After quizzing a few stall holders at WDYTYA? Live 2014, I realised that they’d not been asked to return to Olympia in 2015, and that there were no ‘earlybird’ tickets for 2015’s show on sale.
After I checked, I found that Olympia’s diary was already full without the show. With Earls Court being demolished, and (thankfully) the show didn’t move to London Excel, rumours about Birmingham began to appear on social media.
It wasn’t until April, when my local Cambridgeshire Family History Society‘s newsletter announced the move, that all the rumours seemed to point in one direction – to Birmingham.
Changes
Today, in the announcement, along with the new venue confirmation, comes the offer of rail discount on Virgin trains.
There’s also another change – the dates have moved – 16th-18th April, rather than the usual February dates.
Ancestry will continue to sponsor Who Do You Think You Are? Live in 2015.
How does this change affect you? Will you have an easier journey? Does this now mean that you will be able to attend more than one day?
I still plan to attend all three again (I don’t know why I didn’t do that in previous years – it was so much more fun), but will need to work out the most efficient way to get there, as it may not be train.
Cambridge plays host to another Family History Fair on Saturday 25th October 2014.
The Cambridgeshire Family History Society has announced its Family History Fair is to return on 25th October 2014, after the success of last year’s event.
Girton Glebe Primary School plays host once again to a day’s worth of family history – with free admission and parking. Last year’s event saw a mixture of stands from Cambridgeshire, but also from neighbouring counties and genealogy and history organisations covering the local area.
A series of lectures will be announced nearer the time – I particularly enjoyed last year’s one on dating photographs by Tom Doig.
For more information about the event, how to book a stand, and all the latest on that expert talks timetable – check out the Society website.
Some people who were working on the stands were confused that they’d not yet been given the option to book for the following year’s show.
I also noticed that attendees weren’t being sold advance tickets (like some 2014 tickets were being sold from a small ticket booth at the 2013 show).
Was the three day event ending? Was it changing venues due to the imminent demolition of Earls Court and the subsequent squeezing of available exhibition space?
In the corner of page 20 is a small advert stating that they ‘have been advised’ that the 2015 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at the Birmingham NEC.
The Cambridgeshire Family History Society informing readers of the WDYTYALive venue change.
Whilst the official show website doesn’t currently mention the venue change yet, I’d heard this rumour floating around social media. It’s nice to finally see it for myself in print.
In the meantime, Glasgow will be playing host to a special Who Do You Think You Are? Live show on 29-31st August.
How would this venue change affect you if you plan to attend the 2015 WDYTYA show? Birmingham is about 1.5hrs drive west for me, or 2.5hrs by train (which involves travelling 1hr south to London, then 1.5hrs back up north). I might see if i can find a better plan – curse you Dr Beeching!
I’ve booked my ticket for the session, which takes place tomorrow, Saturday 5th April – 3:30-5pm, in Cambridge at The Divinity School, Lightfoot Room, St John’s Street.
I’m going simply because it’s time that I took the great stories that I’ve been stumbling across, and get myself writing them into immortality.
Richard’s written two memoir/biographical family history titles now, and what with his work for The Telegraph, 10, and Esquire, he must surely be a good source to learn from.
Richard Benson. Photo: Chris Floyd.
I’m surrounded by books, often talking to authors, meeting authors at events, and even have friends who are authors… so my excuses are running out, and it’s time to face my destiny and just get on and write.
Not only that, but their Secretary Jan Cooper did such a good job, that I even registered as the worldwide name research point for a surname. I challenged them with three of my more unusual surnames in my ancestry, and they only had one of them (Dewey). I chose to register Yarrow (the other was Moden, and in hindsight, I could probably have tested a few more like Tingey).
My GOONS badge
I’ve been aware of their work (which began in 1979), and have often seen them at talks, but this was the first time I’d actively talked with them.
Minutes after becoming their newest recruit, I discovered that I had joined the ranks of a number of genealogy chums who are also fellow GOONS surname registrants. All were hugely positive of the Guild, and of the supportive approach between members, and registrants.
Armed with the induction pack and a detailed guide titled ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom‘, I shall endeavour to record and data crunch all Yarrow name-bearers that I can find, or that find me. I shall be absorbing the guide over the next week, and start my data trawling.
