Archive for the ‘Past Events’ Category

As part of its lecture and education program, the Society carries out a number of outside visits and walks. Today I was lucky enough to attend an outside visit to the parish church of St. Bartholomew the Great in London excellently conducted by the Verger.

This Norman church is said to be the oldest church building in London, founded by Rahere, a courtier of Henry I in 1123. It has been the scene of many films and TV series, such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, the latest being the current Sherlock Holmes film in cinemas as I write. The church is just a little way out of the City walls in Smithfield which was originally a field used for jousting and a venue for executions and of course well known today as the site of London’s former cattle market.

The building has gone through many changes and today it is possible to see some of the original 12th Century church with many of the additions that have taken place up to and including the 20th Century.The original Priory was surrendered to the tyrant King Henry VIII who passed them on to Sir Richard Rich who took up residence in the Prior’s House. Under “bloody” Mary it became a Dominican convent until an Act of Parliament of 1559 once again restored it to a Parish Church.

The church had a Charnel House under the Sanctuary which today is a dressing room. Here we saw some of the vestments that are quite old and only used on special occasions such as a rose coloured set used on Mothering Sunday.

The visit finished with a look at fifteen minute film about the church and a fascinating look at some photographs showing the graveyard and local Elizabethan housing from 1877;  then off to the tea room in the Cloisters for a well deserved cup of tea!

The church is open to visitors most days and charges £4 for entry but of course you will have to look around yourself and not get the expert commentary of the Verger or the camaraderie in company with other Society members. In fact the next two outside visits to Lambeth Palace and Goldsmiths’ Hall are both fully booked, and the next after that is the visit to Wesley’s Chapel on 31st March 2010.

I highly recommend an afternoon or day out led by the Society but suggest you book early  to avoid disappointment!

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Some of the most important items in the library of the Society of Genealogists are to be found in the mansuscripts  in the Special Collections. Housed in thousands of boxes, these collections often represent the life work of a genealogist who has researched many different families. Sometimes the work is quite scholarly or looks at families that share a common theme such as the Campling Collection, the original notes made  by Campling before publishing the pedigress as East Anglian Pedigrees. Other collections have compiled family trees for families in a specific area  such as the Rogers Collection of notes on Cornish families. The SoG has over 350 of these special collections.

New collections come into the library every week.  Often they are  the life work of a family historian bequeathed to the Society because no other family member might want the research. Each collection is sorted and listed by volunteers. Often the papers aren’t as organised as they might be when they arrive at the library. It  can be quite a daunting task to go through many boxes of notes and to make order out of chaos. It can be quite sad if family photos don’t have names or places attached to them such as these charming family photographs.

Sometimes it’s not only the family photos that can be difficult to  identify.   All sorts of ephemeral items often come in with the research notes.  Volunteers have great fun sorting the collections. It was a delight to find this fine fellow (below)  in the recent acquisition of the Helen collection.

Surnames represented in the Society’s document collections of miscellaneous manuscript research notes, the roll pedigree collections and the birth briefs submitted by members are listed on the library section of our website. However the names in the special collections are, at present, only listed in card indexes in the lower library.

Contributing to the Society’s centenary appeal can help us continue to conserve and care for our collections. See the donations page of our website.

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14 SoG members took part in the guided walk around the City of London looking at some of the lost burial grounds.  Between 1741 and 1837 over two million burials occurred within the City but finding trace of these can now be a challenge. The walk, led by Alec Tritton, started at St Olave Church Hart Street, near the Tower of London and concluded at Bow Churchyard. Concentrating on burial grounds in the financial district the group got a feel for the parishes where their ancestors lived, and died. After two and a half hours we retired exhausted but cheerful to one of the few local hostelries actually open in the City on Saturdays. Everyone agreed they had a good day as you can see by the picture. 

Alec’s next walk around nonconformist chapels and burial grounds will take place on Saturday 26 September. Places are limited so do take the opportunity to book on line via the   SoG’s events pages on our website

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