FHSC Survey
As you may already have read in previous newsletters, FHSC are conducting a long overdue review of all the activities of the Society. The need for this review has been somewhat reinforced by the advent of Zoom based meetings; allowing many more of our members, especially those outside of Cheshire, and indeed the UK, to participate regularly in the activities of the Society.
Your feedback is crucial to ensuring that the services we offer suit the needs of all our members. Therefore, we are inviting you to participate in our survey. Your responses matter, they impact our decision making by allowing us to tailor our services to try and align with members expectations which will play a vital role in shaping the future of FHSC.
The Survey is now OPEN and will close at midnight on 15th December. On the FHSC website you will find a new button called Surveys, as shown in the illustration below
Just click on that button and then on - FHSC Survey 2023. It should only take about 10 minutes to complete this anonymous survey and once you have answered the questions button, there is a chance for you to opt into our Prize Draw, details of which are shown after you press the ‘Finish’ button.
The results and analysis will be posted on the website and published in the Cheshire Ancestor in due course.
Thank you in advance, we appreciate your time and commitment to making FHSC even better!
Runcorn Group: Research Workshop
Bring along your laptops, tablets and family history brickwalls for an evening of research
Northwich Group: World Famous Hotpot Supper and Quiz
Bebington Group: Christmas Social and Quiz
Come and join us for some Christmas joviality, some light refreshments and our annual quiz!
Crewe and Nantwich Groups Grave Concerns: More than a Resting Place - Jackie Depelle
This will be a Hybrid Meeting. The zoom talk preceded by F2F Christmas Get together at The Wishing Well
This F2F social aspect of this meeting will start at 6pm, where you are welcome to join us for some Christmas fare, share research discoveries and maybe take part in some Family History activities!
An admission charge will apply for the Face2Face part of this meeting
This will be followed at 7.30pm by the talk below on Zoom, which will be broadcast into the room via our large screen
Grave Concerns: More than a Resting Place - Jackie Depelle
Burial records, gravestones and memorial inscriptions are all key elements of Family & Local History. Perhaps laying an ancestor to rest closes down the family line but there is much more associated information to uncover and research.
Please email if you wish to express an interest in joining the meeting via zoom. Please use 12th. Dec zoom in the subject line of the email
Sale Group: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year Celebrations An Open Forum led by Sylvia Dillon
Come along and tell us about your family's festive celebrations from the past. Nativity plays, carol singing, concerts, pantomimes, festive food, family entertainments and party games. Please bring any photographs, concert programmes etc.
Also enjoy a cup of tea and a mince pie.
FHSC Seminars: Keeping Mum: Maternity Narratives and Your Family History by Dr Sophie Kay
How well do you really know your female forebears? The women in our family tree can sometimes elude us if they make fewer detailed appearances in the historical record. Yet if we’re willing to pay attention to the reproductive history of those female ancestors, it can offer the key to understanding the wider family unit. In this session, we’ll explore some key record sets we can use to understand the reproductive lives of our female ancestors. We’ll address the sensitive subjects of pregnancy loss and stillbirth, see how – and when – these were recorded over time, and explore how parents responded to such losses in centuries past. We’ll also show you how to use maternity timelines in your research, a fantastic method for examining the lives of the women in your family tree. We’ll see how maternity timelines can transform your understanding of family groups, lead you to new record sets, overcome brick walls, and – perhaps most importantly of all – restore the stories of the women who forged your family.
This event is for members only and registration is required. Registration for this talk opens on 1st Dec, when the 'Register [Individual]' button will show on the left for you to click on, you will receive an email confirmation. Registration closed on the 18th Dec.
The zoom links/meeting protocol will be forwarded the day before the talk. If you run into any difficulties with this, then please contact us on the dedicated seminar email address – or see the 'Seminar Talks and how to Register' section under 'Online Talks and Meetings' in the FAQ section of the website.
The Seminar series is co-ordinated by Margaret Spate, Jean Laidlaw and Margaret Roberts and ALL correspondence, queries etc should be sent to the dedicated email address -
PLEASE NOTE: WE DO NOT RECORD SEMINAR TALKS
Cheshire Research Buddies: Middlewich
The December FHSC Cheshire Research Buddies topic of the month is Middlewich - Do you have ancestors in the town, or are you researching a local family and want some help, perhaps on the other hand you live in the locality and could offer help with photographing gravestones or buildings. This is the chance for members to help each other, I'm sure there are many members out there with knowledge of the area that they could share. If you have a research question then please feel free to email me on and I will circulate it amoung attendees beforehand.
You will need to register to attend, to do so please click on the 'Register [Individual]' button below on the left, you will receive an email confirmation and the zoom links/meeting protocol will be forwarded 2 days prior to the helpdesk meeting. If you run into any difficulties with this then please contact Margaret Roberts on .
NOTE that registration closes at 10am on the morning of the meeting.
Sale Group: Poynton Collieries by David Kitching
Poynton is a town in Cheshire 7 miles north of Macclesfield, 5 miles south of Stockport, and 11 miles south-east of Manchester. Nowadays Poynton is also known as a commuter town but it has an industrial heritage. Coal had been mined here since the 16th century and later, the Poynton collieries were in operation until the mid-1930s.
David Kitching has studied in detail in the industrial archaeology of the coalfield, its pits, its owners & workers, machinery, the colliery railways and links to the main lines and canals
