Notes

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NOTES and information about the church pages at this website.

Previously we have spent a lot of time answering e:mails not just about this website but about genealogy in general.   In order to reduce this workload we have put the most Frequently Asked Questions here with their answers.   Please remember this website is not an information site about family history research - it is simply a site with photographs of places.

We are still working on these notes
Cameras/Equipment Church Appeals
 Church Websites Copying photos
Copyright Conditions Digital Photos Donations Downloading Photos
E:mails to us Errors
 Gravestones
 History/Information
Mailing Lists Memorials Permission to Publish Photo Date
Photo Names search Photo Sizes
 Resolution
 Running Costs
Spelling Mistakes Surnames & Titles Thumbnails
 Why!?
Your Research Your Photos Your Website



Cameras/Equipment

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We have used three cameras to take our photographs - an Olympus superzoom 130S (35mm film), a Panasonic NV-DS11 video camera with the facility for taking photographs, and latterly a Pentax Optio 550 (digital).

Although the Olympus and Pentax offer many options, we tend to only use the standard 'point and shoot'.   They are simple and quick to use which is great for us as we are not professionals!

The Panasonic video camera is great for close up detail - up to 400x zoom, so we can capture images out of reach of the other cameras. However, the downside is the photograph quality is very poor.



Church Appeals

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Every church we have visited is in need of money for the upkeep of the building.   Some churches have been standing for hundreds of years, and repairs must be made properly, using specific materials, following correct procedures, all of which takes a lot of time and a great deal of money.

We would be pleased to add details of fundraising appeals to a church page, so please contact us if you can give us the necessary information.

And, of course, we are sure any donations you wish to make to a church will be greatfully received.



Church Websites

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Some of our church pages have a link to that church's own website.   If you know an address for a church we do not have a link for, please send us details so we can amend our page.   Thank you.

We have a list of websites for villages and churches at   Other Websites.



Copying/Downloading photographs

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We are happy for you to copy and download any of our own photographs.   Please read   copyright conditions.

Always copy the full size photograph - click on the thumbnail to view it.   Look at the number in brackets under the thumbnail - this will tell you how large the photograph is in kb.   Basically, the larger the number the better the quality, but the longer it will take to download.

The non-digital photographs are usually bigger than the digitals and thus better quality; you can zoom in to see much more detail.

Some pages have both stills and digital photographs of the same object - this is for you to choose the quality which best suits your needs.   Viewing a photograph on your computer screen does not necessarily give an indication to the print quality.



Digital Photographs

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This section is about the digital photographs are taken using a Panasonic NV-DS11 video camera, using the 'photo' option.   Our digital photographs are indicated by having a 'Digi' in front of their name (in the photo names search they have a 'D' in front of the photo number, eg D001). (Later photographs taken with the digital Pentax are not indicated as digitals so these notes only refer to those taken with the video camera.)   Ditigal photographs of small objects are generally just about ok, but for larger objects the quality is extremely poor.

Until we bought our latest Pentax camera we used the video camera to take the majority of our photographs of memorials and gravestones simply because to have used the stills camera meant developing and printing costs were too prohibitive.   We simply would not have taken these photographs, and so consider these poor quality photographs better than none at all.   We hope to eventually replace all our Digi photographs with 'proper' photographs but of course it does mean re-visiting places we have already been to and it is very time consuming.

You will see some digital photographs have the whole object and also part of it enlarged - this is usually an inscrition or carving where the whole picture could not be read so we zoomed in to capture the detail.

The digital camera is brilliant for zooming in very close and it can pick up far more detail than our other cameras.   We have photographed some memorial and gravestone inscriptions which we couldn't see without the aid of the zoom.   The drawback of zooming in so close is we can only take a small section of the object at a time and all the photographs taken must be put together later on the computer like a jigsaw.   This leads to the finished photograph being rather untidy where the lines meet or the colours don't match or the size of letters is different.   It can make the photograph look rather odd, but it does at least mean we can read the inscription.

