Letter from the Editor

Dear Cousins,

Welcome to the 25th year of the Blencowe Families' Association and may it continue to grow for another 25 years.

The highlight of this year will no doubt be the reunion to be held in Blencow, the village where it all began many centuries ago. For many of us this will present the only time that we will ever have a chance to see inside Blencow Hall. Our family members both young and old will still continue to visit the village but taking a few photos will be the best they can do. Take the opportunity and use the enclosed booking form and join us in Blencow. If time is short select an event and spend the time exploring the immediate area. Money is due now.

No one has shown an interest in taking over my job as editor — I live in hope. Meanwhile, I will desperately need help in the form of articles for the next two issues. The May issue will need to be completed by mid April and the August one could be quite late. I like to have a collection of articles to use but these have run low. I will not have the time until much later in the year to do the research that often goes into the things I write about.

Please think about what you enjoy most in the newsletter and consider contributing a similar entry yourself. They say "variety is the spice of life", so I wait in anticipation. People without a computer can send handwritten work to Peter, Walter or myself; our contact details are on the back page.

With the cold in the north and heat in the south over the Christmas Season, I think our members spent the time indoors searching online newspapers. Much of this issue has arisen from their finds. Such sites offer interesting glimpses into the lives of past family members. The 1907 paper report on the diamond wedding of my g.g.grandparents, George & Ellen Blencowe included an interview on their coming to Australia as children in 1830, the 13 children they had with only 4 outliving them plus many other interesting facts. However, if you have lost an ancestor through tragic circumstances be warned that the graphic language can be quite disturbing, especially when reporting on inquests.

Good sites are: British Newspapers 1800-1900 http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/
NLA Australian Newspapers 1803-1954 free http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
Google News Archive search http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=
Happy browsing!

Anne Burton
Australia
February 2010
editor @ blencowefamilies.com