In the meantime, if you’re a Yarrow, have Yarrow ancestors or relatives, or have information about Yarrow surname bearers, then I’d like to hear from you (feel free to leave comments below).
I’ve just set up @YarrowGOONS on Twitter, to help me reach out and connect with the surname connection.
Day Three – the final day of the 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at London’s Olympia.
I’m writing this at the end of the third and final day of Who Do You Think You Are? Live. I’m home, and can honestly say that I throughly enjoyed myself.
Some of the Family History Society stands at lunchtime on Day 3 of WDYTYA? Live 2014
I arrived at about 9:45 this morning, after yet another wonderful walk through Hyde Park in the sunshine (still definitely Winter mode). Whilst there was no queue outside Olympia, I managed to get in just before the mass of visitors who were walking over from Olympia station arrived at the doors.
I must confess that I didn’t make it to Michael Gandy’s talk – I chose it as I briefly have a family that lived in London for about 10 years, and occasionally through history a marriage turns up in its parishes. The queue was long, and so I decided to bail, and regret missing it based on the comments I’ve since heard and seen on twitter.
However, I am very glad that I finally caught a Celia Heritage talk though, as her talks and work has always come with such positive praise. Plus, I’ve really been enjoying reading Wills and even the Probate Calendars that I’ve found on Ancestry.co.uk.
I’ve got copies of Wills that hint at family feuds, and ones that detail every spoon and bowl. Those latter ones don’t seem like much now, but as Celia’s talk suggested, it wasn’t just the better-off people that wrote them.
Through case studies from her own tree, Celia was able to show how it is important to view the full Will, as they carry so much information about relationships (not just siblings, spouses, and children, but cousins can turn up too), and locations. She also highlighted the importance of looking around at the same surname in roughly the right area, and seeing whether you can find some potential connections in Wills – in a hope that their Wills will mention your branch and help link it all together.
The Babbage Breakthrough
It was my first venture to Who Do You Think You Are? Live (2011), when I dragged along a selection of my handwritten notes, expecting to find a whole new swathe of ancestors in some monumental research breakthrough.
I soon found it wasn’t really that kind of event, and that I should use the show to learn about new techniques, new technology, and discover about new resources that can help my breakthroughs, and for the years since, I’ve stuck to this notion.
Devon Family History Society stand at WDYTYA? Live 2014
So it was a surprise to find myself sitting alongside the very helpful Terry Leaman – Vice-Chairman of the Devon Family History Society looking at a baptism list of my Babbage relatives.
Thankfully, my iPad has Reunion 10 (Mac only genealogy software) on it, so I was able to jump straight into the right tree and check my current research against the results – it matched – and with a few extra children in their records, and a completely new set of baptism dates for all of them to add to my research. A quick print-out and donation later, and I was off to sit down and add the data to my files.
#WDYTYAlive #tweetup
There were a few tweet-ups this year, and I managed to get in on one of them, and serendipitously right in the foreground of the commemorative photo. As ever, it was great to meet new people, finally meet some not-so-new Twitter/blogging chums, and to once again see friends made at previous shows.
Here’s one tweet-up photo from genealogist Luke Mouland..
If you’re intrigued as to quite what a ‘tweet-up’ is, or concerned about what people do at a ‘tweet-up’, then essentially it’s an impromptu small-scale flashmob, organised via Twitter, where people turn up to meet those sometimes anonymous/faceless Twitter users, or to meet up with Twitter users that you’ve got to know well. Tea, coffee, or alcohol is usually consumed.
Bonding over genealogy (and a hotdog)
Just prior to the tweet-up, I sat upstairs reading emails, when a retired man asked if he could sit at my table to eat (as there were no other free tables). Of course I didn’t refuse, and so we got chatting. He said that he’d travelled from Essex and that this was the second day for him, but his first ever visit to a show like this. He said he’d been meaning to come to something like this for ’20 years or more’, but just hadn’t found the right show.
He said he’d been enjoying the talks on day one, and was going to spend his second day looking around the stands.
We talked for about 15 minutes in all, about the WDYTYA? TV show (he isn’t a fan of celebrity culture, and we both kind of nodded in agreement), and we talked about all the great innovations, and how we’d both done our stints sifting through microfiche, film, registers, and transcripts for hours looking for names that were never there.
