CATHEDRAL CONNECTIONS?

St Edmundsbury Cathedral celebrates it's centenary this year and to mark the occasion baptism entries from the former church of St James, between 1914 and 1918, have been placed on line.

A few of the families from that time who the Cathedral still have connections with are featured in their Centenary Treasury Exhibition and they hope others whose ancestors were baptised there will come forward with photos/memories, etc.

Details here
(added 8 Jul 2014)

LONG MELFORD WW1 DISPLAY

To mark the centenary of the start of the Great War, Long Melford's Heritage Centre is staging an impressive display featuring the lives of villagers who returned home as well as those who died.

Heritage Centre volunteers appealed for relatives of all those involved to come forward with information, photos and memorabilia. The display was put together by John Nunn (founder of the Heritage Centre), David Gevaux and Anne Grimshaw (pictured).

The Heritage Centre is open Wednesday 2-4, Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 12-4 until the end of October.

More details here
(added 8 Jul 2014)

MAGNA CARTA & BURY

It is believed the Barons of England met in the Abbey Church of Bury St Edmunds in 1214 and swore to force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties … more from local Solicitors Greene & Green and Magna Carta 800th Anniversary website.

WORLD WAR ONE

The BBC with partners IWM (Imperial War Museum) chose the Suffolk Show at Ipswich to launch their WW1 Live Events and members of SFHS were proud to be part of it.

Visitors were greeted and guided to a variety of attractions: Recruitment Office, Pals Activity Tent, Briefing Room, BBC's WW1 at Home and the IWM's Lives of the First World War research trailer.

There was also a chance to promote the Society and welcome new members and existing members alike.

Pictured are Judith Rye (Group Liason Trustee) & Geoffrey Dennish ('Roots' Editor) talking to newcomer Penny Power (left).

To see if the there's a WW1 At Home Event near you click here, or for more about the IWM project click here.
(added 2 June 2014)

NEW BAPTISM CD

We're pleased to announce the release of the latest CD in our Baptism Index Series:
Hartismere Deanery area 1754-1812* [BPI-010/P2]

This covers 31 Anglican parishes to the north of Stowmarket, from Bacton in the east to Wethingsett in the west and up to the Norfolk border. For a complete listing of all parishes covered see our Suffolk Parishes.

This time our thanks to all the members of the east of county team, including Co-ordinator Diane Kirby based, along with some colleagues, at the Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich. Work is already well underway on their next deanery area Hoxne which will further extend our coverage of parishes bordering Norfolk.
(added 17 May 2014)

SUFFOLK FHS WEBSITE

We've begun a series of changes to our website to make the site easier to use and keep updated and also to enable new features to be added.

Helping us to develop the site is a young Suffolk lad Matthew Ball whose credits you will now find on the Members Interest pages - the first of the changes.

Matthew is assisted by our webmaster, David Talmage. David created our website over 10 years ago and the shop four years ago. These are now showing their age and Matthew is modernising the site. Matthew and David are pictured at a recent meeting, to discuss plans for our new Shop - so watch these pages!
(added 27 March 2014)

SOCIETIES DAY

Suffolk Local History Council recently held their annual gathering of L/H Societies and their members at Elmswell. A wide range of interesting talks were staged together with a number of displays.

SFHS were represented by Jan Harger, Chairman of Bury Group, who was pleased to welcome new member Jill Scarff. (pictured left).

Jill is the Local History Recorder for Combs and the SLHC, which runs the Scheme, is having a recruitment drive. If you are interested contact Secretary, Janette Scarborough by Email

(added 27 March 2014)

WDYTYA? LIVE 2014

Another successful Fair was held at London Olympia with lots of faces, new and familiar, greeted over the three days on the SFHS Stand.

Helping stalwarts Arthur Bird and David Daldry this year, and very much appreciated too, was member Jean Parkinson.

Details of future fairs to be attended by SFHS can be found on our 'Come and Meet Us' page.
(added 27 March 2014)

SUFFOLK SURNAMES

Charlie Haylock drew a large audience to the Bury Group meeting who were kept amused during his talk on Surnames by his Suffolk wit & charm and all delivered in a Suffolk dialect!

