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OPEN DAY AND FAMILY HISTORY FAIR 2015

The 2015 West Surrey Family History Society Open Day again proved to be a popular annual event which produced a host of compliments to the organisers. As only the large sports hall was available to us this year the challenge was how to fit our own stands, visiting family history societies and commercial organisations into one hall. With some ingenious table layouts everyone who wanted to be there was accommodated and the aisles between stands were made wider so that visitors had space to walk around the room in comfort.

Hall view


The Society was pleased to welcome the Mayor Cllr Derek McCrum and Mayoress Mrs Rosemary McCrum to the Open Day. The Mayor and Mayoress were shown around the exhibitions by Ray Anstis (President of WSFHS) and Maura Sellars (WSFHS Executive Committee Member)

Mayor Party


Tony Kelly, our new Chairman, and his wife Sue were pleased to show the Mayor and Mayoress examples of the work his team has done on digitising inscriptions taken from headstones and memorials in Surrey’s churchyards and cemeteries.

Tony Kelly and the Mayor


Many visitors brought along some interesting challenges for our ‘experts’ who were on hand to answer queries such as how to read old documents (Isobel Sullivan) or to date old photographs (Bob Brock). Help was also available from Penny Allen for those with Canadian and Scottish ancestry. Continuing interest in The Great War meant that Captain Bandy was kept busy by people wanting help with military research. A new facet of family history research is DNA; Dr Brian Swann was on hand to answer queries. With computers playing an important role in family history research, the Census Detectives and their team of volunteers were able to help using their knowledge to access current on-line genealogical websites. The Society’s bookstall continued to be of great interest to visitors. Jean Follett and her team were kept busy throughout the day selling our publications and CDs and answering many questions. The reference library proved to be an equally popular attraction. The Free Talks are always popular and this year was no exception; each of the four talks in Studio 3 attracted lots of interest. This year we had talks from Martin Stilwell, Gill Draper, Mark Bayley and Kirsty Bennett. Dr Bennett’s talk was entitled “Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers”. This lottery funded project aims to investigate how ordinary people in Surrey responded to the unthinkable sacrifices they endured. Dr Bennett explained how the project will require teams of volunteers to work on existing documents digitising Great War ephemeral and much more.

This year’s Open Day, which attracted over 500 hundred visitors and forty-eight exhibitors, takes a lot of planning. For nearly a year John Beck and his team have been planning layouts, contacting family history societies and commercial enterprises to bring together the one day event. Volunteers are the key to the ongoing success of West Surrey Family History Society Open Day, in the planning, preparing the hall and working on the Society’s own stands.

Volunteers


Thanks must go to Jon Hames and his team at Woking Leisure Centre for their hard work in preparing the Centre for our use both on Friday evening and on Saturday 31st October.

Finally, the date for next year’s event has been set, Saturday 5th November 2016. Look forward to seeing you there.

Photographs courtsesy of Maura Sellars and Richard Weatherhead.
Report by Maura Sellars


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Copyright © 2024 West Surrey Family History Society   Last modified: 1 December 2016
Copyright © 2024 West Surrey Family History Society