I was recently invited to the fair. Not the sort of fair that has candy floss and dodgems but one packed full of people all enjoying themselves and sharing their common interest in family history.
The annual family history fair for the Glamorgan Family History society was held in Merthyr on 12 October and around 800 visitors came along to enrich their family history experience. I even had one of those warm fuzzy moments when I met a man from Cheshire who had heard me mention the event the last time I was on BBC Radio Wales.
To find out if there is a family history event near you visit the online calendar of Genealogical Events and Activities. Genuki can help you find a family history society that suits your needs.
Cat talking to visitors at the Glamorgan Family History fair. Photo: Meic Jones
The large numbers of visitors was no surprise to me and is a reflection on the continued popularity of family history. I wonder just how many more people are increasingly content to sit at home using their computers, not sharing their research or their knowledge and are perhaps not even aware that there is a world of real people out there, beyond the digital on-screen images, who are keen to help.
The event was interspersed with interesting free talks by experts, who were also on hand all day trying to resolve specific research requests. Beryl Evans from the National Library of Wales spoke about their most recent and most impressive accomplishment, the digitisation of over a million pages of newspapers published in Wales before 1911, all now available for free via their website.
Hopefully one day soon I'll receive a query that will necessitate my using this wonderful resource but no matter how good it is it won't mean the end of my research trips to Aberystwyth.
One of things I often get asked is "Where did my surname come from?" Luckily Margaret Southgate, the south Wales representative from the Guild of One-Name Studies was on hand last weekend to provide all the answers.
Part of the guild's work is to research the occurrences of a surname and its variants in order to identify patterns of migration and to find 'hotspots' which could indicate locations where the name originated.
Cat at the Glamorgan Family History fair. Photo: Meic Jones
The range of people attending varied from complete beginners with a few notes hastily scribbled on a scrap of paper, no doubt gathered during a quick conversation with an older member of their family that morning, to dedicated enthusiasts with files of neatly indexed paperwork and extensively researched details that were of the highest personal value and pride to them.
The hall was full of exhibitors including all the family history societies in Wales as well as many from bordering counties like Herefordshire and even further afield like Bristol, Avon and Wiltshire. And if ancestors were more transient then the experts from the Romany and Traveller FHS were able offer advice on how to progress.
The staff from Cyfartha Castle Museum were in attendance, as well as volunteers from the Cynon Valley, Gelligaer and Merthyr Tydfil History Societies and I was really pleased to see that the several of the original old marriage registers were available for people to browse. It's so important to see and feel the original documents whenever possible.
No matter where you live in the world or whatever your interest there is sure to be a family history or local history society near you or one that you can join from a distance.
There is no doubt that the internet has been the most powerful resource and its growth is parallel to the growth in interest in family history over recent years. But don't forget that the Family History Societies and Archives were established long before the internet was created.
Local knowledge is everything and having a human being to share your research with or ask for help from can be far more valuable than anything you might learn from a computer.