One particular photograph was a nightmare to paste together.   The memorial (in Christian Malford Church) was fairly high up a wall - this gives problems with perspective; the top of the object is further away so is smaller in the photograph.   The inscription was so faded we didn't think it could be read, but zoomed in close to take a look.   We found the camera could pick up more than the eye could, so we decided to photograph it before the inscription was lost forever.   77 (yes seventy-seven) photographs later we had finished, but the fun was yet to come.   Fitting all these pieces together - getting the angles and sizes right - was a nightmare but at least Mandy learnt a lot about manipulating photographs on the computer.   The end product looks rather clumsy, but at least the inscription can be read.



E:mails

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Through necessity we have drawn up a guide line about e:mailing us

    please don't ask us to help with your research.   We don't have enough time to do our own let alone yours!
    please don't ask how to start researching your family tree.   There are plenty of websites than can help you, but this site is not one of them.
    please don't ask about obtaining certificates, microfiche etc.   We have never ordered any on-line, so do not know the procedure.
    please don't ask about people named in the photographs or texts.   We have no personal knowledge of them so cannot give you any more details.
    please don't ask about the histories of churches.   We do not research a church - just photograph it.
    please don't ask us about employing researchers - we have never needed one so do not know any.

Sorry to sound so negative, but we are frequently asked these questions and we simply do not want to spend time answering them as it is stopping us doing other things.

There are a number of websites to help you with your research and, basically, ours isn't one of them - we just take photographs!   Try visiting the Rootsweb Guide to Tracing your Family Tree at   Rootsweb.com.   Mailing lists are excellent for asking for help.

Please note our virus software means e:mails received with an attachment may be automatically deleted.   Please accept our apologies if you have previously sent an attachment to us and we have not acknowledged receipt - it was probably deleted, unopened, and therefore without us being able to view your e:mail address to reply.   This is one way we try to prevent viruses infecting our computer.

If you do contact us, please be assured we will reply although it may take sometime.   This is not a business, it is our hobby and it has to fit around our already busy lives.   e:mail us



Gravestones

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We have many photographs of gravestones on our website.   We have photographed them to preserve their detail and allow future generations to view their ancestor's commemoration.   Another good reason for photographing them is over the last few years graveyards have been inspected for safety issues and, basically, unless a gravestone is totally secure in its foundations it is put flat on the ground (usually with the inscription downwards to prevent erosion).

People have different opinions on whether it is morally right to publish photographs of gravestones without the families consent and we have given the matter a great deal of thought ever since starting this project.   Of course we cannot contact each family and even if we were able to we are sure different members would have different opinions anyway.

We want to explain here our reasons for publishing the photographs.   You may not agree with them and if you see a gravestone of your family on our pages and want it removed we will do so.   We do ask that before you contact us you give consideration to the following, and ask other family members if they also want it removed because their opinion may be different to yours and you will be depriving them and future generations of seeing the photograph.   By writing these notes we are not trying to justify ourselves because we are secure in our belief that we are doing the right thing, but we do want to explain.

Please be assured we never intrude on a grave, we are always respectful because we know a loved human being was laid to rest at this place.

Churches are considered to be public places and as such we do not need permission to take photographs.   Out of politeness and respect we do ask someone at a church if we may take photographs and put them on our web pages.   No church has ever refused, in fact, they have all been most welcoming and are pleased a record is being made.

We have received hundreds (if not into the thousands) of e:mails since we started photographing gravestones thanking us for publishing the photographs.   We have received four from people objecting to having their loved one's commemoration being photographed (which were removed immediately).   We have received many e:mails requesting we add more photographs so their loved ones are included in our pages.

People write to tell us it feels like they are visiting the grave when they view the photograph and how comforting it is to know they can visit their loved one's grave whenever they want to just by using their computer.   They tell us how pleased they are that the person's life is continuing to be commemorated.

We have heard how people have been searching for a lost family member and found them thanks to our photographs.   It is good to hear these moving stories and humbling that we have been part of their resolution.

Many e:mails have been from people not being able to physically visit a grave because they live too far away or are too ill, but now feel they can, again, visit the grave.

Gravestones can provide so much more information for the genealogist than an entry in a Parish Record.   The older a gravestone becomes the harder it is to read the inscription, so we try to photograph all gravestones that are readable, even if they are recent or if the inscription is difficult to read.   Our photographs are intended to capture these inscriptions before they succumb to our British weather.

