CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

THE ANNUAL GATHERING

by Ian Sewell

 This article was originally published in the December 2007 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

Our AGM was held on the 21st October at Bamber Bridge, Preston.

Although we had intended to repeat our meeting in Leeds we were unable to find a suitable venue and so had to cross the Pennines. The number of attendees was only 23, but we nevertheless had a very good time together.

Our speaker was Peter Park, who is known to us from previous meetings. He gave a presentation on urban migration into Liverpool from Cumbria. Though specific to Liverpool, it could have applied to just about any of the major towns in the country, which of course meant that it applied to just about everyone’s ancestors.

The lunch provided was very good and the name groups spent many hours in happy conversation. As expected the Sauls were well represented and we also had a Solley member, far away from their Kent homeland. We were particularly pleased to welcome Donna Clark, one of our Sewell members from Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. The AGM was held in the afternoon with various committee members providing details to the members

At the last committee meeting we discussed possible locations for next year’s meetings. For our April meeting we are hoping to hold it around the Warwick/Leamington Spa area and in October our AGM will be held in the Windsor/Maidenhead area. Of course these are all provisional and dependant on us finding suitable locations, the search for which is already underway. When we have further details on them we will let you know.

If you know of any suitable places then please let us know, also if you have any comments on our meetings in general.

Saul members get together to discuss their research

Diana Kennedy talks to Donna Clark & Phil Nendick about their Sewell research

Members listen to the AGM

We were pleased to see Martin & Sandra Stone who joined the society this year and are researching their Solley ancestors