Society News

Items appearing below will, where appropriate, also appear in the Manchester Genealogist. Please visit this page regularly since it is here that late changes to planned events will first be published.
Society Report & Accounts 2008 The society AGM was held on 14 May 2008 and the Report & Accounts for 2007 presented to those present. The Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss account will be published in Manchester Genealogist 44/3 in August. The full accounts may be viewed by clicking HERE. Michael Couper was elected Vice-chairman and Graham Porter, Treasurer. Dennis Baxter was elected as a Vice-president and Fellowships were awarded to Rita Whitefield and John Marsden. The Earwaker Prize was awarded to Neville Long for his article "From Manchester to the cape of Good Hope 1819-1820" published in Manchester Genealogist Volume 43, Issues 2 & 3.
Introduction of Resource centre User Charges With effect from 6 April 2008, members wishing to use the Resource Centre will be required to pay an annual fee of £1.00. This nominal charge has been made necessary by an adverse ruling from HM Revenue and Customs relating to the Society's eligibility to claim under the Gift Aid scheme. More details appear in Manchester Genealogist Vol. 44 Number 1.
Volunteers Required Further to appeals in Manchester Genealogist 43/4 and 44/1, volunteers have come forward to assist Harry Bebbington in Mail Order, to assist the Treasurer with reconciliation of the cash register and to assist Bev Greenhalgh with preparation and posting of new member packs.

There is still a need for a volunteer to attend at Clayton House on Monday mornings to process the daily post. The work involves opening and recording incoming mail, processing membership applications and renewals and filing the paperwork. This usually requires between 1 and 3 hours of work. Full training will, of course, be given. Please contact the Treasurer if you are able to help.
Annual General Meeting The Society AGM will be held at 11.30 on Wednesday 14 May 2008 at Clayton House. All members are welcome to attend.
LancashireBMD Latest All marriages within Manchester Registration District 1837-1898 have now been made available at www.lancashirebmd.org.uk as well as many marriages at nonconformist churches 1898-1930. Work is well in hand to extend coverage still further.
Manchester Cathedral Burials We can now supply a CDROM of Manchester Collegiate Church Burials 1573-1868 - Approaching 150,000 people were buried in the Old Churchyard and the three “overspill” burial grounds at Apple Market, Angel Meadow and Walkers Croft. This CDROM contains details of all burials recorded in the burial registers of Manchester Collegiate Church (Cathedral) arranged in order of surname/forename/date of burial and contains all of the information contained in the original register entries. Price £10.00 (£8.51 outside EU) plus postage for 90gms. Item code 1673.
Salford Register Office Following damage by subsidence, the Salford Register Office has relocated to Salford Civic Centre.
Annual General Meeting The Society AGM was held on Wednesday 9 May. In addition to routine business, Frances de Courcy was elected a Vice-President and Fellowships were awarded to Bette Hall and Colin Wood. The report and accounts will be published in Manchester Genealogist 43/3.
Office Volunteers Required We need two volunteers to work in the office processing member mail and preparing membership packs. A regular one morning a week commitment is required. Please contact the Treasurer for more information.
Minutes Secretary Required We need a minutes secretary to attend a variety of Society administrative meetings to take and distribute minutes. Work will be mostly on Wednesdays. For more information, please contact the General Secretary.
Dale Street Fire On Monday 30 April 2007 we had the excitement of a major fire just behind Clayton House in Dale Street. This was close enough to be a moderate threat but not so close as to cause any lasting problems. Clayton House remained open throughout and remains so. For a picture of the fire CLICK HERE
Bank Standing Orders If you pay your subscription by BSO and have not yet submitted a revised BSO mandate for the new subscription rates, please do so without delay. There are still many members who have not yet done this. If your subscription was paid by BSO at the old subscription rates, please send us a cheque for the difference (£2.50 single, £3.00 family) to spare us the need to write to you to request payment.
Manchester and the Abolition of the Slave Trade MLFHS has assisted the Parliamentary Archives and 24 Hour Museum in transcribing names from two petitions concerned with the abolition of the slave trade. Find out more by clicking here.
Manchester Cathedral Burials Coming soon! Indexing of burials at Manchester Cathedral 1573-1866 is now complete and work is in progress to publish on CD. This is expected to be released in June.
1851 Unfilmed Census now on FHOL As from 1 January 2007, all data recovered as a result of the 1851 unfilmed census recovery project is available on the Federation of Family History Societies' pay-to-view site Family History On Line (FHOL). Data can be accessed at www.familyhistoryonline.net Charges are 10p for as enumerated details for an individual and £1.00 to view the image of the reconstituted page. A commission on each payment is paid to MLFHS and any profits are retained by the Federation for use in the promotion and support of member societies.
Manchester Joint Archive Project The Heritage Lottery Fund has deferred decision on the proposal to establish a new joint archive building which would also accommodate MLFHS until July 2007. This delay does not create any problems for MLFHS.
Subscription Changes Increased office rent forces us to increase subscription rates after an impressive nine year period of stability. The Council meeting on 17 May 2007 agreed that subscriptions will be increased for new members joining on or after 1 June 2006 and for existing members with effect from 1 January 2007 i.e. members whose renewal falls due at the end of December 2006. The new UK rates are £15.00 per annum for single members and £18.00 per annum for family members. Overseas membership remains unchanged at £15.00 per annum but European membership rates are to be brought into line with other overseas rates at £15.00.

