Lanarkshire Local and Family History Show 2015

From Lanarkshire Family History Society, news of a major family history show in just over three weeks time:

LANARKSHIRE LOCAL AND FAMILY HISTORY SHOW 2015

Local and Family History Show 2015 ‘Celebrating Scotland’s Heritage’
Saturday 22nd August 2015
9.30 am to 4.30 pm
Motherwell Concert Hall and Theatre, Civic Centre, Motherwell ML1 1AB

Scotland’s largest Local and Family History Show will be taking place this year on Saturday 22nd August in Motherwell Theatre and Concert Hall.

Organised by Lanarkshire Family History Society, the Show has become a regular event on the genealogy calendar, appealing to everyone with an interest in family history and local heritage.

This year’s speakers are:

• Chris Paton, genealogist, lecturer and author on Using Newspapers for Family History Research
• Graham Maxwell of Scottish Indexes on Tracing Your Illegitimate Ancestors in Sheriff Court records
• Chris Fleet, Map Curator at the National Library of Scotland. His talk is about Finding and using online maps for family and local history
• Dr Tristram Clarke of National Records of Scotland will be talking about Soldiers’ Wills and records of Conscientious Objectors, as well as remembering those who survived WW1

Big-name players in the genealogy world, ScotlandsPeople, FamilySearch and The Scottish Genealogy Society will be taking part, along with the National Library of Scotland Maps, Scottish Monumental Inscriptions, Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, Scottish Catholic Historical Association, Scottish Indexes, the Guild of One-Name Studies, Scottish Local History Forum and Scottish Military Research Group.

Among the many family history societies attending will be those from Aberdeen and North East Scotland, the Borders, Central Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, Fife, Glasgow and West of Scotland, Lothians, Renfrewshire, Troon @ Ayrshire, West Lothian and of course Lanarkshire.

Genealogy supplies company My History will be returning to the Show, as will local museums and attractions including New Lanark World Heritage Site, Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life and the David Livingstone Centre. A large number of organisations involved in local history, archives and heritage will be exhibiting; schools and youth groups will be displaying their projects, and there will be activities for children and free workshops on family history topics.

New to the Show will be the Ayrshire-based writer on historical topics Dane Love with many of his books for sale; Alan Godfrey Maps, who produce old Ordnance Survey maps of Britain and Ireland; and Image Restoration, a Glasgow-based company which can help restore, edit or colour your faded or damaged old photographs.

Professional genealogists from the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.co.uk) will be joining members of Lanarkshire FHS in the “Ask the Experts” area to offer free one-to-one advice to anyone starting out researching their family history or who has hit a “brick wall”.

Staff from the Universities of both Strathclyde and Dundee will be available for anyone interested in taking their passion for family history a bit further by signing up for courses in genealogy, palaeography (old handwriting) or other related subjects.

Information about tickets and an up-to-date list of exhibitors is available on the Show website http://lfhsshow.weebly.com/ Entry costs £2 per person, with talks priced at £4 each or £14 for all four. Buying one or more talk tickets allows free entry to the show. Children under 12 are admitted free with a paying adult. Book online or by post (by post send a cheque made payable to Lanarkshire FHS to: Lanarkshire FHS, c/o North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre, 1 High Road, Motherwell ML1 3HU).

COMMENT: In addition to giving one of the talks at the event, I will also be helping with the Scottish Genealogy Network's one to one advice sessions. In addition, I'm delighted to say that My History (www.my-history.co.uk), which will also be in attendance, is the UK publisher of my Australian published books from Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au). The company's founder Tony Beardshaw will have many of these for sale, including Discover Scottish Church Records, Discover Scottish Land Records, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, British and Irish Newspapers, Irish Family History Resources Online (2nd edition), and my new book Discover Irish Land Records.

There will also be additional titles for sale such as Rosemary Kopittke's ScotlandsPeople: The Place to Launch Your Scottish Research, Paul Milner's Discover English Parish Registers and Buried Treasure: What's in the English Parish Chest, and many other titles on British and worldwide genealogy subjects, within the popular and inexpensive range. Full details on My History's offerings are available at www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Unlock-the-Past-Booklets.html.

(With thanks to Liz Irving)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.