Topics this issue include;
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| 1. Sad News (a) It is with great sadness and sorrow that I write to say that my wonderful mother-in-law, Phyllis Mary
Smith (nee Powditch) who was the instigator of all my Powditch research from approx 1985 to the
present day, as well as being the originator of the "Peerless Powditch" phenomenon, died in her
sleep, very peacefully, on Monday 14 February 2005 at 4.10am, aged 95 years old.
Mentally active up to 4 days before her death, she loved to participate in quizzes, answer
word-puzzles, do crosswords, and enter into many other mental matters - indeed, she often woke in
the middle of the night, and to keep her mind occupied (and try to get back to sleep) she would either
spell words backwards, or try and count down from 100 in 7's (or another figure)! Just try doing it
yourself, and you'll see how difficult it is - and yet she was in her 96th year!!!!!
Mum was born on 20 October 1909 in Cardiff, South Wales, UK, and she and her late husband,
Sydney Arthur Smith, had lived in that area until just after 1947, when Syd was promoted to become
Manager of 'Wagon Repairs (Swansea)'. Consequently, she and her family had all moved to this
area - which is also where Angela (their youngest child) was born; Ang being my wife, and therefore
my link to the Powditchs!
During the late 1950s/early 1960s, Mum bought a Grocery Store in Mumbles, which she ran for
several years aided by the family. Even though the business was later sold (and Mum 'retired'), she
always had different ideas/schemes for businesses right up to her end - only her physical problems
reigning her in (plus probably a lack of funding!)
Phyllis was a wonderful, loving Mother and best friend to each and every one of her four daughters,
Pamela, Shirley, Carole and Angela (and their spouses, David and myself) as well as a devoted,
caring and much loved Nana to all of her 4 grandchildren Gillian, Simon, James and Kristian (and
their spouses, Brian, and Andy) and 6 great-grandchildren, Karen, Albert, Edward, Rosie, Joshua
and Silke. To everyone who came into contact with Phyllis, all commented on what a lovely person
she was, and it is true to say that she will be much missed by so many, both family and friends alike.
Mum's funeral service is being held on Tuesday, 22 February 2005 at St. Mary's Church, Pennard,
Gower, Swansea at 10.50am, before going on to Swansea Crematorium at 12noon. For further
details regarding Phyllis, her funeral, flowers, donations and other matters, please could you either
email or telephone me. Thank you.
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Sad News (b)
I was so sorry to learn (in January) from Ian Powditch that his Mother, Ursula (widow of the late Rex
LeHuray Powditch) had died on 20 August 2004. I have already replied to Ian, and I have also added
the details to both; www.powditch.plus.com/News/index.htm (being the Latest News, page) and to
www.powditch.plus.com/Events/index.htm (which includes information relating to Births,
Engagements, Marriages, Deaths and Obituaries)
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| 2. Problems! Regrettably, throughout January, and up til now, I've had major problems with my main computer,
which has necessitated it having to be totally rebuilt - which has meant that apart from the saved
programs and files, everything else has been replaced. Unfortunately, despite the rebuild, I'm still
having major problems, which could mean that the computer has to be stripped down once again.
Hopefully things will be back to normal (whatever that is?!) in the not-too-distant future, although as
our household life has changed dramatically with Mum's passing, I do hope that you will forgive me
for any delays in amending sections of the Powditch website etc. I will be amending what I can, when
I can, but understandably there may be some delays.
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| 3. Welcome I'd like to welcome to this edition of the Powditch eNewsletters, the following who have contacted me
since the last issue;-
Tamsin L Powditch from the UK, who is the daughter of Haydn and Susan Powditch. (Tamsin emailed
me and asked to receive a copy of the monthly eNewsletters).
Robyn Lewis from Tasmania. Robyn's interest is in the Rawson family of England. (Thomas
Powditch, ancestor of both an Australian/New Zealand and Chilean branch of the family, died at a
Rawson family home in Stoney-Royd in 1804)
Des Hammill from the UK, who has a interest in Maori History. (Des emailed me to say that there
isn't much info on Maori History, although I have lots of references on my website. I will be letting Des
know lots of sources soon, for there's many libraries etc holding useful information)
Pamela Wainman who has a family connection with the Chipperfield family, some members of
whom married POWDITCHs. (Details of the Chipperfield/Powditch connection are viewable at
www.powditch.plus.com/PeerlessPowditch/chapter_10.htm on pages 112-113, although I will
be contacting Pamela soon with more info)
Murray Macdonald from South Africa, who is a descendant of Angus Powditch Macdonald.