I’ve no idea who he was, but just for those 15 minutes, the world got a little bit smaller, and that wonderful ability of genealogy to bond people together, proved once again to have worked at ease without boundaries. I left him finishing off his hotdog, and made my way over to the IWM demo I’d booked….
I’m really keen to get using this site, and was also keen to find out about tagging people in a photo (which could be a war memorial), and also about the educational programme that I hope is sitting behind this site, and the opportunity for it to become a key resource in classrooms and universities.
I also met up with Steve Bardouille and Ola Dada from the team at Famberry – a relatively new, but fairly well established in the US company, that is specialising in creating secure spaces and tools for people to privately build family trees in collaboration with a closed or invite-only audience.
They’d been talking to a few different people at the show, and wanted to meet with me to find out what thoughts I had about what I’d want to see from their product as a family history researcher, as they are keen to grow their UK audience.
2015 at Olympia, London?
As the show had moved forward a weekday, there was no opportunity for Sunday visitors. This had let me to wondered whether the would-be Sunday visitors would turn up today, and it certainly seemed to be the case. It was much busier than Thursday and Friday, and at a guess, it was a busier Saturday than last year.
Day 3 of Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
Day One’s (Thursday) visitors seemed to be on par with this year’s (and previous) Friday visitors, so I’m not entirely sure that the change has done the show any favours (last year saw 13,941 visitors). Couple this with the end of the District Line rail service from Earls Court to Olympia during the week (it only ran today), and it feels like it’s getting difficult for the 3 day show to stay at Olympia.
After speaking with a couple of reliable sources on stands, I realised that there was no mention of next year’s show. Usually by now, we’ve heard that the following year’s show dates, and last year I remember seeing a stand selling tickets to this year’s show. But nothing.
Is there something going on? Is the show to end? Or are we to shift location? Hopefully not London Excel (I find it dreadful to get to – another show I go to, has just switched to there, so I’m no longer attending). Maybe, as rumour rumbles, Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 will be in Birmingham? We’ll just have to wait and see.
I thought i’d try to get the answer myself from the WDYTYALive team’s twitter account, but maybe they can’t confirm anything just yet. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.
Hey @WDYTYALIVE there seems to be a quiet concern over whether there will be a 2015 show. Any news? #wdytyalive
In better news (well, for me at least), I found Olympia’s wifi was finally flawless. I can only hope that it’s the same quality/system at Earls Court 2, where I’m visiting on Tuesday.
So, in conclusion, I really enjoyed the show. I really enjoyed all three days. I enjoyed my hotel stay and beautiful Hyde Park ‘commute’. As ever the SOG workshop speakers were brilliant, and the mixture of stands really helped to fuel my time in-between the talks.
Thank you, to the team at Who Do You Think You Are? Live, to the team at the Society of Genealogists, and to the team at Olympia.
Day Two of the 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at London’s Olympia.
After a late night at the annual FindMyPast dinner, i creaked out of bed and headed across a beautifully sunny (but assuringly still Winter) Hyde Park for the second of three days at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014. I’m quite enjoying this ‘commute’!
Sunshine beams into Olympia for day two.
I got to Olympia just a few minutes after opening, but there was no queue. A small queue remained at the cloakroom and the workshop ticket desk, but both were fast moving.
Her talk covered how to approach family history for magazines and newspapers, how to pitch to editors, and how to get writing.
She highlighted that when writing, you should always think about the reader. The audience. Who are they? Will they want to read this? She also advised that when writing an article, you should start with your best anecdote, and end on one too.
Do mention the War
After Cassie’s talk finished, I then spent time exploring the stands over in the new Military History section on the upper floor.
Audrey Collins talks ‘Discovery’ at The National Archives stand at Who Do a You Think You Are? Live 2014
Here I found The National Archives (with Audrey Collins talking about on-site ‘Discovery’), and the exciting looking Lives Of WW1 from the Imperial War Museum.
Lives of WW1 talk at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
I was fortunate to attend the Keynote from Lives Of The First World War with Melanie Donnelly and Luke Smith, expertly compared by Else Churchill and her roaming mics. They were able to explain the initial test conducted in 2011 on Flickr, and the subsequent development of the project to the now, 2-day old, showcased product.
It’s yet to be publicly launched – they quoted May 2014. It certainly looks like a great resource for creating what is essentially a memorial Facebook-style profile of people who lived and died in the First World War, complete with photos, audio, video, documents, stories, and community.
