Viva Brighton Issue #58 December 2017

LOWDOWN ON...
...........................................
Family History
The truth is out there
Are you thinking about delving into your family
history? The ideal way to start this, I’m told by
Mick Henry, chair of the Sussex Family History
Group, is to ask older relatives about the past. If
they are happy to talk about it, you might encourage
reminiscences about their lives, the relationships between
family members (this might not be unbiased
information of course!) and who is who in photos.
Plus talking about objects can be interesting. A
clock, war medals, a notebook with family recipes
in it. After my grandfather died, I discovered he’d
kept a notebook with a record (weight and value) of
every vegetable he ever grew on his allotment, so
he knew how much money he’d saved. There was
also a stash of ‘Chaplin Green’ paint he used for
everything, that seems to have been acquired when
he was in the Home Guard, but perhaps the less
said about that the better.
Discovering your own family narrative can be a
wonderful, rewarding activity, and you can pass
what you discover on to future generations. But,
from my own experiences, families are often
complicated, and what we’ve been told isn’t always
the whole picture. Marriage and birth certificates
occasionally have dates and details altered to cover
pre-marital births, for example, or the true name
of a baby’s father. When we’re finding information
from an era when unmarried mothers were outcasts
and reliable contraception all but non-existent,
we need to remember that a significant number
of babies, especially illegitimate ones, were given
away. Some were handed over to childless couples,
or another family member. Some were abandoned.
There are many poignant stories of foundlings. And
even if the names and dates we find are correct,
they don’t tell you everything. They can provide
evidence of why things might have happened… but
be alert for buried secrets and potential emotional
hand grenades. Because when you know something,
you can’t un-know it. And you may discover that not
everyone will want to learn ‘the truth’.
Those caveats notwithstanding, Brighton has
two superb resources to help with family history
searches. The Keep, near Falmer, houses a worldclass
archive, and offers regular interesting talks
and surgeries. Also based there is the Sussex Family
History Group, a charity founded in 1972. It has
its own library at The Keep, run by around 20
volunteers who help people with family history. It
offers members (£15 per year) access to the Sussex
marriage index from 1550-1837, and it has nearly
finished transcribing baptisms and burials from East
and West Sussex for the same period. It also holds
many Sussex wills. Many of its records are now
digitalised or indexed. Emma Chaplin
The Keep, open Tues-Sat. For information about
surgeries, talks and services, see thekeep.info
The Sussex Family History Group (which is looking
for new volunteers) is usually available to consult
Tues-Fri, 10am-4pm. sfhg.org.uk
Photo by Lizzie Lower
....85....