Have you ever considered how much you know about your family that a distant cousin might not?
Or what he or she may know, that you don't?
- They may have family heirlooms
- Photographs
- Stories to tell
- Scrapbooks
- School certificates
- Family bibles
- War time memorabilia
- Birth, marriage or death certificates
- Family stories
- and so on and so on . . . . . . . . . . .
These are things that they treasure and you may as well -- if -- you take a little time to share.
The internet is an absolutely enormous resource and it is "spidered" daily by dozens if not hundreds of "web-bots", indexing everything they can find. If they come across some of your family history notes, like a transcript from a page of your family bible, or the date of birth of a great-great uncle, then they will index that.
Now, let's say you have an ancestor named George PROBERT who married Jane Ann MENNELL, and you have this information on a web page somewhere on the World Wide Web.
If someone else is looking for a George PROBERT using Google, then your page will appear in their results. If they know that "their" George was married to a Jane, then they will look at your page. This may be a distant cousin of yours.
Try it
Type in "George PROBERT" and "Jane" into Google or another search engine.
What do you find?!
Have you thought about sending us anything about any of your interests?
Look below at the various ways you can share, and send me an E-mail!
Sharing Your Interests
Here are a number of ways you can share your interests in this area by contributing to this site:
If you have any other thoughts, please contact me with them.
- Your Family History: your family history online - not as difficult as it may seem!
- Surnames List: with dates and villages of interest in the area
- Notes & Queries: to add more detail to the surnames you are researching
- Memorials: church yard memorials, war memorials, obituaries, death notices etc
- Family Bibles: any family bible - it does not have to be related to Banburyshire
- Memories & Reminiscences: if you don't write your memories down, who will?! These memories do not have to be specifically related to the Banbury area.
- Villages and Towns: photographs and specific village interests
- Personal Web Sites: links to individual family history websites
- Books and Book Reviews: some local books as well as family history background reading
- Photographs and Images: people, clothes, celebrations etc.
- And please change your details as you learn more, find more families and find more questions!
Your Family History
Would you like to include more information about your research and your own family history than is possible with a standard surname list and brief list of queries?
We would like to encourage those of you who would like to put your own
family history out on the web to contact us.
The only constraint is that it is related to Banburyshire.
- Maybe you have a story about one single family, or a single family group or individual
- Maybe a family photograph
- Maybe a story about one particular source you have used
- Or a descent or line chart or a family tree
- Sorry, but no Gedcoms or PDF files
Have a look here to see some different family histories and individual portraits already contributed
So . . .
If you would like to put some of your family history online, please contact us at Banburyshire to discuss what we may be able to do.
See also Changing Your Information below
Surnames List and More
If you wish to have the surnames of the ancestors you are researching in Banburyshire added to this list, please send your interests in the following format to Banburyshire
- SURNAME : please write just the surname in CAPITALS
- A date or dates, century, before, after, about . . .
- Village/s and/or Parish/es and County
- Please use these abbreviations for the counties:
Northamptonshire=NTH; Oxfordshire=OXF; Warwickshire=WAR
- Please use these abbreviations for the counties:
- Your contact name
- Your full name, a name you like to be known by, or just a first name will do
- Your email address
- A general locality would also be appreciated, e.g. Auckland, New Zealand
- If you have a website that includes genealogical, historical or other information about Banburyshire, please also send your personal webpage URL and see below for further details.
- Notes & Queries about your surnames
- Put Your Family History on the Web
Notes & Queries
If you wish to add further details about your ancestral family, where you can expand your research problems, there is a separate page for this, which will be linked to your surname interests.
Please send them in plain text with your surname details to Banburyshire.
Try and keep to one or two surname at a time: it makes it easier for others to find.
Have a look at Notes & Queries to see some of the types of format already used. But if you have another idea - let me know!
If you have other interesting notes about the area, please also send them: we can always create a new page!
Submissions may be edited if they are too vague - or at our discretion!
Family Bibles
I am quite happy to add details from any family bible - it does not have to be related to Banburyshire.