(Details of the inclusion of the Powditch surname within that of Macdonald, are viewable at
www.powditch.plus.com/Connections/index.htm although I am yet to discover how the Powditch
surname came to be included within the illustrious family of Macdonald. I will be in touch with Murray
soon, so might have something to report on by the time of my next eNewsletter)
Apologies to Des, Pamela and Murray for my silence (or rather, in not having replied to their emails)
but regrettably due principally to Computer problems as highlighted above (as well as the death on
Monday of my Mother-in-law), I am a more than a little behind (no rude comments please!!!), but hope
to be up to date soon.
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| 4. Website update Since my last eNewsletter (No.19), there have been a number of changes, one of which saw - on
14 December 2004 - the introduction of a NEW Powditch website (well, new-look anyway).
Although still accessed from www.powditch.plus.com/ individual 'sections' will now have to be
accessed in a slightly different way.
The new 'sections' require their individual 'names' to be entered after the / and include the following
(which are extra to those referred to in my last eNewsletter, of which copies are still available on
request);-
1. 2004PowditchGathering/
2. AliasPowditch/
3. BirthdaysandAnniversaries/
4. homepages/
5. PeerlessPowditch/
6. WellsNextTheSea/
7. WilliamPowditch/
8. Events/
9. FAQs/
10. Jouvelet/
11. ListsDigestsandForums/
12. Military Service/ (NEW ADDITION to the website)
13. Missing/
14. TheCreakes/ (NEW ADDITION to the website)
- most of which need the words index.htm inserted after the forward slash ( / ) in order to access
those topics, other than, that is, with the exception of
a. AliasPowditch/ which has to be followed by account.htm
b. PeerlessPowditch/ which has to be followed by peerless_powditch.htm
To give you a couple of examples for the above, No.2 (AliasPowditch) will now be accessed from
www.powditch.plus.com/AliasPowditch/account.htm whilst the indexes for WilliamPowditch
(i.e. No.7) will be accessed from www.powditch.plus.com/WilliamPowditch/index.htm
Hopefully the changes will give you easier access to the various sections. By creating separate
'sections' for each topic, I have been able to create, amend and update/upload them much quicker.
All links to 'old' (i.e. pre-14 December) pages have now been deleted; so if you had previously
created 'Favourites' or had 'bookmarked' them, please will you note that you will need to remove
those items, and will have to 'create' new 'Favourites' or 'bookmarked' pages. Any further changes
will be advised in future eNewsletters.
Incidentally, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know whether (or not) you've had any 'problems' with
any links, or with pages not opening - including your receiving Code 404 [page not found] messages!
I'd also be very happy to hear from you with any comments, suggestions for additional pages,
changes, or layouts etc.
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| 5. eNewsletters In my November/December 2004 eNewsletter (No.19) I advised that the eNewsletters would, from
that month onwards, be issued as frequently as I'm able to, which could mean that you'd receive one
message per month, or one per 2 months.
Although nothing has 'changed' to that situation, I do want to advise that I have reverted to the
eNewsletters being in 'HTML' rather than 'Plain Text' format - the reason being that many recipients
made comments that all information appeared in one narrow-width column and took up too many
pages when being printed! Hopefully by returning to HTML format the page(s) will be more legible
and use up less paper should you print them.
As you will note from the heading above, it is my intention to retain eNewsletters' numbering
sequence (and also to show which month[s] the No. relates to). As before, all issued eNewsletters
will also be added to the News/ section of the website.
Finally, although the e-Newsletter is totally free, and is an update regarding 'happenings/changes' to
the Powditch website, should there be any particular reason you do not wish to continue receiving
copies, please will you e-mail me and let me know?
