Gloucestershire Family History Society
Come to our Fair!
It is always a joy to meet up with fellow enthusiasts, whether your passion is rugby, stamp collecting or (in our case ) family history. No matter how many events you go to, there is always someone interesting to talk to and something new to discover.
We’re delighted to host another Family History Fair in the Heritage Hub between 10am and 3pm on Saturday 7 November. This is one of the popular series of monthly Saturday events in the Hub and we’re grateful to the team from Gloucestershire Archives for supporting us by providing behind-the-scenes tours, a display of some of the amazing documents held in the Hub and much more.
What are are we planning?
We’ve invited representatives from other Family History Societies and locally-based heritage organisations to come. So, if you have Traveller ancestry or your family contributed to Gloucester’s maritime industries, to name just a couple, you’ll be able to get specialist advice as well as sharing your own discoveries.
DNA is something which baffles many people but can prove so useful in finding ‘lost’ family lines. If you’d like to find out more, book one of the short advice sessions we’ll be offering between 10am and 1pm. You can book on arrival.
It is always great to have the chance to share experiences, talk to experts and get help with those pesky brick walls. It really doesn’t matter how experienced you are - there is always something else to discover. If you’re just beginning your research there will be plenty of people on hand to offer help or suggestions. If your family doesn’t have local roots, no problem - many of the online sources in our Family History Centre cover the whole world and our own volunteers will be on hand to advise.
Listen to an expert
We’re very privileged that Dr Sophie Kay, a professional genealogist with many years experience has agreed to be our keynote speaker. Sophie has an international reputation and a wide range of interests so her talk will offer something to everyone interested in family history in its widest sense. Please book for the talk on the Heritage Hub website heritagehub.org.uk
More to family history than meets the eye!
You soon realise that you can take your research a lot further than names, dates and places by delving deeper into the lives of your ancestors and their neighbours. We can show you some of the sources we have which could be useful and we’ve invited some local history groups to come to the Fair so they will also be able to help you.
You can even put your own family aside and look at the people who lived in your community and so had an effect on where you live. The sky is the limit - who would have guessed that men from Lancashire came to Colesbourne to make clog soles for the mill workers in Oldham or that a Cheltenham-based firm exported orchids to the Mikado?
What might you discover?
Look out for more information on our website gfhs.org.uk and social media over the next couple of months!
Vicky Thorpe