There was a slight technical hitch for a few minutes at the start of the meeting before Anne Ashdown the Society’s Archivist was able to give her talk. Whilst Anne’s lost video link was sorted out members were put in a ‘breakout room’. Here we were able to have a short discussion led by Vice Chairman Sheila Harris about what members would like to hear at future Virtual talks. As we were soon returned to the meeting Sheila invited members to contact her on vicechairman@kfhs.org.uk if they had anything to say about the Society’s Virtual talks.
Anne started her talk with a presentation by reminding us about the situation so far. The Society’s former library, that Kristin Slater had hosted so successfully at her home on a farm near Herne, had to close last year. This led to the Society needing to find somewhere to house the library items. A climate-controlled unit on the outskirts of Maidstone was sourced and the library’s entire holdings were transferred there last year. Anne volunteered to be the Archivist and has spent the past year arranging, documenting and indexing the archive. Although, earlier this year Anne realised that the coronavirus was going to put a hold on her working in the archive. Hence, with lock down on the horizon, she brought several boxes home to continue the task. Anne gave us lots of facts and figures about the holdings including that there were over 938 items in the archive. She said that she was now in a position to make items available to members by email archivist@kfhs.org.uk or at the unit by appointment.
Anne found a huge source of untapped information contained in several filing cabinets called ‘Family Files’. The family files contain research donated by members themselves or by a family member after their death. They cover a donation period probably since the society was formed. It’s an ongoing collection that Anne would be pleased to receive more of. Some are handwritten, others typed, some have photos whilst others are on CDs or memory sticks. It’s an eclectic collection not all have included family trees, just pages of research notes about their family. There are 98 Family Journals in the collection and 26 very large files that you would need to come and read for yourself. Anne has created a list of family names that she has a file for. Members will find this list in the members area of the website My Kent FHS under Resources. Check if the names you are researching is on the list and email Anne at archivist@kfhs.org.uk for a look up. The majority of files are small enough for her to scan and attach to an email.
There is also a collection of unwanted BMD certificates, the Hollingsbee collection, a suitcase of photos of the Clements family but no family tree, parish information, OS maps, Canadian death notices, overseas memorials, war graves of the British Empire etc. Records of St Edmunds School registration 1751 etc. Quite an extensive list which Anne hopes to get published on the Society's website. There are also many books including those about family history and 618 about various places in Kent. Other include Military History and history in general.
After the talk a discussion took place amongst members. We were advised that CCA (Canterbury Cathedral Archives) have a volunteer digitising their Family Files and these would eventually join the database of digitised files held by the Society in the Members area of the website. CCA have scanned the pages of the files and this caused concern amongst members over data protection. CCA had obliterated all personal details of individuals who could be still living. Non-members would only be able to read the files when working in the archives. CCA have a form of permission to use and this will clarify rights of use in future and the Society should do the same. Another point was raised concerning items stored digitally in the Society’s archive. It is now recognised that digital items deteriorate much quicker than first anticipated. Plus, as technology moves on at an alarming rate, we may not have anything to read them on in the future. It was suggested that these would be safer if they were also printed off on paper.
Report by Tricia Baxter