Our Guest contributor this month is Peter Woodhall, a descendent of the Morchard Bishop Stentifords. He follows up the information we gave in Issue 1 with a loving portrait of his grandfather, Philip Stentiford, which we're sure everyone will enjoy reading. 

The article in this Issue on George Hiscock Stentiford sees the start of a process to update the family history document which first appeared in 1955 and of which so many family members have copies.  It was compiled by Richard Hayward and Brenda Osborne at a time when it was far harder to gather reliable information - these were the days of the old St Catherine's Marriage Index which was held in London and of Registers being kept in their individual parishes making enquiries slow and difficult to make.

Consequently the compilers had to rely considerably on the memories of those family members who were alive at that time; in some cases, those memories were faulty and so mistakes crept in. These errors were compounded when, at a later date, the material was sent to the Latter Day Saints by a family member to be included in the IGI. We have identified two areas of amendment within our update: 

1. Material which was incorrect in the original history, the revised version of which can now be fully supported by documentation. This will appear in blue - e.g. Corrected information

2. Information which can now be added to that given in the original history and which can be fully supported by documentation. This will appear in red - e.g. Additional information

Finally, we thought you might like to see this anonymous message which was pinned to the wall at Tree House, the Devon Family History Centre:

Keep in touch.

Link to Office of National Statistics for information on how to obtain copies of Birth, Marriage and Death certificates.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/registration/default.asp