Category: Who Do You Think You Are? Live

DAY ONE: Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015

Blog post from Day One of Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015.

Well, here we are, the end of Day One of the 2015, re-homed Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, at Birmingham NEC. Its been a long day, involving driving from Cambridgeshire to Coventry (where I’m staying), then onto the train for the token £2.10 return trip to Birmingham International station, which adjoins the venue. I spent the entire day on my feet, wandering around, sat in on some talks, and then went to the 1939 Register launch celebration by the team at FindMyPast. Then, train back, a gym work out, and now to my hotel room to write this.

Stalls at Who Do You Think You Are? Live
Stalls at Who Do You Think You Are? Live

 The new venue

I’m new to the NEC and it seems perfectly adept at putting on shows. Briefly, due to the volume of posters as I walked towards the show, I thought I was about to arrive at a Transit Van show… but thankfully, no. The familiar tree logo was in sight and I arrived about 10:15am. Once in, I wandered in, and over to the FindMyPast stand where I sat in on a talk on Military Records and the extra features of the FindMyPast tree (audio!).

Having soon gotten my bearings, I found myself checking out the Society of Genealogists family history show section of the event – the bit where the Societies come together and have stands. I was pleased to see Carol from my home team (Cambridgeshire Family History Society) was busy at their stand, but noted the absence of neighbouring Societies from Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire.

Cambridgeshire Family History Society stall
Cambridgeshire Family History Society stall

Right at the end of the hall were two great additions, one was a beautiful statue of a soldier, commemorating the First World War, and the statue was within a wind machine, that periodically would blow poppies upwards and you could then watch them drift down over the still, silent, soldier. Very poignant.

Remembrance statue at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015
Remembrance statue at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015
FindMyPast 1939 tea room
FindMyPast 1939 tea room

The other, was the 1939 Find My Past tea room, set up to promote/celebrate the forthcoming release of the 1939 Register – the nearest thing we’ll get to a census for 30 years, due to the destruction of the 1931 census and the cancellation of the 1941 census, both due to war.

It was also in this tea room, that an aftershow party was hosted, with various speakers, Society representatives and experts… and your humble bloggers, were treated to live wartime songs, and 1939 style food (I enjoyed the corned beef hash cakes more than I thought).

Anyway, that’s some bits from the first day… So how better than to end on a song…

 

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 Ticket Discount Offer

The Who Do You Think You Are? Live team have offered a ticket discount for readers of this blog – get 2 adult tickets for just £24.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 ticket website
Enter code AM24 to get 2 tickets for £24.00

I’m looking forward to next week’s WDYTYA? Live show next week – which I’ll be at for all three days.

The WDYTYALive? team have kindly given me a special discount code to pass on to you – meaning you can get 2 tickets for just £24.

If you’re not sure about attending, I can say that I honestly know exactly how you feel.

It took me a few years to want to come to such an event – I was confused as to why I would want to come to a large London-based building (as it was), to see/hear/talk about something to do with the TV show. As usual, curiosity got the better of me though, and I’m grateful of it.

In the few years that I’ve been attending, I’ve since found the event a wholy enjoyable experience – where I learn so much, discover some great resources and tips from those who have been researching for much longer than I have, and get to meet and learn about great new innovations and record sets from a wide range of large and small companies.

Add to this, the means of meeting up with fellow bloggers and genealogy twitter users.

It’s since become a genuine highlight of my genealogy and actually, my social calendar.

So, if Who Do You Think You Are? Live is teasing your curiosity – go on, give it a go.

You can use this discount code AM24 at the WDYTYA? Live ticket site. Just enter it in the ‘Code’ box near the top of the screen, click ‘Use Code’. Then scroll down a little, and you’ll see that the option to buy ‘Adult 2 for £24’. Select ‘2’ and then you can complete the payment as usual.

Easy!

Thanks to the WDYTYA Live team for this offer, and I hope to see some of you at the show.

Andrew

Preparing for Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015

My WDYTYA? Live 2015 tickets have just arrived, and I’ve started my countdown to the show.

My tickets arrived this morning for Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 – the first at the NEC, Birmingham. 

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 tickets arrive
My WDYTYA? Live tickets have arrived.

I’ve opted for all three days Thursday-Saturday 16-18th April, but have not yet completely picked out the expert talks from the wide range of workshop topics that are up this year.

I do have my eye on a few though, including:

I’ve also opted to stay in nearby Coventry, so will be hopping onto the train for a few minutes east > west each day.

