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Powditch Newsletter - June 2003
No. 2
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Welcome to the second Newsletter re www.powditch.plus.com and to what has happened during
the past month on the web-site.  (Please click here to view the update to the June e-Newsletter)

First of all I want to give a big WELCOME to;-
Sylvia and Joyce POWDITCH from Chile, who are the daughters of the late Thomas Hirst Powditch,
and in  turn are descendants of the John Kittridge Powditch who sailed out to, and settled in, Chile in the early 1820s,  as well as to;-
Katie from Romford (Essex) who is the daughter of William and Valerie Powditch and who has been
most helpful in filling in many of the 'missing' dates and places of her family.

Since the May Newsletter was issued;-
Re-designed pages on the web-site, include;-
The Chronology of William Powditch of Australia and New Zealand
The 'Home' page at www.powditch.plus.com/index.htm (in the left-hand column, "Ponder on this" has been  removed)
The date of the site's creation (previously on the centre page of www.powditch.plus.com/ has  now been moved to the right-hand column).

whilst NEW pages added, are for;-
The History of the Powditch Family in Chile (c1820 to the present day). Viewable at

Picture Gallery of Past and Present Powditch's (Please refer to my Requests, further down the

Site Map (to the majority of pages on this web-site) Viewable at www.powditch.plus.com/indexx.htm

Transcript of the 1854+ Family Bible of Thomas Powditch (of Chile) (Please note that the link to the
1854+  Bible of Thomas Powditch (of Chile) has now been moved to within "The History of the

an invitation to view the web-statistics for the web-site (updated daily)
Viewable at www.powditch.plus.com/web-stats.png

The Chronology of William Powditch of Australia and New Zealand for the periods; 1795-1820;
1831-1840; 1841-1850; 1821-1860; 1861-1872, plus individual years of 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834,
1835, 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839 and 1840. More years are to follow as soon as possible.
Viewable on the main www.powditch.plus.com page

      By the time you read this Newsletter, "The History of the Powditch Family in Chile (c1820 to the
present day)" will have been uploaded, and be available for viewing (see 1st item under NEW, above),
and I hope that you will find this new section as interesting and fascinating as I do.

Within this new section are included copies of original documents together with many transcripts for
same, as well as autobiographies and other interesting information. More information will be added to
this section in the future.

Other 'changes' to the site include;-
The web-counter has been moved from the Home page's right hand column, and now is on the main (central) section. I am hoping that by moving it to the index.htm page (of www.powditch.plus.com) the site will more accurately reflect the number of visitors visiting the web-site.  Up to Saturday 28 June 2003. the actual number of visitors had been 912 (i.e. an increase, since the May Newsletter, of 298 visitors)
On the 'Home' page (towards the top), the following has been added; "All "NEW" items will appear here for a couple of days, before being transferred to the alphabetical list below" This has been added to the page so that visitors will (hopefully) find it easier for NEW pages to be 'discovered' . I hope that this will be useful.
As stated above, the link to the 1854+ Bible of Thomas Powditch (of Chile) has now been moved to within "The History of the Powditch Family in Chile (c1820 to the present day)" page

Since the May Newsletter, I have received several e-mails suggesting ‘tweaks’ to a few pages, and
comments re other parts of the web-site, which I hope to answer here.

I fully understand that some 'visitors' don’t have (or don’t have access to) a Broadband connection to the
www.  To be perfectly honest, neither do I, which ‘helps’ me more than you can imagine, for when a page
(being created/amended etc) is slow to open for me, it allows me to see just why the ‘problem’ is
occurring, and hopefully I’m then able to correct the problem BEFORE I upload the page to the web-site.
I have therefore removed the ‘tiles’ and ‘background parchment design’ from several pages, and
replaced the tiles with coloured sections, in the hope that this may help anyone who has a slower
connection.

Just as a matter of interest, and on the basis that most computer-users these days have at least a
56kps modem,  your connection should achieve at least 45,000bps, I would be interested to know what
sort of connection speed you get from your own modem/ I.S.P., as it may help me to redesign some of
the pages.

