Felixstowe Family History Society

A copy of the Royal Family Tree which came with the Times on the morning of 7th November 2006, traces her Majesty’s descent back to Alfred the Great, who ruled over a somewhat fragmented realm of England 871-900 AD. It goes back from Alfred through a long line of Saxon and “Anglish” Kings to Woden! Woden, or Odin, as he is sometimes called, was one of the chief Old Norse gods. He is the Worthy after whom Wednesday is named. I don’t know what moral may be drawn from this revelation. Perhaps it’s just a reminder that there is sure to be a measure of fiction among the roots and branches of even the most illustrious families!

Throughout my life time we have been urged, chiefly through the media, to look forward, not back, to look to the future, not to the past; “The future’s bright, the future’s Orange” is a typical slogan of the twentieth and now of the twenty first century. The implied message is that the future of mankind will be one of continuous growth, improvement and progress. Looking back to the past is not encouraged. Henry Ford, who produced the first mass-produced automobiles, summed up the Zeitgeist of the twentieth century in the words: “History is bunk.”

I don’t think many family historians are against improvement and progress, nor do they give up hope of a better tomorrow. The more they have found out about the conditions under which their forebears lived, the more they have come to appreciate the security, the convenience and the comfort, of the life which we enjoy in the western world today. Even the Divine Woden in the halls of Valhalla of the frozen north did not enjoy the benefit of central heating, nor did he have the convenience of a flushing loo, of a bathroom, with continuous hot and cold water, of a fridge and a freezer, nor the benefits of a National Health Service: nor did Henry VIII nor George III, for that matter.

The T.V. programme, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ has made the whole nation aware that our roots in the past are just as important as our hopes for the future. In a mysterious way we are discovering that the past is also part of us. It’s obvious that this should be so. Take a parable from nature. What plant grows healthily if it has no roots? I am what I am because I carry in my body genes from every ancestor from whom I am descended. I am also what I am because of the environment provided by my two most important ancestors, my Mother and my Father.

So, don’t let us be put off by the likes of Henry Ford. As Family Historians we have grasped the importance of the past, but we are not buried in the past, oblivious to the present and unconcerned about the future. Like wise men and women we look both ways.

The Felixstowe Family History Society came of age in January 2007. It is twenty one years ago since January 1986, when nineteen of us met in St John’s Hall and formally formed our Society. Since then more than one thousand have paid a year’s membership fee and joined the Society. Not all have stuck with us. Some have allowed their membership to lapse; others have passed on before us to a brighter and better future.

Over those twenty one years, I think that we can justly claim that we have been able to help many families to get in touch with their past and that for most this has been a rewarding and enriching experience. At our monthly meetings we have had a variety of excellent speakers. Some have helped us to understand the circumstances under which our ancestors lived, and how they coped with the conditions of life as they found them in their time. Others have helped us to find out where to look for information about them.

Meanwhile we have built and are now the proud owners of our “Tree House” at the Orwell School. In it we have assembled a small, but useful Library and Research resources sufficient to trace almost any English or Welsh Family back at least to the eighteenth century. We also have books and booklets which will tell those of Scottish and Irish Ancestry where to look for information. One of our Computers has “on Line” facilities which enable us to consult the indexed census returns from 1841 every ten years until 1901, the Registrar General’s indices of birth, marriage and death from 1837 until the present day, to consult the catalogues and indices of the National Archives at Kew and much more.

It would be invidious to single out and mention any particular names to thank all for these achievements: as in most societies much has devolved upon the Few, but if you look in Roots and Branches and note the names of those who now serve, or who in time past have served upon the Committee, you will get a fair idea of the names of those to whom we are indebted.