WDYTYR Live

I got two emails yesterday about a banner at the exhibition giving details of Samuel Greethead and his time in St Kitts. 

How did I miss it on Friday.  Just had to go back and see for myself. 

Thanks Bob and Maurice for thinking about me, very grateful

WDYTYR Live

Spent the day helping on the Guild stand today and met lots of lovely people.  Gosh my feet hurt................

West Surrey Family History Open Day

Yesterday I attended the West Surrey Family History Open Day.  The Guild of One-Name Studies had four local members on the stand which was quite busy all day.  I was not needed after a while so spent my time going around meeting other members for the Guild, West Surrey FHS and U3A.

If I missed you I am sorry

Woking Family history Fair

Great day in Woking Leisure Centre on the Guild stand. Lots of Wonersh U3A and Guild members stopped by to say Hi.

We signed up some new members

WDYTYA Show live

Very successful day on Friday. Met lots of people interested in becoming a Guild member. Had a brief look around the exhibition and spent the rest of the time on the Guild stand, did you say hi? We had a busy, but most enjoyable day, but sadly the journey home took forever. Have since heard that over the three days we enrolled an amazing 47 new members at the show, 12 people took advantage of the special on line offer and 2 previous members rejoined. What an achievement. I am delighted to say 6 of these new members are within the Region that I look after so hopefully I will be meeting them in the very near future. Welcome to all 61 new members

WDYTYA Show live

Off to the WDYTYA show in Olympia on Friday. I will be helping out on the Guild of One-Name Studies Stand during the day.

Come and say hello

Guild of One-Name Studies - special offer

The following is a press release from the Guild of One-Name Studies:

The Guild of One-Name Studies is to offer a special extended membership to new joiners at the forthcoming Who Do You Think You Are? Live show being held in the UK at the Olympia, London on Friday 25 to Sunday 27 February 2011. Normally membership of the Guild costs £15.00 and covers a period of up to a year with renewal on 1st November 2011. This special extended membership will cost £20.00 but will include a full year's extra membership, renewal not being due until 1st November 2012. The aim of the scheme is to attract more new members and to encourage these members to stay with the Guild for longer and to appreciate and utilise the various benefits available to members. For people who cannot attend the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, the special offer of an extended membership will be made available to them for a week from when the show opens on Friday 25 February 2011 on the Guild website at: www.one-name.org/specialoffer.html

Do come and say hello on the Guild Stand during Friday

Bracknell Family History Fair

Attended the Bracknell Family History Fair today. I was one of four Family History Leaders who ran the U3A stand. I was delighted during the day to see so many people I knew and have a chance for a chat.

I also chatted to those on the Guild stand, who seemed to be busy all day.

I was pleased to see that there was a steady stream of people walking around the stalls all day, so maybe FHFs are not declining as much as we thought.

West Surrey Family History Fair

The annual Family History Fair in Woking was as usual excellent. I toured the stands meeting many people, some of whom I had not met since last year.

It was also cause to celebrate the "retirement" of Howard the Guild bookstall manager. After many years as the "face" of the Guild at fairs all over the Country he was take a rest, or knowing Howard a change of direct for his activities. Howard does not seem to rest. Many Guild members including quite a few members of the committee were at the Guild stand when Howard returned from giving his talk. We presented him with two cakes, one with the Guild logo on and the other with a picture of Howard behind the stand. We also gave him an engraved tankard. Well done Howard.

I managed to buy two wonderful very inexpensive old books for my collection, so went home to get ready to go to see the local firework display, quite tired but satisfied with my day.

WDYTYR exhibition at Olympia

Went to Olympia today and had a great time. I started by managing to get my Ancestry subscription offer and a free cup of coffee. Good start.

Visited the U3A stand to give them a copy of our programme and celebratory booklet and express our disappointment at not having our article published. We await to see if I did any good.

Browsing around the stalls I bought a couple of books and three maps and picked up several leaflets. It was good to hear Mark Bayley's talk about the Genealogist website and how to get the best from it. I picked up several tips. I also went to one of the DNA talks, quite interesting, oh I do wish I could get some men interested.

Great to meet many people, talk to old friends and meet new ones.

Brackell FHF

Spent a few interesting hours wandering around the two halls at Bracknell this morning. Met and talked with many friends, sorry if I missed you!

Tried very hard to see if there was any book about Excise Men, seems there is none to be found, but several people thought it would be a good idea if there was one. Any offers?

West Surrey FHF

Went to the West Surrey Family History Fair today and met several friends from U3A, IHGS, WSFHS and GoONS. Certainly a lovely day to meet old friends. Talked for a while with Louise who I have not seen for many years, it was good to cath up. Amazing how family history can keep friendships going for years.

Bought a couple of reference books.

Failed to see my friends Teresa and Stuart, do hope they are ok?

