Oxfordshire Family History Society

About OFHS	Visit OFHS	OFHS Services	Web Resources
Holford Centre	Monthly	Computer	Open Day

General meetings Fourth Monday of most months Computer meetings (*) First Monday of alternate months
2009
22 June	AGM followed by: GENUKI - the internet's UK & Ireland Genealogical Information Service	Malcolm Austen
1 June *	Find Your Past on Find My Past – how FMP is growing	Alex McGahey
18 May (3rd Monday)	Dr Williams' Library	Dave Annal
27 April	The Oxford Mail and Memory Lane	John Chipperfield
6 April *	All about Images	Alan Simpson
23 March	Cardinal Points – Cracking the Code of the GRO Marriage Index Howard's notes (244kb PDF)	Howard Benbrook
23 February	The Evolution of the British Army List of Regimental Numbers (25kb PDF)	Dan Allen
9 February * (2nd Monday)	Screen reading – how it benefits all who are visually impaired	Penny Crawford
26 January	The Wolvercote Paper Mill	Dr Martin Maw
2008
1 December *	Ratcatchers to Royalty – new software for publishing your family history research	Jan Power and Sarah Mercer
24 November	Brothers In War – discovering one family’s extraordinary sacrifice in the Great War	Michael Walsh
27 October	Tales from the Bawdy Courts – Records of the church or ecclesiastical courts of Bishop and Archdeacon	Mark Priddey
6 October *	Google - how to make more use of its facilities	The Panel
22 September	The Oxford Historical Pageant of 1907	Martin Harris
4 August *	Scanning and Repairing Photographs	Kevin Tomes
28 July	Workhouse Visitor’s Report – Lady Visitor c.1890 gives a detailed report, in contemporary costume, of life in the Union Workhouse See our speaker in costumne or read up about workhouses.	Liz Carter
23 June	AGM followed by: Fred Lewis - A Photographic Tour of Chipping Norton	Alan Watkins
2 June *	From Balaklava to Bangalore - A computer search of the history of a 19th century family	Peter Beavan
19 May (3rd Monday)	Jermynology – How genealogy can change history	Anthony Adolph
28 April	Sulgrave Manor, preserving and projecting	Wendy Barnes
7 April *	Yet More Handy Little Programs	Computer Group Panel
31 March (5th Monday)	Get the picture? A demonstration of how to take good images of archive materials using digital cameras.	Hugh Alexander
25 February	"EUREKA! We found it, so can you" – Sources for Family Historians	Angela Hillier of the EurekA Partnership
11 February * (2nd Monday)	It doesn’t need to be Windows! – The world of Open Source software	Alan Simpson
28 January	My Ancestor was on the Census – well they should have been!	John Hanson
2007
3 December *	Never knew I could do that! – An exploration of lots of basic PC facilities you need to know about	Computer Group Panel