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| 6. Family Trees In my last eNewsletter I mentioned my concerns regarding the birth and marriage dates etc of living
persons, and advised that "Although on some of the webpages - such as family trees which include
living family members - I had previously included some birth and marriage details (freely provided
to me), I have become increasingly aware that both on the internet, as well as through other
media, 'identity theft' has seen a worrying increase".
Since writing the latter, and since the uploading of the 'new' website, I have removed all family trees
from the website. I am aware that the removal has already caused a problem to one website user
(although thankfully I was able to assist directly once I'd been contacted), but would advise that your
'security' continues to be of utmost importance to me.
Despite the former, I would wish to remind all Powditchs and their descendants that in the past I have
always added my 'policy' - regarding the disclosure of information I have and hold - to the end of my
annual snail-mail Newsletter. Unfortunately due to space, I omitted to include the reminder this year,
so I have added the statement at the end of this email, and would draw your attention to the policy' -
especially where "information regarding individual or collective family members is in the 'Public
Domain', e.g. Telephone Directories, Trade Directories, Electoral Rolls, Civil Registration (Birth,
Marriage, Death Registration), Wills and Administrations, or in pre-1911 Census returns, or in any
other similar printed documents".
As soon as I am able to, I will be recreating all of the family trees, and hopefully (once I've completed
them) they will be much easier to use and read. This is going to take quite a while however, so I do
hope that you will bear with me re that, and should you have any questions re any of the branches of
the family, if you email or telephone me, I'll be pleased to help on a more personal basis.
Furthermore, should you have any concerns regarding any aspect of the above, I would welcome
your constructive comments.
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| 7. Questionnaires Apologies for asking, but if you have yet to fill in and return the Questionnaires I included with my
Christmas 2004 Card and Newsletter etc, I'd be most grateful if you could do so, and send them to
me soon. To date, of the 180+ I sent out, I have only had about 20 back, and as some of the questions
relate to the Powditch Archive after my death, as well as the frequency and format of future Powditch
Gatherings, I'd appreciate your replies, especially as I will (hopefully) be soon be putting together a
second Powditch Gathering (in Norfolk) for the year 2006.
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| 8. Can you help? 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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| 9. Reminder Reminder re my 'policy' re information held by me relating to individual members of the Powditch
family, and to those connected to the family through marriage etc
"I do want to reassure all of 'my' Powditch and nee Powditch individuals and families, that any details
I hold, currently research or have researched in the past, whether held by me in the hundred's of A4
files, or entered onto any form of database or 'family tree' etc (handwritten, typed or computer
generated) will not be passed to any person or Organisation, (Powditch or non-Powditch) except
with the express permission of the individual(s) concerned, and then only with their permission being
in writing. Also, that any information contained in any letters, cards, 'Peerless Powditch' volumes etc,
or in any other documentation generated by myself with regard to current and past members of the
Powditch family is not to be used in any form without my express written permission; all material
being held registered 'Copyright' by myself. Where information regarding individual or collective
family members is in the 'Public Domain', e.g. Telephone Directories, Trade Directories, Electoral
Rolls, Civil Registration (Birth, Marriage, Death Registration), Wills and Administrations, or in
pre-1911 Census returns, or in any other similar printed documents, I cannot be held responsible for
other persons making contact with yourselves by whatever means, but I can assure you that all those
details held by me are not seen by any other party, and that all wishes for confidentiality (other than in
circumstances previously mentioned) are, and will, be constantly maintained by me".
John C. Algar
Further to the above, and as much Powditch information is currently contained on and within the
Powditch website, it is only right of me to state that with the exception of the Chilean section of the
site (please see next section for explanation), all other information has either been personally
researched by myself only, or by myself with others, and that all such research, information and
details have been reproduced on the website with permissions.
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| 10. Chilean section of the website; The facts and current situation. With regards to the Chilean section of the website (www.powditch.plus.com/Chile/index.htm) and
of its various Memoirs, Notes, Trees, etc mentioned therein, whilst I do have (but it has not yet been
added to the website) much researched information relating to the forbears of that branch of the family,
I would state that all of the present information included at www.powditch.plus.com/Chile/index.htm
was freely and willingly provided to me by the late Robert James Powditch of Stamford, for the
purpose of undertaking further research into his family and their history and for my producing a
definitive account of same; a history of which he was ever so proud.
