We have written before about the value of local family history societies. We wrote specifically about the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society. Today I would like to offer a bit of a personal history with the Society and the value we have found in one of the searchable collections they have made available at their website, pedigree data.
Over the past few years we were able to break down a brick wall in my paternal line. I learned that my father’s fathers came from Somerset in west England. Because my family comes from the area, we have a frequent need to research there. With that in mind, in early 2020 we joined the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society based in Yeovil, Somerset on the border with the county of Dorset. What a great decision that was! We have seen benefits on many levels. The Society provides searchable data collections, collections on other sites, personal research help, local history information, photographs, and for us, in many cases, friendships. We have met and made friends with several people from the Society via email and video conferencing.
The Society provides searchable data collections.
The data we have found via the Society has been very valuable. Since my paternal line is from Somerset, there is a lot of data to be found there. Much of the data offered by the Society is beyond your typical pay genealogy services such as ancestry.com. The pedigree data was very useful in spreading our tree horizontally. The search fields look like this:
I searched my paternal surname “Shearn.“ There were 19 results. These are my four times great grandparents:
The group number to in the left most column is useful to see all of the records from the same family. The table shows results and provides for sorting and searching. In this case, I sorted by group number. Scroll a bit to the right to see the rest of the fields in the table.
Do you have ancestors from Somerset or Dorset? Check out the Pedigree Search at the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society.
You’ll find that many English family history societies provide similar facilities, collections, libraries, etc. We have found many others useful including Wiltshire, Devon, Bristol & Avon, and Gloucestershire. There is also a Family History Federation to which many of the English societies belong. They have useful information too, especially in finding people with common surname interests and finding societies that might best serve you. But family history societies are not limited to England. They can be found around the world.
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If you need any help finding your ancestors, just let us know.