26 November	Archivist and Family Historians : the best of friends ?	Heather Forbes
22 October	What's in a name ?	Howard Benbrook
1 October *	Finding YOUR Ancestors on the Internet	Alan Simpson
24 September	Access to Information in Oxfordshire Newspapers	Malcolm Graham
6 August *	Which Family Tree Program? – a demonstration of some popular PC programs	CG Panel Members
23 July	A Tiger in the Bathroom and Bullets up the Chimney – My Ancestors in India and Ireland	Tony Hadland
25 June	AGM followed by: The Story of the Changing Faces Books	Julie Kennedy
4 June *	Coping with email – an A-Spam guide	Malcolm Austen
21 May (3rd Monday)	The history and archives of Oxford University Press	Martin Maw
23 April	Social History through Old Photographs	Nigel Hammond
2 April *	Have you visited these sites – Fascinating Web Sites you may not have thought of	Wendy Archer
26 March	Quarter Sessions Records – an under used source for Family History Research	Richard Ratcliffe
26 February	The Lure of the Graveyard	Alan Simpson
12 February * (2nd Monday)	Mobile Family History – Taking your data on the road	Gillian Stevens
22 January	J J Faulkner – Oxford Grocer, Pacifist, Temperance Advocate	Robert Sephton
2006
4 December *	Broadband, Networking and Security – Safely Sharing Your Internet Connection	Les Binns et al.
27 November	Christmases Past – Some Festive Customs and Traditions	Colin Chapman
23 October	Riots, Strikes and Arson Attacks	Wendy Anderson
2 October *	CORSERs, Curses, and Custodian – Exploring Custodian family history software	Bill Corser
25 September	AGM followed by: Wills – the best source there is	Michael Gandy
7 August *	Publishing Your Family History to CD – Ways of sharing your data without paper	Alan Simpson
24 July	From Reformation to Emancipation – Catholic Recusancy in Oxfordshire	Tony Hadland
26 June	AGM followed by: Access to Information in Oxfordshire Newspapers This meeting (including the AGM) was cancelled as a result of a power failure in the Exeter Hall.	Malcolm Graham
5 June *	Internet sources, are they worth it? – A demonstration of subscription and pay per view web sources Presentation - 262kb PDF download	Alex McGahey
22 May	Tracing your Second World War Ancestors Fact Sheet - 2 A4 sides, 77.5kb PDF download	Simon Fowler
24 April	Sex, Sin and Scandal in Newspapers	Roy Stockdill
3 April *	Putting Your Name on the Map - an illustration of how mapping software can reveal much about surnames	Howard Benbrook
27 March	I'm Stuck - Techniques for localising that elusive ancestor	Else Churchill
27 February	The Shipton-on-Cherwell Railway Disaster	Linda Haynes
13 February *	Why YOU need a web site, and how to make it	Alan Simpson & Les Binns
23 January	Bread, Gruel & Dumplings - Life in the Workhouse	Ian Waller
2005
5 December *	Computer Clinic - Problems? - We may have answers	the Panel and friends
24 October	Village Life in the 18th Century	Dr Alan Dodge
3 October *	Finding YOUR Ancestors on the Internet - a rerun of last year's very successful talk	Alan Simpson
26 September	FreeBMD	Graham Hart
1 August *	Using Personal Ancestral File V5 - an extensive exploration of this free FH Program	Les Binns
25 July	Tracing Scottish Ancestry in England & Scotland	Wendy Anderson
27 June	AGM followed by: Extracts from Kidlington Magazines	John Amor
23 May	Marriage and Courtship in the 1800s	Tom Doig
6 June *	Are YOUR Ancestors in the OFHS CDs? - a look of these resources from the Society	Wendy Archer & Alan Simpson
25 April	Packer and Sims Photographic Collections	Alan Watkins
4 April	Family History resources at COS (the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies) [This will cover the whole range of resources with demonstrations of some of the computer resources.]	COS Staff
28 February	Access to Archives (A2A) Sarah has permitted us to put her presentation online for those unable to attend the meeting. The full presentation included a number of example pages from the web site which made it a rather massive 4Mb file! This reduced(292kb PDF) file contains the first 15 slides and leaves you to visit the site yourself.	Sarah Stark
7 February *	What you can't see through YOUR Windows (Handy tips for Microsoft Windows users)	Alan Simpson
24 January	Using the Berkshire Record Office	Peter Durrant
2004
6 December *	A Family History Tour with GENUKI	Malcolm Austen
22 November	Red Herrings	Ray Wiggins
25 October	Stagecoaches and Coaching Inns	David Thomas
4 October *	More Handy Little Programs	Panel
27 September	Civil Registration: the past, the present and the future	Barbara Dixon
2 August * This meeting was preceded by a special:	We are all human... The science behind genetic-genealogy. With the speaker's permission we have been able to make the presentation available as a 690kbyte PDF download	David Ashworth, CEO of Oxford Ancestors.