If you couldn't make it there's a glimpse of what you missed on his website http://charliehaylock.com/
(added 14 Feb 2014)

OPEN DAY SUCCESS

Haverhill Group's Open Day was an overwhelming success with many new faces drawn to the free event held at the library. Professional Family Historian Dr Karen Cummings along with group members were busy all day helping both those just starting their F/H and others 'stuck' at that 'brick wall'.

Help Sessions are also held every Wed 2-4pm at the library. Phone 01440 702638 to book your place.
(added 14 Feb 2014)

NEW BAPTISM CD

We're pleased to announce the release of the latest CD in our Baptism Index Series:

Blackbourn Deanery area 1754-1812* [BPI-08/P2]
This covers 34 Anglican parishes from West Stow, north of Bury St Edmunds, to Elmswell, north of Stowmarket, and up to the Norfolk border.

Our thanks to all the members of the west of county team, including (pictured centre) Co-ordinator Christine Palmer and colleagues at work in the Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, on their next deanery area - Fordham!

(added 10 Jan 2014)

SUFFOLK ROOTS - EDITOR DESIGNATE

I am pleased to announce that following my recent request for editorial assistance after Trish Marshall and Adrian Pye relinquish their posts with the June 2014 edition of Suffolk Roots, Geoffrey Dennish has agreed to take on the role of Editor.

At a recent Group Coordinating Meeting Adrian (left) symbolically handed to Geoffrey a copy of the latest edition of the journal.

I would like to thank Trish, Adrian and the rest of the editorial team for producing a journal we can all be proud of.
(added 2 Jan 2014)

LATEST MARRIAGES CD

We're pleased to announce our Marriage Index CD covering Dunwich and Lothingland Deanery areas from 1754 to 1812 is now available.

For a complete listing of all the parishes see Suffolk Parishes

This CD completes the transcribing of all Suffolk Marriages for 1754-1837 and is a milestone for the dedicated work of our Marriage Index Co-ordinator Pamela Palgrave (pictured with the new CD) and her small team of helpers who should be justly proud of their achievement.

Work is already progressing on the final phase, 1538 to 1753, and if you're willing to help at one of the Suffolk Record Offices with these difficult to read early registers do please contact Pamela.
(added 20 Nov 2013)

ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR

Our 2013 Fair was a great success and our thanks to all those involved including our many visitors from near and far.

The main hall was filled with stalls, including our own, manned by David Daldry (Fair Organiser) & Arthur Bird, pictured.

The free Talks were also popular as was the Research Room, run by members of the Society, including Sheila Piper, pictured left.

Next year's Fair will be held on Sat 11 Oct at the University College Suffolk, Ipswich and we hope to see you there.
(added 5 Nov 2013)

NEW BURIAL INDEX CO-ORDINATOR

The Society is pleased to announce that one of its members, and long-time helper with the Baptism Index, Mrs Yvonne Hesketh, has kindly offered to help complete the work on this important project.

Since all the earlier excellent good work by Ron Mitson, and his successor Ron Greenslade, several registers have now been deposited at Suffolk Record Offices containing entries that were not previously available on microfiche.

Yvonne is pictured at Bury Record Office, with Trustee Arthur Bird, working on the first part of this final stage of the project to record entries for all burial places up to 1900.

Yvonne can be contacted at Email or by post (see Contact Us).
(added 21 Aug 2013)

PAYMENT BY CHEQUE

The Society has decided to abolish the remaining surcharge of a £1 on payment by cheque for publications.

This is with immediate effect and coincides with the release of our latest Baptism Index CD featured below.
(added 11 Jul 2013)

SUFFOLK ANCESTORS?

All visitors to the site may search our Members Interests database to see if they can make contact with one of our members who shares their interest.
Members are encouraged to update their interests.
(added 27 Aug 2012)

REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS ON-LINE

19th Century Regional British newspapers have been added to the Online Reference Services offered by Suffolk Library and other libraries across the country.

Each paper is complete, fully digitised and searchable either by key words or dates.

Titles include:
Bury and Norwich Post (Jan 7 1801 - Dec 25 1900)
Ipswich Journal (Jan 4 1800 - Dec 29 1900)
Other titles cover England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales so try searching for news of your Suffolk ancestors, some of whom may have moved elsewhere.

You can access these top quality subscription services for FREE from a computer in any Suffolk library or record office or from any other computer with your Suffolk Library Card.

Ancestry and Find My Past are also available but only at a Suffolk library or record office also other counties.
(added 3 Sept 2012)