Although in my May Newsletter I highlighted the "feature in the left hand column of  
www.powditch.plus.com/index.htm,  for Birthdays and Anniversaries", the only response I had,
highlighted that I had entered some events for family members who had died, so I still don’t know
whether that particular section is something you would wish to have kept on the web-site, or not.
However, I do apologise for having included any Birthdays/Anniversaries for those who have died (and
I have removed some names), but would say that although I get several e-mails a year regarding Births,
actual information re Marriages are few and far between, whilst Deaths' information is in the minority!
Whilst I do try to keep the information re current family members as up to date as possible, I would
appreciate any information re errors I have on the Birthdays and Anniversaries page(s) (or indeed,
elsewhere on the site), as I certainly don’t want to upset anyone.

Regarding the 'Guest Book' facility on the web-site, after my little 'moan' in the May Newsletter, thank
you to all those who 'signed' the 'book' - especially for your comments. I am still monitoring usage of the
'Guest Book'  'facility', and will keep you informed as to its future. However, I welcome any comments re
this subject.

I would like to make two requests;
Because I have introduced a "Picture Gallery of Past and Present Powditch's" page onto
the web-site (take a look, I think that you'll like what's there already) I'm hoping that you might
consider letting me add a photograph (or photographs) of yourself/your family, plus any
photos/pictures of my cost). Also, although the pages at present appear to only be for Past
Powditchs and for Wales, I have already set up pages (ready to include the photos etc) for the
Countries of Australia, Canada,

Besides the above, if you also have any Original documents (including Wills, Discharge papers,
Certificates [of all types] etc which you would like to be included on the web-site, please can you let me
know, and I'd be more than pleased to scan (and transcribe) the details onto 1 (or more) pages. I will also
return all originals sent to me.

Thanks once again for being a Powditch or Powditch-descendant, or for just being interested in
Powditch history.
All the best for now,
John
P.S. Although the 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? In later issues I am hoping to just provide basic details (additions,
deletions, amendments, welcomes, etc), but I am open to any suggestions, so please keep them
coming........!

Items updated on the web-site are highlighted with ! !
whilst any New items are highlighted by the letters, NEW .

 UPDATE to JUNE 2003
POWDITCH NEWSLETTER
One NEW page has just been added to www.powditch.plus.com today (1 July 2003), and I felt that I
couldn't wait until the end of JULY to let you know about it!

Having had the Powditch surname accepted by RootsWeb for use on their Lists and Digests page, it is
now possible for anyone who wants to post an enquiry regarding any member or aspect of the
Powditch family, to 'subscribe' to the POWDITCH Mailing List, and to not only see their question (and
any reply/replies) on the RootsWeb page, but also to have the original question plus replies sent directly
to them.

The link appearing on the www.powditch.plus.com page is to "The Powditch Family Mailing List", whilst
on that particular page (at www.powditch.plus.com/lists_and_digests.htm ), the wording is as follows
(set out differently on the web-page itself);-

The Powditch Family Mailing List
A Family List is now available for researchers of the
POWDITCH surname (and its variants) , at RootsWeb
The List is known as the POWDITCH-L mailing list.
The creation of this mailing list will allow "subscribers" to it,
to post or send a message to the "list e-Mail Address", either in the form of a question or to provide an answer to same, regarding the POWDITCH family
(and those connected to it).
That message is then automatically sent to everyone on the list, providing those who "post" messages with an easy means of contacting a number of others who have common interests. The aim therefore, is to enable fellow researchers to connect with other Powditch’s etc, and in doing so, hopefully to help each other.
If you would like to join the POWDITCH-L List, please will you click on the link below and then follow the instructions that will appear.
Please Note:
There is no charge to you whatsoever for subscribing to the POWDITCH-L List, which is provided by ( www.rootsweb.com ) - the oldest and largest FREE genealogy site (supported by www.ancestry.com)
Hope to ‘see’ you soon on the POWDITCH-L List!
Please take me to the
Powditch
Surname and Mailing Lists
and show me how to Subscribe to them
Further to the above, please note
that further wording as to the POWDITCH-L List etc is actually provided on the www.powditch.plus.com/lists_and_digests.htm page, so hasn’t been reproduced here, although I would suggest that such wording (including several ‘caveats’) should be read as part of what should (or shouldn’t) take place on the POWDITCH-L List and how usage of the latter list should be respected.
John

P.S. Although my Monthly "Powditch Newsletter" is a totally free update regarding 'happenings
and/or 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? In later issues I am hoping to just
provide basic details (additions, deletions, amendments, welcomes, etc), but I am open to any
suggestions, so please keep them coming........!

The POWDITCH-L List mentioned above is also FREE, but in order to either Subscribe or Unsubscribe to
that,  please follow the guidance on the relevant page (directly accessible at