12 December 2017
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Three of us working on the Eastbourne Ocklynge Cemetery in 2007’
John Crane from Family Roots FHS for Eastbourne and District tells us about their newspaper BMD project.
In a town near you, there’s likely an enthusiastic band of family historians - your local family history society members. These hardworking volunteers run family history societies to help teach people about family history and work to preserve the historic records of the area for the future. The range of historic projects they are involved in is vast. Read on for an inspiring example…
Q Projects are clearly an important part of the remit of a family history society – tell us about the projects that Family Roots FHS for Eastbourne and District are running relating to historic BMDs that are reported in the local newspapers?
A (John Crane) The newspaper BMD project has been running for about 18 years and involves transcribing from film and fiche records all available mentions of births, marriages or deaths, and some associated events, reported in the Eastbourne press. We have so far recorded some 44,000 events in the Eastbourne Gazette 1867-1920 - as well as all the names mentioned in these events, giving us in the region of 190,000 entries. We are now working on the Eastbourne Chronicle, using the same system. The data from these projects is for sale to the public on CD, and also available via Findmypast.co.uk
Find out more about the society at http://eastbournefhs.org.uk/wp/
To find out more about family history societies, buy the Christmas issue of Family Tree, in the shops now, priced £5.99 and bagged with the Family History Handbook. The Handbook is packed with behind-the-scenes interviews with key family history society members and a directory of family history societies worldwide. Now SOLD OUT from the Family Tree website but still available from your newsagents or download the digital version here!