One
of the many pleasant things that has happened as a result of setting
up this website is receiving feed-back from readers who have
identified "lost" members of their own family. In
particular, Ann Ryley's article on Thomas Holloway Stentiford in Issue
12 raised considerable interest. One of the people we heard from was
Beryl Stentiford, who is descended from Thomas's brother George
Holloway Stentiford. She sent us a wealth of really detailed
information to add to what we already knew about this family and in
due course, we shall be publishing all of it. As this month's
guest contributor, Beryl begins with an affectionate portrait of Felix
Stentiford who she knew as "Uncle Phil".
The
history of your own family is very special and very personal - after
all, you carry the genes of the people you list as being your
ancestors. Or do you? This month, in our article "Last Will and
Testament" we feature a Richard Stentiford from Coldridge - one
of three men with the same name who lived in the same place at the
same time. When compiling a family tree under these circumstances, the
possibilities of potential confusion are endless. We include
our findings in considerable detail because they may not agree
with the findings of others and we look forward to some
lively follow-ups.
Our
research led us to the discovery of this Richard Stentiford's will which proved to be a
vital clue leading, in turn, to the discovery of his true descendents.
The wills of only a handful of the Stentiford group of families
survived the war and we can only grieve at the loss of such a valuable
tool for family historians. We shall be featuring all of the surviving
wills in due course and we shall be returning to Coldridge and the
other Richard Stentifords soon.
Keep
in touch,
Muriel
and Richard
