Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
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July 2007 – Report on Meeting on July 14th 2007

Richard Smout - RSHG meeting

Janette welcomed everyone and explained that the meeting would take a slightly different format to usual as there were two guest speakers.

The first item on the agenda was the sad announcement that Sally-Ann Garrett had resigned as Chairperson and from the Group. This will have an impact on the management and future of the group; which had been set up by Sally-Ann and Janette in about 2002. The Committee had contacted Sally-Ann prior to the meeting to express sadness at her decision and to thank her for all her hard work over the past few years.

Until the AGM in October the tasks previously undertaken by Sally-Ann will be shared out between the existing Committee.

The usual reports from Group Leaders were dispensed with for this meeting but Janette assured everyone that the work on Mapping, Transcribing, Research and Publications continues at a fast pace. Much of the work is still being done by a small core of workers and The Mapping, Research and Publications groups have all requested more volunteers to help with the work load.

Janette said that anyone who is interested should speak to a Group Leader and reminded everyone that we are all just amateurs doing the best we can. Contact David for Mapping, Ann for Research and Carol for Publications.

In Matthew’s absence Janette advised RSHG has funds of £10,400 and the next large items of expenditure will be the printing of the book and the artwork for the display case in the cemetery. The artist has been commissioned to produce the artwork and work is now well underway. We are confident the finished map will be an asset to the cemetery.

Iain Donald from IWC Bereavement Services gave a presentation on the IW Council’s project for Ryde Cemetery. The Council have received a grant of approx £450,000 from HLF for a project involving the restoration of the boundaries, buildings and some of the significant graves as well as a management plan to ensure the cemetery is kept in good order after the project finishes.

Janette thanked Iain for the update and stressed that RSHG looks forward to working closely with IWC and other groups to help facilitate the project.

Finally Richard Smout, County Archivist, gave a very interesting and informative talk on resources available for Family History research at the County Records Office. He went through all the various different types of records available and showed examples. He spoke of the various processes that people might go through to research their family histories and warned of some of the pitfalls. After the talk there was an opportunity for people to ask questions and look at the records.

Janette thanked Richard for coming to the meeting and giving such an interesting talk.

That concluded the business of the meeting. The next meeting will be the AGM on October 13th and Derek Warman will give an illustrated talk on Michael Maybrick.