Events Crooklands

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Friday 6 November

16:30 Registration from 16.30–18.00.

18:15 Dinner, including tea/coffee, followed by:
Family History Coincidences: short items related by CFHS members, Hosted by David Sowerby.

Saturday 7 November

08:00 Breakfast served from 08.00 for residential delegates.

10.00 Read all about it: searching the newspapers. Petra Mitchinson.

11.00 Morning tea/coffee with biscuits.

11:30 DNA correlations over the generations in Cumbria in respect of Viking/ Scandinavian ancestry. Steven Dickinson.

12:30 Buffet lunch, including tea/coffee.

14:00 Cumberland and Westmorland Illustrated. Thomas Allom: artist and architect.

Dr Mike Winstanley

15.30 Commonwealth War Graves. Paul Crone

18:15 Dinner, including tea/coffee.

20.00 Ship's crew lists. Can they tell a story? Hilary Chalmers.

Sunday 8 November

08:00 Breakfast served from 08.00 for residential delegates.

10.00 Lancashire Canals (Kendal). Janet Rigby

11.00 Two-minute silence for Remembrance Sunday

11.03 Morning tea/coffee with biscuits.

11:30 Looking at Askam-in-Furness. Kevin Alexander.

12:30 Sunday lunch and depart.

Our Speakers

David Sowerby For the second year David will be hosting family history stories related by CFHS members. This year’s topic is 'Coincidences'.

Petra Mitchinson. Read all about it: searching the newspapers Petra has transcribed entries from Cumbrian newspapers for many years and regularly publishes transcriptions in the Society's Newsletter. She also helps many of the members in our Facebook group.

She will be giving a workshop on how to search Cumbrian newspapers.

Steven Dickinson. DNA correlations over the generations in Cumbria in respect of Viking/ Scandinavian ancestry. Steve is an archaeologist and artist, who lives and works in the English Lake District. He is currently writing up results from a major excavation and survey project in the Kentmere valley in the Lake District.This included excavations of a Viking period upland settlement, and a medieval farmstead. He has given papers on his Neolithic research at international conferences in Sweden, Portugal and Italy (2016-2018). His research focuses on rock art and monumentality in relation to the prolific upland sources of Neolithic stone axe blades in the Lake District.

Dr Mike Winstanley. Cumberland and Westmorland Illustrated: Thomas Allom, artist and architect. Dr Winstanley is Retired Senior Lecturer from Lancaster University (1978-2010) with a special interest in regional history of the North-West, which he continues to pursue in retirement through research, publications, talks and involvement with local history societies

Paul Crone. Commonwealth War Graves. Paul will present the important work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and its educational charity, the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation.

Hilary Chalmers. Ship’s Crew Lists. Can they tell a story? Hilary is an enthusiastic amateur family historian, having spent more than 20 years researching her family history with a particular emphasis on using DNA to resolve illegitimacy and non-parental events (NPE's). Now retired after a 46-year career Hilary volunteers at the Whitehaven Record Office, where she is currently transcribing ship’s crew lists of Whitehaven-registered vessels and it is this that she will talk to us about.

Janet Rigby. Lancashire Canals (Kendal). Janet is a retired local government officer ho took early retirement to pursue her passion for local and family history and writing. Her late husband was connected to the famous Ashcroft family on the Lancaster Canal, which inspired her to write her first book, Life on the Lancaster Canal, in 2006, followed by Lancaster Canal in Focus. She has also written other local history books and is currently revising her book on the Lancaster Canal as a much larger volume, due to be published this year. Janet is particularly interested in the canal’s northern reaches and is researching the bargees who came from its northern end, near the Cumbria border.

Kevin Alexander. Looking at Askam-in-Furness. Kevin is a South African-born local historian, specialising in the history of Askam-in-Furness where his family lived since the 1860s. He is also interested in the broader history of Furness, Cumberland, North Lancashire and the Isle of Man, having strong family ties with these areas.Keith is a kilnburner at the last traditional brick works in Cumbria with more than 20 years’ experience. He is a published author of two history books, with another due this year.

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