Furthermore, before I created any of the Chilean section, I had tried on several occasions to make
contact (phone, fax and letter) with Robert's sister (Carol E Powditch Tornero in Santiago, Chile) in
order to discuss the items with her, but due to her not replying or responding to any of my
communications, I approached Robert's UK descendants and had shown them what I was hoping to
include on the website, and it was only with their full agreement that I actually reproduced all of the
said and included Memoirs, Notes, Trees, etc, including the personal Memoirs of the late Robert
Powditch, which were vetted by them before being included; such inclusion being in their original
format, and not amended by me in any shape, form or context.
Whilst I freely acknowledge that I have not been to Chile, nor have I ever undertaken personal
research within that fine and most interesting Country (although I would dearly love to go there and
undertake research) it is true to state that past and present members of the Powditch family and
members of connected families in that country, have undertaken varying amounts of research, and it
is from their documents, papers and letters that the Chilean section of the website has been created.
In December 2003 I was contacted by email by Carol E. Powditch Tornero of Santiago, Chile, with
what can only be described as a most vociferous and vile message, the contents of which greatly
upset myself and my family, especially as the message was received on Christmas Eve (so much for
it being the season of Good will!)
Following discussions with both Ang and with Robert's son Andrew, I replied to Carol in friendship
and with love, promising to give her message attention; which is what I did on both 25 Dec 2003 and
on 8 Jan 2004, only to receive yet another nasty message on 2 Feb 2004. My emails to her of 3 Feb,
and 15 Oct 2004 (plus the Sept/Oct eNewsletter sent on 1 Nov 2004) went unanswered, or rather,
unresponded to, until two messages were sent by her on 1 January 2005 - again vociferous, vile,
nasty, and making wild accusations about me as well as besmirching my good name.
Whilst it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to put a block on all incoming emails from
Carol, I am still of the belief that everyone viewing the Powditch website is entitled to their own views,
and that I also welcome criticism - both good and bad; either way, constructive - and I believe that for
me to deny anyone their viewpoint would amount to dictatorship on my part.
Furthermore, up til the point when General Pinochet was put under house-arrest in England some
4 years ago (approx), Carol had always been so friendly towards me, and we had had lots of good
telephone conversations (sometimes an hour long), lots of letters and cards between us, as well as
a long tape-recording made by her and sent to me, and promises of lots more papers and documents
she'd be sending, and of research she was hoping to do re various members of the family in Chile, all
of which she stated that she'd send on to me. And then, following that event in England, everything
changed. I couldn't make contact with her, despite many phone calls and faxes. Cards and snail-mail
Newsletters went unanswered, as did advice to her regarding my creation of the Powditch website.
Indeed, I didn't receive any more correspondence or Christmas cards from Carol from the General
Pinochet episode onwards, and indeed, besides myself, members of her family in England were
unable to make any contact with her.
That the late Robert James Powditch (Carol's brother) had (as I said above) "freely and willingly
provided to me much researched information (relating to the forbears of the Chilean branch of the
family) for the purpose of undertaking further research into his family and their history and for my
producing a definitive account of same; a history of which he was ever so proud", fails to produce
any reason or sense in Carol's attitude to me, or to my Powditching (which incidentally, she wants
me - sorry, demands from me - to stop, and not to have a website, nor include any information on it
about any Powditch anywhere; living or deceased).
I have replied to Carol's email of 1 January 2005, although I haven't sent it direct to her, as she had
also sent her defamatory remarks about me to a third person (aagarcia@puc.cl ), so I in turn sent an
explanatory and very detailed (even if I say so myself) email to him (with the subject title being "A
different Perspective"), requesting that after he had read it he contact me; the last 3 paragraphs of
my email stating;-
"Thank you very much indeed for having read through all of the above (hope that your eyesight
isn't suffering too much?!), and as I say, I apologise for having contacted you, although through
Carol having sent a copy of her email to me, to you, you have (willingly or unwillingly) been
'dragged' into the equation, and hopefully you will be a fair and honest arbitrator - to and for both
of us.
