North West Kent Family History Society Hub

The intriguing title spotted when a member checked out the day's weather recently. Following the Met Office archives links to view the historic rainfall data for many parts of the UK and, at a local level, was data for Welling, Bexleyheath, Kent, in many of the years of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1861, these were collected by Henry Septimus Hyde Wo...

Its the 1st April and its not a joke when you lose access to the MOA (members only area). No longer can you access the databases, indexes, back journals and the video recordings of the talks and workshops. Whats the solution? Pay your £10 subscription and all will be well again. 

The Parish Chest workshop run on the 16th March's recording is now available on the resources menu to members. If you missed the workshop and want to learn about the records available in the Parish Chest watch the recording. If you would like the Workshop run again so you can benefit from the Q & A session after the presentation email...

Be aware if you have not renewed your membership for 2022 you will lose your access to the members only area (MOA) in the next 14 days. Membership is only £10 per year and in our opinion very good value. Membership is cheaper than a meal out. An advantage is that you can sit at home and not wear a mask to avoid  Covid-19

The Video recordings from the two Medieval Records Workshops are now available online. Sign in to the MOA and go too the Workshop videos to see our archive of recordings including the latest Medieval Records Workshops. 

Updated fully searchable tables of Members Interests have been loaded. These tables are for Surname Interests, Subject Interests and Places Interests. You can also see the latest in the March Journal which came out at the beginning of the month.

NWKFHS was represented on this session of Rootstech by our President David Cufley. Despite a number of technical problems experienced the panel of representatives from five family history societies were able to explain the advantages of joining a Family History Society (FHS). If you could not see the original session and want to its now available o...

Over the years members have donated BMD certificates that they obtained only to discover they are not of their family.  These have been collected at the library in three volumes on the open shelves at BGR0023.  The index to these volumes under the Birth, Marriage and Death headings are available as PDF files to download under the buttons ...

"Did you know that there was a murder in your house?" These words were uttered to me by a cousin. He was wrong, but not by much!In 1956 mum, dad, my sister and I moved into Leahurst Road in Lewisham. Back in 1942 the body of an 11 year old girl was discovered under the floorboards of the housenext door. Much wartime crime, including murder, went un...

A family? ( My family? Your family?)But not The family, or the family of man or even such nebulous bodies as the Commonwealth family. The Oxford English Dictionary defines family as, amongst others, "The body of persons who live in one house or under one head, including parents, children, servants etc. (1545)" (Contentious I know, but who wouldn't ...

Evacustes. You know how a name can lodge in your mind? As part of a NWKFHS writing workshop, I researched Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire especially the work of artist Evacustes Phipson. He was a prolific British topographical watercolourist in the 1890s and throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century but I couldn't find any that info...

The Family History Federation has organised a panel of Angela Malin, David Cufley Hillary Blanford, Ian Waller and Malcolm Austin at Rootstech 2022. These representatives of some UK family history Societies will explain the benefits of joining a UK family history Society. They will be able to advise how their and other Societies can help your resea...

Query 4 June 2020 Query from Albany, Western Australia. Two members of my family, Aunts Mabel Elsie Wheeler and Beatrice Nial are buried in Bexley. My Grandfather, William Fogarty, could be William Seymour also died in the area around 1948. The two aunts went to his funeral, they were living at 73 and 51 Rowley Avenue Sidcup at the time, we have he...

We have received the first pictures of local Lucy Boxes. This one is in Martin Dene, Bexleyheath. 

  14th September at 7.00 pm the Society presents the zoom talk by Jackie Depelle a family history tutor and speaker. The talk explains the value of using wills, perhaps the most useful resource after certificates & censuses. It is a personal insight into relationships & possessions. Find indexes & associated records. Jack...

Handouts available for researching merchant navy relatives following a talk by Penny Allen at Dartford meeting on the 4th September 2021 Click HERE for link 

 Video of Cloud Recording-DNA Clustering using Excel by David Cufley now available

Only available until 19 March 2022 recorded  talk by Penny Walters searching adopted ancestors Go to page www.nwkfhs.org.uk/resources/all-other/zoom-talk-videos

 The 1917 Daily Mirror had pictures of military figures mentioning their exploits with a picture entitled 'King of the Costers' of Frank Russell who had died, He was a stall-holder on Beresford Square Market, Woolwich and lived in Salutation Alley, a convenient location to store his barrows and move them into the market. He had resided in Wool...

Searchable Journal contents index is available for you to check if your family or a subject has been previously published. The index is now up to date; December 2021; Volume 15 No 12. Our Journal has been published since 1978 and all its editions are online for you to search. Anyone can check the index out. If you want to read any pa...