By Tony Storey
I am pleased to welcome new member George Sewell, whose family seems rooted in the North of England. There are events in Newcastle, Sunderland, South Shields, Penrith and Durham and with a little more research we hope to make a link with some of the Cumberland Sewells on our records.
By coincidence we also had an enquiry about an engineer who founded a significant engineering business in New Zealand in the 1860s. John Sewell was born in Unthank, Cumberland, not very far from Penrith.
John married in Maidstone, Kent, in 1862 and had two children before he left for the other side of the world. In 1867 his wife took their children and sailed from Gravesend, Kent, to Port Philip, Victoria, a voyage of 140 days in order to join him.
I believe the Sewells are making steady progress and a further piece of good news is that Dr Nigel Sewell has volunteered to handle any enquiries from Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Northants and possibly a few more counties if all goes well. As before, all enquiries can still be sent to my address in the first instance and I’ll pass them on as appropriate.
Programmes like Long Lost Family and Who Do You Think You Are are currently being screened, which traditionally leads to more enquiries for us. If you think you might like to help, perhaps beginning with your own county of origin, please get in touch.