NEWSLETTER
MAY
2009
Welcome,
This is my first attempt at a general Newsletter to all
those who have either contributed to or have shown an interest in the
site.
Aims
My first point is to thank everyone for their contributions
and interest in the site. My second point is to apologize to anyone who is still
waiting for a reply from me. This website was my own brainchild and I am the
only developer on it, so as you can imagine there are times when life and some
recent ill health have got in the way of its development, but I remain
determined to take it forward for the benefit of all Slingsbys with an interest
in their name. So please be patient with me! I suppose my ultimate aim is
to create a worldwide community of Slingsbys who can share their life
experiences as well as their histories. As a worldwide family we will reflect
the characteristics of the worldwide community as a whole; after all we only
share a name and perhaps some of us a few genes. Our family will reflect every
walk of life!
I have three (probably
unobtainable) dreams. Firstly to create the ultimate family tree that ties as
many of us as possible as far back as possible to a common group
of ancestors. Secondly to set up a Slingsby Convention one day.Perhaps a weekend in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. I
remember many years ago there was a convention for everyone called John Smith which really caught my
imagination. And lastly to find out as much as possible about the diversity of the Slingsby
family and its involvement in the world from the past until the present day. More
than a lifetimes work don't you think?
Research
Requests for help in researching your Slingsby
family trees are welcome. As I subscribe to a number of Genealogy websites on
the Internet I am always happy to assist in a little research if I can. I don't
have the resources to undertake major research projects but if you are stuck
tracing a particular ancestor I would be more than happy to see if I could help.
On that point if you do ask for my help I do need as much information as you can
possibly supply. Name, (obviously) Date of birth or approx date, where they
lived, names of parents, names of any siblings, date and place of death if
possible etc etc. Just let me have as much information as you have
available.
Looking to the future
I am
currently developing a bulletin board to add to the site. The idea behind the
board is to allow members to make direct requests for information and to enter
into discussions directly between each other. To protect the board and our
members from spammers it might be necessary to introduce an ID and password
system for members. I would be grateful for any comments you may have. The
bulletin board may take a little while to set up as I have to purchase
additional services from my service provider.
As I have mentioned on the
home page, if you have any interesting stories or comments you would like to make
I would love to hear from you and publish them on the site. So if there are
any budding writers out there or historians who can enlighten us on the lives of
our ancestors please feel free to contribute. But you don't need to
restrict yourselves to history. I know from searching the web that there are artistic
and musical Slingsbys out there as well as the more famous Slingsby
Companies. Contributions from you would be good too. Anything I receive from you I
will assume is for the public domain and may publish all or part of what you send
me. If you don't want any part of an email published please say. Also
my Privacy Policy clearly states that I won't publish the details of living
Slingsbys of any part of their families. No email addresses will be given out
without prior permission.
There
is so much
tantalizing information out there on
the web regarding Slingsbys' Last week I was distracted by a
document I found regarding convict ships sailing from Britain in the 18th and
19th centuries to the Americas and to Australia. One such ship "Caesar" was Captained
by John Slingsby. The record stated that it had sailed from Newcastle in
May 1770 but never reached the Americas as it was shipwrecked. That was all
the information provided. So I Googled "Caesar" in the hope of finding the ship.
It was the worst possible name as far as Google was concerned because all I
got back were references to Julius Caesar, except on about page 8 I found a
ship called Caesar that sank off Nova Scotia but this was 1710. So I searched for Captain
John Slingsby. What was returned amazed me. Some of the random things ( I
will call them snippets) I found can be seen if you follow this link Random References If anyone wants to pick
up any of these random references (or snippets) and add some detail to them
please feel free to do so.
One last request! Not every
Slingsby will be interested in this site or in history or geneology,but, the
more who are aware of this place the more chance I have of finding those who
are. I should be so grateful if you would let all your family know about
this site especially your Uncles, Aunts, distant Cousins, Parents and
Grandparents. They may be directly interested or have interesting stories that
they can pass on through you. Thanks!
I hope this letter has been
of interest and I promise not to send them too often, but if you don't want to
receive anymore just send me an email and I will take you off the mailing
list.
William John Slingsby