Reading Branch meeting 29th October 2020, conducted on Zoom Speaker: Members - Peter Caton, Richard Brown, Richard Croker and Graham Vockins Peter Caton chose a 200 year old jug which had been handed down through the family from an Aunt Emily. He had researched documents which involved not one but three marriages by one ancestor. He again reestablished links to the entertainer Wattie Hildyard of whom Peter had previously spoken.  Richard Brown told members of his Grandmother's WW1 Medal. Emily Brown was born in the Parish where Charles Kingsley was a Minister in 1869. Through various links with Thorneycroft engineering. the London General Omnibus company and the College Arms pub in Pamber End. Emily joined the V.A.D. as a Nurse in 1915 and  clocked up 3457 hours of unpaid voluntary service. Richard Croker spoke of Lorne Campbell Reid, the Stepfather of his mother and his piece of memorabilia was a small wooden box engraved JC to Lorne Reid. Via the internet he managed…

Reading Branch meeting 24th September 2020, conducted via Zoom Speaker: Margaret Crook Margaret explained that her research into her husband’s family tree started before the internet and the computers had become the tool of choice it is today. From a family bible handed down by her father-in-law dated 1896 it gave her a start into the Crook dynasty. Margaret’s started collecting names of Crooks from the Berkshire Record Office, at that time in Shire Hall, checking parish records of churches in Wallingford, Cholsey, Britwell Salome etc. She adopted the method of collecting all names and references to relationships in the records to build seven Crook families and from there make the connections between them using probate and wills. She purchased the 1881 census on 25 C.D’s in 1998. Margaret had developed flesh on the bones by using newspaper archives particularly the Abingdon Herald. With the coming of the internet she made contact with an Australian historian who had a relative who had been…