Welcome to the Family History Social

The Society of Genealogists has released its new 2016 Events programme is now online and bookable. Listed below are events taking place at the Society of Genealogists in January. Visit their website if you want to find out further information about each event, as well as events taking place during the remainder of the year. If  you are a member of the Society of Genealogists and are booking online, then you should remember to log in first, in order to receive the member discount. Non-members are  also welcome to attend events, at the full price. Events can also be booked by telephone (Tuesday-Thursday & Saturdays), at the number listed below. All events take place at their premises in London, unless otherwise noted.   Wednesday, 13 January  14:00 - Discovering Discovery: Using The National Archives Website and Catalogue Discovery is The National Archives online catalogue and holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Millions of records are available for download, find out what can be found in the catalogue and how to get the best from the website. A one-hour lecture with Guy Grannum, Discovery Product Manager at The National Archives. Free of charge, but must be pre-booked.   Thursday, 14 January     18:00-20:00 - Stage 1 Evening Skills Course (10 weeks) The Society's successful family history skills course begins again with the first ten-week series of classes for those who are new to family history or who have had a little experience and want to build upon their initial progress. Our team of professional genealogists will introduce the records and illustrate how they should best be used for the study of family history. Publications, electronic finding aids and the internet will, of course, be included along with all the basic sources needed to start research. Topics will include how to get started, how to best search the census, newspapers, probate, parish registers, Non-Anglican family History and more. With Else Churchill, John Hanson, Simon Fowler and Ian Waller. Thursday evenings (last class 17 March)   Cost 175.00/140.00, Please see further information about Stage 2 and Stage 3 courses, on our website.   Saturday, 16 January     14:00-17:00 - Researching Irish Family Life in the Famine Years    80% of today’s English people have Irish ancestry and this seminar looks at Irish lives in the rural west of Ireland in the famine years between about 1800 and 1850. In the first talk, we will look at how people lived; their houses, possessions, food, work, education, entertainment, etc.  It touches on politics, social attitudes and the reasons for mass poverty and emigration. The second talk discusses how to use such facts as these to build your own family history in places, like Ireland, where few real records survive.  It looks at subjects such as additional places to search and how to follow leads, how to put the story together and to what extent you can judge events of 200 years ago by modern standards.  It opens up a whole area of family history beyond the collecting of birth, marriage, death and census data. If you have just a few facts, this seminar will start you on a family quest that will be engrossing, interesting and, with luck, extremely rewarding. A half-day course with Stephen Lally, Cost 20.00/16.00   Wednesday, 20 January   14:00 - Copyright for Family History      Copyright applies to photographs, diaries, paintings, film clips and many other works.  This talk will aim to cover some of the issues you might face with copyright works in your family history, including how long copyright lasts, when you might or might not need permission to use the works, and what you can do if you cannot find the right holder and would like to copy the work.  This talk will be especially useful for those considering publication of their family history. A one-hour talk with staff from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. Cost 8.00/6.40   Saturday, 23 January      10:30-13:00 - Research Before Parish Registers Pre 1600 research is an entirely different "ballgame" with many records existing that can be useful. Many such records continued beyond 1600 but are under-used. Some family historians think they have to stop researching when parish registers end. How wrong you are! Come see what is available. A half-day course with Ian Waller, FSG  Cost 20.00/16.00   Wednesday, 27 January  14:00 - Catching up with FamilySearch  The familysearch.org website is the largest family history website in the world, with billions of names across thousands of collections - and more are added monthly. Learn what new major databases have been added, how to find this information, and how to best use the website. A one-hour lecture with Sharon Hintze. Free, but must be pre-booked.   Thursday, 28 January  14:00 - Visit: St-Mary-le-Bow Church We will learn about the history of this famous church and the great architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, in particular relating to the famous steeple.  Inside the church we will look at the post-war rebuilding by Lawrence King, the beautiful stained glass windows by John Hayward and the other modern furnishings. The church has many international connections, including significant ones with the USA, Norway, Germany and Australia.  It also possesses an 11th century crypt, part of it now an elegant chapel, the rest of it used as a restaurant, set among many of the original Norman arches. With Tony Tucker   Cost 10.00/8.00 (appx 1 hour)   Saturday, 30 January  10:30-13:00 - East London, Kent & Essex in the 18th Century The emphasis of this course will be on the movement of people, money and goods backwards and forwards between East London and the counties - the pattern being very different between Kent and Essex. Come and learn more about these areas, and subsequently more about your ancestors during this important time. A half-day course with Derek Morris Cost 20.00/16.00   Saturday, 30 January      14:00-17:00 - Good Research Techniques This course will take an in-depth look at the best ways to research in order to avoid making mistakes as well as how to get the most out of the records you use. We will also look at the likely causes of brick walls you may meet during the course of your research and the best way to tackle them. Sources covered include BMDs, census and parish records. A half-day course with Celia Heritage Cost 20.00/16.00