Helping members near & far

In a town near you, there’s likely an enthusiastic band of family historians  - your local family history society members. These hardworking volunteers run family history societies to help teach people about family history and work to preserve the historic records of the area for the future. The range of historic projects they are involved in is vast. Read on for an inspiring example…

Q How does the Anglo-Scottish Family History Society, based in Manchester, help members near and remote?

A (David Muil) Our society is a founder member of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies, attends the Association’s conference and fair annually, fielding questions from visitors seeking guidance through English records. We are also a branch of the Manchester & Lancashire FHS (MLFHS), with access to the society’s vast resources and serve as a one-stop shop in Greater Manchester for those researching Scottish ancestry. We also provide many other avenues of assistance:

• Members worldwide have access to our email forum and questions are answered by knowledgeable members from around the globe
• We run a full programme of workshops, courses and talks with a Scottish theme (www.angloscots.mlfhs.org.uk)
• We assist at help desks operated in Manchester Central Library [Archives+] every weekday, providing practical help to the public and members (plus a specialist Scottish Help Desk one Saturday morning each month)
• We contribute to MLFHS’s projects, for instance feeding archival transcriptions and images to its online database, which currently boasts 20 million names. A key contribution is the Scottish Marriage Index, which records details of marriages registered outside Scotland involving Scots-born migrants.
• We exchange journals with our fellow Scottish societies, publish a monthly newsletter, e-Scotia, and a column in The Manchester Genealogist, MLFHS’s keynote quarterly publication.

To find out more about family history societies, buy the Christmas issue of Family Tree, in the shops now, priced £5.99 and bagged with the Family History Handbook. The Handbook is packed with behind-the-scenes interviews with key family history society members and a directory of family history societies worldwide. Now SOLD OUT from the Family Tree website but still available from your newsagents or download the digital version here!