Wildings Online VWI

23/08/2026

Women Behind The Lens - catch up on the August meeting of Wildings Virtual WI...

The Female lens - a short TedTalk from Jill Greenberg about the problem of men taking most of the photos we see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHuWVu7O2oM

The Women That Defined Street Photography - 15 minute online lesson, covers five female street photographers and their different approaches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAT-x1YpcDA&t=224s

Introduction to Christina Broom - 5 minutes (accessed via this webpage from Museum of London) https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/introduction-christina-broom/ and if you want to know more about her, and her work with the Suffrage movement, there's a lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pk-UNfLBDM

Lee Miller: The Most Rebellious Female Photographer of All Time? - 15 minute video from the V&A presented by her granddaughter
We watched from 7m26sec onwards - if you want from the beginning, be aware that earlier in the video includes graphic photography relating to mastectomy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ17yAbew58

And after the break we watched: A Female Spitfire Pilot In World War II - a 5 minute profile which leads us nicely into the next two month's talks on different aspects of what women did during WWII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWJ-C-eIghM

Finally, I mentioned Farleys House which was the home of Lee Miller while she lived in East Sussex and you can find out more about it here:
https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/

Farleys House, Gallery & Sculpture garden in Sussex conjure up an extraordinary atmosphere that testifies to its position as a meeting place for some of the key personalities in the twentieth century. Open on Sundays (Apr-Oct) for guided tours and pre-booked tours alongside the Gallery with it’s c...

08/04/2026

Starting a new Wildings year of getting to know each other better

At our Annual meeting on 28th March, I was thrilled to be re-elected President of Wildings and that the Fab Five (Sue M, Sandra, Erika, Maureen and Suzanne) are staying on with me as our organising team.

We wrapped up the formal meeting in 22 minutes (!) and enjoyed a quiz linked to the subject's we'd covered in the last 12 months. We also had a rummage around the new WI Learning Hub - VIA - and of course, plenty of chat.

The organising team met the next day and we have come up with a series of topics this year, all on our theme of Women We Need To Know Better.

Coming up this month is Women in the Media...but at our Wild About Making Stuff subgroup meeting last week, I was reminded that the women I most enjoy getting to know better, are the ladies of Wildings. Here's to another year!

01/02/2026

Notes and links on researching family history - from our January meeting

Start by watching these two videos from the National Archives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TOLgQ6pioM&list=PLddhSH7bW0pW27qJAhF4nhPH5MgPFQvYy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe6cSOTiAto&list=PLddhSH7bW0pW27qJAhF4nhPH5MgPFQvYy&index=2
There is a long playlist of videos on different aspects of family history research here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLddhSH7bW0pU0vh97HvJ3w13fIVIvkta_

After that, here are some websites that can help you with your research:
https://www.freebmd2.org.uk/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/home
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/faq.asp
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html (to find listings of homes)

A few tips:
Write down everything you find out, including the source and the date you found it.

Confirm what you think you know - did someone tell you a date of birth of a relative or their maiden name? Check it out before you accept it.

Allow for human error - census enumerators may have written things down wrong (or deliberately), and typed up records can introduce more errors. So try to find more than one source.

Names change - Elizabeth could be Eliza, Elisa, Betsy, Betty, Beth.

Once you have some information, you can use other sources to find out more about them e.g. if they worked at a village cottage hospital, look for it in Google - you may find photos and information in a local history website.

Next month's meeting (February 28th) will be partly "what happened next?" follow up to give us a chance to discover the new relatives, dead ends and skeletons in our family closets and bring them along to share with each other. I can't wait to hear about the fascinating women we have learned more about in our family's history.

We're also going to get to know a woman from Irish history better - Anna Parnell, and the Ladies Land League. There's a tenuous link here to one of the shortlisted resolutions (Action on women's homelessness), but really, she just sounds amazing!

Three of our visitors joined after our January meeting and you are very welcome to come along as a visitor to our February meeting, if you'd like to get to know us better.

13/01/2026

Learn how to get to know the women in your family history

Wildings VWI (West Sussex Federation) invites you to come along to its first meeting of 2026.

At 10am on January 24th, we will be exploring how to research the women in our family history as part of our theme of meetings on Women We Need To Know Better.

We'll be listening to advice on how to get started, members will exchange lessons learnt by trying their hands at genealogy and we'll be sharing the surprising women we have discovered in our family history.

This meeting is free to attend for Virtual WI members and in-person WIs in West Sussex. Please email [email protected] to request the Zoom meeting link for our January 24th meeting, including your name, and the name of your VWI. Spaces are limited, so please email as early as you can.

27/12/2025

This is what a Virtual WI President wears...

This morning was our "twixtmas" meeting, where Wildings members drop in for a post Christmas debrief and hang out for a natter.

I take my Presidential responsibilities seriously so dressed appropriately for the occasion in Christmas pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers.

We shared stories of "Santa grabs", domestic mishaps, treasured gifts and appreciation for Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse's Gone Fishing.

A lovely meeting and welcome reminder of why we love virtual WIs.

20/08/2025

News from our July Meeting on 'American Women We Need To Know Better'

Keeping our theme for this year's Wildings' meetings of Women We Need to Know Better in mind, I shared some interesting women in America I found out about as I travelled around in June and July including:

Elizabeth Coleman White, The Blueberry Queen, 1871 - 1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91xwVNUej4Y

Abby Kelley Foster, Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Activist
1811-1887
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=021x01Yjk2Q

Abigail Adams, First First Lady, mother, farmer, and prolific letter writer, 1744 to 1818
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Drd8-W2tPg&t=1s
Her famous "Remember the ladies" letter set to music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYCzhbu8IQI&t=309s

How women in the US had the vote before us, and lost it
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story/pages/how-did-women-lose-the-vote-the-backlash

Coming up in September...
Our monthly meeting on 27th September will be an extra special one as we welcome guest speaker, Lisa Brace. https://www.lisabrace.co.uk/aboutlisabrace.html Her latest books are based on research into amazing women in history that need a spotlight shone upon them. A perfect fit for our theme this year.
https://www.lisabrace.co.uk/books.html
We're going to be opening this meeting up to members of other Virtual WIs.

21/05/2025

Just booked for October - a talk on chalk streams

We've just booked Sarah Hughes, Chalk Stream Resilience Officer
from the Western Sussex Rivers Trust to talk to Wildings about the state of our rivers/chalk streams, the wildlife it supports and what we all can do to make a difference.

If you've not given Wildings a try yet, you're most welcome to come to this meeting and see what we're all about and learn more about this important habitat.

30/04/2025

Maureen, Jacky and Sue Midgley (not in picture) stood with the female chain maker strikers at the Black Country Museum

29/04/2025

Sarah Blunt from EYR and I met Queen Elizabeth who had appeared at the Virtual festival last year. And both of them were real!

24/04/2025

Women We Need To Know Better - #1 - Women in Medicine

Saturday 26th April, 10am is the first of our meetings on the theme of Women We Need To Know Better. This month, the focus is on women in medicine.

You may already have heard of Elizabeth Blackwell (called the first American Female Doctor - although actually born in England) but we are going to hear about two women in England who also fought to have women recognised as medical professionals, one of whom was born in Sussex.

This is the start of our theme for the year - we've had some great suggestions for women to focus on and speakers to invite so I'll have more news of that soon.

Wildings Members - check your inboxes for the meeting link. Other ladies, you are very welcome to try out Wildings this Saturday - please DM or email us at [email protected]