Well today finds me a little sad – it’s the end of the football season but I am happy in that Stoke City have once more reached a top ten finish in the English Premier League. On the bright side that gives me another 2 hours a week to work on transcribing and uploading and administering the web site. Lots of new and updated items have been uploaded this week keeping me fairly busy but have found time to transcribe more of the larger projects I have on the go (to many to count as I get bored doing the same thing constantly plus somethings I need to concentrate so hard that my eyes meet in the middle and I end up seeing double.
We had our first volunteer to have their profile featured. Cathy Sedgwick was coerced into being the first guinea pig.
This is what she had to say to my interrogation:-
OPC or USER NAME
Cathy Sedgwick
POSITION WITHIN OPC TEAM
Assisting in Administration, OPC for 12 Parishes
PARISHES OF INTEREST
Baverstock, Chicklade, Codford, Compton Chamberlayne, Dinton, Durrington, Hindon, Knook, North Tidworth, Sutton Mandeville, Sutton Veny, Upton Lovell
YOUR LOCATION
Sydney, Australia
PERSONAL SURNAME INTERESTS
Wheeler (within Wiltshire)
PREFERRED or SPECIALST FIELDS
As an Australian I prefer to do Parishes that have Australian Soldiers buried in the Churchyard or local cemetery as I do 5-7 page biographies on the Soldiers.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AN OPC
Coming up to 4 years (insert shocked face smiley)
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP
I was trying to find information on my mother-in-law’s maternal side – as my husband’s great grandfather lived in Dinton from around 1920 till his death in 1966. There are no Censuses available for that era so found a plea on the website for “lonely parishes that needed adopting”. I found that Dinton was vacant & emailed Teresa saying I don’t know if I can do much to help as I am in Australia. She signed me straight up & while researching Dinton found that nearby Compton Chamberlayne had Australian Soldiers from WW1 buried in the cemetery – which I didn’t realise before that so many Australian Soldiers are buried in England & that parish was vacant & took that on. This lead to other parishes like Baverstock, Codford, Durrington, Sutton Veny & North Tidworth Some of the other parishes I have taken on were because they were small & quick to do like Knook & Chicklade (took on Hindon because previous OPC had left & a lot of Hindon was connected to Chicklade) Sutton Mandeville & Upton Lovell.
HOW DID YOU FIND THE OPC WEBSITE
Googling Dinton, Wiltshire
DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS TO MAKE THE WEBSITE BETTER
Get more people to join up. The Wiltshire OPC is the BEST OPC site (in my opinion) – we do more than just do Births, Marriages, Deaths & Census information. We add photos, stories about the people of the Parish, happenings in the Parish.
WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUR PARISH PAGES IN THE FUTURE
I have basically done a lot for the smaller parishes – working now on finishing off items for the bigger parishes – Codford, Dinton, Durrington, Hindon, Sutton Veny then I will be doing 173 Australian Soldiers biographies for North Tidworth & working on that but I will probably be on the lookout for other parishes that have Australian Soldiers in them – can’t help myself !!!!
ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO SAY
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Thanks for that Cathy am so glad you found us.
Until next week “That’s All Peeps”
Hi!
I just picked up on the reference to North Tidworth where I was brought up and where I still rent out my late brother’s house. Not specifically mentioned in the comments but there is a beautifully kept Military Cemetery there with large numbers of ANZAC graves. There used to be a Tidworth chat group run by a chap called Mark who was the caretaker of the cemetery and a football referee.a football referee. As to the parish, the North Tidworth church is a fine example of old Norman architecture and, on a personal level, both my parents and my brother are buried there. My brother was a keen photographer and I have many pictures of Tidworth and plenty of local information including WW2 during which I grew up there.
Paul Vivash
Thank you for the information Paul if you visit our website at http://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/genealogy/ Cathy Sedgwick the OPC for North Tidworth would really appreciate contact with you she will start biographies of the casualties buried there in the very near future.
Hi Paul
I am very keen to get your assistance on information on Tidworth & would love for you to share your photos of the area.
Cathy
It was good to see that Stoke City managed to beat the mighty Liverpool 6-1 today but now to Tidworth matters. I note that the interest is specifically North Tidworth. Historically there were 2 parishes: the older North Tidworth in Wiltshire and South Tidworth in Hampshire. Before 1900 North Tidworth was mainly an agricultural community centered on the old Norman parish church. Then at the turn of the century the War Ministry decided to expand the area for military purposes and a large barrack complex was built which by 1939 pretty much swallowed up both parishes. I lived in North Tidworth but walked daily to school in South Tidworth, thus crossing the boundary into Hampshire. Today the distinction has been removed and the whole of Tidworth is united within Wiltshire. I’ll check out the web site and perhaps we could decide where I could best attach photographs.
If you could liaise with Cathy that would be brilliant – thanks for the Stoke comment am still in shock and hoarse. Although the parish is North Tidworth – we have a section to include South Tidworth too as it makes sense