I do have a few ‘to-dos’ though:

  • Sync the Reunion10 files on my iPad. I found this so useful last year, when I was able to talk to the Devon Family History Society, and compare what was in their database with what was in my tree without folders of papers to wade through.
  • Collect a spoon from my mother. Yes, a spoon. I’m hoping to show this spoon to Eric Knowles, in a bid that he might use his expertise to give it a date that may reveal that it is more likely to be one of the spoons that an ancestor went to court over, after being accused of theft, and was found not guilty by a jury because of conflicting evidence. Does this carefully handed-down spoon have significance. More on that after the show!

If you’re going to the show (tickets still seem to be available), how are your preparations coming along? Any workshops that you’re interested in attending? Or maybe you’re one of the presenters – in which case, are you ready?

I’m also really looking forward to re-connecting with those people who I’ve met at previous shows, and who i’ve enjoyed the discussions and witty comments from on this blog and other social media. The event really helps to make that spare room hobby, feel like part of a combined effort to preserve the history, heritage, and collective memories of generations.

For now though, happy tree surgery!

Andrew

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 tickets now on sale

The tickets for the 2015 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show have gone on sale – but this time it’s moving to NEC Birmingham. Will you be going this year?

The tickets for the 2015 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, have gone on sale.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 ticket website
The WDYTYA? Live 2015 website started taking ticket sales today.

The show, which arrives at NEC, Birmingham, for the first time this year, once again spans three days – 16-18th April.

Tickets are at £16 for 1 day (adult), £26 for 2 days, or £33 for all three days. You can buy them online from the seetickets website. The show repeats its VIP ticket type (I did this once, and it was nice to have front seats in workshops..).

Once again, it looks like a great varied range of topics, and the ticket page lists the titles of the topics for each day.

Its move to the venue, came after many months of speculation and fear amongst fans and exhibitors before it was officially announced (or as I blogged the leak earlier!). Its move was perhaps forced by the closure of Earls Court exhibition centre – which resulted in events being squeezed out of Olympia and into other venues like London ExCel (which I am very pleased the show didn’t end up in, as it’s awkward to get to!).

I attended all three days of the 2014 show, and I’m drawn to doing that again as I had a really good time. However, this was added to by also being in London – a city I am familiar with. This time, Birmingham is somewhere I’m not familiar with, so perhaps this time it might take some extra planning on my part – not least the journey there.. which is far more complicated.

Will you be going?

CONFIRMED: Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 goes to Birmingham NEC

Who Do You Think You Are? Live confirm that their 2015 show will be held on 16-18th April at Birmingham NEC.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live logoAs reported here in April, the Who Do You Think You Are? Live team have confirmed their venue for 2015 – as Birmingham NEC.

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, the show's sponsor, at Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014
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.

See you there?

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 goes to Birmingham

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2015 to be held at the Birmingham NEC.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live logoBack in February, whilst at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show in London, I picked up on some quiet concerns about the 2015 show.

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?

The answer seems to have come today, when I received my quarterly journal from the great team at The Cambridgeshire Family History Society.

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.
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 only GOON and registered a surname

On the second day of the 2014 Who Do You a Think You Are? Live show, I joined The Guild of One-Name Studies, and registered the surname of Yarrow.

On Day Two of the 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, I joined the GOONS (the affectionate acronym for The Guild Of One-Name Studies).

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).

GOONS badge
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.

Check out the Guild’s registered one-name study surname list to see if your surname is included (if not, sign up for it, just like i did!)

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2014 tickets now available!

Tickets for the 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at Olympia, London, are now on sale.

The 2014 Who Do You Think You Are? Live show tickets are now available for purchase.

Who Do You Think You Are Live?As per the 2013 show, there are a number of ticket options available, including the VIP Ancestry ticket (which i really enjoyed – giving you priority seats at the front of those talks). The cheapest entry ticket you can get if you’re an adult is £16 in advance. If you’re under 16, then you get in free – yet another great reason for you to get into genealogy!

As mentioned in my earlier blog post, the show runs from 20-22nd February 2014 – a change of weekday from previous years so that it now covers Thursday-Saturday (rather than Friday-Sunday).

I’m aiming on attending for all 3 days this time, and hope to do some live blogging here, and live tweeting throughout (Olympia wifi, and blog readers – you have been warned!).

Of course, i’ll be hoping that there will also be a repeat of the Tweetup.

Head over to the Who Do You Think You Are? Live website now to get those tickets. I hope to see you there!

