The subject for June’s talk was “Starting your family tree”, presented by Peter Cousins. Peter is the Chairman of “The Greater Wigston Historical Society” and a very experienced family history researcher. Sixteen members and visitors heard Peter explain how and where to start researching a family tree, using both the traditional sources like the local Record Office and online websites – not only well-known sites like Ancestry.co.uk and FindMyPast.co.uk, but also some of the lesser-known websites such as Geniuki.co.uk. Illustrated with examples of what kind of information is available from the various sources of information, Peter’s talk not only was an excellent introduction to anybody just starting what inevitably becomes a very addictive hobby, but was a very useful update of what is currently available online to those of us who have already started their research.
As always, conversations after the talk trigger lots of memories. One interesting conversation between Peter’s wife, Ann, and Kate (the Cross Corners Manager*) started by Ann explaining that she was a pupil at Mellor Street in the ’50’s; Kate than produced the school logbook for one of the years that Ann attended Mellor Street.
* Mellor Street School lease Cross Corners as their Arts centre; Kate is also a teacher at the school.
