This page will contain reports of previous branch meetings and
events as information becomes available. Where possible,
speakers' notes and other materials from the talks have been included.
Details of future meetings can be found
here.
An archive of meetings from 2001-2002 can be found
here.
Tuesday 10th
September 2002
A disappointingly small audience heard Mr. Tom Doig give a
fascinating and entertaining talk about the Victorian attitudes to
death, illustrated with some interesting slides.
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Tuesday 9th October
2002
Your Branch Committee decided to try something new this month:
instead of hiring a speaker we organised an informal "round table"
meeting at which each of us explained how we got started on our
research and the problems we had faced. After a free cup of tea
or coffee and a biscuit, the meeting was opened up to anyone who
wanted to contribute to the evening with the result that a number of
members told us about their own experiences, including one who related
the story of how he met and married his third cousin, once removed,
through his research!
The meeting proved a great success, with members browsing through
examples of written family histories, old photographs and various CDs
and other resources.
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Tuesday 12th
November 2002
For the November meeting we managed to book well-known local
author and "Prefab Kid", Gregory Holyoake, to talk to us about his
childhood in post-war Kent. A popular local speaker, Mr.
Holyoake always varies his talk, in which he acts out scenes from
his early life. His memories, and the display of souvenirs
from childhood, brought back many happy memories of youth to several
members, including your webmaster.
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Tuesday
10th December 2002
About 30 members and guests enjoyed our little Christmas Party,
with warm punch (alcohol free!) and an assortment of nibbles.
Our speaker on this occasion was our own Jenny Noake, who
took on the persona of her Lancastrian ancestor, Mrs.
Bourne (with moral support from yours truly as her "husband"), to talk about Christmas food through the ages and
reveal some juicy gossip about her family history.
All proceeds from this month's raffle, along with a donation
equivalent to what we would normally pay for a speaker, will be
going to the "Save the Children Fund". The committee would
like to thank members who
donated raffle prizes for this good cause.
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Tuesday 14th
January 2003
Your webmaster was yet again roped in to fill a gap in the programme this month.
The members were treated to a brief history of the
census, followed by a look at the "modern" census from 1801 on, outlining
what can be learned from the returns in each case, then looking at
the possible future of the census in the UK. The talk was to be
illustrated with examples of interesting and unusual entries, as
well as references to famous, and infamous, characters, but
technology let us down when the projector caught fire!
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Tuesday
11th February 2003
February saw the welcome return of Cliff Cole, who will be
gave us a fascinating story about the lives of twins separated at
birth. He told us about the amazing similarity between his
life and that of his twin brother, separated from childhood by the
Atlantic Ocean.
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Tuesday
11th March 2003
Duncan Harrington kindly stepped into the breach after Peter Ewart was forced to cancel. His talk was be based around the
PRO and the various differe3nt record sources available to
researchers, including some of the changes taking place in the near future.
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Tuesday
8th April 2003
April means AGM time again. We were luck in being able to
second three
volunteers to join the committee in January. The
standing committee was returned
unopposed for another year. A number of changes to the roles
and responsibilities of committee members will take place shortly..
Life and conditions in the post-1834 Poor Law Union Workhouses was
the subject of this month's fascinating talk from Peter Ewart. We
were due to have this talk in July 2002, but unfortunately the
lovely sunny weather prevented us from enjoying that talk as the
hall had no curtains and we could not see the pictures!
We have been promised curtains in the hall in time for the July
meeting!
Tuesday
13th May 2003
Mr. Richard Ratcliffe made a welcome return to
Deal this month to give a talk entitled "Digging deeper into family
history".
Tuesday
10th June 2003
Les Cozens
gave us another of his interesting and amusing talks, this time
relating the life and times of Deal pilot Stanton.
Tuesday
8th July 2003
Our prayers for a dark evening (or curtains in the hall) for
this month's meeting went unanswered! Mrs. Jean Debney
explained to
us how to date old photographs, with examples from her family
collection. The sun eventually went down and we were just able
to see the pictures on the screen. After the talk, Mrs. Debney
offered to date members photos; a number of members brought their pictures
along and took the opportunity to find out when they might have been
taken.
Tuesday
12th August 2003
No meeting this month.
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Kent Family
History Society