IN April, Frome’s Family History Group (FFHG) welcomed archivist for Somerset Heritage Centre, Jane de Gruchy, to help them with researching house history.
Somerset Heritage Centre is based in Taunton and holds records for the whole of Somerset and Devon. They are also responsible for the County Museum Service, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury, and the Somerset Historic Environment among others. The Somerset Heritage Centre holds over 5million records.
Member of FFHG, Christine Featherstone said, “Jane began with an insight into the pitfalls of house history which she said can be frustrating but very rewarding. It is very often not possible to find an exact date when a property was built as not all records have survived and early maps are not always accurate.
“It was suggested that we start with talking to neighbours who may have lived in the area for a long time, search for deeds, visit the Land Registry site and local studies libraries. We have two in Frome, the town library and the Frome Heritage Museum library.
“Another excellent source that Jane suggested is the Know Your Place website. www.kypwest.org.uk/ , Jane also suggested the National Library of Scotland website for old maps https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch
“She went on to cover different types of maps, including tithe maps, estate maps and enclosure maps as well as more familiar sources to family historians such as the census and parish records. Finally, Jane covered sales particulars, architects plans and even Rightmove!
“Sue Simpson thanked our speaker for an excellent and informative talk and reminded us that the next event is on Tuesday 30th May when Miranda Pender will entertain us with a musical talk about the darkly comical aspects of researching your family history.”
