Over the years, many documents have been destroyed or lost because their owners have died without leaving a will or without including directions for the disposal of their family papers. Many of the notes and Linfield family trees drawn up by Stanford Smith were destroyed following the death of one of the Linfield family to whom they had been sent, with the result that much of his work cannot readily be checked without repeating years of hard work. Even if you have not researched the family history, you probably have papers which have been handed down which would be helpful to others in drawing up the history of the family. Letters, wills, birth, marriage and death certificates and old newspaper cuttings all help to piece together the history of our Linfield and Lindfield ancestors.

If you have such papers, we would urge you to leave specific instructions in your will that they should be sent to the Lin(d)field One Name Group or to the Society of Genealogists in London. There are standard forms of words for including in a will for this purpose and we can supply copies of these on request. Even better would be to send them, or copies of them, to us now so that they can be used in our research. We are happy to refund the cost of copying and postage. Alternatively, send them to us and we will make copies and return the originals.