HGS Hampshire Genealogical Society's Family History Page

23/08/2026

SUNDAY SNIPPET
“Walking, I am listening in a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
Linda Hogan

22/08/2026

SATURDAY SMILE

21/08/2026

NEXT WEEK’S HGS EVENTS…

Wednesday, August 26 - Basingstoke Group: A Walking Tour of Odiham - Join the group for a tour around the village. Please contact the group for details.

Thursday, August 27, 2026 - Fareham Evening Group: Members' Guided Walk – “Fareham Chimney Pots”. An informal walk from Fareham, ending up in Wallington with an optional drink in one of the Wallington pubs to end the afternoon. Lots of local history chat plus the story of Fareham Chimney Pots.

Friday, August 28, 10.00 – 12 noon: Free Family History Help Sessions at Lockswood Library, District Centre, Centre Way, Locks Heath, Park Gate, Southampton SO31 6DX. Booking in advance, by contacting the Library, is advisable but not essential.

20/08/2026

NELSON’S NAVY

If you think, or know for a fact, that an ancestor fought at the Battle of Trafalgar, a quick way to check is via https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/ If you pinpoint your ancestor, his ship’s name will be invaluable for you to research further.

Pension records and muster rolls are available on FindMyPast

Ancestry and familyrelatives.com both hold details of officers in ‘The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815’

http://ageofnelson.org/ is also useful for sources of information.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMSVictory.jpg

19/08/2026

Do you have a ‘brick wall’?
Perhaps someone could help?

18/08/2026

FIND A WILL

Wills are potentially the most enlightening resources available to family historians and, for wills from 1858 onwards, completely free access to search the complete index of wills proved in England and Wales is at https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Details include:
• Date of death
• Value of the estate
• Occupation, up to 1968
• Address, up to 1968
• Names of executors, up to 1968

The site also holds Grants of Administration issued where the deceased left no will or the named executors had died by the time the will was proved.

In addition, wills of soldiers who died on active service, 1850-1986, are available here.

Each copy of a probate record ordered directly online and costs £16.

Search online for a will, grant of representation or probate document for a death in or after 1858

17/08/2026

THE MISCHIEVOUS JANE AUSTEN

Evidence that, as a teenager, Jane had a creative, yet slightly impish, nature can be seen in the Steventon Marriage Register, 1755-1812.

The register is held at Hampshire Archives and the official entries were made by Jane’s father, the Reverend George Austen, Rector of Steventon.

However, Jane gained access to the register and, in around 1790, created three fictitious marriages among the ‘specimen entries’ at the front. The entries feature three different fictitious men and elements of their names do appear in her later literary creations which shows that her talent for writing fiction was already in evidence.

16/08/2026

SUNDAY SNIPPET
“Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world.”
Daniel Webster