the raven

As some of you will not have been at the last ceremony I thought it right and good to put up a breif Post for other Grove memebers who pass by here occasionaly.

The ceremony just gone will be my last for some time, a year infact. I have chosen to spend some time working solitarily and preparing myself for a move out of the London area in Spring, or there abouts.

I have not left London Grove as of yet and will occasionaly monitor what your all up to on this site. I am also happy for contacts ect, but I will not be attending an Grove events.

The Samhain ceremony was a great opportunity to tie off this part of my life and I would like to thank all who agreed to take roles on and all who attended to make it, although not directly, very special to me. Thanks again espacialy to Petra who’s stoic commitment was much appreciated and to Hilda for providing our central fire, which was so important to our work.

Go well all of you who are also moving on, thankyou for your company while we travelled this part of the journey.

I will see those of you who are still about in a year’s time.

Thanks again, Mark.

Chris Street has invited members of London Grove to a Yule ceremony which is being organised by Linda and himself. It will be at Camlet Mote on 18th December. Please look under Events for the full details.

Daniel

Here are some web links I found and compiled before the Ancestors seedgroup.

Genealogical Research

FreeBMD

An ongoing project, transcribing the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. Already has a lot of info from 1837 onwards, but is still incomplete.

1837 Online

Has complete records of births, deaths & marriages from 1837 onwards but charges for the info, so best used when you can’t find what you need on FreeBMD.

Genes Reunited

This provides a way to put up your family tree online and find other people with matches on the same tree. I’ve managed to find 2nd cousins who have already done a good deal more research than me, and also help out others who were not so far along with their own research. Yearly subscription, currently about £7.

Family Search

Website run by the Mormons, you can search the 1881 census from here.

1901 Census
Official website for the 1901 census

Ancestry

Expensive site – probably about £70 a year – but some people prefer to use it because it gathers all the birth/death/marriage info in one place, and has at least partial records of all UK censuses between 1851 and 1901.

Death and bereavement

Pagan Transitions

In their words,

“We are a group of Pagans, mostly members of OBOD, who want to provide people with the resources to create meaningful and beautiful rites of passage, particularly funerals, that offer support during the process of dying, reflect the spirituality of the person who has died, and offer support to the bereaved. To further this aim, we have devised the concept of the Pagan Pledge, where people can promise each other to make sure that they get the kind of funeral they want.

On this site you can find rituals and ceremonies, including ones for pets, information on coping with bereavement, legal information, resources such as woodland burials, cardboard coffins, and a directory of people who are willing to conduct Pagan funerals, and other funeral-related services. There is also a selection of recommended reading and useful links. Please note that we do not conduct funerals ourselves: please refer to the directory for a list of people who do.”