How York Family History Society can help trace family trees

THE York Family History Society is going from strength to strength, offering people support and advice in tracing their family tree.

The society is a registered charity founded in 1975 with the laudable purpose of promoting genealogical research in and around the city and now has members from around the world, including from Australia, Canada and the USA.

Social media has enabled the society to become a bigger presence and to reach the many people who have an interest in, but need maybe a little support, to direct them down the right path for their research.

The society is still run by keen volunteers and new people have joined the committee recently to get involved in moving the society onwards as colleagues from the earlier group have retired or moved on.

There has been a real commitment by the team to reach out and try to engage with as many as possible of the local history and community groups meeting in and around York in order to spread the word, with newly designed fliers detailing the purpose and benefits of genealogy and joining the society.

Steve Barrett, has been the society's publicity and events co-ordinator for the society since 2022. He said: "York has so many historical societies that something of interest is on offer every week of the year and working closely with some of the big players has helped us with our publicity."

Connections and frequent engagement with York University Borthwick Institute, Explore York Archives and the Castle Museum Heritage Hunters has led to the society having a bigger profile around the city and this led to a roadshow of radio interviews through 2023 and into 2024 bringing the fun and fascination of family history research to the airwaves.

YFHS fundraising in York

The society has its own research room at the Raylor Centre in James Street, York, with a bank of computers and many primary and secondary sources available on the shelves.

Its greatest asset though, says Steve, is its very experienced team of genealogists who are passionate about the science, and keen to help people break down those brick walls.

Recently, the Harrogate and District FHS had to fold and so members joined up with York Family History Society. It did mean a significant change and the York Society has extended its base area of operation now to the Archbishopric of York moving out from the former boundaries of the Archdeaconry.

Its area of operation now is the whole of the north essentially, and members travel in from Harrogate, Skipton, Ripon and further afield.

"Genealogical research can be a done alone, but our Research Centre gives people the opportunity to meet up and establish new and interesting friendships with people from different localities," said Yvonne Clarke who with Judy Clarkson runs the Research Centre and cares for its archives.

Social media

The society now invites the whole of its membership to its regular talks on Zoom as well as face to face and members can access previous talks with transcriptions if necessary on its own Youtube Channel.

Its journals are in the process of being redesigned with much more frequent publication and sent electronically.

As well as fairly regular chats with local radio stations, Steve, as the society's publicity officer, has revamped the Twitter or X page to engage with many more people with the numbers following it rising in a year from about 700 to nearly 900.

YFHS members doing fieldwork

Yvonne, who runs the Society’s Facebook page, has had a similar increase in followers. Their next launch was on Instagram with an effort to appeal to younger people and Steve gets lots of ideas from his teenage daughter Lucy who is also very interested in her ancestors’ activities.

The society is committed to encouraging schools and colleges to recognise the benefits of family history – utilising the regular publicity on TV from the website leaders Ancestry and FindmyPast as well as the very popular TV shows such as BBC's Who Do You Think You Are which traces the family trees of public figures, including York-born Judi Dench.

More recently the society has started to offer after-work genealogy lessons for beginners and has been delighted at the take up. Outreach has included supporting members of Kyra women's project with researching their family trees and Steve was recently invited to do a presentation at Haxby Hall which went down very well with residents, staff, relatives and members of the local community.

Fieldwork however still remains an essential part of the work, with recent finds including memorials of an old established Regency family, The Grays of Grays Court, being discovered propped up next to a Jobcentre in Monkgate where an old church had been demolished. Genealogist and membership secretary Tee Bylo and Steve Barrett discovered them in their hunt for lost graves.

The chief purpose of the society remains to develop interest and engagement in family history and workshop sessions in the future will include DNA testing and researching the history of our ancestors’ communities which was begun last year after a talk by Joe Saunders of the British Association of Local History.

The team at York and District Family History Society regularly contribute articles for York Heritage Hunters magazine organised by the Castle Museum and edited by Philip Newton. The society recently had an article published in Family Tree magazine and was asked to host an event in York recently by the international genealogy company Family Tree Maker.

The offer to visit the Research Centre on James Street is an open one and appointments can be made every day of the week with walk-in days Tuesday and Thursday.

Find out more:

www.yorkfamilyhistory.org.uk

Facebook: YorkFamilyHistory

Twitter/X: @Yorkfhs

Instagram: York Family History Society

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Tel: 01904 412204

Email: yorkfamilyhistory@btopenworld