The Holmes Family History Society
Founded in the United Kingdom in 1991
by:
Tracey A. Mosley
of Peterborough, England.

The society now has a world-wide membership of around 80 people,
all with an interest in the history of their extended Holmes families. 
Almost 300 people have been members of the society at some time over the last 16 years.

When Tracey began the society it consisted of a group of people writing letters to each other
about their Holmes ancestors. Because Holmes is such a common name they were having
difficulty in finding the correct information.
Tracey decided to form the society and produce a
'Holmes Journal' the first one being September 1991.
At that time she had 20 people corresponding with each other.
Jean Watts came along in early 1994 and was number 24.
Some of these original members are still active in the society today:
Elaine Ward 2, Sue Leachman 3, Ann Jepps 6, Rosamund Fitton 9,
Andrew Donlan 10, Juanita Laird 18.
Jean Watts of Worksop in Nottinghamshire took over as Editor and producer of our well produced Journal. Tracey had contacts with the 'Family Tree Journal' people in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire and began to put adverts into their Journal about the 'Holmes Society' and quite a number of folks sent her parish record data in the hope of finding their ancestors. By this time Walter Holmes 46 in Accrington, Lancashire had joined the society and agreed to put the records onto a database. Since 1994 we have had 4 Journals each year.
There are over 11,000 Census records and nearly 16,000 Parish Register records on the database which was begun by Walter in Dbase 4. (thank you Walter)
David Holmes took over from Walter and David, the husband of Jean Watts transferred all the records onto an Access database, thus giving each person on the database a unique number permitting families to be identified. Peter Joslin (91) joined in the spring of 1995 when we had 90 members
and Jean was now the Editor and Membership Secretary.

Over the past ten years Jean and David Watts have been the driving force of our 'Holmes Society'.
As with all things, change has to happen if we are to 'move with the times' and stay viable.
Jean announced in 2006 that the December Journal was to be her last, She also asked for volunteers to
take on both the journal, and, some of the responsibilities of running the Holmes Society,
Needles to say, we have received NO such undertaking from our membership!
So the future of our Holmes Journal remains in doubt.
After some debate we have decided to continue with the Annual Subscription charge of
£5 or £10 for Overseas Airmail which is due each January in the form of a sterling cheque
made payable to the 'Holmes F. H. S.' 
This will cover the cost of the purchasing of the website and any printing and postage costs.

In response to Jeans plea Peter Joslin (91) suggested that we set up a Holmes presence on the
World-Wide-Web and he has now established this site at:
www.HolmesFHS.org.uk
This Website has commence with the last issue of the Holmes Journal as we have known it.
It is hard to think of not receiving the familiar Journal four times a year, It's still not too late;
Contact Jean if you can help:  holmesfhs@btinternet.com

The website will still need your input, so PLEASE continue to send Holmes items to Jean;
Articles, Newspaper cuttings, Your family history stories and Pictures
Jean has been so very good as editor of our journal that keeping the interest on this site
will soon become 'Childs play' for her.

Please send her items today (we all tend to forget by tomorrow)
                                                                                                                           webmaster