| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Group administrator: |
Roland Cunningham
|
| Group email: | Family History group |
| When: | Monthly on Mondays 9:30 am 3rd Mon |
| Venue: | Old Barn Hall |
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 | |
| 2025 20 January | 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 |
| 17 February | An Ancestor through time continuation of more Ancestors through time |
| 17 March | Samuel Hodgkins - myth versus fact Presentation by Judith Witter |
| 28 April (note date change) | Emigration to the New World The Group can pick an ancestor and tell the story of their emigration journey |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| August | Summer Break |
| 22 September (note date change) | Why Didn't They Call Me Susan Talk by Roma about her ancestral line |
| 20 October | 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 |
| 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 |
| 15 December | Continuation of Ancestral village through time Followed by Christmas celebrations |
| 2026 19 January | Irish Genealogy Presentation / talk by Roland |
| 16 February | Skeletons in the Cupboard or Unexpected connections The Group will each discuss some unexpected finds in their Family History research |
| 16 March | even more skeletons .... have to get a bigger cupboard |
| 20 April | A Glimpse at life in Britain in 1926 a talk by Michelle followed by the Group discussing life for their relatives 100 years ago (150, 200 ??) |
| 18 May | My Ancestors unusual jobs a talk by Stephen Doyle followed by the Group discussing unusual occupations for their relatives |
| 15 June | Surnames The Group will look at surnames perhaps with different spellings, or searches gone wrong because of spelling, too common surnames hindering searches, names associated with trades/places, surname changes (and why??) etc. |
| 20 July | A Coal Miners Life A talk by Barry |
| August | Summer Break |
| 21 September | Redbourn through Time Talk by Roma about her relatives who have lived there for centuries through changing times |
| 19 October | TBC |
| 16 November | Palaeography - the study of ancient writing systems Talk and practical presented by Sally Gardiner |
| 21 December ? | TBC |
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 village through history
- Sampler workshop
- A Sacred Exchange (adoption or child given up)
- Using Photographs for research
- Family Generational Occupations
- Surnames
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 history)
- Documents of general interest to family historians (Click historians)
- Instructions to help navigate genealogy software packages (Click packages)
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 | |
| Guidance stage 1 | 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. |
| Guidance stage 2 | 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. |
| BBC Family History Pages | 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. |
| First Steps by Nick Barrett | 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 |
| Documents of general interest to Family Historians | |
| Useful family history websites | A document containing links to a number of useful websites. Please note that this is a work in progress and if you have any suggestions for additions please let Roland know. |
| Lost Cousins | Link to the Lost Cousins website. A wealth of articles and articles to help in your family history research. You can register for the newsletter for free. |
| Ash U3A FH newsletter | Heather Hicks of Ash U3A maintains a website with regular quarterly newsletters that have to be downloaded. Her handout "Researching, Recording and Reporting Your Family History' (April 2017) is particularly useful for those who have just started their research. They started November 2013 and ran until May 2019. |
| Inflation Calculator | Bob Kelley discovered that The Bank of England has an inflation calculator. It takes values from the year 1209 to the present. It is easy to use. |
| Family History map sources | Veronica Taylor has supplied a list of the maps useful to Family Historians. |
| FHS 2020 Presentations | Roland captured Links to videos on a variety of Family History topics discussed at the Family History online show of 2020 |
| 1921 census presentation | Presentation by FindMyPast on the launch of the 1921 census |
| Census guidance | Guidance notes on Census data by National Archive |
| DNA - made simple | Extract from Roland's DNA presentation |
| Tree to Tale | Slides from Dr Kathy Chater's presentation |
| Irish Genealogy | Useful websites when researching Irish Genealogy - extract from Roland's presentation |
| Software | Some summary pages extracted from Roland's presentation to computer group March 2026 |
| Timeline sites of interest | johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/ historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Timeline-of-Events-AD-700-2012/ also Wiki has a number of timelines - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelines_of_modern_history |
| Documents of general interest from U3A central - Stephen Dyer | |
| U3A central Genealogy | Link to central U3A genealogy webpage - guidance notes, last three newsletters, zoom talks |
| Research List | A list of research handout notes available from Stephen - latest Dec 2024 |
| 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 | |
Updated 27/08/2026