The changes are fully explained in  Manchester Genealogist Vol 42 No 2.

If you pay by Bank Standing Order, please complete a new mandate form (included in recent issues of The Manchester Genealogist) and return this to Clayton House without delay.
Mail Order Catalogue The 2007 edition of the printed MLFHS mail order catalogue is now available from the Mail Order Dept. at Clayton House. Price, the customary £1 plus postage for 100gms (UK 50p, Europe £1.15, Rest of World £1.50). The full catalogue is also available on the web site. Please note that new postage rates have been introduced to reflect recent changes in tariffs.
Beginner's Course The next beginner's course will be held at Clayton House commencing Thursday 18 February 2007 for six successive Thursday morning sessions. Price £15.00.
Library Volunteers Further to the recent announcement seeking volunteers to work at the Clayton House Resource Centre, we have now obtained volunteers and are back to full strength.
Mail Order Postal Rates New postal rates for mail order have now been implemented on the web site and will appear in the 2007 mail order catalogue which will be available shortly.
1851 Unfilmed census for Rusholme and Gorton Work has now been completed on transcription and data entry. It now remains only to process the data for publication on CDROM (and on Family History On Line - see below). It is hoped that the CD will be available by the end of November.
1851 Unfilmed Census on FHOL We are in the process of making the 1851 unfilmed census returns available at www.familyhistoryonline.net A full name index will be provided and copies of the images of the re-constituted pages will be available at a price of £1 per page. Returns for all areas except Salford Greengate, Rusholme, London Road and Chorlton are already available and these final areas will be added by the end of 2006.
National Probate Indexes As a result of a substantial donation from the widow of late member Brian Geldard, it has proved possible for us to purchase a copy of the microfiche of the probate indexes for England and Wales 1858-1944 (some 6000+ fiche). These are now available in the Resource Centre. We offer a look-up and printout service for members.
Manchester Cathedral Burials The final burial entry has been transcribed and we are now moving on to compile a full index to burials at Manchester Cathedral 1575-1848. It is expected that this will be published on CDROM later in the year. A sub-set of this information will in due course be added to the National Burial Index.
Latest "Unfilmed" Census CD We have just published the latest CD in the series of 1851 "Unfilmed" Census Returns. This contains transcripts for the district of Manchester, London Road (TNA piece HO 107/2228). It has been possible to recover details for approximately 75% of the 15,742 people recorded within the district. Also contains complete surname/forename and street indexes. Available from Mail Order price £9.95 (£8.47 outside EU) plus postage for 90gms. Item Code 1642. The final CD covering Gorton, Rusholme and Openshaw (HO107/2219) is expected later in the year.
MLFHS Handbook (now Research Guide) The Handbook has been fully revised and renamed the Research Guide. A copy is available as a PDF file for members via the member area. New members who have not received a Handbook will receive a copy within the next 3-4 weeks once completed by the printer.
Member Area A new section has been added to the web site. This is a member area and access is only available to members of the Society. Click on the Member Area entry in the index to see the front page where you can register to enter the Member Area.
Manchester Historical Recorder The Manchester Historical Recorder was published c1875 and catalogues events in the history of the city from its founding to the time of publication. It sets out chronologically events ranging from Manchester’s role in the Civil War and Jacobite Rebellion to obituaries for many of Manchester’s more prominent citizens. Manchester’s political history is well documented including, after the Reform Act of 1832, the results of each Parlia-mentary election. Disasters, natural and unnatural, feature regularly, from storms and floods to boiler explosions, as do more personal tragedies such as suicides, murders and executions.

