|
Introduction
As always, greetings to all readers of “Daltons
in History”!!
First and foremost as the festive season comes ever nearer,
I wish all readers a very Happy Christmas. May you all enjoy a
special and peaceful time with your families, loved ones and friends.
I always think this time is particularly special for those of us who enjoy
family history – it provides an opportunity to renew contact with
an extended family, comprising all those who are part of that wider group
that we study as part of our family history researches. The Dalton Genealogical
Society embraces an enormous extended and worldwide family of all those
with an interest in Dalton family history, and the Society, coupled
with its officers and committee members, extends the season’s greetings
to you all.
Since the last issue of “Daltons in History”
was uploaded in mid-November, the DGS officers and committee have continued
to be very busy working on further new developments for DGS members and
for the wider community of visitors to this website.
Let me remind you about the new subscription
and membership renewal
pages launched last month, where you can now join the DGS from
all corners of the globe and use a variety of payment methods –
including PayPal, credit or debit card, bank transfer, standing order
or cheque (check). For those who are UK taxpayers, you can Gift Aid your
subscription, which will increase its value to the Society as a registered
charity by 25%. All of this has been implemented to make it as easy
as possible to join the DGS and continue to pay your subscription each
year, with maximum value to you and to the Society.
Last month we also updated the page for ordering back
numbers of the DGS
Journal, offering significant savings on bulk orders and again
offering a wide range of payment methods.
And we have now published our latest DNA Report
for all participants in our project, who are members of the DGS.
The new DGS website, “Daltons in History”
2.0 (DiH2.0 for short) is now well and truly up and running. Further
developments are in hand and there is more about this below.
And, following a visit to Norfolk by four committee members
last month, we now announce the details of the 2014 DGS Gathering,
being held in Norfolk, England on Fri/Sat/Sun 12/13/14 September.
Much more about all these things below, together with
the usual updates on the Society, its events, its publications and its
projects. Please read on!
Changing faces on the DGS Committee
Pamela Lynam, who has been an officer of the Society
for 20 years, has announced that she wishes to retire from her position
as DGS General Secretary and Membership Secretary at the next AGM of the
Society in September 2014. Pam was appointed as the Society’s Minutes
Secretary in 1993 and took over from the late Lucy Slater as Executive
Secretary in 2000. When David Kirkley resigned as Membership Secretary
in 2004, Pam took on his role as well, and has held both responsibilities
since then. Many thanks are due to Pam for her service to the DGS over
so many years. It is Pam’s wish to remain as a member of the committee
and we will welcome her continued active involvement in that capacity.
Following discussions, Howard Dalton, our present Treasurer, has agreed
to take over the maintenance and updating of the membership database,
a task that we feel can be performed more efficiently by the Treasurer.
Mike F Dalton, currently a DGS committee member and organiser for the
2014 Gathering in Norfolk, has offered to become the Society’s Secretary,
and he and I will work closely together on the future development of the
Society. Howard and Mike will both work closely with Pam between now and
the 2014 AGM to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities. The appointment
of Mike as DGS Secretary will be formalised at the AGM.
As a UK registered charity, the Society has to appoint
trustees who are responsible for ensuring that the charitable objectives
of the Society, as set out in our constitution, are fulfilled. The constitution
makes provision for the appointment, by the committee from amongst its
members, of not less than three and not more than six trustees. The committee
has recently reviewed this and determined that there shall be five trustees.
The five committee members appointed as trustees are myself as Chairman,
with Sir Geoffrey Dalton, Howard J Dalton, John Dalton and Pamela Lynam.
The 2014 DGS Gathering, Norfolk, England
For 2014 the DGS Annual Gathering will be held at
The Park Farm Hotel at Hethersett, near Norwich in Norfolk, England.
Norfolk is still a very unspoilt part of England with its rolling landscape,
its Saxon and Norman churches, its Roman and medieval castles, its thatched
cottages and pubs and a plethora of small country roads to explore. It
is also very accessible to visitors from both the UK and overseas.
The Gathering will take place on Friday, Saturday
and Sunday 13, 14, 15 September 2014. It will showcase what the DGS
offers to members and it will provide a forum where everyone with an interest
in Dalton family history will be welcome to join us for the weekend. There
will be a programme of short talks and visits over the weekend which,
we hope, has relevance to Daltons from many different backgrounds and
will also include some sessions about Dalton family history relevant to
Norfolk. On the Friday afternoon we will hold the 2014 Annual General
Meeting.
Full details of the Gathering arrangements, an
outline programme and information about registering as a delegate to attend
the weekend will be found in a separate section of this issue of “Daltons
in History” below. These details will be
carried in the “Forthcoming Gatherings” section of this website
during the coming months, and all DGS members will also receive them as
a separate booklet enclosed with Volume 59 of the DGS Journal for December
2013, due to be published and despatched in early January.
