| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Group email: | Family History group |
| When: | Monthly on Thursday mornings 10:15 am 1st Thursday (Not January) |
| Venue: | The Village Centre |
FAMILY HISTORY GROUP: meets 1st Thursday of the month in the Chiltern Room at the Village Centre, between 10:15–11:45.
Our Family History Group members are a mix of experienced and fairly new researchers who share their knowledge and assist each other in finding records of their ancestors, often breaking down brick walls or helping to prove or disprove old family stories. - We are interested in finding out more about our ancestors than just their names so we look at location, houses and occupations. These records help us to find out what their life was like, what work they did, where they lived, as well as trying to bring alive their social history.
We have a varied programme for 2026 which includes some outside speakers and even visits out. Click here to see our PROGRAMME
If you are interested come and join us, we have some fascinating conversations.
For anyone who might be interested, there is an Online Learning Event from the National u3a Learning Centre entitled: How AI can save you hours when researching your family history This event is on Monday 2nd March at 2:00 p.m. It is free but has to be booked in advance. Click on the link above to access the booking system.
2025
We ended the year with our traditional Christmas fun, a quiz and refreshments.
In November 2025 we had a guest speaker Nick Roberts, who told us how he researched his famous musical family. He showed us spreadsheets and we even heard a very old recording of one of them playing.
October 2025 saw us have another Zoom presentation from Julie Johnson on Wills and Probate, very informative and helpful, though we were blighted by bad Wi-Fi connections during the talk.
In September 2025 those of us who met together brought family heirlooms and shared some details about them – fascinating items: a ATS training manual, a certificate, a picture of a clock and its history, picture of a painting of a fireman father, and a silver teapot. Here is a photo of the bread board & knife Molly brought. It was given to her parents when they got married and made by her mother’s brother-in-law. Not very exciting, but her Dad was a baker and Uncle Bert a carpenter so I guess it was appropriate.
In August 2025 we had a look at War Memorials, in particular all the people on the Chinnor and Henton Memorials from a work undertaken some years ago by Molly and Richard Milner and Pam and David Wilmshurst which is available in St Andrews Church. A very interesting study finding out more about the names we hear read out each year on Remembrance Day.
There are 31 names on the Chinnor War Memorial for 1914-18. These names are on the Chinnor Roll of Honour. Surprisingly, only 3 were lost in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. 1917 saw the most casualties for Chinnor, with 9 lost in the 6 months from the end of April. Four of them in the Passchendaele offensive (Third Battle of Ypres).
One family lost two sons and two men died on the same day. Captain Belgrave received the MC and bar. In all there were 2 Royal Marines; 3 Royal Navy; 2 RAF; and 24 Army. There are names in the church that are not on the memorial but information was found out about them and also the memorials kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission abroad.
There are 5 men’s names on the Henton Memorial, 4 were born in Henton, there’s no record of where the 5th was born. 4 were Privates and 1 gunner, 2 in Ox & Bucks Regiment.
Of the 8 men who died in WWII 3 were in the Army, three in the Royal Navy and two in the Royal Air Force. Interestingly, unlike WWI the men of WWII were all very young. Only three were over the age of 25 and none had reached their thirties.
It was also interesting to learn about Thankful Villages and Doubly Thankful Villages. A thankful Village was said to be one which lost no men in the Great War as all those who had left to serve King and Country came home again and doubly for both wars, there are quite a number all over the country, some have memorials to all the men who served, others were too ashamed to do so, but had plaques in their churches.
Please do look at our 2026 programme
Barbara and Sue