Rayleigh

Family History Study Day

Family History Study Day – Saxon Hall – 19th October 2011

A very successful and enjoyable day was attended by 125 U3A members from Rayleigh, Rayleigh Grange, Basildon & Billericay, Hadleigh, Benfleet and Hullbridge U3A’s.

Peter Christian author of the best selling book “The Genealogist’s Internet” published by the National Archives spoke about “The Future of Internet Genealogy”. This illustrated the ever increasing amount of information which is now available and more easily accessible via the web.

Meryl Catty and Audrey Gillett presented an entertaining account of a census enumerator interviewing a householder in 1851, which illustrated the conditions at the time and why we can’t always find our ancestors in the records and when we do the information needs to be treated with caution.

After lunch Meryl Catty spoke about our rich newspaper heritage with amusing historical snippets from a number of newspapers.

The day included an exhibition of family history material prepared by members of the Rayleigh and Rayleigh Grange Family History Groups and a raffle was held with prizes donated by many of the major commercial companies including “Find My Past”, “The Genealogist”, and “Genes Reunited”. Other prizes included a year’s membership of the Society of Genealogists and subscriptions to three of the major monthly family history magazines.

The day concluded with a question and answer session.

Pete Huntly – Study Day Coordinator, Rayleigh U3A