UPDATE: And in case you’re wondering, yes, that’s me on the front of the Who Do You Think You Are? Live website, with the brilliant Jackie Depelle from Your Fair Ladies.

Andrew Martin and Jackie Depelle at Who Do You Think You Are? Live
Yours truly with Jackie Depelle at Who Do You Think You Are? Live

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2012

Review of my day at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2012 (WDYTYA Live) show at Olympia, London – including my top tips for you and for the WDYTYA Live organisers!

Back for my second and consecutive WDYTYA? Live show in Olympia, London.

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2012
Day 2 (25th Feb 2012) – it’s impossible to take a photo that shows the full scale of WDYTYA Live.

Last year I was able to catch the entertaining Monty Don, who talked about his experiences of filming his episode and the effect that it had on him. Unfortunately I missed this year’s Emilia Fox, whose episode was heart-wrenching and fascinating.

WDYTYALive workshops and talks

Instead, I had pre-booked myself on to a couple of talks – the first being a keynote workshop organised by the Society of Genealogists and hosted by the brilliantly raconteur (and freshly outed event tweeter) Else Churchill. The topic of the workshop was “Breaking the barriers of Social Networking – Strategies and Tricks”.

By name, it made me quite excited to attend to see if there is anything that I could use in my own research. The session was led by Laurence Harris from MyHeritage, and whilst interesting, it did stray away from social networking – even touching on DNA testing – and did feel a little at times like a product pitch by MyHeritage. However, there were some good ideas at using social media, and Laurence was clear in his descriptions of the benefits, disadvantages and concerns over using social networks and other online platforms as tools for research. He even introduced me to Mocavo – a genealogy-savvy search tool (and kudos to Mocavo for tweeting at me in response to my tweet about them).

This was followed by a Q&A session with a panel of experts who were certainly from quite a wide range of backgrounds – including D. Joshua Taylor from BrightSolid.com (the partners that help deliver FindMyPast), and Lisa Louise Cook (Genealogy Gems, Google expert).

Else Churchill introduces the panel
Else Churchill (far left) introducing the panel of the Keynote Workshop: ‘Breaking The Barriers with Social Networking – Strategies and Tricks’.

This year, I was also fortunate to meet the brilliant geneageek Lisa Louise Cook after she literally wowed the audience as they frantically scribbled notes during her talk ‘Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian’. What she doesn’t know about using the family of Google products for genealogy research just isn’t worth knowing.

She introduced the audience to ‘search operators’ and how to wield these to make Google search work its hardest for you. I’d never heard of ‘synonym search’ or using a date range tool in my search box, but I know that I will be doing this from now on.

Thank you to Lisa for her nod to this event summary in her podcast, episode 128. You can listen here for free.

Societies

Titanic themed FindMyPast theatre
FindMyPast might be bigger, but Family History Societies are equally essential in your research.

It’s important to remember the hard work that societies do for genealogy – it’s not all down to the big names like Ancestry, FindMyPast or GenesReunited. Who Do You Think You Are? Live gives huge exposure to a vast number of these local societies and I was very pleased to finally meet Carol Noble from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society, who was very helpful and great to talk to – I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for records for her from now on!

I was also pleased to see the Suffolk Family History Society there too, who gave me some inside news about the availability of some more records from Elveden. Lots of other counties were also present – Norfolk’s stand was crawling with people eagerly browsing their books and cd-roms. I was a little bit disappointed to see that the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society didn’t appear to have (unless I totally missed it) anything to buy and take away – ideally I’d love to get my hands on a cd-rom of parish register transcriptions in the style of the CFHS or Suffolk Family History Society – but instead, they were offering look-ups on their computer for £2 each.

Tips for your WDYTYA Live visit

  • Leave yourself plenty of time if you’re traveling via London Underground – Earls Court station gets very busy and isn’t the easiest to navigate.
  • Be prepared for lots of walking and standing….. and talking!
  • Book tickets for the ‘big’ workshops and talks online as early as you can – many of these were sold out weeks in advance.

Tips for WDYTYA Live prior to my next visit

  • More chairs needed up in the gallery area!
  • Set up a ‘tweet-up’ lounge space for genealogy twitter chums to meet up in *yikes* real life (!) and talk genealogy social media and tech!
  • Encourage the Local History societies to put their region name up on the top boards of their stands in big letters – takes ages to track down the county you want!

Spotted!

Nick Barratt with film crew in tow; the legend that is Eric Knowles valuing heirlooms; a man with an incredible moustache; and author Chris Paton wearing a rosette.