The Helen Kegie Collection is a historical record of the Child, Sargent, Barton and Quinton families

Home

About the collection

Introduction

Helen Kegie passed away peacefully on April 12th, 2015, aged 92. Helen touched the lives of many people and her generous, caring and spirited nature will be missed by all those who knew her.


Helen Kegie was a former Assistant Director of the Residential and Daycare Social Services Department, Monmouthshire. Previously occupying posts including an Assistant Children’s Officer and a County Children’s Officer, Helen’s contribution to the field of social work was recognised with an MBE in 1997. Helen was also an Honorary Fellow of University of Wales, Newport (Now part of University of South Wales) supporting bursaries for low income students.

Helen Kegie MBE

Figure 1: Helen Kegie MBE

Helen was part of a large family and had been the keeper of a growing collection of family memorabilia for many years when she decided that something should be done to enhance and preserve it for future generations. The term ' family' in this website includes the Child, Sargent, Barton and Quinton families with an unusual closeness being established when a brother and sister from one family married a brother and sister from another.

The material includes thousands of photographs with some being ambrotypes on glass plates dating back to the late 1850s or early 1860s. The fact that there had been three professional photographers in the family explains the wonderful quality of their work. There were also hundreds of letters, diaries, documents and artefacts.

At the beginning of 2013 a project group was formed and over 18 months a huge amount of work was undertaken to collate and digitise all photos, videos and documents, research the family history and develop contents for public viewing. In September 2014 the Helen Kegie Collection was launched and the original documents and photographs are now permanently housed and can be viewed at the Gwent Archives in Ebbw Vale. Enlarged and enriched family tree information is also available on www.ancestry.co.uk for use by other researchers.

Hopefully the combined websites will hold long-term interest for the family and will help others who may benefit from this rich insight into family and social history.

Project group

Contacts

Genealogy enquiries

Website enquiries