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Does anyone know of a High Elms in Hitchen (not High Elms Manor near Garston), in the same vicinity as the Boys Grammar School, Elmside Cottage, New Grammar School Walk, and Bedford Road.   I have found an entry for a 10 year old child at this address in 1939, listed as a "patient".   I think part of the address has been blacked out but the first line definitely says "High Elms emergency.."   so I'm thinking it was some kind of childrens home, hospital, or convalescent facility.

The SENNETT (SINNOTT, SYNNOTT, SINNETT etc) surname DNA study at familytreedna.com has recently had 6 project members upgrade to BigY, and the results are looking very exciting.  We are finally able to go beyond just knowing that people match and share a common ancestor (but not having any idea who), to being able to see how the genetic tree is branching.  With every new test that gets upgraded to BigY, we are seeing more branches named and placed on the haplotree, and that means it gets easier to put timeframes on branching and therefore start figuring out how some of the currently separate S-NN-T families with Irish origin are actually related.

I've written a blog post here https://sennettfamilytree.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/crowdfunding-sinnott-sennett-dna-studies/,
but really what I am looking for is to get in contact with a whole lot more people (families that include men with direct line S-NN-T ancestry) who are interested in using DNA to help build a genetic tree for our surname that can give us information to fill in some of the many gaps in documentary evidence.

I repeat, this is a Y-DNA project (at familytreedna.com), looking at the surname line.   This type of testing will take us many more generations further back than the autosomal tests (like Ancestry), so while I would still be interested in hearing from women who have done autosomal testing, it really is the men I would like to get involved.

You can start small with a YDNA-37 test (at familytreedna.com - prices have reduced considerably recently and now at $119 USD - down from $169) or go big and go straight to the BigY test.   There are also ways to support the project if you can't test yourself (women, or descendants of female lines where the surname has died out).  Any help to grow this project will help ALL S-NN-T families find common ancestors and get closer to their origins. 

If you follow my blog from the link above, then I will try to post regularly about the DNA project as well as more general updates from the surname study.

My father (a New Zealander, Warwick Curtis) taught at Skippers Hill in 1955, and my mother Miss Morrell was a matron there, getting married in april 1955..

I have just found a number of letters from boys in the school to my mother when she was taken ill and in hospital in May 1955.   If any of the boys (or their families) would like a copy of their letters, please PM me.

Names (from signatures) include:  A group letter from Peter Faulkner, John Bayne, Maurice Boyd, J P Duncan, R Simpson, A Walsh, R M Arnold, M T Karlon, P A Furneaux "and the rest of the Vth form"; an individual letter from Peter Faulkner, another from Patrick Anthony Furneaux, and one from John Brayne or Bayne.  Also a letter assumed to be from a pupil John Taylor or Caylor.

Have family bible belonging to Ernest Jenkins of East Castle, Annfield Plain, Co Durham (date by his name is 1950), with possibly the original owner William Bell and older inscriptions for:  William and Sarah Bell married 1846 and births Elizabeth Jain Bell 1848, Mary Ann Bell 1857, Sarah 1867.  Also Sarah Bell died January 24.  Also Thomas Lynn died Oct 27th 1894 aged 85 year.

Bible is big and extremely heavy and front and back pages have been heavily scribbled over in pencil by a child.  Happy to photograph inscriptions if this is anyone's family.