Hertfordshire People No 129 now out

The picture shows "Minnie"

The latest issue of Hertfordshire People is now out - and members of the Herts Family History Society can now get it by email. It contains the usual collection of news, stories, etc., and as usual I will briefly report on the items that interest me - in the hope that it might tempt non-members to join and receive a copy themselves.

Needless to say First World War research and activities are mentioned. Over the years the Society has produced many booklets of Memorial Inscriptions and they plan to produce one of the War Memorials so far recorded, including details from family graves and memorials which could easily be overlooked. There is also an article on the exhibition to be held in Bushey in August (Details at www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk) which you might like to note for your diary if you are in Hertfordshire this summer. I also note that that the next issue will give details of a competition to write about what your relative during the War. There is also a list of relevant events being organised at HALS.

They also publish an appeal from the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum for pictures of soldiers from that regiment who died in the War - but I feel a wider appeal would have been appropriate. If you have information on relatives who died, or even took part in the war, there could be a regimental archivist, or a local history society, who would love to have details. There are groups all over the country who are producing commemorative documents of all the names on their war memorials who are frantically searching for pictures and biographical information ... and in many cases they could also be interested in those who came home. Don't leave those old photographs sitting unseen in a draw somewhere - ensure that your relative is fittingly remembered for posterity.

There is an interesting and well researched article on Minnie (Marion Livingstone Sworder, nee Phillips) which had me intrigued. She was born in India but married into a Hertfordshire farming family at Buntingford. Her husband went bankrupt and went overseas, leaving Minnie to bring up the family during the First World War. She died tragically in an accident in 1921, and her husband died later in Malaysia. 

As usual there are reports on recent talks to the society - Illustrating your Family History by John Pearson and A Picture to Post  - 350 year history of the postal service by David Wilson. The series A Hertfordshire Heraldic Miscellany continues with The Alingtons ... of Letchworth Hall.

Among the many shorter items one caught my eye - details of a web site www.hertsburialsandmemorials.org.uk which I had not come across before. It is an on-going project and includes some important cemeteries in central Hertfordshire - such as the Hatfield Road cemetery in St Albans, and also a number of war memorials. 

Finally there are details of forthcoming events, including the Society's meetings, the next meeting being Hertfordshire, A Landscape History, by Anne Rowe on 28th June.