Society History
Apr 1974 John Rayment, our founder, attended a Genealogical Conference in Canterbury. Much to his horror, so he said, he was talked into forming an Essex Family History Society. A steering committee was soon arranged and John was asked to be the Chairman.
John Rayment
Founder
24 Sep 1974 The inaugural meeting took place in the Picture Room, Shire Hall, Chelmsford, with about 80 people attending. It was decided that the name of the Society would be The Essex Society for Family History. John Rayment was elected Chairman and Donald Jarvis, J.P., A.R.Hist.S was elected Vice-Chairman. Dr. F. G. Emmison, M.B.E., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S, F.S.G., the County Archivist, agreed to be President and Colonel Sir John Ruggles-Brise, Bt, C.B., O.B.E., T.D., J.P. (H.M. Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the County of Essex) agreed to be our Patron.
Shire Hall, Chelmsford
Nov 1974 The first edition of our magazine "The Essex Family Historian" was published.
Issue 1
Essex Family Historian
1974-1977 Meetings were held in the evenings in the Council Chambers, Basildon and then at the Quaker Meeting House, Rainsford Road, Chelmsford, usually on a Monday or Thursday. On occasions meetings were held in other parts of the County.
Quaker Meeting House
Chelmsford
04 Nov 1976 Sir William Addison, J.P., D.L., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S. was appointed to succeed Dr. F. G. Emmison, M.B.E., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S, F.S.G. as our President.
Sir William Addison
President
22 Oct 1977 The first Saturday afternoon meeting was held in Christ Church United Reformed Church, Chelmsford, in one small room. This quickly became too small and eventually we spread over the whole of the ground floor.
Christchurch URC
Dec 1996
02 Dec 1978 Rt Revd John Trillo, Lord Bishop of Chelmsford announced as the new Patron of our Society.
26 Nov 1984 We became a Registered Charity and were allocated Charity Number 290552.
08 Dec 1984 At our AGM John Rayment stood down as Chairman and John Boreham was elected as his successor. John Rayment was appointed to succeed Sir William Addison as our President
John Boreham
Chairman
27 Feb 1985 The Society's first Branch, the North East Essex Branch, based in Colchester, was formed and held its inaugural meeting in Colchester Central Library, Trinity Street, Colchester.
Colchester Library
pictured in 2005
13-15
Sep 1985 The Society hosted a 3 day Family History Conference for the first time. It was held, on behalf of the Federation of Family History Societies, at Writtle Agricultural College. On the evening of Friday 13th Member of the Society performed a live Family Tree of the fictious Crefield Family, entitled "Costume Cavalcade".
Costume Cavalcade
14 Mar 1986 The Society's second branch, the North West Essex Branch, based in Saffron Walden, was formed and held its inaugural meeting in Saffron Walden Library, King Street, Saffron Walden.
Saffron Walden Library
pictured in 1996
1987 The November 1987 Issue of the Historian announced the launch of The Postal Book Service giving members who could not get to a meeting a chance to buy some of the books available from our bookstall. The range was increased, over time, to include microfiche and Floppy Disks.
20 Sep 1990 At our AGM Geoff Howlett, M.A. was elected to suceed the late John Boreham as Chairman.
Geoff Howlett
26 Oct 1991 The Society's third branch, the South East Essex Branch, based in Westcliff-on-Sea, near Southend-on-Sea was formed and held its inaugural meeting at the Balmoral Community Centre, Salisbury Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea.
South East Essex Branch meeting
May 1992
19 Sep 1992 At our AGM Donald Jarvis, J.P., A.R.Hist.S officially became President having been appointed President elect earlier in the year after the death of John Rayment.
Donald Jarvis
President
03 Apr 1993 Our fourth branch, the West Essex Branch, based in Harlow was formed and held its inaugural meeting at St John's Arts & Recreation Centre, Market Street, Old Harlow.
St John's Arts &
Recreation Center
20 Mar 1993 The Chelmsford Computer Group was formed. Meetings were held in Room 5 at Christ Church United Reformed Church, Chelmsford on the same day as the main Chelmsford meetings.
Computer Group Meeting
Dec 1993
01 May 1997 The Society's very first website went live. It was hosted by Manchester University. The url was http://sentinel.mcc.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/ESS/efhs/.
20 Sep 1997 At our AGM Geoff Howlett stood down as Chairman and Jeanette Scarborough was elected to succeed him. Lord Petre, D.L. became President.
Jeanette Scarborough
18 Jan 1999 The Society entered the world of on-line sales, being one of the initial 10 Family History Societies to have a "stall" on GENfair.
Genfair Website
Feb 1998
15 Jul 2000 We held our final monthly meeting at Christ Church United Reformed Church, our home of 23 years.
Christchurch URC
Sep 1996
26 Jul 2000 We opened the doors of our new Research Centre which was located on the ground floor of the new Essex Record Office building in Wharf Road, Chelmsford. The room provided microfiche viewers and computer facilities, our library was housed there and we also offered CDs for sale. We also operated from the Room our e-commerce activities and our search and courier services.
