This Group is for people interested in tracing their ancestors, finding out more about their family history and building a family tree. We also have speakers on various aspects, including local History issues, and have resources for reference. Our members also have a lot of experience they can share! We endeavour to put time aside at the end of our meetings in order to assist anyone beginning their own research.

We meet at the Scout Hut in Cozens Lane, Wormley and enjoy a talk / discussion plus a cuppa!

The Women of Bletchley Park

At our recent well attended meeting, we were given a very interesting and informative talk by Mike Barbakoff about the women who served at the Government Code and Cypher School War Station (GC & CS), or Bletchley Park as it is more commonly known. Bletchley Park was one of the best kept secrets of World War Two, the people who worked there were sworn to secrecy and information about the vital work done there was not declassified until the mid-1970s.

Seventy-five percent of the workforce of Bletchley Park were women and they worked in a multitude of roles including code breaking and operating the code breaking machines. The people recruited to do this work had a range of abilities, from languages, to mathematics, cryptic crosswords and music, amongst others.

Among the code breakers were Emily Anderson, who was reputed to be one of the top three female code breakers in the world. Her amazing career spanned being a linguist, professor, code breaker and award winning musicologist who translated the private letters of Mozart and Beethoven. She was awarded the OBE for her work as a code breaker and the German Order of Merit for her work on Beethoven. Patricia Bartley who worked on breaking the Floradora code. Mavis Lever who broke the Italian Navy’s Enigma code. Joan Clarke who worked for Alan Turing and deciphered over one million German messages.

Nine siblings who left Ireland for a better life in the USA 1900-1925

At a recent meeting, one of the members of our Group - Denis O'Shea, gave us a very interesting talk entitled, Nine siblings who left Ireland for a better life in the USA 1900-1925. Denis described finding some papers after his father died from which he learnt about his Great Uncles and Great Aunts who over a period of years, left Ireland and emigrated to the USA. They all went to find work in the Springfield's Massachusetts area. Most entered via Boston and it seems that over a period of years, the older siblings helped to fund the passage costs for the younger ones. His painstaking research has enabled him to trace younger generations of the family - some of them had no idea that they were related to others in the area.

VE Day Commemoration

"Member of the Broxbourne U3A Family and Social History Group enjoyed a VE Day celebration at their recent meeting.

Attendees brought a number of items of memorabilia including photographs, newspaper articles, family mementoes, menus and citations. There was even a baby's gas mask displayed on a baby doll!

Some members reflected on their own memories of the day and those of their families. We watched a VE Day hour by hour video, participated in a quiz and enjoyed homemade cakes and shortbread biscuits."/Paragraph

NB: There is no meeting in August - due to holidays.

At our September meeting we enjoyed an interesting and informative talk by Andrew Summers from Essex Hundred entitled "Snatched from Essex" by Andrew Summers from Essex Hundred.

"For one thousand years the county of Essex stretched westwards from Harwich to Waltham Cross on the River Lea. The county boundary then continued south along the course of the Lea to the River Thames at Trinity Buoy Wharf, before turning eastwards following the north bank of the capital’s river all the way to Shoeburyness. This changed in 1965 with the formation of the Greater London Council. Five new London Boroughs were created. Whilst only a tiny proportion of the land was taken, nearly one third of the existing Essex population was removed from the county. Despite these changes over two generations ago, many residents who live in these boroughs still refer to themselves as Essex people, as does much of the media"Presentation led by Andrew Summer.

Part of the talk could also have been "Snatched from Hertfordshire" as ANdrew reminded us that pbefore the boundary changes Hertfordshire had Barnet, but lost that to the London Borough of Enfield, but it wasn't all one-way traffic as Hertfordshire gained, Potters Bar and South Mimms.

If you would like to be put in touch with the Leader of this Group, or want to find out more about what the Group does, please send us a message through the 'Link to "Group Leader Contact" at the top of this page and we will get back to you by email or phone, if you have included it in your note.