Counties: Buckinghamshire and Derbyshire

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: Religion in England and their effects on families throughout the centuries as well as what resources are available.

We are very pleased to announce that Jenny Joyce will be giving us a talk on "The History of Non-Conformism in England".

Protestant non-conformism refers to protestant religions which differ from the established religion. In the case of England, that is the Church of England. Over the centuries many different denominations have evolved, ranging from Anabaptists, Peculiar Baptists, Quakers, Wesleyan Methodists and many, many more. Each of these has slightly different beliefs and structures, and understanding the background to and the beliefs of this multitude of non-conformist churches can give us an insight into our ancestors' lives. Even if our ancestors were strict members of the Church of England, they will have had contact with non-conformists. Learning what records the various denominations kept can give us a new lead for our research, or prevent us looking for records that never existed in the first place.

Jenny has been researching her family history for more than 40 years and has a deep interest in medieval English history and genealogy. Jenny is the founder and owner of Cite-Builder, the Citation Generator for Genealogists.

Annesley Watson will present a Case Study from her research which will show how different religions affected families and the attitudes adopted by staunch members of the Church of England towards Catholics in the 1840s.

Kerry Farmer will talk about what resources are available if you have an interest in the Anglican Church and Clergy from the mid 1800's and how this information may further extend your research.

If you have a resource that you have found which you think may be of interest to other researchers along the lines of the church and the records (pre and/or post Civil Registration) perhaps you could email us with that information prior to the meeting and it can be consolidated into a handout - email diana.pec25@yahoo.com

As a background to this meeting, we would suggest you watch a short 10 minute YouTube video entitled How Was the Church of England Established  Please disregard the American accent! The content and explanation is concise and easy to follow.

Skill level: All

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