AGM followed by members’ short talks
Barbara Hall
Probate documents let us uncover the lives of local people, their occupations, dwellings and family relationships through the wills and inventories of an earlier era. A presentation of the latest discoveries found in the wills of Halifax in the early 18th Century by the Halifax Probate Group.
Barbara is a retired librarian and teacher and first became interested in local history through attending lectures by the late Alan Petford. She has been involved in transcribing the wills of the late 17th century in the parish of Halifax in both the Halifax Probate group and the HBLHS for many years and finds them a fascinating source of original information.
Sheila Graham
New and old residents at Edge Hey Green had questions about the history of their terrace, so they formed a group to look at deeds, censuses, newspapers and more.... they are still in the process of uncovering the stories of their neighbourhood.
Sheila’s path to an interest in local history is very similar to Barbara’s: it was largely sparked by Alan Petford. He was a tutor on a WEA and Leeds University Diploma course, and one of the assignments was to explore census information – the resulting analysis of Edge Hey Green in Colden was at the heart of this project many years later.