03 November 2020
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We are very sorry to be sharing the news that on Monday 26th October 2020, Tom Wood passed away. Readers of Family Tree will remember fondly his three decades of educating, entertaining and inspiring fellow family historians, particularly through his Genealogical Miscellany column, ‘Dear Tom’.
Tom Wood’s family history endeavours went beyond the magazine, however. He was also a founder member of Lincolnshire Family History Society in 1990 and was its first, award-winning, magazine editor, also editing the Family History Federation (formerly Federation of Family History Societies) magazine. He was also a member of the Society of Genealogists and Guild of One-Name Studies, being a keen and expert one-namer, and ever on the look-out for amusing and interesting surnames to embellish his Dear Tom column.
Dear Tom has a legion of fans among Family Tree readers, and time and again when we have run reader surveys, Tom Wood’s column would come out as a firm favourite.
Family Tree Editor Helen Tovey said: ‘Tom was a wonderful contributor over the years, with such a keen sense of fun, always looking for the quirky and quixotic in genealogy. He also had a heart of gold and provided such a welcoming space on his pages, for people to join in and share their genealogical snippets and curiosities. He was never one to make people feel small, and treasured every contribution to his pages. And I loved his never-ending font of joy and knowledge in what was presented to him. His enthusiasm was infectious. We’ll miss Tom very much.’
Illustration by Ellie Keeble, who illustrated Dear Tom's column in Family Tree