
Minnie Farm, where his mother was born and worked in the pit together with two
uncles, one of who died in the Minnie pit explosion. He pointed out a book on
the disaster, which gave all the details. During his 46 years employment in the
mines, 14 spent at Madeley colliery and 32 spent at Silverdale colliery, he
only had 10 days off sick. He was eventually made foreman and his job was
working on the machinery at the coalface.
With nationalisation in 1947, public money was poured into
the mining industry and the machinery became mechanised. Mr Goulding described
in great detail certain aspects of mining including shot firing, belt conveyors
and hydraulics.
Mr Goulding devoted some of his talk to safety in the pit and
demonstrated the methanometer, which measure the percentage of gas. He said
that the Meteorological Office informed collieries when air pressure was up as
this pushes gas out of the coal. The usual was 14.51b per sq. inch.
Every pit has a mobile winder so that
when there was no power, the men could get out of the pit. Mr Goulding
was responsible for the machinery and he described his work in making things
safe. The coalfields eventually became self-contained with steam engines,
cooling towers, etc.
He concluded his talk on the miner's strike in the `winter
of discontent'. He and some colleagues went through the picket line to work and
were subjected to intimidation and bullying.
(Thanks go to Joan Tomkinson for supplying this review)
We now have
available the burials of All Saints Church, Odd Rhode.
Do you have a digital camera and do you live in North
Staffs? Read on…
The war memorial project started some years ago and we published our book ‘Never to Return’ in 2000. Since the publication, a great deal of further information has become available and the amount of information has increased by something like 50%, and it is still coming.
One great source has been the Weekly Sentinel, but since our
original book, the estimable Mrs Curwen has indexed all the photographs of
First World War men. This led to many
new discoveries and has located perhaps 100 photos. However, the quality is often very poor and
when printed out it deteriorates further.
An enquiry to the Newspaper Library at Colindale in
At the moment I am working through the Weekly Sentinels for
the Second World War. It is surprising
but true that we often know less on these people than we know of the First
World War soldiers. This will also
locate photographs.
The best solution at the moment is a digital photograph from
the microfilm when it is displayed on the reader at Hanley library. But I don’t have a digital camera.
If I provide a list of editions and pages where photos
appear, will you photograph the soldier and provide me with an image on
disc? This would not take too long, but
would greatly assist the project.
Is there a volunteer?
Contact Ian Bailey at ian_bailey76@hotmail.com or
ibail1sc@stokecoll.ac.uk
THE WORLD OF WILLIAM WHICKHAM The Biography and the Photography of a Remarkable Victorian
When the three
surviving daughters of William Arthur Wickham, who was born in 1849, contacted
Kenneth Ward, the author of this fascinating book, with regard to their
father's photographic work, he discovered that a part of
Wickham's father died when he was sixteen, and to help
maintain the family, William went as tutor to good families. He became
interested in both photography and church architecture at an early age - and
used his years of tutoring to travel to many parts of the country to see
churches, abbeys and various ecclesiastical remains, making notes and taking
photographs.
Eventually, he went to
It is probable that his early photography was done with one
of the 'View' cameras of the time; we do not know. From his daughters'
recollections, he probably bought one of the new bellows-type cameras on a
wooden tripod (around 1882 to judge from the earliest of the glass plates that
can be dated). It would also fit in with the introduction of 'dry-plate'
photography, which made life a lot easier for the photographer.
In 1916, aged 68, waning health took him to the hamlet of
Ampton, in