We can now offer a fully searchable transcription of this book on CDROM. Order code is 1671 and price £7.50 (£6.38 outside EU) plus postage for 90 gms.
New Directions and Dining Opportunities! For years we have described the location of Clayton House as "the building above the "Spudulike" baked potato restaurant. Since 12 September, this is no longer true. The new occupant of the ground floor shop is "Subway" sandwiches. The smell of fresh baked bread now permeates the corridors, a great improvement over the aroma of the previous tenant's fare!
Extended Members' Interests Service Members' Interests are now published on the society web page as a searchable database open to any site visitor. Where the member listing his/her interests has given permission, a link is provided which allows the visitor to send an e-mail message to the member listing the interest. The members' e-mail addresses are held in a secure database and are not visible to site users. For more details, see Manchester Genealogist 41/3.
Members' Interests on the Web You can now access the members' interests listings from our web page. By entering a surname, the interests recorded for that surname can be listed. The data is the Members' Interests 2002 data as published on CDROM plus all interests notified subsequently. The listing only provides the membership number of the person listing the interest and you will still need to purchase the CD or refer to the back issues of the Manchester Genealogist to obtain their address unless the submitter has authorised the use of his/her e-mail address. Where the person has given permission, it is possible to send them an e-mail.
Library Catalogue on the Web The library catalogue is now available on this site. Go to the Information Base section and you will find a link in the index. There are some layout irregularities which will be sorted out in future versions but the catalogue is usable. The home page search engine will allow you to search the catalogue as well as the other pages.
GRO Miscellaneous Indexes The society has now taken delivery of the microfiche for the miscellaneous register indexes including Regimental Registers, WW1 Deaths, Deaths at Sea, Consular returns etc. These are now available for reference in the library at Clayton House.
Directories at Manchester Central Library Following a lengthy cataloguing project by Bert Pemberton, we have now published a catalogue to these holdings which (based on the colour of its cover) we have named "The Orange Book". Members may be surprised at the extent of the Library's holdings which relate to most parts of the British Isles and include extensive collections for Ireland and Scotland. See the Bookshop pages for details.
Members' Interests Forms Members may be pleased to learn that it is now possible to obtain a copy of the members' interests submission form and associated instructions from the web site. Access to these forms, which are available as Adobe Acrobat PDF files is from the "Forms" menu option on the Society web site home page.
Membership Renewals Please note when renewing your membership that if you have been issued with the "permanent" laminated membership card, you will not automatically receive confirmation of your renewal. A receipt can be requested by ticking the box on the renewal form but we hope that members will find the appearance of their cheque or credit card debit on their statement sufficient confirmation.
Index Publications - More Details A new feature on the bookshop pages is the addition of some additional details about publications. If you find a publication underlined as a hyperlink, this leads to more information. The first publications to be enhanced in this way are several of our CDROM indexes for which lists of surnames included in the index are listed.
Godfrey Maps - More Details If you want to know what area is covered by any of the Alan Godfrey maps which we sell, go to the Bookshop page listing the Godfrey maps and you will find that many of them are now hyperlinked to a document giving descriptions. Only some 60% are done so far but we plan to extend this feature to all the maps which we offer for sale.
Membership Renewals Membership should be renewed using the form which appears at the centre of The Manchester Genealogist. Alternatively, a renewal form may be found if you click on "Membership" in the main menu. Please do not use the New Member application form since can lead to confusion in the office.

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[Last Updated 15 May 2008 - John Marsden]