The group has family history researchers of all levels of ability, the experienced researchers being more than willing to share their expertise with those members who have less experience. However, we all learn from one another, as no researcher can ever hope to be expert in every genealogical data source. The co-operative approach to problem-solving works well and we have resolved a few issues by working as a team. Meetings occasionally start with a short talk on a particular aspect of family history research or on a particular source of information which inevitably leads to questions and discussion.

It is often the case that a member has a family legend about status or place of origin which we are able to prove or disprove, although as yet we have not turned up any real scandals! The availability of many old newspapers on a major genealogical website has proved a boon in “fleshing out” family trees and it has enabled members to add interesting facts to their family stories. One recent outstanding success occurred when, in the two hour session, a new member to the group was able to extend her family tree back five generations from her grandparents to the early 18th century! We also discovered recently that two group members are related by marriage in the distant past.

An occasional diversion has been the solving of a specific problem, not to add to anyone’s family tree, but to teach particular research methods which can be applied by members to similar problems that they are likely to encounter when carrying out research independently.

With the regular uploading to the major websites of further records there always seems to be something new to find to add to our stories!

Please contact me to confirm just when we will meet next or for further information.