The Dickenson Project Document Protection Appeal Update.
The Kingsweston Family Estate Papers
During the Annual General Meeting an appeal was launched for help from the Friends of Somerset Archives to preserve documents contained in the Dickinson Papers. Eleven volunteers came forward - as many as the project can currently accommodate and we are now working on preserving the collection on Tuesdays.
The background to the collection is explained by Janet Tall, Head of Archives:
The Heritage Centre has been given a very valuable large archive of the Kingsweston estate by the current owners. This archive of 65 boxes contains many very significant documents, from the 18th century particularly, which are of international importance because the family had large sugar plantations in Jamaica before the abolition of slavery and important business connections in the southern American colonies.
The documents contain five generations’ correspondence and details of how Jamaica was governed. Many of the documents require preservation and all require cataloguing, as the current catalogue list is very limited. Two of the County's archivists will share the cataloguing task once sufficient documents have been through the preservation process.
Mervyn Richens, the County Senior Conservator adds:
We have welcomed an orderly, dextrous and enthusiastic group of volunteers who have been trained to deal with documents that had suffered through storage and needed unfolding and protecting. This work will make them more accessible to researchers and would enable much more efficient cataloguing which would again help researchers. The more important bundles marked as red star bundles would be grouped for efficient checking by search room staff on release and return.
The Tithe Apportionments If anyone would like to join our transcribing team by transcribing a parish of your choice that has not already been done, please contact Jenni by clicking here. The task is not too taxing, does not need great computing skills and can be done in your own time - there is no rush to complete the job. We will give you full instructions and indeed answer any queries or try to solve any problems that you might have. If you are already a transcriber and would also like, perhaps, to do another parish, please contact Jenni by clicking here.
Committee Member's Details have been updated and this can be reached by the menu on the left or you may click here.
Any suggestions or comments about the website should be emailed by clicking here to web@friendsofsomersetarchives.org.uk - Malcolm Daniels, webmaster.