| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Convenor: | |
| When: | Monthly on Friday mornings 2nd Friday of the month 10:30 to 12:30 |
| Venue: | Member's Home |
The group aims to provide a forum to support members to research their Family History so that we learn with and from each other. For example, we will:
- Use our Family Trees to learn how to find genealogy information so that we can build our Family Trees and explore our family histories.
- Discuss genealogy research methods that are new to us.
- Exchange the latest Genealogy News.
- Meet and network with colleagues.
We meet on the 2nd Friday of the month, with the exception of January and August, when we do not meet.
2024 meeting topics included
- Wills and Probates
- Passenger lists
- The challenges of researching our ancestors who lived in London
- Occupations
- Sharing our experiences of finding "missing" ancestors in records.
- A visit to Devon Family History Society’s Treehouse research centre
- How we record our family trees and compile the information we find
- Sessions helping each other break down brick walls in our research
For 2025, we plan to continue with Member led sessions sharing our successes and requests for help in breaking down brick walls:
14th February - we heard from a member who has traced a number of famous ancestors, including 7 direct ancestors who were in the Tower of London!
21st March - we discussed Welsh coal mining ancestors, WW2 air raids and air raid wardens and breaking down some census brick walls
11th April - we shared our experiences of finding records for our ancestors who lived in London which included finding out about the pubs an ancestor ran using different London directories, exploring where our ancestors lived using The Genealogist's mapping tools and the Booth Poverty maps, finding an early Metropolitan policeman ancestor's testimony at the Old Bailey and getting our heads around where to look for BMD records because of the changing London boundaries and how the capital dealt with challenges such as the "coffin train" which ran from London Waterloo direct to Brookwood cemetery, near Woking taking funeral parties and coffins to the large cemetery when London cemeteries had limited space!!
9th May - we heard from a member who has a wealth of experience preserving genealogical records and identifying ancestors from old photographs.
13th June - continuing on from May's meeting we shared some of our photographs and learnt how to "read clues", for example, the type of photograph, dress, hairstyles, to help us identify our ancestors from these priceless memories.
11th July - we heard about two members' research journeys: a family who moved from Shetland to Devon via Glasgow, Liverpool and London and a working class family from Pembrokeshire.
August - no meeting
12th September - we heard how one member had used her DNA results to help break down a brick wall (DNA Research tips)
10th October - Sharing how we record our family history research
14th November - Using maps to support our family history research
12th December - Christmas Lucky Dip (and mince pies!) - members will share as a "present" something they've learnt from their family history research which may help other members with their research.
We welcome new members, who have experience of researching their family tree.
If you are new to family history research or have just used one source (for example Ancestry), joining our short-term introduction to Genealogy Group will help you build your Family Tree using all the basic research tools.
