January 2023: This month’s invited speaker is Sue Paul of the Family History Federation who will give us a light-hearted example of her research that dips back to the seventeenth-century.
“A most notorious, naughty, false, lying fellow - a global black sheep or maligned character?”
Our speaker Sue Paul writes: “A search for the origins of a grandfather left me incurably addicted to family history research. I was side-tracked by the story of Henry Smith, son of Ralph and brother of Samuel, who flourished 1668-1710. He worked for the East India Company towards the end of the seventeenth century and was sacked by the Company on a number of occasions being described as a most notorious, naughty, false, lying fellow. Subsequently, he was incarcerated in Newgate gaol and tried on two counts of piracy, before biting that hand that rescued him and acting undercover in Scotland. My talk is essentially a case study of Henry demonstrating how you can bring to life the story of someone who cannot be found in traditional genealogical records”.
| Event type: | Meeting - past event |
| Date: | Wednesday 18th January 2023 |
| Time: | 2:30 pm |
| Group: | monthly speaker meeting |