3. News

January 2016


We are starting the process of scanning all the photographs in the Archive to disk. The first task is to prioritise which photographs should take precedence. We may be looking for volunteers to help in what is likely to be a considerable task, once a new computer and scanner have been acquired.


3.0 Winston/Winstone Family History


Leicester University Genetics Department has a world-wide reputation for research into DNA, in particular into the characteristics of the Y chromosome, which is inherited from father to son down the ages.

The Y chromosome can be divided into a number of different groups, known as haplogroups, each of which indicate a different origin for people re-populating the British Isles after the last Ice Age and through historical times and indeed right up until today. Leicester University has recently (2009) had published the results of an investigation into the closeness of the relationship of peoples’ different surnames with the different categories of Y chromosome, using a sample of 40 different surnames (Founders, Drift, and Infidelity: The Relationship between Y Chromosome Diversity and Patrilineal Surnames by Turi E. King and Mark A. Jobling in Molecular Biology and Evolution, online at http://www.mbe.oxfordjournals.org/.).

One of the names investigated was Winstone and its variants Winston etc. 85% of the Winston(e)s in the sample were found either into haplogroup I (46%) or R1b1 (39%), broadly indicating either a NW European origin or a SW European origin before arriving in Britain.

As you may know there are 3 main groups of Winston(e)s in Britain originating in South Wales (Trewin, Monmouthshire), Gloucestershire (Winstone or Winson) and County Durham (Winston), plus a few others in Suffolk and Devon. Interestingly, in the 16th century a number of Trewin Winston(e)s settled in Gloucestershire along the Western edge of the Cotswolds and no doubt penetrated the Stroud Valley, some descendants moving later into Bristol and Somerset. Conversely in the 19th century a number of Gloucestershire Winston(e)s no doubt moved into South Wales in search of employment.

Reece Winstone’s family are Gloucestershire Winston(e)s who were asked to participate in the Leicester University Research survey. We lived in the parish of Bisley from the 16th century until the 20th century and our Y chromosomes were found to be part of haplogroup I. We would be fascinated to learn whether we are descended from the 16th century Welsh incomers or perhaps more likely from the original, probably Anglo-Saxon, immigrants into Gloucestershire in the 5th or 6th centuries.

If you are, or believe you are, of Welsh (Trewin) origin, and know or can ascertain your Y chromosome haplogroup, it would be very interesting to hear from you so that we can see what haplogroup the Welsh Winston(e)s fall into. If you are haplogoup I, the Welsh Winstones may be of Norman origin or even descend possibly from a small minority of neolithic settlers from NW Europe apparently found in Mid Wales.

For completeness a Cirencester Winstone’s DNA, the other main group of Gloucestershire Winstones, would add more to the knowledge of this surname heredity. DNA can be taken easily enough by a cotton bud from a test kit in the mouth, and sent to a lab. for analysis. Laboratories participating in the DNA Ancestry Project currently charge about £99 for detailed analysis.


3.1 Ordering Bristol As It Was Books


We no longer supply copies to national wholesalers owing to added transport costs, so if you are ordering from a bookshop outside Bristol, please ensure that your bookshop orders direct from us, rather than from their usual national wholesaler (such enquiries may register as ‘title not available’, when in fact it is!). Single orders from bookshops outside the Bristol area may be answered on a retail basis only to the bookshop, so to avoid possible added costs we recommend that you purchase direct from ourselves.


3.2 Archive News: The Blitz and Wartime letters


Reece’s diaries of the blitz have been transcribed and now form part of new Volume 45. Some war-time letters relating to his travels in the Low Countries have already been accepted by the Imperial War Museum.


3.3 The Terrell Album of Trade Cards

Readers who have volume 39 (Bristol Trade Cards - still available at £9.95) may be interested in further work on the 275 or so other English & Welsh trade cards in the album. These have now been indexed as a first step in their further assessment. We have added this index to our free download files (see para. 3.4 below - Datafile no. 5), as readers may like to print up the index and slip it in Volume 44. We also want to find a copy of If only Rope could Talk, (a history of rope making companies) published 1954, if anyony knows of a copy please let us know.


3.4 Receiving Data files and News of Publications


If you would like to receive one or more of the following files and occasional details of forthcoming publications when they are announced by email please contact me specifying your required download(s) and including your full name, and address (incl postcode). We will forward-on links to the specified downloads to legitimate enquiries only.
Your details to be held on our database, but these details will not be passed on to other organisations.

Datafile no. 1 - Abstract of the Holdings of the Reece Winstone Archive - 4KB
Datafile no. 2 - Published photos index general categories Section A – 80.6KB
Datafile no. 3 - Published photos index Section C, a zip file – 886KB
Datafile no. 4 - List of photographers of published photographs - Section I.xls (6,239 line list), to be read in conjunction with:
Datafile no. 5 - List of photographers names etc. relating to the above - Section J.xls (173 line list).
Datafile no. 6 - English & Welsh C19 Trade Cards in the Terrell album - Raw data index 1. Dec. 2014 on an Excel file, xlxs.

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