Information About Me (the boring bit)

I am in my early sixties and I have taken early retirement, hoping to devote more time to my hobbies and interests.

I am married and live in Bristol, England, we have two married children and four grand children.

I started my working life as an electrician, moving to be a Training Instructor and then as an Electrical Supervisor working for a very large chemical company. Finally I was for some years a Safety officer with a power generating company.

For nearly twenty years my wife and myself have been interested in Family History with a fair amount of success on both sides. We have been members of the Bristol and Avon FHS for most of that time. I have served on the society committee three times, one of these as the society chairman.

My wife Megan has helped the BAFHS with a number of indexing projects, at the Bristol Record Office. Since retiring we have index some of the Ships Crew Lists held at the Bristol Record Office. We have also index the main details from the Tithe Apporationment Books at the Bristol Record Office. This index covers the old " country " parishes now in Bristol and parishes in South Gloucestershire.The Bristol & Avon FHS have published both of these indexes.See the BAFHS Web site on the link section of this site for details of this and other publications produced by the society.

We live in what was once a small village called Shirehampton, which up to the end of the 1800s was in Gloucestershire. Since then it has been part of the City of Bristol and is now a large suburb on the North West side of the city. Over the years we have collected a small selection of postcards showing Shirehampton as it was in the early 1900s.

Some of these can be seen on this site

• My family tree (122 KB)
  Names in this file, Edwards. Foord, Barnes, Brooks, Ayres, Horrell, Uzzell, Jones,Baggs, Richards, Denning, Bow, Walker, Hobbs, Hale
• My Wife's Line (36 KB)
  Names in this file Williams,Jones, Morgan, Herbert, Butt, Camery(Kemery), Gilbert, Cook, Rowe, Collins, Hippisley, Clark, Short. Drake. With a link possibly to the brother of the Sir Francis Drake.

• The George (33 KB)
  Postcard showing the George Inn Circa 1906
• Shirehampton Church Postcard dated 1908 (39 KB)
  This church was burnt down in 1928 and replaced by a much larger and more modern looking building
• The river Avon circa 1930 (29 KB)
  The river here turns in a horseshoe type turn, hence this area is called the "Horseshoe Bend". This obstruction restricted the passage of ships going into the Bristol City Docks and was one of the reasons for the city building new docks at the mouth of the river.
• The "Village" green (28 KB)
  This view was taken circa 1900, the scene today is still very similar, but with much more traffic. The big houses in the center have been knocked down and replaced with new and ugly shops.
• The High Street circa 1908 (32 KB)
  Like the last picture many of the buildings are still there, all of the shops have had many changes of use, but most are still in business.
• The road through Shirehampton Park early 1900s (26 KB)
  Today this is a main road, no cows just cars, buses etc. The right hand side is now a golf course and the other side is a public park.
• The Post office Circa 1914 (32 KB)
  Both Shops still there. The PO is a news agent and the other shop is a travel agent. The people in the picture are mainly from the Chubb family who ran the grocers shop at that time.
• Not for the faint hearted (18 KB)
  Me as a baby circa 1941
• My Parents (31 KB)
  Henry And Dorothea Edwards Possible on their honeymoon, early 1930s

• Bristol and Avon Family History Society
• Bristol Family History links page

Ken Edwards
kenedw40@aol.com

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