In the June 2012 issue of “Daltons in History”, the last instalment in this series covered the year 2000. This personal account of the history of the Dalton Genealogical Society by Michael Dalton continues with the fifteenth instalment, commencing at the beginning of 2001.
My recollections of 2001 start with the launch by Millicent Craig of the Dalton Query Team. In her announcement in the January 2001 issue of "Daltons in History", Millicent wrote:
"With the aim of better serving our Dalton family worldwide, a Research Team has been assembled from three continents to handle your queries. Each member has special geographical expertise and collectively we have assembled a large Dalton database that is still growing. You may continue to post your query on the Guest Page or if you prefer privacy, you may contact one of the three Team Captains. Your query will be passed on to the most appropriate responder. All researchers will be following the same format and will normally acknowledge your query within a 72 hour period (unless they are away). For expediency, please remit as much data as possible with your questions. If you have submitted a query in the past, please try again since there is now a host of talent at your disposal. If we cannot help with your particular problem at this time, we will be forthright and let you know. If you desire additional exposure for your query in the hopes of making a family connection, we will be pleased to enter it in the "Daltons to the Forefront" section of "Daltons in History" or if suitable, it will be printed in the DGS Journal. Those readers who have Dalton expertise in a given area of the world or wish to either contribute data or become a member of the Dalton Query Team are welcome and may contact the editor, Millicent Craig".
The Team Captain for the UK was Michael Cayley, appointed as DGS Librarian the previous year, handling general queries pertaining to the UK and India. He was assisted by Lucy Slater (covering Cambridge and vicinity and all other areas in which she had conducted research), Pamela Lynam (the Norwich area) and David Kirkley (North Yorkshire, Teesdale, Durham and Westmorland areas). The Team Captain for North America was Millicent handling queries relating to New England, New York, Argentina, and general queries. She was assisted by K T Mapstone (several counties of Ireland, and Illinois), Melanie Crain (Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia and Missouri), Mike Dalton (County Kerry, Ireland, Ohio, Oregon, California and Irish Daltons in the UK) and Diane Jackman (Newfoundland, Canada). And the Team Captain for Australia was Maureen Collins, Australian Secretary, handling queries related to Australian Daltons. She was assisted by John D'Alton and his father, J. C. E. D'Alton (Tasmania and Victoria, Australia).
The Dalton Query Team was very much part of Millicent’s vision of how the DGS needed to be organised in order to provide the best possible service to all those now contacting the Society via the website. The Guest Page was attracting large numbers of queries, and Millicent was finding it increasingly difficult to respond to them all herself. In her statement she refers to the large Dalton database that had been assembled, and this of course was the forerunner of the Dalton Data Bank that we have online today. It was in September 2001 that the Dalton Data Bank (DDB) website was launched with then 10,000 entries, following the collection of data over the preceding years. This online facility was masterminded by Millicent with technical assistance from her daughter, Mary Lou Weber-Elias. Here is Millicent’s announcement from the September 2001 issue of "Daltons in History":
"To better serve Daltons worldwide, the reams of data and files that have accumulated over the past few years are being organized into the DALTON DATA BANK. The files are the work of volunteers who have spent countless hours extracting Dalton data from a wide variety of sources. The DALTON DATA BANK will eventually include the records of Daltons who were in Africa, Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, France, India, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Wales, the West Indies and any other locations where Daltons settled. Currently there may be upwards of 75,000 persons of Dalton descent worldwide whom we eventually want to reach from our desk tops. Relative to One Name Studies, the Dalton ONS (DGS) is among the largest of such one-name populations.
Our Dalton brethren in all parts of the world are acquiring computer skills and access to the internet. Accordingly, the number of queries posed by them is increasing. With our limited staff of volunteers, we visualize a time when we will be unable to handle the queries effectively. Therefore, by making the data bases available on-line, researchers will be able to do more preliminary searching.
The BANK opens with about 10,000 names including those of spouses, children, in-laws, sponsors, etc. It is an ambitious, on-going project and data will be processed and added to the BANK each month. Announcement of new files will be made on the DGS Home Page of "Daltons in History", the Dalton Gang Letter and the Dalton Rootsweb List. If you have researched your family and have Dalton files that you would like to contribute to the BANK they will be decidedly welcome. Especially needed is New York data. In the 1880 Census, NY had the highest concentration of Daltons but data from parish registers is quite sparse.
Because many Daltons are novices to genealogy and to searching the net, the data pages are being constructed with ease of use in mind. Country/county files can be searched using the Edit/Find function of your browser and by using any key word including given names, dates and ages. It is not necessary to download files in order to view their content. Passwords are not required and an entire file is free to browse. At the outset you will note that there is a preponderance of Irish data but this data is useful to Australians, UK members, Americans and Canadians because of the great migrations of Irish ancestors. In the future, large UK and USA files will be added. It is always the onus of the user to verify data within the files.
Your DALTON DATA BANK will always be a work in progress and eventually it may move to larger quarters. We look forward to your comments either through the Guest Page or by email".
Again, the launch of the Dalton Data Bank by Millicent was very much part of her vision for the future of the DGS and what better tribute to that vision than to record the phenomenal growth of the DDB with now in excess of 430,000 entries. I suspect that none of us (not even Millicent!) ever dreamt that it would grow with such vigour in the space of just 11 years.