We have had many discussions about whether we should photograph recently placed gravestones for fear of upsetting family members.   The conclusion we came to is if we are taking photographs to preserve the memory for the future then we should include more recent stones.   These photograhs will be taken whilst a stone is still readable, and clean, and in good condition, which is surely how we would want all our loved one's commomoration to be remembered.

Although the photographs are publically available it is our experience that the only people who look at a particular gravestone are those who either know or think it belongs to their family.   Looking at the thousands of photographs on hundreds of pages of gravestones for people they don't know is simply not something people do.

Our conclusion is that having a gravestone to mark a burial place is a way of publically allowing the memory of the person to live on.   We feel we are helping that cause and are preserving that memory through the medium of photography.   If you still feel you want a photograph of your family to be removed please e:mail us and we will remove it as soon as we are able.



History/Information

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Any information we give - ie dates - is generally taken from a history guide/leaflet obtained from the church.   Our interests are not in researching a history of a church, but photographing it.   We gladly give our opinions - but this is not fact.

It is a big responsibility to publish something as fact and must be well researched so as not to give false information.   With this in mind, our respect goes to individuals who have produced the leaflets which are found in so many of the churches.   We have been permitted to copy some of these histories - our thanks go to the authors who have agreed to our doing this.   (If you have written a history of a church we have on our list and would like to see it published on the internet - we will be happy to hear from you!)

Another source of information is the John Aubrey book Wiltshire Collections.



Errors

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If you spot a mistake, please let us know.   There are bound to be errors in the 2202 pages we have at this site!   Spelling mistakes happen, and it is easy to misinterpret a name on a worn inscription.   And although we try to test each page to make sure the links work before we put it on site, some have later been found not to work.   If you don't tell us about these errors, they will probably stay unfixed, so please take the time to drop us a line telling us which page and what the error is.   Thank you     e:mail us



Mailing Lists

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Mailing lists are an excellent way of seeking help with your research, as well as finding other people researching the same names you are.   They are free to join, so excellent value too!   We have some listed at   Mailing Lists   on our 'Links' page.

Mailing lists basically work like this:   you subscribe to a list for the region you are researching and you will receive a copy of every e:mail that is sent to the list.   And, of course, you can send your own e:mail to the list.

E:mails tend to take three forms:   asking a question, answering a question or posting surnames interests.

Ask your questions and someone will probably be able to help you - fellow listers are always helpful and some have a wealth of knowledge about genealogy.

It can be rewarding to post your surname interests, along with the area of your research.   This is a great way of finding other people who are researching the same name you are, and we're sure most people on the lists will have met a relative this way - we have!   Not only will you have found a new relative, but you can compare and swap information with each other.

The two lists we used the most are WessexPlus and Moonrakers.   WessexPlus covers (roughly) the south of England, whilst Moonrakers deals solely with Wiltshire.   Both are helpful and deal with genealogy.   Moonrakers also concerns itself with more broader Wiltshire matters, and those who have been on the list a long time have come to appreciate and enjoy the humour too!   [Whilst Moonrakers does not charge for subscription, it does ask its members to send a postcard of a tourist location where they live once a year to the List Owner, John Feltham.   Wouldn't you just love to be John's postman!?   These postcards are then passed on to a local primary school and I'm sure the children love them.   What a brilliant way to learn about the world.]



Memorials

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We try to photograph every memorial inside a church to preserve them for future generations to see.   Memorials usually give more valuable information than can be found from other sources like parish records.   Some memorials are now rather worn and cannot be read; sometimes the camera can pick up words that are not noticed by the eye, so we zoom in close to take photographs of small bits at a time.   This means the photographs must be joined together later, rather like a doing a jigsaw puzzle but the result is often untidy and colours/words/edges don't match.   See   Digital Photographs   for more information.



Running Costs and Donations

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For the first five years our website was hosted free of charge by force9.co.uk.   Although it cost us money to run (dial-up, printing and developing costs for film) we always considered it to be our hobby and everyone spends money on their hobbies.   However, as the website grew too big they could no longer host it so it was closed down.   In order to find a new host willing to support such a big website we had to start paying fees.

Now the expenses have become too much and we have decided to accept contributions should anyone think our work is worth supporting.   If you would like to make a donation you can do so by clicking here:   Donate

To give you an idea of the cost of this website, here's the lowdown on the basics since we have paid out since the new site opened in April 2004 to the time of writing this in July 2007.

