Lady Teviot
  • Welcome
  • The Talks
  • Events
  • Zoom
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Articles of Interest

South East Star - Award of Excellence

2/22/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
'The Lifestyle Magazine for the South East'
Online - Digital - Social

The online magazine has presented an Award of Excellence to Census Searches Ltd. for an 'outstanding level of service'.

A full page article has been written in the February 2021 edition from an interview with Lady Teviot.
Picture

In the Media
Read the Article
South East Star

0 Comments

Two New Talks for 2021

12/31/2020

0 Comments

 
In light of current headline news on the Covid-19 pandemic and with climate-change also high on the agenda, two new talks have been devised for 2021, both of which can be given on Zoom to history groups and other groups and societies around the country, and for that matter, anywhere in the world.  ​

Vaccines In The 19th Century

Picture
NEW TALK FOR 2021
Smallpox was the killer in the 19th century and many arguments raged against its merits causing considerable differences of opinions which is often still the case.

What's The Weather Like With You

Picture
NEW TALK FOR 2021
A look back through the centuries of weather conditions.

Book for Zoom gatherings
More about these topics

0 Comments

Changes in Genealogy

6/3/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
As former President of the Federation of Family History Societies for ten years and Vice-President of the same since 2011, it is my very great pleasure to have been invited, along with the present President, Dr Nick Barett, and the Vice-President, Dr Colin Chapman, to be in attendance at the future executive committee meetings of the same society, now renamed as the Family History Federation.
The nature of genealogy and family history has changed greatly in the last decade and our global hobby now faces unprecedented challenges.  I very much hope that my long professional career and three decades of speaking around  the world to promote the subject will be of great assistance in the assessing and planning future policies as genealogy moves steadily and decisively from a paper-based world to one of the internet and computer-based research facilities together with Facebook strategies.  The interest in DNA in finding relations and living kin is ever growing and again reaches worldwide.  I would suggest to everyone that in their searches they google everything they can think of and then that very high brick wall may be breached.  My other suggestion is for greater exchange of ideas and knowledge, and that joining a Family History Society is an excellent way of becoming more involved, making new friends and enjoying the events and talks that are given.

Family history worldwide >>
Find a Society near you >>

0 Comments

Current Genealogical Problems

4/5/2019

0 Comments

 

What do other people think?

Picture
When will the General Registrar for England and Wales follow Scotland’s People example who have the birth, marriage and death indices on line to 2019, whereas the GRO finishes around 2006. They are available on microfiche in some offices but there is nothing south of London which creates great inconvenience for researchers. It seems highly unlikely that we shall see any improvement. The almost certain reason is the government’s concern over personal privacy, an easy parallel being with the national probate index where the last few decades of entries have been stripped to the absolute minimum, sometimes not even giving enough detail to identify an individual.

Having been on a site where other researchers have done their family history, I was surprised to see that my great-grandfather was put down as having died in Marylebone in 1865 when in fact he died in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1856. This does illustrate the vital importance of getting birth, marriage and death certificates to ensure your assumption is correct. Never take anything for granted until it is proved twice, if not three times, from separate sources.

In the last two months I have been to four committee meetings where people were concerned as to how Family History Societies can attract new members. What do people want and how can we encourage them to join and see the benefits? As more and more records become available online so that you can sit in comfort at home or in the library, many people now do their research on Facebook and are not always aware of the other available sources. No comprehensive family tree can ever be compiled just from indexes and selected digitised material; vast amounts of unique source material can be found in every archive or local studies centre.​

0 Comments

Kent Family History Society

3/21/2019

0 Comments

 
"I was very pleased to be asked to speak at the Thanet Branch of the Kent Family History Society in Birchington last month. This was my fourth visit and it was good to see familiar faces as well as some new ones. The Society has always been welcoming and my talk on Hospitals-Their Records and where to find them elicited of plenty of questions. I look forward to returning for a fifth time."

Thanet Branch - Report for February
Picture
At our February meeting, Lady Mary Teviot spoke on 'Hospitals - their records and how to find them'.  She gave a brief history of hospitals and explained the different types of hospital which developed during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Among them, voluntary hospitals, founded through philanthropy, took patients nominated by subscribers and were quite particular as to the patients they admitted.  Asylums were open for the mentally ill and sanatoria isolated, and attempted to treat tuberculosis cases, whilst cottage hospitals were opened from the 1860s, Mary explained what records, including for patients and staff, were likely to survive and where they might be found (usually country records offices, but see the National Archives database).  As to how they might be accessed, whilst records are often closed for 100 years, applications by relatives, under the F.O.I. Act, could succeed.  She lightened the talk with some amusing examples of odd diagnoses and misbehaviour of patients and staff.

