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Yearly Monthly Weekly Daily List
April 2024
Getting the most out of your Membership Workshop Last Few Tickets
Are you a relatively new member of the Society? Want to get the most out of your membership? This informal workshop will introduce you to the range of benefits that you have available to you. It will include accessing the Society’s transcriptions, the mechanisms to enable you to collaborate and share your research with others, ways to obtain help in breaking down brick walls, and the various discounts and savings available for members. Q& A welcomed.
Social History Talks – Spring Series
This year the country commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944. To remember those who served in the Second World War, this quarter our Spring series is focused on the background and build-up to D-Day. It has a slightly different format to previous talk series with two rather than three Zoom talks. This all series ticket covers both of the talks in the Spring "Potpourri of Social History" talks series, for the discounted price of £8 (members £7).
The British Army in World War Two
This is the first of two talks in our online Spring series. The personnel of the British Army served across the globe during World War Two, from Iceland to Australia, from the Falklands to East Russia. The army grew from the small peacetime force that went to war in 1939 to the huge modern force that Britain had at its disposal by the latter stages of the war.
May 2024
May Natter Group
Informal discussion group, facilitated by Chad Hanna and Gillian Stevens. Topics are chosen by the group on a monthly basis. End time varies. Free to attend, but pre-booking required.
Purley Hall and Charles Bridgeman
This is the second of three talks in the Houses and Estates Talks Series. Ben Viljoen, a founder member of Berkshire Gardens Trust, has always been interested in the history of 18th century English landscape gardening. He was delighted to find that both Charles Bridgeman, father of the English Landscape movement, and Humphry Repton, who succeeded Lancelot Brown, did work in Purley. His talk will be about the rich history of Purley Hall, a secluded Jacobean manor house that is not open to the public, and its connection with Charles Bridgeman.
The Industrial Revolution Course
Every family historian with British ancestry has ancestors whose lives were changed either directly or indirectly because of the Industrial Revolution. It changed the world forever, but why did it occur in Britain first? In this five week online course for family historians we will look at why the Industrial Revolution happened in Britain, the experiences of those involved, and how the Industrial Revolution can be researched by family historians seeking to trace and better understand how their ancestors lived and worked during this period of great change.
Face-to-Face Family History Advice Clinic
Just beginning your family history research and need some advice? Baffled by so many competing research websites? Banging your head against a brick wall? Or struggling with some other issues? In this one-to-one session, one of our seasoned advisors will help you make some progress
Walk Around Woodley
Join historian Ann Smith for a circular walk around Woodley, looking at Woodley's listed buildings, the forge, pub, and what remains of Miles Aircraft and aviation heritage. The walk will last around 2 hours.
Online Family History Advice Clinic
Are you just getting started in family history and wanting guidance as to how to proceed? Or are you stuck at a particular "brick wall" and need some help?
Create an enduring family tree in YourTrees
Create a comprehensive enduring family tree, that is relevant to the digital generations, and store a copy on YourTrees. The workshop is aimed at those who have already saved versions of their tree(s) on YourTrees, those that are thinking of doing so, or wondering whether they should.
The Technology of D-Day
This is the second talk in the Spring Potpourri Series. The large raid on Dieppe in August 1942 was a complete failure. However, it provided important lessons to the allies which, complemented by experiences of landings in North Africa during Operation Torch, made the D-Day Landings in 1944 a success. One of the key lessons learned was that special equipment and new tactics were needed to successfully mount an invasion. The technology of D-Day resulted from those lessons. But what did miniature submarines and divers have to do with the D-Day landings?
June 2024
Book Fair
Love books and reading? Learning new things? Over recent years. Berkshire Family History Society has been given many pre-loved books to sell. These are predominantly local history, family history and social history books - although we also have a fair number of military and transport history books, plus others. If "history" is your thing - then come along and grab a bargain. We need to clear the decks a little so everything will be out on display. Plus we will also have some of our extensive bookshop of new books, maps and publications available to purchase, including our data CDs.
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Yearly Monthly Weekly Daily List
April 2024
Reading WW1 Hospitals
Reading WW1 Hospitals is a look at the part The Reading Hospitals played in the rehabilitation of the wounded during the conflict.
Open evening
Share your hints, tips, research problems and successes with like-minded people
Drop In Advice Session
Bring your questions, problems and ‘brickwalls’ … and get some new ideas and advice from members of the Berkshire Family History Society.
Breach of Promise to Marry – The Real Miss Havishams
Meet the law that gave nineteenth century women better rights than men, and the women who enforced their rights to sometimes devastating effect.
May 2024
History of Thames Valley Police + BAM
Join Dave Stubbs as he explores the origins of policing from the tithing system up to the present day with the changes which occurred over the centuries and how Thames Valley Police evolved to its present status.
Drop In Advice Session
Bring your questions, problems and ‘brickwalls’ … and get some new ideas and advice from members of the Berkshire Family History Society.
By any other name
Aliases, bynames, diminutives, pet names, name variants, surnames, translations - what do you call people?
Migration throughout the UK, and BAM
Our ancestors moved and sometimes great distances. A practical talk about things you need to think about to find your ancestors if they moved around the country.
The Story of John Phillips, an RAF volunteer (BAM)
John Phillips - the story of a RAF volunteer
Drop In Advice Session
Bring your questions, problems and ‘brickwalls’ … and get some new ideas and advice from members of the Berkshire Family History Society.
Agricultural unrest and the Swing Riots in Southern England 1830-32
The riots took place against the increasing pauperisation of labourers and the attacks struck at the very roots of social cohesion.
Creating an One Street or One Place Study & BAM
A short Branch Annual Meeting will take place prior to the evenings main presentation. One-place studies are a blend of family history and local history, with a focus on the entire population of a single road, village or community, not just a single, geographically dispersed family line. Such studies are frequently undertaken by family historians […]
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