The BBC recently sent a video crew to Oyster Bay to follow the trail of one of the founding families of America - the Townsends. In this case they were following Viscount Raynham, from Norfolk, England, the branch of the Townshend family that spells their name with an "h." Charles Raynham was returning to Oyster Bay after five years, to attend the annual meeting of the Townsend Society of America and to thank his cousins for helping raise $80,000 to restore the bells of St. Mary's Church on his family estate, Raynham Hall. The money was donated by Townsends in Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.

Charles George Townshend, is Viscount Raynham (known as Charles Raynham), the son and heir of the Marquess Townshend of Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England. Part of the filming done by the BBC staff included re-creating the meeting when the project was first proposed to the society. Five years ago, Viscount Raynham spoke briefly about his project to restore the "Townshend Family Church" at Raynham Hall, and particularly to complete the church's complement of bells. He hoped that the Townsends in North America and elsewhere around the world would support the project.

Letters went out to all the Townsend cousins inviting them to join in re-creating a piece of family history at the Church of St. Mary, the Virgin, which stands in the park at Raynham Hall. It was rebuilt in 1868 by the 5th Marquess Townshend, the great-grandfather of the current Viscount. "It is a ravishingly pretty church in an idyllic setting, with several family memorials both inside and outside," he wrote in the letter. "St. Mary's tower contains three bells which we are proposing to augment to eight - this project will take about two years to realize."

Then board secretary Harry Macy announced that at its meeting earlier that morning [in 2000] the Townsend Society Board had agreed to donate $1,000 and to assist in publicizing the project to the membership, with a goal of raising sufficient funds to have the Society's name placed on one of the bells.

In 2005, Charles Raynham came to thank his American cousins for contributing to the project. "The church now has eight bells, enough to give it a Cathedral sound," he said. "That is important since the church has few parishioners and acts as a cultural center.

"The work was done at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the oldest surviving foundry. It cast the Liberty Bell. The foundry was quite cross when you broke it. It was repaired two times. They cast five for us, as they did the original bells," he said.

"Bell casting is unique. It's very exciting when you know it will all be yours. Those bells will ring out loud. People from miles away can hear them.

"Now we have built the gallery and the next project is adding the balustrade which is very visible. It cantilevers out over the vestry, for example for the soloists at a wedding. There are naming spots offered for donors to the project and wonderful places for those names to be carved in the oak. There is a rabbit, a steam engine and a hunt scene that sponsors can be included in. There is even a little fox tucked in the scene," he said. He views the project as taking about two years. "It will be there a long time," he said. Jerry Adams is the carver who will do the work.

He explained, "If the building will survive it has to be used for such things as a children's fair, a flower festival, and a country western concert. More people come to hear the ringing of the bells than are in the congregation.

"The church is a work in progress. The east window was blown out by a German bomb - that window will be replaced one day," he said.

He said he has wonderful plans and drawings that he hoped they would all see soon. He thanked David and Nancy Townsend for getting everyone enthused over the original project.

As he concluded, talking guests were invited to a reception and afterwards David Townsend of Oyster Bay Cove took the BBC staff and Charles Townshend on a tour of Oyster Bay which will be included in the film. The video will be aired on British television.

The Raynham Society of America is located at 107 East Main St., Oyster Bay, and can be reached at 922-5434.

Jim Brower of the Computer Genealogical Society of Long Island was the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Townsend Society of America at their headquarters in Oyster Bay. He demonstrated how a family tree can be generated using a computer program for his Power Point presentation. The Townsend Society is involved in studying their family history and have an Internet site that makes it easy for members to do research.

Mr. Brower recommended Family Tree Maker 2005 software as a most popular program that is user friendly. He demonstrated how it can be used to create a scrapbook of birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates to which you can add pictures and photographs with labels that can all be printed out in a report. You can add information to your family tree such as your relatives' residences, degrees, occupations and properties owned as well as stories about the family. The family tree can even include medical information, height and weight.

Mr. Brower showed examples of how a family tree can be laid out including, a fan tree and an hour glass tree that illustrates - from a central point - someone's decendants and ancestors. You can also send the material to a professional who can create a huge wall size family tree for you.

Mr. Brower said you can go into the Internet and find ancestory.com which has a geneology base. For $300 a year you get all their services or can buy some of them for smaller amounts of money. Or, he said, go to a local library. He said there are three steps to the process: gathering information, organizing the information and then verifying the information to see if it is correct. That it seems is the most important part of the work.

Mr. Brower said on April 8, Stony Brook University will host a day long Geneological seminar that offers five lectures. It cost $45 for the day.

Townsend Society of America President Lewis A. Townsend said there are more than 500 members in the group and they are steadily growing. Members come from the United States, Canada and Australia and includes one from Norway. He said most of the members are active with the society via email and on their website.

Mr. Townsend said the society has been involved in their DNA testing project following the "Y" chromosome in the Townsend male line to see which group of Townsends each belongs to. There is a large group of Oyster Bay Townsends that trace their lineage from the three Townsend brothers. The next largest group are the Snow Hill Townsends from Maryland, outside of Ocean City. There are 59 participants in the project. "People are finding new cousins with this latest tool in genealogical research," he said.

David Townsend of Oyster Bay Cove shared a story of finding that he is related to the Snow Hill Townsends. He said he had researched his ancestory to 1800 to an uncle in Ohio. From there he is related to the original John Townsend born in 1640. "We know he went from Virginia to Maryland. We didn't know where he was born, in Virginia or somewere else. Then the Townsend Society got a volume of research on the Snow Hill Townsends that dovetailed with Thomas Townsend and that's how I got to 1640," he said.

Matthew Townsend gave an update on their publications, website and the Townsend genealogical journal. The information the Townsend Socitey collects is available both on the Internet or on a CD which is available for purchase.

Their goal is to get the material into the user's hands and it has been very successful. The Townsends have a vital collection of 40 years of newsletters they have published with stories about the family history. The Townsend Society has a tombstone collection index created by Martha Burke of 1,500 file cards filled with data.

"The website is introduced to members at the rate of 21,600 visits a year. There is a password for members to log into the site, which contains 90 percent of the material there. "There are 1,560 people actively doing research on the site," he said. The Internet site can be reached at www.Townsendsociety.org.

Matthew Townsend said, "Seventy-five percent of the active members have email addresses and we can communicate with them when we need to."