North Aston Churchyard

[Thumper GT]

Having now polished off and published our history of North Aston book, we're setting off on a new project that will, eventually, lead to the electronic archiving of all our parish registers as well as photographing and transcribing the surviving headstones and memorials in the church and graveyard.

If this is of interest to those who may have family links with North Aston (and to get the ball rolling) I'd be happy to look out any particular names for forum members while we're doing the research. Post a request here and I'll see what we can find. There are just two of us doing this work, and I've no idea how long it will take, but the book took seven years! Advice and encouragement gratefully received.

[melmaree]

Hello

I have just come across your post regarding your North Aston book, is this the North Aston Millenium book? I would like to say what a fantastic job you have done with this book. I have been doing my husbands family history for about a year now and was googling my husbands grandmothers name and up came a reference to your book. I told my father in law about it and we organised to get a copy from England (we are in Australia).

It was so nice to read about the town and see pictures, even one of my husbands great grandfather, Cider Whitehead It is nice to have a published book to keep for future generations with reference to our relatives.

Excellent work.

Regards

Mel

[Thumper GT]

Hi Mel, and many thanks for your kind words. We've been delighted by the very positive reaction to the book, and also pleased that it has also brought together so many relatives as well. We receive a regular stream of emails through the website and we've been able to introduce several groups of distant relatives to one another. We've had three contacts from members of the Rose family in the last month alone!

Progress on the graveyard project has been slow, but we're getting there.

[Peter Goodey]

While you're there, could you please expand on "the electronic archiving of all our parish registers"?

[Thumper GT]

Although we have excellent transcripts of some of our parish registers, thanks to the local Family History Society in Oxfordshire, we have sought and been given permission to go back to the original documents, including additional records (churchwarden accounts, minutes, poor law papers etc) that have not yet been transcribed, and take high resolution digital photographs. We also have a sizeable collection of other documents still held in North Aston which we are processing.

[Peter Goodey]

To be published?

[Thumper GT]

No, that's not the intention. I doubt we could afford it, apart from anything else.

[Peter Goodey]

Have you got permission to publish, for example on the internet?

[Thumper GT]

I think I just posted that we weren't planning on publishing? We're working on another book, as it happens, and need the material for our research. Personally, I also believe material of this type should be retained, in some form or other, within the original community. It's all very well archiving ancient documents in a central repository, and provided it's secure and assures delicate documents the right conditions for their conservation, it's by far the best option. However, while best for the documents, it does deny the people who live there the easy access they deserve to the historical documents that relate to their homes and, in many rural communities, their ancestors.

[Peter Goodey]

Yes I read that you weren't planning to publish. I was wondering whether the permission you had obtained came with strings such that you couldn't publish even if you wanted to.