Where to begin. Firstly if you are a follower of our Facebook page or you check the stats information on the home page of the website you will notice that we have been uploading lots of new and updated items to the website over the past few months. This is due to a few factors one of which is that my health has been good and am able to recognise when I need to shut off for a few hours rather than push myself to the verge of exhaustion (not just whilst working on the website). Another major reason is that OPC members John Pope, Martin Barrett and Val Everson have continued to assist with some of the daily tasks I myself would have done in the past. Their input has meant I have been free to work on some of the backlog. I will apologise here to those persons who have submitted items for inclusion that I still haven’t got to but I am working on a rota system so that each parish and submitter gets items published.
I would also like to thank those members who have joined us recently in transcribing and updating items we have available to us as a group. There is always room for more helping hands (I can be contacted either on Facebook or through the website contact us facility.)
I would also like to thank all those of you who have donated to the Just Giving Fund to help maintain the website financially. Without you all the site would not be so successful. That success has been acknowledged recently by a journalist who is writing an article about our website and other OPC projects for Who Do You Think You Are Magazine. We have a healthy fund at present which means we can keep the website online for longer than we could if we didn’t get the donations that come in. Thank you all.
In July I made a short trip to Wiltshire – I had a very productive break taking photos for both the website and my own family history. John Pope has also visited a few times this year and his photographs can be found in the many galleries on parish pages. He is due to visit again this September and will base himself around the south of the county if I am not mistaken. I was fortunate that my sister and friend indulged me and walked around churchyards and other places of interest am most grateful to them. I must admit that the Wadworths 6X went down a treat in the various pubs we visited.
We also had a curtailed visit to Lacock and the Abbey (much of the Abbey closed due to lack of volunteer staff) but it was brilliant to see some of the areas and exhibits. I felt quite taken back in time standing near the window where Henry Fox Talbot once stood to take what is widely recognised as the first photograph in history. It was interesting to hear one of the guides explain that Henry was not artistic and felt left out as his wife and daughters were quite accomplished artists, he therefore set out to find something creative/artistic he could feel proud of. I’ll leave you to decide whether this explanation was true or not.
Hopefully the website will continue to grow and more family historians will find us and find something useful that will help them in their quest.
