We are an active friendly group with up to 20 members and meet monthly at the Old Barn Hall to help and learn from each other in our quest to trace relatives and understand our own family history. Some members have been researching for many years and some are relative beginers - so all newcomers are welcome to join the fun. Between us, we have had research experience with most genealogy websites and software packages, but also visits to Parishes and other archives to find the other estimated 90% of family history records that are not digitised. Each month we have presentations (sometimes from outside speakers) and talks on topics suggested by members. The calendar for 2025/6 (and possible future topics for the year) is below and will be supplemented as we progress through the year.
Some of our Recent Topics covered from 2022-24 - click here
2025/6 Calendar of meetings
Date Subject
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2025
20 January
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An Ancestor through time
The group will pick a relative and track them through time using census and other documents - where did they live, who did they live with, what did they do, what information was noted - and give a short talk/presentation
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17 February
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An Ancestor through time
continuation of more Ancestors through time
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17 March
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Samuel Hodgkins - myth versus fact
Presentation by Judith Witter
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28 April
(note date change) |
Emigration to the New World
The Group can pick an ancestor and tell the story of their emigration journey
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| 19 May |
How AI can save you hours when researching your family history
A talk by Stephen Doyle (U3A AI team speaker). Steve will show how using simple non techie approaches you can use AI to vastly increase the effectiveness of your family history research.
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| 16 June |
Finding my Birth Family
Talk about Jean's husband's search for his birth father's family - refresh from talk given in Nov 2022
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| 21 July |
DNA - has it helped
The Group will discuss the pros and cons of DNA and where it has helped (or not) in their research
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| August |
Summer Break |
22 September
(note date change) |
Why Didn't They Call Me Susan
Talk by Roma about her ancestral line
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20 October
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An Ancestor that I admire or would love to be
The Group will pick an Ancestor and talk about them and what they admire or what it was like in their lifetime
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| 17 November |
Ancestral home/village/region.
The Group will pick a place where their ancestors hail from - could be their house through time or village or even a city suburb
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15 December
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Christmas/New Year Family Traditions - or something else??? |
Future Programme
The future programme is being worked on; some of the items below might be used in future meetings.
- Red Cross - Lost Records
- Whats the Buzz (looking at newspapers/records 100 years apart)
- Where there's a Will, there's a way (unusual/heirlooms items left in ancestors wills)
- A house through history
- A Sacred Exchange (adoption or child given up)
- Using Photographs for research
Below are three tables to help in your research- some are links to external sites, others are documents/presentations that you can download.
- Documents introducing research into family history (Click here)
- Documents of general interest to family historians (Click here)
- Instructions to help navigate genealogy software packages (Click here)
If you find some of the external links have broken - please tell Roland.
The Following table lists documents useful to those new to Family History
Documents introducing research into Family History
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Guidance stage 1
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This
document is prepared by members of the Family History Group to help
those new to Family History Research. This is an introduction to Family
History with links to a couple of forms to download and use and to some
of the free websites available.
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Guidance stage 2
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This
document lists details on what is listed on Certificates (Births,
Marriages, Deaths) with links as to how to get hold of copies.
Certificates provide an essential documented link in the Genealogy Tree.
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BBC Family History Pages
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This
document gives access to a series of pages in the BBC web archives from 2004 - but still useful.
Guidance on starting your research into your ancestors. The site is
archived and will load more quickly on a slow connection but has similar
information to the current live site.
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First Steps by Nick Barrett
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Nick Barrett was the presenter and
researcher for "Who do you think you are" BBC family history programme.
Here are some wise words about the importance of planning and recording
for those new to research with an emphasis on the need to talk to
relatives at an early stage. Although from 2004 - they are still valid
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Documents of general interest from U3A central - Stephen Dyer
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U3A central Genealogy
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Link to central U3A genealogy webpage - guidance notes, last three newsletters, zoom talks
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Research List
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A list of research handout notes available from Stephen - latest Dec 2024
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Some notes have already been presented to our Group and held by Roland:
DNA, early 20th century research, 1921 census overview, Diaspora Effect, Scots-Irish Genealogy
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Updated 11/09/25 by Roland