You have my email address above, and should you require to speak to me re any of the above or
to clarify anything etc, I will willingly let you know my telephone number, or I can ring you if you'd
prefer? Anyway, I will wait until I hear further from you before I make any contact with Carol.
With kind regards, and wishing you good health and success throughout 2005, I remain,"
To date, I haven't received any form of reply from aagarcia@puc.cl (Andres Garcia at the Catholic
University of Chile) so therefore do not know what further part he has taken in the matter, but
hopefully he will reply to me very soon, and I'll then be able to respond to Carol (although she will be
receiving a copy of this eNewsletter).
One thing I haven't done so far, is to include the contents of all of Carol's emails to me, and my replies
to her, on the website itself, although in view of the defamations she has made about my character
etc, it has been something I've contemplated doing. Re the latter however, I would appreciate your
own comments on what I should - or should not - do; certainly I can send copies of the various
messages to you or to anyone else so that others can evaluate the situation.
Finally, as at today, over 36,000 persons have visited the Powditch website since it first saw the light
of day in January 2003. Of those 36,000 I have received lots of complimentary comments regarding
the layout, the quantity and quality of the site's contents, and for what I have undertaken and done for
the Powditch family both in particular and in general. Yes I have had several constructive comments,
and I have also been asked to amend several sections of the site - which I've willingly done - but I
and my family have been really hurt and wounded by the comments emanating from Carol E.
Powditch Tornero of Santiago, Chile, and would welcome comments as to what should be done about
same.
Thank you for your forbearance in reading through this item, but I do want to assure you that everything
I have done and continue to do of and for the Powditch family, for its research and for the
dissemination of all information, is only undertaken for the benefit of the family as a whole, and is not
undertaken at any charge or cost to anyone other than myself.
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| 11. A 'Warning' To all UK family members (and possibly those overseas).
You may have received a letter in the post from a Company going under the name of "William Pince
Publishers", who (if you have received a letter from them) will tell you that they have produced a
'Family Chronicle' for your surname, and that you can purchase a copy of it for around £30.
Although I had received a letter from them some time ago about the Algar surname, I hadn't realised
that they had reached the letter 'P', and therefore the name of Powditch - or at least that was until I
heard from Alan Powditch in West Wales, who had already sent for (and received) a copy.
Whilst I would not advise that you purchase a copy of the 'Family Chronicle', I would wish to say that
what "William Pince Publishers" will actually supply to you (if you do order a copy) is a soft-backed
A4 booklet which (in the main) contains very basic information relating to origin of first and sur- names,
heraldry, meanings of first names etc., although I do admit that they do include several pages (24 in
all) of what they call "Genealogical Data". What they have done, however, is to include lots of
surnames which they have stated as being 'alias Powditch', so virtually any surname beginning with a
'Pow' (e.g. Powder, Powdrell), a 'Paw' (e.g. Pawden) or a 'Pew' (e.g. Pewderer) has been included.
None of these 'aliases' have ever occurred within my past 25 years of research, and whilst it would
be naive on my part to categorically state that none of the aliases are actually Powditch family
members, I would comment that "William Pince Publishers" have not shown the source of or for their
information, nor have they produced 'family trees' to substantiate their claims (which I can for all
variants researched to date).
Having said all of the above, I would say that from the total 'mentions' of approx 508 events, if one
excludes all of the 'aliases', there are 75 items which definitely contain the surname of Powditch, of
which, some 41 persons/events were already known to me.
Fascinatingly, the 'Family Chronicle' produced by "William Pince Publishers", contains a lot of children
(I hadn't known about) from female Powditch marriages, whilst there are other mentions of the
surname 'Powditch' in places as far away as Worcestershire, Kent, and Cheltenham, most of them
from the 1500s and 1600s (i.e. in the period when the name most definitely was NOT spelled as
'Powditch'!) I therefore have a little bit of following-up/research to do re these 'strangers' (and will let
you know how I fare in a future eNewsletter)
My thanks to Alan Powditch for letting me know re the above, and for sharing the book's contents
with me.
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Well, after what has been the longest eNewsletter to date, I think that I'd better finish off here, and let
you try and relax! In the meantime I hope that you and your family are all keeping well, and I look
forward to hearing from you sometime, especially re your thoughts and comments re the above
topics.
John
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