September 2006 - AWIBC AGM

Looking back over the past was the order of the day at Andover Women in Business Club’s 14th Annual General Meeting this month, as recollections of the past committee year were then followed by a fascinating introductory talk about Genealogy.

Gathering for a buffet of traditional Italian food at Sambuca

New President Liz Scrace with Brenda Locke and outgoing President Tessa Makepeace

Restaurant in Andover, the meeting had a high turnout of members who listened attentively as Tessa Makepeace gave a review of her past year as President.

Tessa began by reporting that whilst membership is slightly down on last year, the quality of membership is as high as ever and still with the diversity essential for the continued success of the Club.  Following a Members’ Questionnaire members of the committee had been pleased to find that overall the Club is performing well. 

The 2005/06 year has seen the introduction of the electronic Newsletter, which has been well received by members and has resulted in considerable savings in printing and postage costs.

Citing speaker highlights of the year, Tessa had difficulty in picking the best, “There have been so many really great speakers over the past twelve months, it really is difficult to choose a favourite,” she said.
 
Members have also enjoyed a trip to HRH Prince Charles’ wonderful gardens at Highgrove and a visit to Amport House, near Andover. 

Thanking the Committee for their hard work and reflecting on the support and friendship she has received from the members over the past two years, Tessa and the remaining committee stood down and a formal election of officers was held.

Liz Scrace was duly elected President for 2006/07, Sandra Richardson as Treasurer and Rosie Anderson as Secretary.  Lesley Knight, Diana Parr and Larch Gauld also join the committee.

Tessa was thanked for her past work as President and the meeting continued with an enlightening talk from member Brenda Locke, recounting some of experiences she has had tracing her family tree.

Illustrating her talk with a visual presentation, Brenda explained how “Finding Nellie” had become such an important part of her life and how she had finally discovered much previously-unknown information about her maternal grandmother, Nellie G Vickery. 
Mystified by the lack of paternal name on her mother’s birth certificate, Brenda embarked on a journey to discover more about her grandmother and her life.  One clue led to another and soon Brenda traced an advertisement in an Oxfordshire newspaper showing that her infant mother had been given away at a railway station and was brought up by a family in Warwickshire.  It transpired her mother had endured a miserable childhood and a very hard life.  She was passed around the family as she got older and treated as a servant to earn her keep and never had a permanent home, until she finally met and married Brenda’s father.

Census records gave Brenda the opportunity to trace addresses and, with the now abundant support of many genealogy websites and email, she was soon in touch with relatives she had never known about.  Photographs and letters began to emerge and gradually the pieces of her grandmother’s life began to fit together. 

The talk was absorbing, with Brenda introducing members to ways of starting to research a family tree and giving advice about where to access information.  She looked at the wealth of information on birth and marriage certificates, census records, archive newspapers, letters and photographs.  Brenda recounted trips to graveyards, record offices and houses and shops.  The world wide web has opened up many avenues of research and there are now numerous methods for tracing a relative.

The main difficulties are deciding which branch to go down (because the further back you go, the more branches there are) and making sure you are on the right track by repeatedly checking details so as not to waste time on wrong information.  Keeping records in a good filing system is vital as over time the research builds up and it is important to be able to find documents for cross reference.

“Finding Nellie” was delightful, personal and exciting, with Brenda admitting to her excitement as she gradually pieced together her family’s story.  Members were enthralled and no doubt many were inspired to go home and begin researching their family tree