Eric Knowles at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
Was pleased to spot the legendary Eric Knowles again, deep in conversation with a hopeful heirloom keeper.
I’m now off for a ‘tweet up’ at the Hand and Flower pub opposite the event venue…. so I best leave that out of today’s blog post!!
Day one of three, from the 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at London’s Olympia.
Today has been the first day of Who Do You Think You Are Live? 2014 at London’s Olympia.
Day One of Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
This is my fourth year here, and for the first time, I’ve booked a hotel, and I’m going to be here for all three days of the show.
Hopefully I can find enough to keep me entertained, and looking at the workshop schedule, this is going to be fairly easy.
The first year that I visited (back in 2011), I hadn’t booked myself onto any talks/workshops, and so found the whole event initially interesting, but not able to sustain my interest for a whole day – and I considered skipping it the following year.
Thankfully I didn’t, and I’ve been coming back ever since.
Angels, Cushions, Books, and Sin
I arrived at about 10am, complete with case (which, together with my coat, I swiftly consigned to the cloakroom).
I soon spotted Jackie Depelle, and her now infamous WDYTYALive themed hat, and after a quick hello, found my way to my first lecture session ‘Write Your Life Story’ with Michael Oke of Bound Biographies.
He explained how he fell into publishing through helping an elderly man write his life story. He went on to explain how best to get your own life story down – highlighting the need to record all the tiniest pieces of information you can, in order to help the reader remember you, or to picture or connect with the person or people you’re writing about.
Whilst leaving his session, I thought I’d died, when I bumped into these two angelic nurses…
Angel nurses from spiritofremembrance.com
With (a pricey) lunch out of the way, it was time for my second lecture – this time from Dr Colin R Chapman on Sin, Sex & Probate.
Dr Colin R Chapman on Sin, Sex & Probate, at day one of Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
Dr Chapman talked through the hierarchical structure of the church, and explained that the records held by each level could be detailed and fascinating – but particularly a Bishop’s records (for the juicy gossip). He pulled some examples out from Norfolk, Essex, Cheshire, and Oxfordshire, to illustrate the range of ‘sins’ that we’re legitimate crimes – including defamation, not returning to church after giving birth to say ‘Thanks’ to God, punching a man whilst in a graveyard, and eating meat in Lent.
He pointed out that the church courts dealt with sins, and the civic courts dealt with crimes.
All in all, a fascinating topic, and I’m considering buying a copy of his book (of the same name), if only to read further examples, and help steer me to somewhere where I might find my own ancestor’s scandal.
I hasten to add, it’s the first time I’ve ever had to ask for a ticket for Sin, Sex & Probate!
I managed to pop along to the FindMyPast stand twice, catching the tail end of David Annal‘s fascinating talk on census returns and how you can use search wild cards to get better results, and examples of poor handwriting and missing relatives.
Also, appearing later, was the turn of Myko Clelland of FindMyPast, who once again under-dressed for the show (see pic below), whilst searching for Cushions in Shoreditch (of the surname kind), to help illustrate the collections, new image viewer, and new tree builder (I’ll be giving this a spin when I get home).
Myko Clelland (FindMyPast.com) talks cushions at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
All in all a good first day. Tomorrow has a tweet-up to attend, more lectures, shopping, and no doubt catching up with more genealogy friends.
A ‘Next Steps in Family History’ day school (10am – 3.30pm) is to take place on Saturday December 7th 2013, at Cambridge Central Library.
A ‘Next Steps in Family History’ day school (10am – 3.30pm) is to take place on Saturday December 7th 2013, at Cambridge Central Library.
The session will be covering a range of subjects – all of which are essential to researching your family tree – and not just in Cambridgeshire.
Topics include*
Finding and Using Parish Registers
Military Records
Occupational Records
The British Newspaper Archive
Poor Law and other original records
Coffee is served, but lunch is not provided. The library is in the centre of Cambridge, and even contains its own café.
The Day School isn’t free – it’s £25 per place, and going by my years of experience of visiting and communicating with the team at Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies team, and The Cambridgeshire Collection, you’ll be in good hands.
As reported here in April, the Who Do You Think You Are? Live team have confirmed their venue for 2015 – as Birmingham NEC.
