Federation Of Family History Societies

What is the Federation?

 

The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) is an educational charity formed in 1974 and granted charitable status in 1982. Over the years, membership has grown to over 160 societies throughout the world, including national, regional and one-name groups. The principal aims of the Federation are:

• to co-ordinate and assist the work of societies or other bodies interested in family history, genealogy and heraldry
• to foster mutual co-operation and regional projects in these subjects
• to represent the interests of its member societies, and family historians in general, on numerous national and regional bodies.

Membership

Membership is open to any society or body specialising in family history or an associated discipline. Full membership is open to properly constituted organisations in the British Isles and associate membership is available to overseas family history, genealogical and heraldic groups as well as to other bodies within the British Isles for whom family history is a secondary interest.

Awards

The Federation encourages its member societies to produce high quality journals and websites by making awards each year. The Elizabeth Simpson award for the journal making the best contribution to family history, and the FFHS award for the best website are presented each autumn at the Federation general meeting. Details of past winners and how to enter are available on our Awards pages.

Education

Education is a vital element within the Federation. This is achieved informally through the regular meetings and discussions conducted by its member societies; also formally through the many courses on family history organised around the world. A list of speakers prepared to talk on family history, heraldry or allied topics is available from the Federation.

Co-operation

Co-operation between family historians, heraldists, archivists, archaeologists and many others is essential as more and more people become involved in the study of their roots and heritage. The Federation is the ideal vehicle for such cooperation. A full list of member societies' contact details is available.

Representations

The Federation:

• makes representations to official bodies on matters affecting the study of family history and related topics
• has a seat on the British Genealogical Record Users' Group
• is represented on the British Association for Local History and the Regional Archive Councils
• has established regular liaison with the Society of Antiquaries, the Society of Archivists, the Historical Association, the British Records Association and the British Records Society, The National Archives and the General Register Office.

The Federation provides an authentic, audible, and respected voice for the many thousands of individual family historians.

National Projects

• are co-ordinated by the Federation
• a considerable contribution was made to the National Inventory of War Memorials, established by the Imperial War Museum.
• the 1881 census was the object of a national indexing project, completed in 1996
• in 2004, the second edition of the National Burial Index, with over 13 million entries, was released on CDROM.

Conferences

are organised on a national basis both by the Federation and by its member societies. These draw the attention of the general public to the study of family history, thereby encouraging new members to join family history societies.

Those attending conferences meet others with similar interests and, quite apart from the formal proceedings, many ideas are exchanged during informal discussion and social events.

The Federation Council

• meets in Britain twice a year
• comprises representatives of the member societies
• defines policy which is implemented by an elected executive committee
• provides societies with an opportunity to exchange views and debate matters of importance to family historians.

Information Leaflets

Several publications are produced to cover matters of interest to officers of member societies. For individual family historians there is our Really Useful Information Leaflet which includes sections on:

• Useful Websites
• First Steps in Family History
• The Federation Ezine
• GENFair
• FamilyHistoryOnline

Exchange Journals

Many societies exchange their journals with their fellow members of the Federation. This ensures the maximum amount of publicity and interchange of information throughout the world, as these journals are usually available for individual members of societies to read.

FamilyHistoryOnline

This website was established by the Federation to publish online records compiled by Family History Societies. FamilyHistoryOnline held millions of records which have now been transferred to www.findmypast.co.uk. These include indexes (and, in some cases, further details of the entries) for: baptisms, marriages and burials; monumental inscriptions; some census returns for the counties of England and Wales, and many specialist collections such as Hemp & Flax Growers, Convicts to New South Wales. To see a listing of data visit the FamilyHistoryOnline site.