Tag: Cambridgeshire Family History Society

Society Spotlight: What is a history society’s biggest need?

Three history and genealogy societies reveal what they feel that their society, and societies like them, see as their biggest need.

In today’s Society Spotlight themed blog post, I reveal the answers to the first question that I asked the societies:

What is the society’s biggest need?

Before approaching the societies, I had a few ideas as to what the themes of this answer might be – people, time, items/records. However, I was surprised that the other of my guesses – a financial theme – doesn’t get mentioned here.

Here’s what the society representatives had to say:

Society of Genealogists logoAbbie Black, The Society of Genealogists (SoG)

“A society’s biggest need is dedicated individuals who want the work of a society to succeed. Volunteers make up most of the workforce of societies, and they do excellent work in continuing the goals of preserving the past. Volunteers digitize documents, create indexes, and help members of the society do effective research.”

“In larger Societies like the Society of Genealogists paid professional staff are also important to a society’s function; they provide professional expertise and competencies, not only in subject specialisms as genealogists or librarians but in management accountability, finance and human resources. Genealogical Societies with professional staff are more common in the USA but the SoG is unique in the UK.”

Robert Newman, The Newman Name Society

Newman Name Society logo“Our biggest need is for more members and for people to share their Newman record finds so that we can build up our archive.”

Lisa Newman, The Cambridgeshire Family History Society

Cambridgeshire Family History Society logo

“I would say our biggest need is to encourage the next generation so that we maintain interest in the future in order to fund projects that preserve original material.”

“We also need support from the FFHS and (in a perfect world) the big internet sites to encourage people to join FHS’s.”

“With ever increasing competition from the big internet sites, why would someone join a society when they think all of the answers are available at the touch of a button? My colleague this week asked me if she typed her name in ancestry.co.uk would it work out who was related to who in her family? I think I visibly deflated at that point!  So I guess we also need to educate people to manage their expectations!”

What do you think?

What do you think of the society responses – any surprises? Leave a comment below, or join in the discussion over on LinkedIn.

In tomorrow’s Society Spotlight posting I ask the societies ‘What’s the Society’s biggest challenge?‘.

Society Spotlight: How can we help history societies focus on the future?

Every day this week, I’m focusing on History Societies. Three societies have each kindly answered three questions, and I’ll be covering their answers that reveal their needs, challenges, and plans for survival.

I’m a supporter of history societies. I think they’re great resources, and that they play a very important role in preserving and sharing information to communities. However, these treasure troves of information face a real risk without a healthy long-term plan of survival.

Whilst talking with genealogist Linda McCauley a few weeks ago, she recalled a story of a  society in the US that has nearly been wiped out after the recent death of its treasurer. The treasurer had pretty much run the society single-handedly and was the only person who knew where the membership list was kept. Now, that society faces a bleak future unless the list is found by the grieving family when their home is cleared. If not, it brings an end to the individual’s dedicated hard work for which they surely must have hoped would have a long-lasting legacy.

Genealogist Linda McCauley
Genealogist Linda McCauley.

“It’s so easy today for a society to back-up their critical information. All it takes is a few files stored online and multiple officers with the ID and password to access them” – Linda McCauley.

This story struck a chord with me and got me thinking – how can we help history societies survive?

Hold on, why should we help history societies?

Societies are often run by volunteers, and with little or no funding behind them. This means that they rely on the donations from members, events, making a profit on their publications, and membership subscriptions. It also means that they don’t necessarily have the funding to digitise their archive, or to put it securely online for people to browse (or even just to digitally preserve, and/or put a searchable index online).

The kind of records that societies hold varies considerably, but often include items that are otherwise ignored by the larger organisations that have the monopoly on digitizing records and making available online – items include items such as personal collections from local people, self-published family stories, one-off types of items, personal photograph collections, and many other types. These records are likely to be ‘small fry’ for the likes of Ancestry, FindMyPast, Genes Reunited etc, as they won’t have such a wide appeal, and therefore won’t be the money-spinner worth investing in. One society I know, holds their parish gravedigger’s note book, which alongside the parish register, provides a useful corroborative record of burials.

How do history societies want to be helped?

The best way to know the answer to this is to ask them. So I contacted five different UK-based societies to see how they would answer three questions.  Three have replied since I contacted them back on 29th June 2013. The respondent three were:

  • The Society of Genealogists – a large genealogy society which holds the largest collection of parish records and is based in London. It is widely known and visible through the events and training courses that it organises, and appearances on television.
  • The Cambridgeshire Family History Society – a county-wide family and local history society in England, with a wide range of publications, international members, and support courses.
  • The Newman Name Society – a member of the Guild Of One-Name Studies (GOONS), and the first family history society I ever joined, almost 20 years ago.