Research Room
Jul or Aug 2000
16 Sep 2000 Our first Chelmsford meeting in the Public Suite at the Essex Record Office. At our AGM Janette Scarborough stood down as Chairman and Fred Feather was elected as her sucessor.
Fred Feather
2001 The Essex Family History Award, for a postgraduate student studying History at the University of Essex was made for the first time. A list of all the award winners can be seen here.
First recipient
of the ESFH Award
2001 The Essex Burials Database, which was compiled as a result of the Society's continuing work transcribing Burials for the National Burials Index, was launched.
The Database
29-31
Aug 2003 The society hosted a 3 day Conference hosted, entitled "A Little of What You Fancy". The Venue was the University of Essex at Wivenhoe.
2003 Members Interests were added to the website allowing anyone to search the interests. In time members could also add and edit their own interests.
Members Interest Page
18 Sep 2004 At our AGM Fred Feather stood down as Chairman and Eric Probert was elected as his sucessor.
Eric Probert
16 Sep 2006 At our AGM Eric Probert stood down as Chairman and John Young was elected as his sucessor.
John Young
29-31
Aug 2008 The Society hosted another 3 day conference. This was titled "The Way We Were?" and was again held at the University of Essex in Wivenhoe.
17 Sep 2011 At our AGM John Young stood down as Chairman and Eric Probert was elected as his sucessor.
Eric Probert
15 Sep 2012 At our AGM Eric Probert stood down as Chairman and David Eniffer was elected as his sucessor.
David Eniffer
22 Aug 2013 Our research room, on the ground floor of the Essex Record Office, closed. After 13 years we had been asked to move out of our room on the ground floor of the Essex Record Office and relocate to the First Floor. Photos of the Research Room taken in April can be seen here. Photos taken during our Saturday meeting day in May can be seen here.
ESFH Research Room
27-30
Aug 2013 The contents of the Research Room was moved to our new area within the Public Search Room on the 1st floor of the Essex Record Office.
04 Sep 2013 Our new Research Centre opened for business. Photos of the Research Centre taken in October can be seen here.
ESFH Research Centre
Feb 2014 After much planning and hard work for over a year the Society's brand new Website was launched.
29-31
Aug 2014 The Society hosted a 3 day Family History Conference. This was held at the Holiday Inn in Basildon. It was part of a series of events that year to mark the 40th anniversary of the Federation of Family History Societies. It was also used to commemorate the 40th anniversary of our Society.
15 Dec 2014 We held our final monthly meeting in the Public Suite at the Essex Record Office, our home of 14 years.
Lecture Theatre
part of the Public Suite
17 Jan 2015 The Chelmsford meetings moved to the main hall at Galleywood Heritage Centre.
Galleywood Meeting
Jan 2015
19 Sep 2015 At our AGM David Eniffer stood down as Chairman and John Young was elected as his sucessor.
John Young
16 Sep 2017 At our AGM John Young stood down as Chairman and Andrew Britter was elected as his sucessor.
Andrew Britter
Mar 2018 Andrew Britter resigned as Chairman due to ill health. His Vice Chair, Paul Stirland succeeded him as Acting Chairman and was then elected Chairman at our AGM in September.
Paul Stirland
21 Sep 2019 At our AGM Paul Stirland and Fred Feather both stood for Chairman - Fred was elected.
Fred Feather
2020 The start of a new decade and with it probably the biggest set of changes in Society history. It was a year like no other, overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
12 Mar 2020 North West Essex Branch held their monthly meeting at Saffron Walden Baptist Church. After this meeting all in person meetings around the Society were cancelled due to the pandemic.
North West Essex Branch
Meeting Venue
09 Jun 2020 The Society held its first ever Virtual Committee meeting.
15 Jun 2020 The Society held it's first Virtual meeting, using Zoom with Helen Matten as the speaker. It went well and more meetings soon followed.
17 Oct 2020 At our AGM Fred Feather stood down as Chairman and David Eniffer was elected as his sucessor.
David Eniffer
12 Jun 2021 The Society held its first Hybrid Meeting, which was hosted by the North East Essex Branch.
09 Sep 2021 Due to dwindling numbers, the North West Essex Branch voted to close the branch at their AGM. The branch had run for 35 years. The Executive Committee decided to suspend the branch rather than dissolve it so that it could be resurrected in the future if the need arises.
North West Essex Branch
Meeting Venue
16 Oct 2021 At our AGM David Eniffer stood down as Chairman and Elizabeth Cox was elected as his sucessor.
Elizabeth Cox
15 Oct 2022 At our AGM Elizabeth Cox stood down as Chairman and Andrea Hewitt was elected as her sucessor.
Andrea Hewitt
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Registered Charity No 290552
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+44 333 013 2503
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