Joining a Family History Society

• The county in which you live or have research interests – some societies relate to a particular town or area. The size of society membership also varies.
• One-name study groups – interested in researching your ancestors with the same surname. These groups have a wealth of information.
• Specialist societies covering a particular trade or occupation, geographic locality, culture and lifestyle, living and working overseas, religious followings – particularly for nonconformist groups.

As a member of a family history society you will open many doors:

• Sharing of surname interests so that anyone tracing the same family name can co-ordinate research with you. Research can be shared for mutual benefit preventing a duplication of effort and saving on time and costs. – The family History Federation are also pioneers in building a national surname interest database.
• Sharing of expertise and knowledge of the local area or families within the area covered by the society. This is extremely helpful when trying to overcome research challenges.
• You should receive a regular newsletter, have access to society social media and receive the society journal (which is normally quarterly), which will contain news and events, articles of local family history interest, reports of meetings and information on matters of wider interest to the family history community.
• Ability to purchase specialist publications, books, databases etc. published by the society – many of these are also available through on-line shops such as parishchest.com
• Participation in regular society meetings, conferences, training sessions and history fairs.
• Organised visits to various archives and repositories as a group – Various societies organise coach trips to the National Archives at Kew, British Newspaper Library at Boston Spa and to other major repositories outside their own area.
• Mutual support – there will always be someone ready and able to offer advice and suggestions to help your research progress. You can also help others in the same way.

Facilities and member benefits vary slightly between societies.

All societies hold meetings and conferences on a regular basis. Today this will include virtual meetings using facilities like Zoom because of the Covid-19 situation but there will be a return to personal meetings at some time in the future.

Using Zoom enables people who find it difficult to be involved in local society meetings because they live outside the area. It is easy to use as a participant all you need is a computer, table/iPad or smartphone. Many societies have international members participating in their virtual meetings so there are no geographic barriers.

A typical society meeting will include a period for social interaction, a speaker with a question and answer period following and information delivered by society members in a “members evening” which will likely be of topical interest. When your society is able to hold physical meetings there will also be refreshments available, access to unique research facilities and possibly even a bookshop and a library where you can borrow books etc.

As part of every society’s remit they are also instrumental in undertaking projects which bring easier access to local records. Many societies have an excellent relationship with their local record office/archives and work in liaison with them in this regard. Some even man research help stations within the archives and many local libraries.

There are many societies covering interests both in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Initially you should consider joining a society in the locality in which you live. That way you can receive the benefit of meeting the like-minded members.

Our ancestors will probably originated from a different area and because they moved around more than we care to imagine, will have originated in different parts of the country or world. It also makes sense also to join a society covering the area in which your ancestors lived even if this is not close to you or one of the societies covering specialist groups such as Romanies, Catholics, canal people etc.

Most family history society members do not have any immediate connection to the county or area covered by their local society. Members in other areas of the country are often happy and able to offer local look-ups at archives on a reciprocal basis.

Every society is run by volunteers. There are many opportunities to influence the way your society functions from serving on the committee, helping with projects that interest you, running research facilities, editing journals and social media pages, teaching courses etc. Your involvement can be very satisfying by you sharing your expertise and enthusiasm. All it takes is a regular commitment for a few hours each month.

Become involved and help shape the future of family history. It is individual volunteer members who make society existence possible for everyone’s benefit including yours.

Decide which society you need to join. Take the plunge, fill out the membership form (most are on line) and start to benefit from being amongst like-minded family historians. You will find joining a society really beneficial.

Find a family history society.