Tay Family History Society
OSCR Scottish Charity Register

Family History/Genealogy Classes starting 20th March!

Here's details about our classes!
Our series of Family History/Genealogy classes starts on 20th March, on Wednesday evenings, as '6+3' - six sessions of 'Introductory' followed by three 'Advanced' classes. You can sign up for the basic, the advanced, or for both!

The six Introductory sessions give a basic introduction to family history, essential records and where to find them, keeping records, and some less obvious sources such as the Kirk Session minutes and Statistical Accounts of Scotland, while touching briefly on use of DNA testing and on making use of Welsh and English resources.

Our set of three 'advanced' sessions, starting on 15th May, will have much more detail on reading older writing including Secretary Hand, Wills and Testaments, DNA and its interpretation, and use of more obscure resources such as Sasines. For this, you need to have some familiarity already with Scottish Family History resources.

Classes are held in our Centre at 179-181 Princes Street, so that participants can make use of our resources and our computers and software. Time 19.00-21.00 on Wednesday evenings.

Because Easter and school holidays occur during the period of the introductory classes, we plan to be flexible with a two-week 'break' either during the 'basic' classes or at their end, according to what participants decide. The charge for the classes will be £30 for the basic 6-week course, £15 for the advanced 3-weeks, or if participants sign up for both, £40.

To sign up for the classes, email us at tvfhs@tayvalleyfhs.org.uk

We're running our Genealogy/Family History Classes again, starting mid-March. This year we'll have six weeks of 'Basic' evening classes for people needing a brush up and for beginners - yes you can be an absolute beginner and this will get you up and running! Or you can be just a bit rusty or wanting to know a bit more, learn some new techniques, learn more about the kind of documents we use. Something for everyone here.

Then we'll have three weeks of 'Advanced' class, dealing with topics like DNA, reading older writing, and finding more obscure resources. You can enrol for the whole 9 weeks, or for the first 6 or for the Advanced 3.

We'll be giving out the dates and the fees very shortly - Watch our 'News' space for details.

Here is the table of contents. Access the journal at the 'Journal Archive' section (for members).
Another excellent issue - congratulations to our Editor and the members contributing.

We've created a page for putting our Members' websites about your own Family or Local History Projects. You can get to this by going to Resources, then the 'Research Information...' link. Or of course clicking the 'our Members' Websites' link in this news item.
The first entry is a fascinating and detailed site about the Bridge of Earn EMS Hospital Autograph Book project, with many names of soldiers from WWII. Go and take a look!
And if you have a relevant site dealing with your own research findings, that you'd like us to list, please let us know via the Forum or by emailing us.

New Tay Valley Talk from Dr Niamh Coffey's research on the history of Dundee's Irish Women is now at https://youtu.be/DHbwtWb1AxU. Here she gives much insight on the many women who came from Ireland to Dundee in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and became integral to the context, politics and history of Dundee and Scotland - and indeed also of Ireland. An earlier version of this talk by Dr Coffey was given to the Friends of Dundee City Archives in March 2023.

Question and Answer session will be on Monday 29th January 2024, 8.00 p.m. UK time, via Zoom.  Registration for the Q&A (for members of TVFHS) is through Eventbrite and members will need to input your membership number or (for new-ish members) approx. date of joining the Society.  The link for the zoom session will be available at a later date and if registered you will receive reminders with the link.

The image at the top of this post gives the start of the words of Dundee poet Peter Livingstone's song, 'A Guid New Year'. Click the audio link below the image for well-known Dundee folk-singer Sheena Wellington's lovely rendition of the first verse, as recorded at The Wighton Centre! And a very Guid New Year to you all, wherever you are.

Words for all verses are on the Scots Language Website (after Auld Lang Syne) at https://www.scotslanguage.com/Hogmanay_uid60/Auld_Lang_Syne_uid702

The song was written in the 1840s. We hope that you like it. I (the page editor) will be singing it after The Bells - after Hogmanay turns into New Year's Day! - carrying on a family tradition with which I grew up.

And we look forward to welcoming more members and visitors in this New Year. Remember that our Centre re-opens on 8th January 2024, and of course our Facebook and this website's Forum are always open.

 

The images on The News tonight (27th December 2023) say it all - people stuck in snow on the A9, floods in Fife and elsewhere in our area. Trees down around Dundee, roads blocked, very strong winds and heavy rain in the areas where it hasn't fallen as snow. And so many areas of Perthshire, Angus and Fife in the 'weather warning' continued for this coming night.
We hope that all our members and their friends and families are safe, dry and warm. We know that some are dealing with power outages, and mobile signal issues too. Wishing strength to you and your communities in this challenging winter.

 

To all our members and 'guests' here - wishing you a very good Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Our Centre in Princes Street will close as usual for the festive season, from 16.00 on Friday 15th December 2023, re-opening 10.00 on Monday 8th January 2024. This lets our busy and dedicated Volunteers have some time off-duty!

Of course, you can still contact us via Facebook, the Forum, or emails as we'll check these from time to time.

The documents for our AGM are on this website, in the 'Resources' section under 'Member Downloads'. These have also been sent out to members attending via Zoom. They include the agenda, treasurer's report and accounts, and the chair-depute'x report.

We welcome attendees on Thursday 23rd November, whether in person in the Glasite Hall or virtually via Zoom.

"Is the Leaf really on the Tree?" Video now uploaded to youtube at https://youtu.be/8pel0iglm0E

We've all met them - these 'leaves' or 'discoveries' that might be about our ancestors, or might be about somebody just completely different. This talk by Jenny Blain is on ‘hints’ on genealogy websites, and questions how much trust people should, or should not, put in these, with examples (some crazier than others). 'Following' the hint and searching beyond the commercial genealogy sites, exploring different resources, may yield useful results.

Membership

Getting back to your roots

How to uncover ancestry, heritage, stories of people, how to do genealogical or historical research, how you can relate to Scottish History and Local History.

REGISTER HERE from £21 pa

Member Benefits

Joining Pack
Subscription to our Journal
Access to exclusive Member Content
Free use of the Research Centre & Library
Access to Online Discussion Forum
Guidance & Support in your research
Affiliations to other societies

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