Web host* fee - £159.74
Broadband ** - £759.60
Broadband modem, activation fee, hub and micro-filters - £116.00
Total in the first 40 months of running this website: £1035.34
Total received to date from donations - £36.00

* We use Streamline.net. Their fee for the unlimited package (essential considering our website is over 15GB) is £44.99 + vat per year or £67.98 + vat for two years paid in advance
** We use BT Broadband.   When we first took it out is was £19.99 a month, but has since reduced to £17.99 per month; we can't remember when the fee changed so have calculated the above figure based on the average £18.99 per month.   Also one-off setting up and hub/equipment fees.
As you can see we're not making our fortune and the above total doesn't even include the amount we spend on petrol, electric, wear and tear on the computer, cameras and scanners.   The camera is of course for family use too, but so far the Pentax has taken in excess of thirty thousands photos and our family use is only a tiny small fraction of that amount.   For the camera we've also bought four dedicated batteries and 6 memory cards (1 x 2gb, 1 x 512kb and 4 x 256 kb), which roughly gets us through one day's worth of photography without having to re-charge the battery or delete non-useable photos.   Maybe the most costly expense is that Mandy doesn't have paid employment because of the work she does on the website.   It is virtually a full time job.   We're too frightened to think how much money Mandy's skills could have financially contributed to the household income because we're sure she would immediately go out and find a paid job and thus effectively the website would never progress.



Permission to Publish

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Before publishing our photographs on the internet we ask permission from the church to do so.   We need not actually seek permission from parish churches as they are public buildings but we consider it only polite and respectful to do so.   It is easier for us to ask people directly rather than find an adress to write to, and Saturdays are good for meeting people because of all the cleaning and flower arranging going on ready for Sunday worship.   If we can find nobody to ask, we simply drive on to the next village.   Mostly our request receives a positive answer, but occasionally further permission needs to be sought from church meeting.   No church has ever said we cannot publish our photographs, and in fact, most welcome our project.

If you belong to a church that is local to us which we have not yet photographed we would be very pleased to hear from you.   Organising permission, finding out which churches are locked/unlocked all takes up time, time which we would rather spend taking photographs or writing the web pages.   We would welcome an invitation!



Photograph Date

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We record the month and year a photograph is taken, and show this somewhere on the page (usually under the photograph).



Photo Names search

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We record each name that appears on every photograph and have compiled a searchable list by surname - currently over thirty eight thousand entries.   These lists will tell you the photograph number and a link will take you to the page the photograph appears on and sometimes to the actual line too.   For more information, go to   See more information.

We have extended the search to include not just the photographs, but also other pages such as lists of rectors, the Aubrey pages etc, in fact, any page where names are mentioned.



Photograph Sizes

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There are two sorts of photograph sizes - the space they take to store, and the physical size of a print.

We do not record the print size, but we do note the file size under each photograph to give you an indication of  a.  how long it will take to download and   b.  how good the quality of that photograph will be should you choose to view or print it.

The file size is shown as, for example, (600k).   Basically, the larger the number the longer it will take to download, but the more detail you can see and the print quality will be better.

Viewing a photograph on screen doesn't necessarily show you the quality at which it will print.   Looking at the same photograph stored at 200k and 800k may not appear very different on screen, but the print quality will be different and you will be able to zoom in and see much more detail with the 800k photograph.

A file size is not necessarily relate to the actual print size of a photograph.   As an example if you scan a standard size photograph at 200dpi the file size may be around 300k.   If you scan the same photo at 600dpi file size may be around 800k.   Likewise, you can take a digital photograph of the same thing using different quality settings and this will give you two different file sizes.

In each case if you print the photograph at the same size you will find the quality of the larger file size will be much better than that of the lower file size.

If you print a photograph it is adviseable to check what size it will print, using the Print Preview option, because a computer will usually print a larger file size larger than a small file size - it doesn't understand the concept of quality!

We hope we haven't confused you too much!



Resolution

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The older photographs on the website were taken using a 'stills' camera then scanned at 400 dpi (dots per inch).   This should give a reasonable quality when printing, or when zooming in to see detail more closely.



