Welcome to the East Surrey FHS
For the past forty four years the East Surrey Family History Society has been helping members trace their family history whether they have family connections to the East Surrey area or enjoy attending events connected with family, social or local history.
If you are new to family history then we can help put you on the path to good research. Not all records are available on the internet and some of those are very confusing. If you are more experienced then we can reinforce your knowledge with additional information or techniques.
Joining a family history society means that you can meet like-minded people with the same enthusiasm for this fascinating subject who are ready to pass on tips and hints from their own research.
If you wish to login into the website, click here. The "Username" is your registered email address, and if you have not got a password click on "Forgot Your Password" and you will receive an email enabling you to set/reset your password. You may have to look in your spam folder for this email.
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Several family history societies are, like East Surrey, running meetings online while the pandemic is preventing physical gatherings. Some are open to non-members and those societies are happy for members of our Society to attend. One case in point is the West Middlesex Family History Society, that borders our area to the north, and the link to information about joining their meetings is http://www.west-middlesex-fhs.org.uk/content/meetings.aspx .
Monday May 10 at 10am
Online Resources Available from the Society of Genealogists
Else Churchill
Come and learn about the fabulous treasures and records held by the Society of Genealogists. Discover what is available for the public and what extra is available for members.
This is a recording of the talk given by Julian Pooley (Surrey History Centre) prior to the AGM. The talk introduces the magazine, explores its value for family and local historians and uncovers hidden stories of Surrey people and the county’s history throughout the Georgian period. Julian extracts fascinating details especially pertinent to the East Surrey area.
Virtual Meeting Link
Family History and DNA Special Interest Group
The next meeting of the DNA and Family History Special Interest Group will be on Zoom.
Saturday 8th May 1pm to 3pm
Donna Rutherford, an expert in DNA and Family History, will kindly provide an overview of what’s happening in the marketplace and any changes we need to be aware of in the major applications such as Ancestry, FT DNA, MyHeritage and 23and Me.
Anne Ramon will host the meeting and plans to present a method of downloading your DNA Match results from Ancestry in a format you can paste into Excel, and then manipulate as you want. This method is explained in a YouTube video from Family History Fanatics. I will be showing it in the meeting but you might want to look at it before then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rE6EXQPlzQ
If you have any questions about your own DNA results we should have time for 2 or 3 at the meeting. Please send me a few details ahead of time so I can let Donna know.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Croydon Archive News
From 1st May, the Archives service will be moving under the Libraries management and following agreement by our Health and Safety and Public Health Colleagues, we have been given the go-ahead to offer limited archival appointments from 12th May on a Wednesday and a Friday to begin with. If this is successful, I hope to add Tuesday appointments and later in the year, Saturday although at present, we don’t have enough staff to cover Saturday opening. Initially we will have 2 appointment slots for each session whilst we still need to socially distance.
There will be two sessions each day – 11-1pm and 2-4pm to allow us to clean thoroughly between each researcher and to tidy away any collections that have been finished with and retrieve those for the afternoon sessions
All access will be by appointment and any archival retrievals or materials from the 3rd floor will have to be ordered in advance as we will not be able to leave the research room to get any additional resources during the visits.
Masks will need to be worn during your visit and hands washed before entering the research room to ensure that hand sanitiser does not damage our collections.
if anyone would like to visit, please contact the archives via email – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will check what resources they want to access and once this is confirmed, I can offer them a suitable appointment.
The Family History Show
After three extremely successful virtual events held in the last year, The Family History Show, Online is returning in June so that once more you can enjoy all the features of a physical family history show, but from the comfort and safety of your own home.
The Family History Show, Online, organised by Discover Your Ancestors magazine, is gearing up for its return on Saturday 19th June 2021.
You'll have the opportunity to put your research questions to an expert, watch free talks and to speak to over 100 family history societies, archives and genealogical suppliers by text, audio, video chat or email from the comfort of your own home.
You will also be able to submit your questions to our Ask the Experts panel before the show. You'll have the choice of either booking a free 1-to-1 session or to submit your question to the whole panel, who will be streaming their answers on the day at 15:30.
Happy Researching,
Early Bird Tickets - Only £6
Buy your tickets in advance and save - tickets to attend The Family History Show Online are available from the website at just £6.00 each. You will also get a FREE virtual goody bag on the day worth over £10. (Tickets on the day are £8.00)
How to build a private and unsearchable research tree.
You may have heard people say they used a 'quick and dirty' Private family tree to find some ancestors to do some reasearch on. When I heard that I wasn't sure what they had done and it sounded an unusual thing for a careful genealogist to do. The issue was also clouded because you can't see anyone else's Ancestry Private Trees, because they are Private!
In the attached document I have provided a step by step guide on how to set up a Private Tree in Ancestry. I chose Ancestry because of its large underlying database (18 million records) but you could use a similar approach for the other Research sites that include a tree building facility that you can keep Private. Please do keep it Private or you may upset people whose help you will need in the future!
Happy Hunting! '
Anne Ramon
