Revive your Family's Connections with Berwick-upon-Tweed and Visit in 2015

The Old Bridge, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Throughout 2015, Berwick-upon-Tweed will be celebrating 900 years of its turbulent history and unique cultural heritage and they would like you to attend.

They're planning a dozen themed weekends running from Easter 2015 to the end of October and they'll be celebrating each theme with a mix of exhibitions, events, talks, workshops, plays and hopefully, even a bit of street theatre. The themes are churches and Christianity, the barracks and World War 1, the annual riding of the bounds, fishing, seaside and maritime activities, food and drink, family history, art and crafts, sport, and the Berwick Guild. 

There are many surnames which have had connections with Berwick-upon-Tweed, Tweedmouth and Spittal over the past 900 years. Some of them are ones which can still be found in the area today but many have now disappeared with their descendants living all over the world.  They’re planning to highlight family names and their connection with Berwick whilst fitting in with the overall themes. They want everybody to come to the themed weekends, especially people whose ancestors left the area – they want people to revive their family's connections with Berwick-upon-Tweed and visit in 2015.

Look at the main Berwick 900 website, their Berwick 900 blog,  and follow them on Twitter, @Berwick900. I suggest you subscribe by email to the blog (there’s a subscription box at the top of the blog under the picture) and follow them on Twitter.

Download the provisional Berwick 900 programme.

Why Do We Need the Guild of One Name Studies ?

Our Annual General Meeting is this Sunday, 25th May, at 2.30pm in the Corn Exchange & Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN, however, as is usual, we'll have a talk too.  Map.

We desperately need new members to help us run the Society by standing as specific officers and as members of Council.

In particular, we have no nominations for Book-keeper, Treasurer or Editor.

 This Sunday's talk is by Lorna Kinnaird.  Lorna has been a member of the Guild of One Name Studies for over 15 years and is the Regional Representative for Scotland South.  

 A one-name study is a long project researching information about a surname and all the people who have held it, as opposed to a particular family tree (the ancestors of one person) or descendancy (the descendants of one person or couple). Her initial research into the Muat name created a love of genealogy and she now runs her own business, ‘DunEdin Links Genealogy’. She will be sharing her experience of genealogy in this talk with particular focus upon the nature of the Guild of One Name Studies, the benefits that membership of the Guild can offer the genealogist and her own research on the Muat name.  I think you'll find this a very interesting talk whether you're interested in family history, or Muat, Mouat or other spellings. 

Come along and find out why we need the Guild of One Name Studies.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. 

Doors open at 2pm; the AGM begins at 2.30pm and the talk after the AGM, perhaps about 2.45pm. 

It’s free to come in. We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk. If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers. 

This is the last talk before the summer; the subsequent talk (the first one of the 2014/2015 syllabus) will be on 28^th September.

Berwick-upon-Tweed’s Fascinating Food History

If you had lived in the Scottish Borders in the 1840s and had a modest income as most people did, your diet would have been mostly oatmeal and potatoes with the addition of milk (and in a few parishes cheese) and garden vegetables. Bread was occasionally used, but butcher-meat very rarely. In the Borders, the most common meat was pork (or bacon or ham), the labouring classes rarely saw beef or mutton, except for dead or diseased sheep, though I suspect many may have eaten fish or rabbit.

Our next meeting is this Sunday, 27th April, at 2.30pm in Coldingham Village Hall, Coldingham, TD14 5NL, when Derek Sharman will talk about Berwick-upon-Tweed’s fascinating food history. 

The Victorian period was a period of change and innovation in farming, fishing and the producing, processing and selling of food and drink.  It was also the heyday for Berwick’s trade in barley, herring and salmon. The town is full of reminders of its food-producing heritage - old salmon fishing shiels, ice-houses, herring yards, smokehouses, breweries, granaries and maltings. This talk offers fascinating glimpses into that time through a selection of extracts from local newspapers and photographs from the Berwick Record Office collection. 

I think you'll find this a very interesting talk whether you're interested in family history, local or social history.
I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.

Doors open at 2pm; the meeting begins at 2.30pm. It’s free to come in.

We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.