Surnames & Titles

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People's Titles confuse us - sometimes they are the same as a surname and sometimes they aren't.   We know we will have some surnames wrong and will be pleased to learn the correct one, likewise if we only have a title listed and you know the surname of a person, perhaps you will let us know.   Thank you     e:mail us



Thumbnails

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Thumbnails are just a small version of the full size photograph.   Click on the thumbnail to see the full size photograph.   Because thumbnails are generally less than 10k in size, it means a page will load much quicker than if full size photographs are displayed.

Thumbnails are not suitable to copy as the quality is so poor.   If you do want to download (copy) a photograph, click on the thumbnail to view the full size photograph, then copy this larger one.

Before you click on the thumbnail it may be useful to note the file size of a large photograph (written underneath) so you know how patient you have to be while waiting for it to load.   Some file sizes are large and will take a long time to appear on your screen.



Why!?

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So why go to all the bother of producing these pages for the internet?   There are three main reasons - Conservation, Genealogy, and an Experience.

The reason we have taken so many photographs of each church rather than just a couple of shots is mostly due to John Aubrey.   He travelled around Wiltshire in the 1660s and visited many churches; he copied inscriptions and had sketches made of monuments.   These notes were later researched and updated by John Jackson and a book of their combined work published in the 1880s.   We have a copy of this book (Mandy's pride and joy!) and have seen some of the 'original' monuments Aubrey describes.   However, some 340 years have passed since Aubrey looked at them and many are now faded so much the inscriptions can no longer be read, or the carving has crumbled.   Because of Aubrey's enthusiasm and dilligence we have a record of inscriptions and monuments, and even sketches of buildings that have long since been demolished.

We remember this when we are at a church.   John Aubrey's legacy has been to encourage us to take photographs as a record of what might become lost, to capture detail and preserve it for future generations.

We joined a mailing list called Moonrakers, which is for people whose genealogical research area is Wiltshire.   We had some photographs of a few local churches from where other member's families originated and we offered to e:mail a copies to them.   Our offers were eagerly accepted and at one point we e:mailed the same dozen photographs to about fifteen people and thought there had to be a better way of going about it, especially as our telephone bill was growing rapidly.   The idea of starting our own website appealed - we could put our photographs on the site for people to download for themselves, and we would only have to send each photograph once.

At the same time as this decision was being made, we visited Stratton St. Margaret Church where Mandy's relatives can be traced back to the early 1600s and beyond.   She had spent many hours researching two particular names - the Leas and Kembles.  When we went to the church, Mandy sat in a pew and took in the surroundings, saw the hatchment of her ancestor, saw the chancel floor under which some had been buried.   These relatives had walked along the very aisle we now walked along, had sat in the very pews we were sat in.   Their marriages had been blessed here and no doubt they had cried at funerals.   Looking at the font, we knew that for centuries her family had stood at that very spot and smiled as their babies were christened.   It was a wonderful experience and made the facts she had collected come to life; it made these people real and so much more than simply a collection of names and dates.

We know there are a lot of researchers whose families originated in Wiltshire but they themselves live in another part of the world and cannot visit the church their own family had worshipped in.   We hope in some way our photographs will help them experience a bit of what we felt when we visited Mandy's family church.



Your Photographs

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Some people have been kind enough to offer their own church photographs to be included at our website, especially of churches we do not have any of ourselves.   After some thought we have decided to decline these offers.

We prefer to use our own photographs so have no need to worry about copyright, file sizes, writing dates and places on the photograph, cropping or altering them for light/shade etc.   Also we like to seek permission from the church before publishing photographs and unless you have already done so it is can be complicated for us trying to track down people to ask.   You might consider producing your own website showing your photographs - we will gladly put a link to it from ours.

We very much appreciate the gesture, and thank all those that have offered.



Your Research

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We do not have the facility at our website to include your family history details.

If you would like your research published on the internet perhaps you might consider creating your own website.   We would be happy to include a link from our Researchers Lists or the website lists (see website list).



Your Website

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We will be happy to add a link to your website, provided it is church/genealogy related!

See current list at:   Your Website.   Please send us the address and a short description of what can be found at the site.





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This page was last updated on 8th July 2007.