THIS Thursday, 25th October, Westbury Area Family History Group will welcome Dr. Colin Chapman, who is a life vice-president of the Federation of Family History Societies and has lectured extensively on British and Irish genealogy.
His talk is entitled ‘Genealogy in Early British Censuses 1086 to 1841’. Today, more and more individuals and families are becoming interested not only in discovering their roots, but also finding out where and how their ancestors lived.
It has long been an article of faith that the census of 1841 was the first British census to list the names of individuals. Dr. Chapman describes hundreds of pre-1841 name lists (censuses, poll lists, national surveys, tax lists, parish enumerations, etc.), explaining most of them, as far as possible, in their historical framework. He will describe the sources that are available where you may see something of your ancestors’ day-to-day lives long ago.
The Westbury Area Family History Group, a branch of the Wiltshire Family History Society, meet every 4th Thursday of the month at 7.15pm in the foyer of Westbury’s Methodist Church. The branch has regular interesting and informative talks and discussions by members and guest speakers on all aspects of family history and general history
