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Powditch Newsletter - January 2004
No. 9
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Hi there, and welcome to the first e-Newsletter of January 2004 .
Thank you very much indeed for all of your cards and news, and I hope that you and your family had a
lovely Christmas, and that it wasn't too stressful?!
Ang and her Mum (Phyllis Mary Smith nee Powditch) join me in wishing you all a wonderful, happy,
healthy (and wealthy if you're lucky!) 2004, and if you are planning to come to the Powditch Gathering
in September 2004, we look forward to seeing you there.
I do apologise for all of the paperwork etc included with my 2003 Christmas card and Newsletter, but
fortunately (or unfortunately) the Christmas mailing gave me the ideal chance to send you the details
re the * FIRST EVER * POWDITCH GATHERING at Morston, Norfolk, UK. from 17 to 19
September 2004. Hopefully you should have received your copy of everything by now, but if you
haven't (some may have gone astray) please let me know by return and I'll resend the
Card+Newsletter+details re the 2004 Gathering, by return. If you also know of any family member who
would like to have a copy of the annual Christmas card and Newsletter, if you could let me know their
address, I'd be very pleased to send them a copy.
As you will have noticed from the details on the Registration Form, etc., lots of planned events over
the 3-day period have been organised, and I'm hoping that there will be many family members
attending.
During some of my spare time (!!!) over the Christmas period (and since), I have managed to update
and amend several pages on the site, as well as add a couple of new pages, all as follows;-
 Although (on the Home page of the web-site) I previously showed updated Items highlighted with ! ! and New items highlighted by NEW this section has now been amended to read; All "NEW" and "Modified/Updated" items (formerly shown as ! !) will appear here for a couple of days, before being transferred to the alphabetical list below.
The Master list of Birthdays & Anniversaries (i.e. for the whole of 2004), as well as the individual months for 2004 have all been updated and amended (also highlighting 'special' Birthdays and Anniversaries) All mentions of Copyright have been amended to include the year 2004. The Copyright page has been updated and amended, and Policy details relating to the website in respect of Privacy, Data Protection as well as Compilation & Accuracy have been added to the same page. The 'Latest News' page has been revamped, and now 'Latest News' will only be for the current year, whilst separate (past) years will be accessible from the links shown, (i.e. News 2003 and News 2002). Hopefully this will enable the respective pages to open far quicker for you. The 'Guest Book' has been changed, and the questionnairre previously shown has now been deleted. From now on, you are invited to send any comments, queries etc to me by email by clicking on the link highlighted, and once I receive the comments etc, I will manually add names, basic details re place of residence (e.g. South Wales, UK; or Melbourne, Australia, etc), plus comments made (although only 'clean' ones will be placed on the web-page). The Guest Book Entries have all been updated (accessible from the Guest Book page). Besides the above, details re the 2004 Gathering at Morston, together with a copy of the
Registration Form, background details, the Itinerary , the Appeal and the Appeal Letter, will be
added to the site within the next week, and will be accessible from within the big blue box underneath
the 'Search this Site' section.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome Carol Stone from Northamptonshire (UK), Carol Powditch from
Santiago, Chile, Betty McGrath from Sydney, Derek McBride from Ontario, Canada, Rees Powditch
from Essex, Rebecca Powditch from Nottingham, Nicola Powditch from Scotland, Mick Powditch
from Lincolnshire, Graham Powditch from Hull, and Vincent Powditch from Scotland (together with
your wives, husbands, partners and families) to my monthly Powditch e-Newsletters, and I hope that
you will all enjoy the information which appears in each issue.
Further to the Questionnaire which appeared in the September and October e-Newsletters regarding
whether you wanted your email address to be included (or not) on a 'special page' on the website,
you will be aware that I advised that the majority were not in favour. I did however also state that for
those who requested that I did include their email addresses, I would add those details to an existing
page on the site, and then let everyone know once I uploaded them.
For the 4 Powditchs who requested 'inclusion', I have now added your email addresses on the
"Guest Page Entries" page (see www.powditch.plus.com/homepages/entries.htm) , but so that
you shouldn't receive any spam mail etc, anyone wanting to contact you will have to manually input
your email address in the 'To' box in Outlook Express (or whatever Email program you use). I hope
that this will be acceptable?
Now on a slightly different matter, it has been brought to my attention that a couple of items on the
website - which I had included in good faith and only with the permission of the families concerned -
had contained some descriptions of deceased individuals which had been incompatible with the
memories of a living family member. To this end I have amended the relevant details to omit those
descriptions, and I have also 'tidied up' other sections of concern.
Having re-looked at what had been written (not by me), albeit that it had been another's comments re
relatives, I do agree that not only were some of the comments 'frank' , but I do accept that if someone
directly related or descended from one of the mentioned ancestors was to read another's opinions,
even if the words were not 'defamatory', they certainly could prove to be inflammatory to certain
individuals. As someone so rightly said a little while ago, the internet is a very public arena, and it is
exceedingly easy to offend people without intending to do so.
Because it is not, and never has been, my intention to make 'enemies' in any shape or form (internet
or otherwise) I have removed all references on the respective pages which could, or might, offend
anyone. As I don't want to draw attention to the section involved, I won't state which it is, although the
living relative concerned will hopefully be pleased to receive my assurance about the amendments.
I also wish to apologise for any upset which may have been caused by my inclusion of the information,
although I do want to stress that the words were those of a very good Powditch friend (regrettably
now deceased) who is sorely missed.
Although the above is a rarity, I do wish to repeat the policy I have always used and made known on
past annual Newsletters, namely that whenever and wherever I have been provided with original
source material, unless that material in in the Public Domain (i.e. where anyone can have free access
to the information), I always ask as many living family members as possible for their permission for
my inclusion of their details. Sometimes (but very infrequently) the person I need to contact isn't
contactable, or chooses not to reply to me, and in those circumstances I use my discretion, which is
usually not to include the details until I do have an answer.
I trust that the above will be to the satisfaction of the descendant who contacted me.
Further to the above, I have amended the Copyright page on the website to include additional
information regarding my 'Policies' re the subjects of "Privacy", "Data Protection" and "Compilation
& Accuracy", which hopefully will clarify matters both from the past, in the present and for the future.
Right now, I must apologise for letting my enthusiam getting the better of me in my last emailing, for
at the time, I honestly believed that by 31 December 2003, the number of visitors to the site by then,
would have reached 5000. The figure actually reached was 4601, but despite my incorrect
forecast (!) the figure nevertheless is most impressive for a period of less than one year (the website
was one year old on 17 January 2004, at which point, the number of Visitors had reached 5179), and
I am truly most grateful for every Powditch as well as for every interested person who has visited the
www.powditch.plus.com website during the past year, and who has discovered so much about
their wonderful and fascinating family history. Thank you.
Indeed, thank you for everything during 2003, and here's wishing you and your family a wonderful and
healthy 2004 (and, of course, a fantastic Powditch Gathering in September).
John
P.P.S. Although the e-Newsletter is a totally free update regarding 'happenings/changes' to the web-
site, if there should be any particular reason you do not wish to continue receiving a copy of it, perhaps you could e-mail me and let me know? I'd also be most grateful for any details you may know
about re births, marriages, deaths, illnesses, change of addresses, achievements, discovery
of family papers/documents on or about the Powditch family etc, or anything else. Also, if you
know of any family members who are now 'on-line' and who have an e-mail address, I'd be
grateful for their details.
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