The latest range of courses have been announced by the Society of Genealogists. There is a good range of courses available for both the amateur and experienced family historian. A selection of the courses include:
Wed 2 Oct 14:00 Tracing French Ancestry
Sat 5 Oct 14:00-17:00 Heraldry: Its Language, Grants and Inheritance of Arms
Wed 9 Oct 14:00 Charities and their Records at The National Archives for Family Historians
Sat 12 Oct 10:30-17:00 Family Historian Software for Beginners and Refreshers
Wed 16 Oct 14:00 My Ancestor Was a Hatmaker
Sat 19 Oct 10:30-13:00 Marriage and Courtship in the 1800's
The full course itinerary can be found at http://www.sog.org.uk/books-courses/events-courses/
If you would like more information, please contact the events department at the Society of Genealogists on 020 7553 3290 or by email: [email protected]
Tomorrow (Saturday 14th September) sees the North West Group of Family History Societies and Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society (who are proudly celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2013) presenting their Family History Day Fair in Blackburn, entitled "From Cradle to Grave".
It's at King George's Hall, Northgate, Blackburn from 10am to 4pm and entry is £3.00. There's some great speakers lined up including Mark Bayley from TheGenealogist, Ian Hartas talking about BMDs on the Internet and Dr Brenda Hustler is exploring Irish ancestry. There's more information at http://www.lfhhs.org/home.php If you're in the area, why not make it along?
The 'Society of Genealogists' based in London has recently created an award for those people making an outstanding contribution to the field of family history research. Details of the 2013 award from the Society are as follows:
"A special Certificate of Recognition has been newly created by the Society of Genealogists to recognise exceptional contributions to genealogy by individuals and institutions worldwide. In the first year nomination forms were made available to Fellows of the Society for their suggestions and four candidates have been recognised by the newly formed awards panel for the new Certificate in 2013. The successful candidates were:
Dick Eastman for having the vision to promote family history through the CompuServe Genealogy Forum and by founding and maintaining the daily Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.
Dr Hugh Kearsey for actively ensuring a wider availability of materials enabling others to pursue family history in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
Rosemary Cleaver for her continuous back-room contributions to all aspects of the West Surrey Family History Society over many years.
The Polish Archive of Przemyślu in recognition of outstanding maintenance of local family records, particularly appertaining to Akcja Wisła (Operation Vistula) was the codename for the 1947 forced resettlment of post-war Poland’s Ukranian Minority carried out by Soviet controlled Polish Communist Authorities) and in the efforts to making them accessible to researchers from far and wide.
Formal presentations will be arranged over the coming months."
Congratulations to the winners this year from Family History Social for their well-deserved awards!
Nominations for 2014 are now open to the public and forms (along with nomination guidelines) are available from the Chief Executive, June Perrin at [email protected]
This forthcoming Saturday (27th July), sees the Buckinghamshire Family History Society Open Day in Aylesbury. The annual Open Day, will take place from 10am to 4pm at The Grange School, Wendover Way, Aylesbury HP21 7NH.
As always, this free event will have something for everyone - whether beginner or experienced researcher - and wherever your ancestors came from! A talk aimed at those new to family history will be given by Dave Foster at 11am and 2pm.
If you're in the area, it's well worth taking a look! There's more details at their website.
The South West Area Group of Family History Societies will be holding their bi-ennial fair at the Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare on Saturday 13th July 2013.
The event will be open from 10.00am until 4.00pm and the venue details are:
Weston-super-Mare Winter Gardens, Royal Parade, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1AJ.
Entrance fee is £2.50 and there is pay and display car parking nearby.
The fair promises to be another good event for family historians. There will be a number of family history societies present and suppliers of family history products and services and there will be some useful talks including Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist who will present his very popular talk on 'Breaking down brick walls'.
This Sunday, 7th July 2013, sees the first 'Jewish Family History Fair' in Elstree, Hertfordshire, hosted by The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain.
You can learn more about Jewish history and genealogy from expert speakers, including Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist.co.uk
There's also an 'Ask the Expert' session and there will be exhibitors of leading software and recording materials for keen genealogists to browse.
The Fair is open from 10am to 6pm at the De Vere Village Urban Resort Hotel and there's more details from their website.
This forthcoming Saturday (15th June) sees the Southern Family History Day run by the Wiltshire Family History Society. It's at Wilton Community Centre, Wilton, SP2 0DG from 10am to 3.30pm and entry is free.
There will be a number of Wiltshire Family History Society books and publications as well as a selection of other suppliers. There is also a couple of free talks well worth going along to see. Jean Bunting of the Census Detectives has a talk on 'Making sense of the Census' at 11am and Mark Bayley from S&N Genealogy is giving a talk on 'Breaking down those brick walls' at 1pm.
There is free parking on site, so if you're in the area make sure you go along! There's more information at the Wiltshire Family History Society website
This Sunday, 19th May, is the Kent Family History Fair in Maidstone, Kent. Run by Family History Fairs, it's at Lockmeadow Market Hall, Hart Street in Maidstone, Kent. It's £2 admission and is open from 10am to 4pm. Apparently there's over 100 stalls going to be present offering a wide variety of genealogy products and services, so should be a good day out for the family historian. Are you going?
This forthcoming Saturday (4th May 2013), sees Gloucestershire Family History Society holding their Fair and Open Day. It's at Gloucester Rugby Club, Kingsholm Stadium, Kingsholm Road Gloucester GL1 3AX. Entrance is free and car parking is free. There's a selection of speakers including Dr Nick Barratt and Martin Davies from Gloucester Rugby Heritage and a number of exhibitors including the SoG Census Detectives, Hidden Heritage and S&N Genealogy . There's more details here. It should be an event well worth attending. Are you going?
Gloucester Family History Society Fair and Open Day
Oxfordshire Family History Society has launched a new project offering two free DNA tests to members of their society. It is open to members only who have at least 3 generations of Oxfordshire ancestors going back into the mid-19th century or earlier.
All you have to do is submit 400-600 words on why you feel a DNA test would be useful to help you discover more about your Oxfordshire family/families using DNA, including a short summary on your family and your family history 'brick walls'. Send to [email protected] before 30th May 2013. Terms and conditions apply and are available from the Editor of the Oxfordshire society.
If you are not yet a member of the family history society, but have Oxfordshire ancestors and want to enter the competition, then why not join? It's well worth the cost of the membership to have a chance of winning a DNA test. See www.ofhs.org.uk for membership details.
If you'd like more information in general regarding DNA testing for family history research, please use this link.
