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Craven Indexes was formally
known as Dovelands Publishing. In 2007 the name
was changed to Craven Indexes.
The reason for the name change was mainly to
reflect what the website was all about, that is
a collection of Indexes from Church Records and
Graveyards in and around Craven, Skipton in the
Yorkshire Dales.
The indexes have been compiled over the past 30
years Josie Walsh and the website is maintained
by her son Mark.
Josie lives in Cononley nr Skipton and has been
researching Family History & Local History for
over 30 years.
Mark lives in Cowling nr Skipton and has been
involved with Cowling local history for many
years and is also webmaster for
www.skiptonweb.co.uk & www.cowlingweb.co.uk
Craven Indexes is more or less a hobby website
that started when Josie started to publish the
indexes so that others could share the
information that she has transcribed over the
past 30 years.
The indexes were first published in A5 booklet
format but before long more and more people were
emailing asking questions so in 2004 Mark
pointed out that family history is been done on
the computers and also online so why not make
the indexes available online?
Josie agreed so Mark converted all the indexes
in to Adobe PDF Files and built the website. |
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I was born in
1949 the eldest of seven children . The only
reason I got involved with family history was
due to a disease called Friedrich's Ataxia. Two
of my younger sisters were both diagnosed with
the disease as children, and after being told it
was genetic, and that it was possible that 1st
cousins had married, I set out to trace the
family backwards to find a connection, which to
date has never been proved.
30 years ago family history was not a very
common interest, so I had to start from scratch.
Libraries, Archives and graveyards soon became
my second home, and I started to get involved
with at that time a new Bradford Family History
Society, which proved to be the best grounding
for family history. From this other societies
were joined when a family were found to be from
somewhere else, so the net got a lot wider as
the family were found to be from places like
Scotland, Derbyshire, West Midlands, and even
Ireland, the information was put onto family
trees, which got bigger by the year as more
research was done.
Family history is now a lot easier to access due
to the internet and computers, and for the past
few years I have been busy inputting most of my
numerous family history indexes for the Silsden,
Kildwick & Skipton areas onto computer. This
should make it a lot easier for future
generations to access. The knowledge gained from
30 years of research, now enables me to help
others with there family research, from which I
get a lot of satisfaction from.
Although ill health has slowed me down a little
bit, I’m kept busy transcribing records for the
local area, and my knowledge is now put to good
use as Cowlingweb's resident genealogist, plus
other local societies and libraries. |
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If it is not one
thing! It is your Mother! From a young age I
remember being dragged along with my mum's
interest in what I now call "Dead People"
spending most weekends and school holidays
looking around graveyards and record offices.
Growing up around my mum doing family history
and research I never really took much interest
in it but what I did find very interesting was
the old photos of people and places that my mum
came across on our travels. As I have grown up
the love for old photos has grown and I have
also found a great interest in taking photos
myself. I would not go as far as to say I am a
photographer, it is more a hobby / interest and
it is not unusual to find me and mum walking
round graveyards - mum taking interest in the
family history with me taking photos of
graveyards, inscriptions and churches.
I am one of the founding members of the Cowling
local history group, Moonrakers, and have a
great interest in not only Cowling village
history but also the history of the surrounding
area as well as the people who made the history
for us to discover. I have been known to look up
family history enquiries for people, although I
would rather leave the dead people for mum to
look into for me. I am also the owner and
webmaster of Cowlingweb.co.uk which was launched
in 2001 and has grown with the help and support
of many local and not so local people who have
stumbled across Cowlingweb while researching
their family or local history and with their
help the site continues to grow and develop.
Building the website for me made so much sense,
with the large amount of people using the
internet to trace family history and my mum
having all the indexes and research on hand,
added to by my web design skills why not bring
it all together and offer a truly personal
research service. |
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