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Showing posts from April, 2023

The Sinking of the steam drifter "Reclaim"

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   As published recently in The Lowestoft Journal   By Mark Boggis , Senior reporter   It was a tragedy at sea that saw a steam drifter sunk following a collision with a vessel more than 200 times its size. The 40-ton herring drifter 'Reclaim' was heading to Kessingland when it was run down by a steamer. The collision happened on November 19, 1937, in what was reported at the time as "a thick fog." Reports from the time said the 9,300-ton steamer Hurunui, travelling from Australia, struck LT227 Reclaim midship and "she didn't stand a chance" after completely turning over she "went down almost immediately." With nine of the 10 crew members aboard the herring boat Reclaim not surviving, they will be remembered during a special ceremony this Saturday. A new memorial plaque will be unveiled on the South Pier in Lowestoft this weekend to mark the 85th anniversary of the loss of Reclaim. Commissioned by Lowestoft Town Council, the m

From Welch to Welsh to Adams-Welch to Adams

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  Church Records, Family Bibles and Oral Tradition Prior to 1837, Church Records were the primary source of family records for births, christenings, marriages and burials.   Of course, the church wasn’t required to keep records of births, under ecclesiastical law, but some church records show the birth date alongside the baptism date.   This was not consistently done in all churches.   For Christian families, some information was kept by the family and recorded in family bibles which were passed down from generation to generation.   But what happened to family history for those who grew up in families without a religious belief or church affiliation?   Many of those family histories were lost, resulting in dead-end searches in family trees.   Some histories survived through oral or written histories passed down through each family generation.   Our Family Ancestry Begins with Welch It is fortunate for our ancestry research that the Welch family were members of a Christian chu