Members’ websites update, December 2020 – Part 1

It’s been a while since my last report on what’s been happening with our members’ websites, so another review is long overdue. Not only are there 22 websites listed in my last report with updates to tell you about, there’s also the matter of our first ever . . .

Members’ Website Competition

As you will know if you attended our recent AGM or if you follow our Facebook or Twitter accounts, the two runners up in this competition, in alphabetical order, are:

Bratton Clovelley One-Place Study (Kim Baldacchino), and

Malton One-Place Study (John Blanchard)

Well done to both! The winning website however, as chosen by your Committee from those nominated by our members, is that of The Badsey Society. Congratulations to all involved in creating and continually adding to this amazing online resource!

We will be running this competition again in 2021, so stay tuned for further news.

Updated members’ websites

Antrobus in Cheshire, England (Clare Olver)

Back in July Clare added Solving a mystery, inspired by a small framed poem and a drawing of Crowley Lodge listed on eBay. Earlier this month, Where are you reading this? looked at the geographic spread of the website’s visitors and considered which emigrants from Antrobus might have sparked interest from descendants in Australia, Canada and the USA.

Badingham and Cransford in Suffolk (Elizabeth Walne)

Since we announced the launch of Elizabeth’s new website for her two one-place studies (or is it one two-place study?), five additional posts have been added to its blog – Bessie Carley: Badingham’s Decorated TFNS Assistant Matron; Cransford 1851; Cransford – 1861; OPS Shared Endeavour: Employment Q4; and Cransford: Remembrance.

Badsey, Aldington and Wickhamford in Worcestershire, England (Maureen Spinks for the Badsey Society)

The Badsey Society’s website has gone from strength to strength since my last report, with an amazing 55 additional articles appearing online. A very worthy winner of our first Members’ Website Competition!

Buckland Brewer in Devon, England (Janet Few / Buckland Brewer History Group)

The Buckland Brewer History Group has continued to hold monthly meetings online, details of which can be found on the Latest News page of the Group’s website.

Cairneyhill in Fife, Scotland (Jacqueline Hunter)

When we reported on Jacqueline’s new one-place study website (one of two) back in June, two blog posts had been added. Since then, 27 more posts have appeared on the Blog, and a Photos page has been added! (See Shandon below for Jacqueline’s second OPS website.)

Combe Down in Somerset, England (Richard Hill)

In July Richard announced the addition of another 600 people to his OPS family tree or ‘maze’ in More Combe Down family maze.

Dayton, LaSalle County, in Illinois, USA (Candace Wilmot)

Candace has continued to post regular updates to her blog, with 25 new stories relating to the people, events, customs, and buildings of Dayton.

Debenham (including Aspall , Kenton, Mickfield and Winston) in Surrey, England (Suzie Morley)

The Recent Changes page on Suzie’s website (created with Second Site) shows that profiles for over a thousand people have been added or modified over the last four months!

Great Ellingham in Norfolk, England (Heather Etteridge)

Heather is another one of our busiest bloggers – 60 new posts have joined those already on her website since we last checked in back in June! Drop-down menus in the right side of each page of the site allow these posts to be filtered by the month they were added, or by category: court hearings; emigration; inquests; occupation (18 different types); people; places and buildings; pubs and beer houses; schools, societies, charities; uncategorised; and wills.

Kimble (Great Kimble and Little Kimble) in Buckinghamshire, England (Stephen Daglish)

The What’s New page of Stephen’s website, which has been built using TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Site Building), shows several new people added to the database in November bringing the total (shown on the Statistics page) to 6,644.

Melrose in Roxburghshire, Scotland (Viv Dunstan)

Smallpox inoculation in late 18th century Melrose is the latest addition to Viv’s Melrose OPS blog.

Murphy’s Creek in Queensland, Australia (Pauleen Cass)

By using the ‘Search by category’ tool in the right-hand margin of pages on Pauleen’s website, it is possible to select those posts with references to her one-place study of Murphy’s Creek. This reveals several references to the settlement in Carmel’s Gravetales Geneameme, posted in October.

North Walls and Brims in Orkney, Scotland (Jane Harris)

Jane added three new one-place study blog posts to her website in August, September and November: Women’s work – North Walls & Brims, 1911 census; “Splendid new school for North Walls”; and Schools and teachers – North Walls and Brims, Orkney.

Parham in Suffolk, England (Simon Last)

It comes as no surprise to find that the Parham Suffolk Facebook page has been updated numerous times since my last report, with many amazing photos, items from old newspapers, and other items.

Rillington in North Yorkshire, England (Pam Smith)

It is equally unsurprising that exactly the same can be said of the Rillington One-Place Study Facebook page! If you want to see great examples of how Facebook pages can work as tools for engaging with people who share your interest in your Place, do take a look at the pages maintained by Pam and Simon.

Shandon in Dunbartonshire, Scotland (Jacqueline Hunter)

As with Jacqueline’s other OPS website for Cairneyhill (see above), this one has developed at pace since our previous update. 25 additional posts have joined the first three on the Blog and a Photos page has been created too.

Springhill in Lancashire, England (Janet Barrie)

Janet has continued her 52 residents blog posts, with the most recent additions being 40 (Oldest), 41 (Newest), 42 (Proud), 43 (Quite the Character), and 44 (Scary Stuff).

Stretton in Cheshire, England (Clare Olver)

The most recent additions to Clare’s website can be seen on its home page: The Oratory of St. Saviour, Stretton; Welcome to Stretton; and Ever wondered what was growing in your garden 150 years ago?

Waters Upton in Shropshire, England (Steve Jackson)

I haven’t added any new content to my own website for a while, but there are three blog posts which have appeared since June’s round-up of website updates: Lucy Alice Wylde and her secret admirer (from which the postcard image below is taken); John Morgan, surgeon and apothecary of Waters Upton – Part 1; and lastly, a blog post which goes some way towards explaining what I have been up to over the last few months when I've not been tweeting or writing for the Society (or preparing and delivering my presentation to our October webinar)  – Researching the Waters Upton one-place study on Ancestry.

Wing in Buckinghamshire, England (Alex Coles)

From tweets sent by Alex on Twitter, I can share details of several recent updates to her Wing OPS website: Pubs in Wing has been added; existing parish register transcripts have been boosted with Marriages 1860-1869; and information relating to the Congregational Union chapel has been incorporated into various pages including Independents & Congregationalists.

Wonersh in Surrey, England (Jan Cooper)

The Recent Updates page on Jan’s website shows that work on adding and updating profile pages for past Wonersh residents continues, and that the database now includes 12,971 people.

Woodnorth in Manitoba, Canada (Pamela Forsyth)

A blog post in July gives details of the most recent update to the one-place study page of Pamela’s website: Adding the remaining Revenue and Expenditure Accounts of the Woodnorth (Manitoba) School Board means that all of the School Board materials held by Pamela are now on the site.

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That’s it for Part 1 of this report. Coming up in Part 2 – details of 16 new member one-place study websites!

Steve Jackson
Social Media Coordinator