Against this backdrop of dramatic improvements to our ability to answer queries and provide so much data, freely searchable online, what else happened in 2001? Well, Lucy Slater, who retired as the Society’s Executive Secretary at the 2000 AGM, undertook to organise the 2001 DGS Gathering in Cambridge. In her newsletter in DGSJ Vol 33 (Nov 2000), Lucy wrote about her retirement as Secretary and then continued:
"About five minutes after I had shed my responsibilities as Secretary, I heard someone say "How about holding the next AGM and Gathering at Cambridge next year". There was a chorus "Yes, Lucy can organise it for us".
And so it was! Arrangements were made by Lucy for the event to take place at Girton College, Cambridge where Lucy was an undergraduate, over the last weekend of July 2001. The Gathering turned out to be a great success with a good turnout of members and their families, and perfect hot and sunny weather for all to enjoy. Most of us arrived on the Friday evening to find ourselves accommodated in the relatively new Wolfson Court, an annexe of Girton College situated off Grange Road on the north west outskirts of the city. On the Saturday morning we assembled in the Stanley Library of Girton College, a very fine Victorian Room, furnished by Lady Stanley of Alderney to house her books. The last time I had visited Girton was when I was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge back in the 1960s and Girton was a women’s college. We used to cycle out of the city centre up the Huntingdon Road to meet students of the fairer sex, but that has all changed now with the colleges being mixed. Girton itself though still looked much the same as it did some 35 years before.
At the AGM Pamela Richards and Antony Cox both retired as DGS committee members, and we thanked them for all their hard work. Pamela had been a committee member for 15 years and written many articles for the DGS Journal over that period. Tony became a committee member in 1998 and had been very supportive during his time with us. I was always so disappointed to miss the committee meeting that he hosted at his home in Derbyshire, because my car broke down! It meant that Dick Hamilton missed it as well because I was giving him a lift. We were very pleased to elect Howard J Dalton to join the committee and, of course, Howard J (not to be confused with Howard!) is still with us and has for many years acted as our minutes secretary. Also at the AGM we received very full reports from Millicent as American Secretary and Maureen as Australian Secretary. Millicent updated us on the progress with the Dalton Query Team and the Dalton Data Bank referred to above, and she also made an initial proposal for a Dalton DNA study, another visionary idea which of course is now the much respected Dalton International DNA Project, today with 180 participants.
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John Dalton, Michael Cayley and Jenny Redpath |
Rosemary Dow in conversation with Pamela Richards |
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Reverend Margaret Engler talking to Kate Dalton |
Pam Lynam and Howard Dalton ponder a serious point |
There was plenty of time for informal meeting and discussion both before and after the AGM and, amongst other things Michael Cayley, our then Librarian and Archivist, demonstrated the DGS database that he had built up on his laptop computer. All this work was subsequently fed into the Dalton Data Bank. I also remember Howard J Dalton showing us video recordings that he had made at earlier DGS gatherings. During the Saturday afternoon, we split into various groups and Lucy had asked me to lead a tour of Trinity College and St John’s College, both with strong Dalton connections. My namesake Michael Dalton, the famous lawyer, was a Trinity man, and Rev Timothy Dalton was at St John’s. Both were important members of the Cambridgeshire Dalton family, about which Lucy wrote several articles for the Journal. It was very enjoyable for me to show DGS members round my old college, and to reminisce about my time there. I still count myself so fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend four years in Cambridge in such beautiful surroundings, and it is a part of my life that never fades in my memory. I am lucky enough to be invited back to Trinity at regular intervals for reunion dinners, and I shall be there again next year to meet up with my contemporary fellow members of the college.
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Kate Dalton and Howard J Dalton by the Fountain |
The Dining Hall, Trinity College |
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The Dining Hall, Trinity College - Gallery and Screen |
The Bridge of Sighs, St John's College |
On the Saturday evening our DGS annual dinner was held in Wolfson Court. Lucy reported that "the food was good and the wine flowed perhaps a little too freely, but it was a very hot night and people were thirsty". I certainly remember it as a most enjoyable evening and I recall sitting drinking outside in the courtyard into the small hours – well isn’t that what Cambridge and family history are all about? Relaxing in good company and sharing our stories – such an important part of a civilised life.
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The table is laid for the DGS Annual Dinner |
Alicia Riley, Lucy Slater, Bill and Faith Keymer |
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Geoffrey Robinson, Pamela and Jack Richards |
Millicent Craig, Margaret Deyes, |
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Margaret Engler, Alicia Riley, Lucy Slater and Bill Keymer |
Howard J Dalton with John and Sheila Dalton |
Sunday was another enjoyable day. We visited the village of Little Eversden, where Ruth Leet the wife of Timothy Dalton was born. We went inside the 14th century village church, and saw the cottage where Ruth was born. We then went on to Wimpole Hall where we sat outside for lunch and toured the Hall, the home of the Chicheley family. Faith Keymer had researched links between the Daltons of Cambridgeshire and the Chicheleys.
Looking back over 2001, it was a good year for the DGS. I have covered the highlights, but alongside these, two issues of the Journal were published and, of course, "Daltons in History", then in its fourth year, appeared without fail every month. Time and space preclude a detailed summary of the contents of these publications but, as always, they added much to the wealth of written material available to our members. The pattern of the way that the DGS operates today was being established and as I move on to the later instalments in this series, we will remind ourselves of the strengths of our Society and the debt we owe to all those who worked so hard in these formative years at the beginning of the new millennium.
