The ‘Ancestry Group’ at 82 Grimsby Road has been an ongoing success story and continues to bring a group of people together on a weekly basis to research their family history.
The group meets pretty much every Monday at 82 Grimsby Road and has done so since 2022. Richard at VANEL has a keen interest in ancestry and genealogy research and set up the group with just a few people in 2022 and continues to run each session (now with between 6 and 10 people each time).
The group started with a Re-Shape grant that allowed us to purchase licences for Ancestry; Find My Past; British Newspaper Archives and British History Online. These tools provide the resources to allow members to research their family trees and family histories in depth. VANEL and Big Local provide the space, the computers, the software licences and the support, and members come along and do their own research whilst having the chance to socialise and support each other in this shared interest.
Whilst the subscription tools are invaluable we also make use of other, free resources such as the General Register Office, Fold3 and Forces War Records for military information; Scotlands People and Irish Civil Records; Find A Grave and many many more. Sometimes we are able to purchase specialist one-off records when required from other sites particularly from overseas sites not covered in Ancestry (South Africa being an example).
The group started as a two hour session but these days has expanded to meet for four hours each Monday afternoon. A few of the members have been with us from the start, but everyone joins for different reasons and some depart once their research has been done and others keep dipping in and out over the years.
Some people are experienced in research and others want to learn. We’re continually getting new members, so if this is something that might interest you, Richard would like to hear from you and to fit you in if there is space. Richard@vanel.org.uk or leave a message on 01472 231123
The group is also a social gathering (informally known as ‘the biscuit club’ for obvious reasons). Members enjoy the conversation as much as the research.
We’re grateful to various funders over the years as the research tools and subscriptions do not come cheap. Re-Start got us started but we’ve also been supported by Warm Spaces funding, Clee Clubs from VANEL and we’re continually on the lookout for continuation funding to keep this successful.