Please send a transcript of the entries and any other information you would like to include such as details of the family mentioned in the bible. Screen readers and search engines such as Google cannot "read" text on images and photos so text is needed.
You can also send photographs or scans of the pages within the bible or even a photograph of the bible itself. Please send large images - then I can edit them down to fit the page
And include your contact name and email address. I do add brackets around the email addresses on the site - it seems to stop spam bots from picking up these addresses.
Have a look at the bibles we
Memories & Reminiscences
"Somehow it is good to fill in the gaps of what it was like in the 'olden days' as my grandchildren ask from time to time, and hear other people's experiences, for believe it or not none of us will be here forever, so make a note of that."
We have collected a large and varied selection of memories and reminiscence. You don't have to write much, nor do you need to worry about your English --- your memories of your childhood and youth are already history, and if you don't write them down, who will?
These memories do not have to be specifically related to the Banbury area.
During December we have a seasonal selection of memories, including poems, recipes and reminiscences -- if you have something you'd like to share, email me, Rosemary --- at anytime of the year.
If you have an idea, or have written something you would like to post on this site, just send me an email, and I'll encourage you!
The treasure trove of stories is here - read a few and come back again and again - share and enjoy!
Village Interests
- Do you have a particular interest in any village in the area?
- Have you lived there?
- Do you live there?
- Do you have any photographs?
- Or memories?
- Or family history?
Most of us have never been to Banburyshire, so anything you can offer about
specific places you know or have been to, would be really welcome.
Send it to us at Banburyshire
The index to our collection of Village Interests is here.
Memorials
Church yards, cemeteries, grave stones, plaques, war memorials . . .
Obituaries, death notices, funeral cards and so on . . .
These are all extremely useful for family historians, and photographs in particular are worth a thousand words. So if you have any information or photos of any type of memorial, even one headstone, we would be glad to put it on this site. Someone round the other side of the world may treasure what you have!
The index to our collection of Memorials is here.
War memorials
There is also a special section for war memorials.
In November, many of us take time to remember those who fought and died in war: Remembrance Day, Veterans' Day, Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Remembrance Sunday.
If any of you would like to add a name of a family member to our Remembrance Page, please send me, Rosemary, the details. It is not restricted to families from the Banbury area.
Books and Book Reviews
Here is a collection of books that could be useful in one way or another for family historians.
Some are quite personal: "Before I Forget", edited by our own Ian Huckin: which contain stories written by members of the Banburyshire Mailing List of their own experiences. Many others of these short recollections are published here in the section called Memories and Reminiscences. --- You could add yours at anytime.
Or they may be books that help us understand the way of life of our forbearers, such as "Lifting the Latch" or "Cider with Roses".
Any contributions you may like to make will be gratefully received. Have a look at some of the other reviews we have already put online, and then have a go yourself. If you are in any doubt about anything, just drop me a line: Rosemary, with your ideas.
The index to Books and Reviews is here.
Photographs
There are two completely different types of photographs here.
The first is photographs and images of anything to do with Banburyshire: churches, villages, buildings, history, people - your ancestors, group photographs from weddings, clubs, bands, parties, school, outings, work etc. etc.
But please -- these must be your photographs -- not pictures you've found on the internet!
The second can be described as Portraits or Mug-Shots, (depending on your point of view), of friends and members of the Banburyshire Area mailing list
Consider donating a snap: it is purely voluntary!
It can be of you at any time, and undated if you prefer ;-))
Photographs of the famous, not-so-famous and infamous!
Personal Web Sites
Add a link to your own family history website that includes genealogical, historical, photographical or other information about Banburyshire. We would also like to include a review of it, particularly in relation to Banburyshire families, villages and life.
Send it to me at Banburyshire
We would welcome any feedback about how we can improve this site for the benefit of all who are interested in this area.
Changing Your Information
Please keep any information you have submitted to this site up-to-date.
There's nothing more frustrating than finding a possible contact, only to have your email bounce back.
All you need to do is write to me - Rosemary - and I will change your details
If you try and contact another researcher and their email bounces, please let me know.
This site is designed for sharing - so share what you have - you never know who might find it - it might be just the person who can break down your brickwall!