The Lawrenson Family Tree    INFORMATION REQUEST

Elisabeth has decided that our task over the winter months is try to produce a Family Tree for the Lawrensons and associated families.
To this end I have purchased “Family Historian V4” which is the only non American programme. It also appears to be the most comprehensive and far better than the one I used for my family. It will store just about any information you have on anyone plus photographs, newspaper articles and the like. There are a wide range of tree templates some of which can include a small photo of each person.

In providing information you should bear in mind that this is for not only our children and grandchildren, by also those yet to come. Therefore the more detail there is the more they will learn of their forbears. Obviously it is for you to decide what you wish to include and what to exclude, but I would urge you to include as much as possible. It is not for publication. If and when completed I would hope to make copies on disk for all family members who would like one. 
The ultimate aim is to have professionally produced family tree charts together with a “History Book”. Both can now be obtained at quite modest cost.

I suggest that the task can be made easier by asking family members to fill in their own forms. After all they know themselves, their wives and children best. It also spreads the load.

The attached Form (Form 1) is in both Excel and PDF. If you have Excel installed then you can fill in copies of the form in that programme and then email them back to me. If you use a small font size you should be able to fit most in. For anything you can’t I suggest using MS Word 2003 or earlier. (I do not have MS 2007 so cannot read this). If filling in by hand just use the back of the form. The idea is that you fill in a sheet for each person. This includes your children and their children, and also your parents and their parents. In fact as far back as you are able to go even if it just the name. This may mean some overlap but this is intentional. You may well know something that no one else does! As there is much to fill in on the above I have created a second form (Form 2) for just the essential information I need to make a start. If you could complete this first and return it to me it would be very helpful. If you can will you please include the following if you are able: Yourself, your spouse or partner, all your children and their children, your parents, your husbands parents, and if possible their parents

If you have any newspaper cuttings and the like please include a copy. Obituaries often contain useful information and dates. Also citations and awards and best of all copies of birth, deaths and marriages certificates. It would be nice to have photos of each person where available. Ideally 1 when very young, 1 at age between 30 and 50, and where applicable, 1 in old age. 
We would like photos of the living and of those who have left us; in particular pictures taken in the 1800s and early 1900s.
If you are unable to make copies we are happy to make copies from originals and return them to you.
I realise that this is no “ five minute” job, so I am not expecting a quick response to Form 1,  Perhaps I might suggest that you feed each sheet to me as you complete them. This we ease my job of entering it all into the programme. Form 2 is easier and hopefully you may be able to return these more quickly.

The Lawrensons came from Lancashire, Poulton Le Fylde (near Blackpool) and there abouts. This will probably mean visiting the parishes and the Local Records Offices. If anyone is going to be in that area and can spare the time, please let me know. Our searches initially will have to be on line by subscribing to one or more services but we know that this will only produce limited results.

That’s all for the moment other than to say that if you already have a family tree for another family it can be linked to ours, so please let me know. 
                                                       My thanks in anticipation.

								Richard

I am thinking of setting up a separate web site. I have found that the following remain available
www. the lawrensons. most endings, and www.lawrensonfamily.most endings. Any views???

I am also producing this Note page in Rich Text format for those who cannot read MS Word 2003. As I have found that sending all of this out as email attachments makes for a large overall file, I have put them all on the family web site. www.denverdun.co.uk  This should mean that downloads are faster.

31/08/2009 17:27:23