Birchington Parish Council Magazine
Spring 2019


More on this and on other topics
The Schedule of talks for 2019

0 Comments

Book Review by Federation of Family History Societies

10/4/2018

0 Comments

 

The Street-wise Guide to Doing Your Family History

by Lady Teviot
Picture
Over 50 years being a family historian and professional genealogist is explored in what is a very readable and highly informative book, published as one of a series of Street-wise guides by EER. 

The adjective ‘Streetwise’ according to one online dictionary means: ‘….having the shrewd awareness, experience, and resourcefulness needed for survival in a difficult, often dangerous urban environment….’ This book certainly lives up the first part of the definition- how to deal shrewdly and resourcefully with the problems encountered when carrying out family history research.

Lady Teviot is well known from her association with the FFHS – former President and now life Vice-President- and her lectures especially overseas. This book distils the wisdom and information contained in those talks.

The format is interesting. Part is in effect an autobiography, referring to her experiences and those of her husband, Lord Teviot, in their family history researches. Part is an explanation of sources, which are regularly used by family history researchers: parish registers, censuses, the parish chest. However, the bulk of the book concentrates on sources and facts which will be unknown to most of its readers. The Chapters on Underused Sources of Genealogical Research, as well as those on Medicines and Illnesses, Baby Farming, Workhouses, Lunatic Asylums and Hospitals are quite a revelation. 

In the chapter entitled ‘Sight Unseen’ the author gives a very good appraisal and overview of how Websites can assist the researcher, who uses the internet and a selection of Key Websites concludes the book. Almost worth buying for these chapters alone.
​
The book will appeal to researchers at all levels: everyone who reads it will learn something new and it will assist them to carry out their hobby in new directions. A first class read!

Reviewed by David Lambert, June 2018

Order your copy
Federation of Family History Societies

0 Comments

Mid Sussex Times - 10 May 2018

5/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Letter to the editor, page 26 'Opinion'

Mystery of baby Joy is solved

Thank you for publishing my letter last week about the mystery if bay Joy Dennett.

Lady Teviot, from Burgess Hills, who is an expert in such matters kind contacted me the day the paper came out and resolved my query.

For those who might be interested in the name of baby Joy was wrongly transcribed on records and should have read Ivy, born in 1910, so Joy never existed.
​
Whilst I am on the subject, if any family with Royal British Legion associations have any remembrance of my grandfather John Dennett's Boer War or First World War I would be grateful if thy could contact me ...

John Dennett, who died in 1943, was a former standard bearer for the Legion, but I am having difficulty tracing his movements in the two wars mentioned,

I am indebted to her (Lady Teviot) for her assistance.  I am also grateful to Middy reader Richard Webb for other information he provided about my family. 
PHIL DENNETT
Junction Road, Burgess Hill

More on Census Searches Ltd
Read more in Mid Sussex Times

0 Comments

New Publication

4/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Street-wise Guide to doing Your Family History

by Lady Teviot
"Lady Teviot has distilled over half a century's experience of family history research into this detailed yet highly approachable guide. Her style engages the reader from the outset, and succeeds in conveying a wealth of information through combining clearly-presented fact with details of her own genealogical journey, which has taken her from a beginner to a researcher with an international reputation. Every aspect of family history is covered, with hints and shortcuts which will smooth the beginner's path in what can be a treacherous field. And don't think this book is just for the inexperienced – I have been working with records for over 40 years and as well as enjoying some new family history anecdotes, learnt much about the record sources which some of us take for granted. You may not be a Street-wise genealogist when you embark on this book, but you certainly will be when you finish it."
Christopher Whittick, East Sussex County Archivist.
Published on 29th March 2018 by 
EER Edward Everett Root Publishers, Brighton, England.
​


Order Your copy
Read another review

0 Comments
Welcome
About
Census Searches Ltd
New Book
​​News & Updates
Talks & Public Speaking
Topics & Descriptions

More on the Topics
Schedule of Talks

Bookings Enquiry
Testimonials
TV & Media
Resources
Contact Us
​Privacy Policy
Picture

Spectral Mirror Web Design  |  Support Log In
​Copyright 2021 © All rights reserved
  • Welcome
  • The Talks
  • Events
  • Zoom
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Contact Us