I am most grateful to DGS Committee Member Mike F Dalton,
who lives in Norfolk, for his work to date as 2014 Gathering Organiser.
“Daltons in History” 2.0 (DiH2.0
for short)
Our new website, “Daltons in History”
or DiH2.0 for short, has been launched to DGS members over the past
couple of months. It has both an unrestricted presence available to all,
and sections for DGS members only. It also includes enhanced use of social
media – Facebook, Twitter etc. DiH2.0 has now been rolled out to
nearly all of the DGS membership worldwide. Registration details, usernames
and passwords have been issued to paid up members for whom we have an
up to date email address registered with the Society. This enables members
to access the restricted areas of the site, and enjoy the substantial
benefits that the new site brings. Any DGS member who has not received
an email notification of their username and password should email their
local secretary with a request to be registered for DiH2.0.
Alongside this exciting new development, the main DGS
website at www.daltongensoc.com,
the Dalton Data Bank (www.daltondatabank.org),
the Dalton Forum (http://daltonamericas.org/messageboard/)
and the other North American DGS websites (accessed via www.daltonamericas.org/)
all continue, and remain with open access for all. Each month we will
continue to bring you “Daltons in History” on the main
DGS website, in a format which is changing and will evolve over the next
few months. It will continue to include my Chairman’s Notes, together
with other news items and articles, some taken from DiH2.0 and made available
in the public domain. We are still having discussions about some of the
details of this, and about DiH2.0 itself, and we want to be as responsive
as possible to our membership. Therefore all members are invited to
make observations and comments about the new website and contribute to
its success. We want the new site to serve all DGS members as well
as it possibly can, and we also want to encourage more of those with an
interest in Dalton family history to join the Society, and take advantage
of what will be an ever growing and ever more valuable resource.
Future DGS events
Mention has already been made above of the 2014 Gathering
and AGM taking place in Norfolk, England over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun
12/13/14 September.
We hope to return to the United States and visit Virginia
in 2015. It has also been proposed that we return to South Wales,
UK in 2016.
The DGS committee is actively taking these plans forward
and we will be making further more detailed announcements during 2014
about locations and dates. So watch this space!
We like to plan ahead and explore other options for our
annual gathering events, so if you have any particular thoughts about
where you might like to meet, or a particular Dalton theme you think we
should incorporate, we really do want to hear from you with your ideas.
The Dalton International DNA Project (DIDP)
Our DNA project continues to attract considerable interest
with a regular stream of enquiries about joining being received by myself
and Karen Dalton Preston as administrators of the project. The latest
report has now been published and made available to all project participants
that are paid up members of the DGS in the members only area of our
new DiH2.0 website.
A small sub-committee of the main DGS committee has been
established to oversee the future development of DIDP, and this month’s
issue of “Daltons in History” includes a separate section
below, which gives a full update on the scope of the
new report and the plans for the project in 2014.
The DGS Journal
Volume 59 of the DGS Journal for December 2013 is
due to be printed and distributed to members in early January. As
always this issue of our award winning Journal will contain much of interest.
If you are not a DGS member, please consider joining the Society. This
will entitle you to receive the Journal regularly, and much more. Full
details are in the recently updated “Join
the DGS” section of this website, or just
click here.
John Dalton, our Editor, always welcomes articles
and other items for publication in the Journal, and material for publication
should be sent to him as early as possible. This will enable him to plan
the content of future issues. John is happy to advise and assist contributors
and, if you have any questions or need help, please contact him by email
at johndalton78@hotmail.com.
Back issues of all DGS Journals are available.
These can be purchased individually, or in collections at attractive prices.
Binders are also available. Full details will be found on the recently
updated pages for the "DGS
Journal Index" section of this website, or just
click here.
You will also find a full synopsis of the contents
of the Journal of the Dalton Genealogical Society commencing with Volume
1 published back in 1970 through to Volume 41 published in December 2004.
Lists of contents are given for Volumes 42 to 58 and the full synopses
will be uploaded in due course.
We are most grateful to DGS member Mrs Pat Robinson,
who holds stocks of back numbers for the Society and arranges for their
distribution in response to requests from the local secretaries (address:
Mallards, 3 High Street, The Green, Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5QX, UK
email: gandprobinson@waitrose.com.)
Conclusion
Enjoy this issue of "Daltons in History", your
regular update on everything that is happening in the world of Dalton
family history. We will be back again in mid-January.
Thank you for your attention and please do send your
articles, notes and snippets of information for publication in “Daltons
in History” to me (email: michaelndalton@aol.com)
Yours very sincerely
Michael Neale Dalton
Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society
|