I asked each of them the same three questions, and for the next five days i’ll be sharing their answers to each question in turn, and looking at ways that you can help your local society, or the society local to your ancestors. The questions were:

  1. What is the society’s biggest need?
  2. What is the society’s biggest challenge?
  3. How does the society plan to preserve its knowledge for the future?

I hope that you will find this series of posts interesting, and perhaps find it inspiring enough to contact your local society and offer them even just a few hours of your time and/or expertise, or at least become a member to help fund them.

If you’re a member of a society already, or already helping a society in some capacity, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below (and feel free to post a link to their website!). Let’s promote them!

Come back tomorrow when I’ll be talking about the death of a family history society.

Cambridgeshire Family History Fair 2013 – expert sessions announced

The Cambridgeshire Family History Fair 2013 speakers and topics have been announced by the Cambridgeshire Family History Society.

The Cambridgeshire Family History Society has confirmed the speakers and topics for this year’s Cambridgeshire Family History Fair.

Cambridgeshire Family History Society logo

Back in April this year I wrote about the forthcoming Cambridgeshire Family History Fair that was planned for 26th October. It felt a long way off, but now it’s almost upon us, and the Cambridgeshire Family History Society appear to have the preparations and great topics all lined up.

Announced on the Society’s Facebook timeline, the list of guest speakers consists of experts in local history and wider research methods.

The sessions are listed as:

  • War Memorials – Martin Edwards
  • 200 Years of Civil Registration – Louisa Glover
  • Computer Research – Helen Tarbox
  • Identifying & Dating Victorian Photos – Tom Doig
  • Newspapers – Mike Petty
  • Using The National Archives – Simon Fowler
  • 20th Century Research – Ian Waller

As mentioned in an earlier post, the event is free to attend, although the sessions do have a small fee (payable/bookable on the day).

The Fair is on 26th October 2013, 10am – 4pm, at Girton Glebe School. Check the Society’s website for the latest information about what’s on, and travel/parking information.

Cambridgeshire Family History Society Fair details confirmed – and it’s free!

The Cambridgeshire Family History Society (CFHS) has revealed more details about their event in October 2013 – including free entry!

Following on from last week’s teaser, the details for the 2013 Cambridgeshire Family History Society Fair have been confirmed.

Cambridgeshire Family History Society logo

The Cambridgeshire Family History Society has confirmed on their Facebook Page that the event will take place at Girton Glebe Primary School, in the north of Cambridge on October 26, 2013, from 10am to 4pm. That’s six whole hours of genealogy to be had – meeting exhibitors and enthusiasts, and the great thing is that entry to the event is free!

There will also be a programme of expert lectures (which are charged at £2 per head, per lecture), and the details of these will be confirmed in due course. There will also be a free internet research room, run by the Society’s researchers.

In 2012, the Huntingdonshire Family History Society ran The Big Family History Fair which they confirmed would not be repeated this year.

Whilst this event isn’t on the same scale as those such as Who Do You Think You Are? Live or RootsTech, it will no doubt be an essential day out for anyone with genealogy and local history interests in Cambridgeshire and surrounding area.

Parking

There will be free parking on site, and the Citi 6 bus, which runs to and from the city centre every 20 minutes, stops near to the venue.

Here’s a Google Map showing directions to the venue.

More details can be found at the Cambridgeshire Family History Society’s Facebook Page.

Cambridge to host Family History Fair in 2013

The Cambridgeshire Family History Society has revealed that a Family History Fair will take place in October 2013.

Cambridgeshire Family History Society logo

Last year saw The Big Family History Fair, hosted in St Ives, Cambridgeshire and expertly organised by The Huntingdonshire Family History Society, but sadly the society confirmed that it was not to be repeated this year.

Fortunately, the Cambridgeshire Family History Society have stepped in to fill the gap in Cambridgeshire’s genealogy calendar – and have just announced an event on their Society’s Facebook Page, with ‘fans’ of the page being advised to keep the 26th October clear for Cambridgeshire’s big genealogy event of the year.

The event venue is yet to be officially announced.

The Society also run a comprehensive range of events, ranging from regular themed talks, a club for those who are getting to grips with using computers and the internet, and they are also highly pro-active with transcribing parish registers.

Check out their website for their latest news and events at http://www.cfhs.org.uk