Good few hours, sorry if I missed you

Who do you think you are exhibition in Olympia

With all the excitement with the birth of little Harry I thought I would not be able to go this year. However my good friend Teresa phoned yesterday and offered me a ticket to go with her today. I jumped at the chance of attending the exhibition and seeing Teresa again.

We met on Clapham Junction railway station and exchanged news travelling on the train together to Olympia. She had to go to the DNA stand so I headed off to get us some tickets for the talks.

We listened first to Martyn Killon the Vice President of Society of Australian Genealogists and made lots of notes. He gave us a potted history of Australia which gave us a good idea when things happened to help us identify where we should go to look in our researches in Oz. He suggested the first port of call should be http://www.coraweb.com.au/. BMD indexes are available for most states although newspaper digitalization is slow.

Then we listened to Sarah Wise talk about the Old Nicol are of Shoreditch. An amazing talk of a serious slum area. Fascinating.

The last talk we attended was by Nigel Bayley about how to chart and pubish your family history. He gave some fresh ideas in the ideas about creating charts. Suggesting putting time lines together with charts

We then split up and visited the show and all that was on offer. A great day, but oh how I ache now. Thanks Teresa for a great day

Bracknell Family History Fair

Visited the Bracknell Family History fair yesterday and met up with nine members of the Surrey and West London section of the Guild of One-name studies (GoONS) You may remember that last December I agreed to become their representative. Since then I have attempted to communicate by Email or post to everyone of the group and gather their ideas. It was great to meet and talk with those that attended, and I look very forward to meeting others on other occassions.

The fair was also great I talked with several very interesting stall holders and attended the talk given by Find my past about 1911 census and everything else they had to offer on their websites

West Surrey Family History Fair

I attended the West Surrey Family History Society Fair today and had a very interesting time talking with like minded people.

I discussed with some members of the Hampshire FHS about where I might find details of the fire in Portsmouth in 1878 when the theatre and Frederick Tilly's soap factory in Gunwharf Road were lost.

I also obtained a book about Worksop, we have a branch who lived there and I knew nothing about the area.

Free parking and free entry made the experience even better

Novels with a difference

I have recently completed an excellent book. I rarely pass on my ideas on books but this one was superb. A crime story with a genealogical twist well worth reading. Dan Waddell's The Blood Detective. I first heard about this book from the flyers at WDYTYR in May

Another author worth considering is Fiona Anderson, her books Pale as the Dead and Bloodline are also good reads again with genealogical interests

I would add that neither Fiona nor Dan are related

West Surrey family History Fair

Today I attended the West Surrey Family History Fair in Woking. Free parking, free entry and lots of stalls, lectures and research material.

For the first time they were attempting five 10 minute lectures, I attended them all and found them most informative.

I purchased a few books and met many friends, exhausted but happy I got home late afternoon just in time for our second trip to local firework displays

Family history Show in Olympia

I attended the "Who do you think you are? National History show" in Olympia yesterday. This was the first day of a three day event. I arrived about 9:45 and joined the back of a very long queue of ticket holders, having met my good friends Teresa and Stuart on Clapham Junction station quite by chance.

We were soon in the hall and I headed off for the SOG booking booth as I wanted to attend several of the SOG lectures. Oh boy, I hope they have reaaranged this for today. I spent half an hour in the queue. Never mind. I then headed off to the show proper. I intended gathering lots of information for those in my U3A group who were not managing to get to the show, as well as for myself.

The show will be well reported so I will just say, I attended all the lectures I wanted, visited every stand at least once and staggered back to Olympia station at 5:50pm. I thought it was a fantastic show, the lectures were free and most informative, and although the hall was quite crowded at times, it was with like minded people, who were jolly, patient and very chatty. I talked with many "strangers" about their research, and had a thoroughly great day. I must keep telling my feet that today.

I am sure today and tomorrow will be equally good days, so if you plan to go, do go and have fun

Bracknell Family History Fair

Today I went to Bracknell to assist on the GOONS stand at the Bracknell Family History Fair. We were in the 3M hall and had many visitors. So as usual there was lots of talking, handing out of leaflets and dealing with people who wanted to buy books, software, vouchers or just ask questions. Howard and Ken were "doing their stuff" showing the software off to enquiring viewers and I helped Mike and Richard with the other visitors requests. Howard has just written to me to say we sold over £1,000 goods and he seemed pleased with the days efforts. I had a great time talking about my favourite subject.

I was also thrilled to meet Tony Greathead from New Zealand and his wife Luci who popped in to say hi. He has promised some photographs, but needs to speak with his Auntie. Looking very forward to the next time we meet.

Prize winner - tickets for FHS Show

I was very surprised to open the post just now to find I had won two tickets for the show on Saturday, presented by Your Family Tree Magazine. How lovely