Federation Of Family History Societies

Good day from Cornwall

Family Historians have had an interesting year with the release of the 1911 Census and the full release of the available Soldiers Service Records from the First World War.

There are many other records that have been released over the past twelve months, some of them more specific and local to your societies.

The future still looks bright and over the coming five years I hope that the Red Cross records of field burials and prisoners of war will be indexed and made available on-line by the 100th anniversary of the First World War in 2014.

Just over a month ago the GRO announced the digitization of the Births Marriages & Deaths records was moving forward after a period where it was static.  This can only be good news for family historians around the world.

The National Library of Wales has made 193,000 wills available online.  These have been available to view within the library for some time but the ability to view them online is a quantum leap forward.  Visit the National Archives of Wales Family History Resources page at http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=247 

In Ireland the 1911 census has been made available for all 32 counties.  This census and its images are available for free and I would recommend everyone to dip into the resource and have a look at it.  You never know if one of your relatives unexpectedly ended up there.  Visit their site at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie.

Can I make a special mention of our overseas members.  Your membership is valued by us and I know from my conversations with many of you that you feel the need to maintain the link with the FFHS.  I am keen to try and improve the benefits we can provide for you.  One of the benefits we have been able to make available is a period of free access to the FindMyPast service for short periods of time such as fairs or family history courses. 

When this service was first announced the first society to take it up was one of our member societies in Australia.  If you want to know how to take advantage of this service, you should contact the Sales Team of FindMyPast on

Whilst there have been many highs during the year, we must not forget the lows - ongoing issues concerning closure of archives or reduced opening hours. It is important that we, the FFHS continue to make our voice heard and represent the views of our members whenever and wherever possible.

Finally I hope that you will find 2010 as not only the start of a new decade but a time to move family history forward for your society and that the coming year will be a prosperous one as we hopefully start to move out of the period of recession. 

May I wish you all the best for Christmas and the New Year.

David HOLMAN
Chairman
The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS)