PO Box 214, Bedford MK42 9RX
http://www.bfhs.org.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BedfordshireFamilyHistorySociety/
Patron: Dr Colin R Chapman MA, CEng, CSci, CChem, FEI, FNucI, FRSC, FRSH, FSG
President: Pamela Birch
Registered Charity Number 281677

NEWS

For details of our Next Meeting please click here

https://www.facebook.com/BedfordshireFamilyHistorySociety/

Coronavirus

Please be advised that as Mark Rutherford School has cancelled all lettings from today until at least after Easter, our next members’ meeting on 27th March 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
Please check this web site again with regard to any update on the meeting 1st May 2020

BFHS Website

Looking at the latest information? Make sure to refresh or reload this page for the latest information. To navigate click on the links on the black bar above. The middle ones will drop down and revel other links. The BFHS logo will go back to this page.

Family Tree Live 2020

We’re pleased to announce that for the second year running Bedfordshire Family History Society will be attending Family Tree Live 2020 at Alexandra Palace on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th April and we hope you’ll be able to attend and visit us on our stand. Please click on the link below for further information and tickets:
https://www.family-tree.co.uk/information/family-tree-live

Update on Members Portal - February 2020

Video of the talk presented at our members’ meetings

Good news, we are improving our service to Members, particularly for Members who are unable to attend the talks presented at our monthly meetings.
To bring the value of our talks to our wider audience we have made a start with recording the January and February meetings. The videos may be viewed by following the link in the Members Portal. The video of the January meeting presents a talk by Mrs Margaret Butt entitled ‘Convict in the Family: Hanging or Transportation’. The February meeting was Sister Hazel telling us about St Ethelreda’s Home in Bedford.
Both videos will be available for viewing up to the end of March but keep checking as more meeting videos will be added as they become available.

NB: We were not granted permission to record the meeting on March 6th.

Journals from other Societies

We continue to add new society journals each month. We now have 26 societies in all with some 120 journals. We have also added our own journals starting with Vol. 20: March 2015 up to December 2019. The later now has colour photos in the pdf which is not possible in the printed version due to cost. We would remind you that Vol. 1 to 19 are available on CD.

Lending Library listing (pdf)

This is the list of all the books we hold in our lending library which is available at our monthly meetings.

Clapham Church Memorial Inscriptions

Memorial Inscriptions from the graveyard of St Thomas Becket Church, Clapham, Bedford

Mary Phillips Clophill Archive

Mary Phillips wrote a history of Clophill, Bedfordshire and did a great deal of research into other Bedfordshire villages in the vicinity of Clophill. After her death her son found a huge collection of notes she had made on this subject, wills, baptisms, property sales etc. They are handwritten on scraps of card. Rather than destroy the papers he has donated them to the Society and we are digitising them with the aim of gradually putting them on the BFHS members portal.

Funeral Directors Records (updated)

We continue to work on indexing the Funeral Directors Records for Bedfordshire. To date we have completed two ledgers of T & E Neville Ltd. They are January 1905 to December 1909. We are pleased that we have been able to add images of both the ledgers. The originals may be viewed in the Bedfordshire Records Office. There references are X843/16/1 and X843/16/2. You can also view the 20 other ledger which go up to 1955. We are now working on X843/16/3 January 1910 to December 1913.

If you are a member and have not had a look at our members only page then go to the Members Portal button and fill in the request form. A username and password will be sent to you. You will require your membership number and email address.
If you are not a member but think you may enjoy the journals or find the Funeral Directors Records of interest or have a look at the other items then why not join us, To do this click on ‘Society Information/Membership

GDPR - June 2018

DATA PROTECTION POLICY Please click here

Meeting Room arrangements for Members' Meetings at Mark Rutherford

The society holds monthly Members' Meetings (except in August), usually on the first Friday of the month, at Mark Rutherford School, Bedford MK41 8PX. The meetings are held in the Drama Theatre (turn right as you enter the school gate). The Drama Theatre has tiered seating which gives us ample seating in pleasant surroundings. Our Bookstall and Library are available at members' meetings. The Bookstall carries our own publications, our Parish CDs and a range of second hand books for you to purchase and the Library contains books and other material for members to borrow. Tea and coffee are served at the end of the meeting. Please follow the link, Future Meetings and Events for a list of our Members' Meeting dates.

Postal & Online Shops

For details of Books, CDs and additional goods concerning the county of Bedfordshire available from BFHS please click on ‘Society Information’ then ‘Bookstall’ and ‘Publications’ To order - use the order forms in our Publications List. Alternatively you can order through the online bookshop Genfair.

Brian Payne