Family History Project

Recently we were contacted by Sarah Tremlett, with details of an interesting project in which some of our members may be interested, as follows. 

"My name is Sarah Tremlett, I am an artist, writer, short film-maker and researcher, and I have been researching my family history for around 25 years. You may recognise the name Tremlett as they were a Devon family from the time of William the Conqueror. They were mainly farmers and miners and in the Victorian era they ran papermills and a tannery in Exeter.

I am also a prize-winning poetry filmmaker (poetry films include poetry in short films, either spoken or text on screen with music) and I am co-director of Liberated Words (www.liberatedwords.com) which showcases poetry films. I have been collecting an archive of poetry films on family history see https://liberatedwords.com/category/famhistory/ and you will also see some of my own poems and films on there, too. One of my poems on one of my ancestors (and also a poetry film) is included in the poetry publication Earth Lines (October 2021). See also www.sarahtremlett.com

Pilot Project – Creativity and Family History

I have the opportunity to work on a small creative, pilot project, and as Crediton is quite central to The Tremlett background I would like to offer the chance to work with participants from your Family History group. 

As this is a pilot project it would really involve people who are open to coming forward with ways of expressing their family history, maybe through poetry, or short memoir, or painting or photographs, etc. It would suit those who have some background data already and would like to focus on a particular ancestor, for example, using details already gathered, and creating a fun or meaningful response.

Ideally between 4–6 people would work well, but less would be fine. Essentially, I am looking to think about the different ways we can share and communicate from what can be quite dry research. The group would help form the basis of the best way to develop such an idea, by their interests and suggestions as much as my own ideas. As we progress, we might also be gathering other facts such as how local families have changed or not over the years, or how farms have changed, for example. There is a lot of information that may or may not be valuable, and important to the wider community.

I realise that you are probably not open due to COVID. I myself, live in Bath, but if you wanted to meet in person for the first time, then that would be fine and I could come down to meet everyone for a morning, then I am very happy to communicate online via Zoom and this might be beneficial to some who are perhaps housebound etc.

If it proves successful, then I hope to have actual poems and artwork at the end to include on the website, but as this is a pilot project there is no pressure to do so.

I would envisage maybe five meetings staggered over a period of five  months, so that everyone has time to develop any aspect they think they would like to focus on. However, this is variable, as well.  It would potentially begin in April but could be later. There will be a small remuneration for those taking part.

I can always send further information if needed. Let me know what you think and I look forward to hearing from you.

With warm wishes

Sarah"

If you wish to be involved, please contact us and we will put you in touch with Sarah