Lunchtime Speaker- Keith Farmer – Ancestry

This week’s speaker was Keith Farmer, who gave a talk on genealogy research. Keith took up this up as hobby afew years ago. He has done extensive research into his own family tree and that of other members of his family. He also does research for other people, which he undertakes for a fee to cover his expenses. So far he has done 150 family trees. He subscribes to all the main genealogy websites. These days it is much easier to do research into your family tree, since you can use websites such as ancestry.co.uk, myheritage.com and findmypast.co.uk. The websites usually have a basic subscription- based service and various premium services as add-ons, which give subscribers access to more information such as overseas or military databases. It is also possible to obtain DNA tests at a relatively modest cost, which can help with finding your ancestors when written records are missing. Census information can be accessed through the paid-for websites, but in England and Wales also through the National Archives website, which is free. There are similar free websites in Scotland and Ireland. You can use the General Register Office website to search for births, deaths and marriages, although to order a hard copy of a document costs £12.50. You can also search on the FreeBMD website, which is free to use. They also have a FreeCEN site with census information. There is also the 1939 register of everyone living in the UK. The England and Wales section is on the National Archives website. The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) maintains a database, which can be used for family history research. Keith told us about an ancestor of one his clients, who had travelled to the USA at the age of 70 in the 1850’s in order to go to Salt Lake City in Utah, which was and still is the Mormon Church’s headquarters. He travelled by ship to New York and by steam ferry and train to Detroit, where they set off by wagon train to Utah. Unfortunately, they were hit by a severe snow blizzard in which 13 people, including the client’s ancestor died. David Hughes thanked Keith for his very interesting presentation.