Counties: Hampshire and Dorset

As usual, these short county presentations provide some general information about the county including the flag, its history and any flag or county day which is celebrated. Presenters should include a relevant and useful selection of sources (not expected to be exhaustive) that may be available for family history research in the county being presented.

Topics: Social and political issues that may have affected your ancestors in England.

We will look at a few of the political and social reforms in England which had a major effect on the lives of the population and may have led to families moving or migrating from their traditional home town or county.

We will look at:

• Enclosure Laws of 1773 - where traditional common land held in an open field system was 'enclosed' which ended people's rights to access this land
• Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in Manchester which was a pro-democracy meeting
• Tolpuddle Martyrs of 1834 Dorset - birth of trade unionism for agricultural labourers
• Truck Acts of the 19th Century and the decline of the Tommy Shop System
• Divorce Laws during the 19th Century which contributed to female equality in marriage

We would welcome your input into any other political or social reform your family may have been affected by. There is no need to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, unless you want to! You can just talk to the group.

If we have time, we will open up to a general Q&A session where we ask everyone attending to help other researchers by giving suggestions or guidance if you are able to assist.

This will be a very collaborative, friendly and fun meeting with participation from attendees.

Convenors: Diana Pecar, Linda Radulovitch and Annesley Watson

Skill level: All

This meeting will be recorded so you can join live or watch the recording later.