Family History
Group Leader: Howard Benbrook
Meeting place: The Lady Kaye Room, Victoria Halls
Day of the week: 1st Friday in each month
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Frequency: Monthly
Cost of the year's programme: £30
Contact: Although we began the year with an online meeting (due to the leader's mobility problems), the group preferred a more intimate, 'tutorial' environment and have moved back to the LKR, which sadly means that we're now at capacity for the room. However, we ran two groups last year, so if you'd like to add your name to any others who are interested, click Family History Group Leader to email Howard. Please include your telephone number in your email message.
Each monthly session will introduce, with an interactive presentation, a significant group of records that are important in the pursuit of your ancestors. They must be there somewhere, mustn't they? But the blighters are often incredibly difficult to track down and this group is determined to track down every generation, so the formality is followed by an open session, exploring the online potential of the many family history websites using the free wifi available at the LKR. Bring along your laptop/tablet, together with any of your notes, so that you can explore your origins online. Help is on hand.
So... Have you ever wondered who was your Grandad's Grandad? Did you consider that you might have 3rd cousins? And what is a 2nd cousin, once removed, anyway? Should you ask for an Ancestry DNA test for Christmas? Come and join us in the Family History group and we'll try to help you chase down these questions and a lot more about your own, very unique, origins.
This year's programme follows on from the successful outcome of last year's premise that most people in the UK can now readily follow their ancestry back to the early 19th century by simply searching for records online, many of them free. And so, this year this has become the focus of our efforts: join this group and find your great-great-grandparents, online!
But this year we'll also try to go just a little further and explore a concept developed on the FamilySearch website, an ambitious project that endeavours to create a single, worldwide family tree: yes, that's everyone who has ever lived! Just who could you be related to? But your grandparents may already be on it - you just have to go and look!
We all come from somewhere - where do YOU come from?