2 August *	Getting your Name noticed	Panel
26 July	The IGI: useful or not?	Ian Waller
28 June	Annual General Meeting followed by Oxford and Cambridge College Archives and the Genealogist	Robin Darwall-Smith
7 June *	Looking after yourur Data and Computer Housekeeping	Panel
24 May	The Victoria County History in West Oxfordshire: recent work and future plans	Simon Townley
26 April	In the High Court of Justice	Dr Chris Watts
5 April *	Finding YOUR Ancestors on the Internet	Alan Simpson
22 March	Your Place in History	Colin Dean
23 February	Tithe Maps & Apportionments - a history of the tithe and tithe commutation	Paul Blake
2 February *	Popular Family History Computer Programmes	Alex McGahey and Leslie Binns
26 January	A Rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars	Dennis Wraight (in costume)
Future meetings

Computer Group - even numbered months
These are some recent past meetings. [Future meetings]
2003
1 December	Exploring More of Your Computer	Andrew Young
6 October	Lots to do with Email	Leslie Binns and Malcolm Austen
4 August	What is Available at the Holford Research Centre	Alan Simpson
2 June	Making the most of the 1901 census	Alex McGahey
7 April	FreeBMD (GRO indexes on the web)	Graham Hart
3 February	Scanning and Repairing Photographs	Kevin Tomes
2002
2 December	Organising your Web Browsing	Malcolm Austen
7 October	Creating Family Trees and Charts - some of the options available	Multiple speakers
19 August	Turning a Genealogist into a Geneticist	Cyril Chapman
17 June	Publishing on the Web - A beginner's guide to creating your own web pages	Alan Simpson
15 April	What can I do with my new computer?	Andrew Young
4 February	Accessing the 1901 census and making more use of the 1881 census	Leslie Binns
2001
3 December	English and Scots Origins, databases on the web	David Hawgood
1 October	Family History Resources on the Internet	Wendy Archer, Malcolm Austen
6 August	Searching the Internet	The Computer Group Panel
4 June	Useful Little Programs	The Computer Group Panel
2 April	Family History Resources on CD: From Index to Facsimile	Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
5 February	Putting your Family History on the Web	Leslie Binns

Monthly meetings - Fourth Monday of most months
These are some recent past meetings. [Future meetings]
2003
24 November	Events and Places - Photographs from the Packer & Sims Collection	Alan Watkins
27 October	An Oxford Canal Family 1792-1945	Judith Kinnison-Bourke (in costume)
22 September	I'm Stuck! How to Make Progress in Your Research	Geoff Swinfield
28 July	The Gentleman's Magazine - a Treasure House of Sources	Alan Ruston
23 June	Was she a Murderess? (preceded by AGM)	Richard Ratcliffe
19 May	Insanity	Kathy Chater
28 April	The Spectre of the Union - the Workhouse & its Records	Brian Oldham
24 March	Using the Library of the Society of Genealogists	Else Churchill
24 February	Maps & Social & Family History	Lilian Gibbens
27 January	Researching your RAF Ancestors	Simon Fowler
2002
25 November	Oxford Photographic Archives	Malcolm Graham
28 October	Up with the Lark! - 19th Century Ag.Labs	Ian Waller
23 September	Digging Deeper into Family History	Richard Ratcliffe
22 July	The Ascott Martyrs	Bev McCombs
24 June	Your County Record Offices - Challenges for the future (preceded by AGM)	Carl Boardman
20 May	Murders and executions in Victorian England	Fred Feather
22 April	An introduction to the records of the East India Company	Michael Gandy
25 March	Leave no stone unturned - alternative ways of solving research problems	Meryl Catty and Audrey Gillett
25 February	"Death Clouds"- The story of my Grandad Ben Sewell and First World War Gas	Geoff Sewell
28 January	A Superintendent Registrar's view of Family History	Barbara Dixon
2001
26 November	Very useless and not correct in their morals - Wives & Camp Followers	Major Brian Oldham
22 October	Public School Records - even for peasants	Jim Golland
24 September	The Parish Chest - its contents and officials	Jean Debney
23 July	Side-tracked	Meryl Catty
25 June	AGM followed by Cumnor Local History Web Site	John Hanson
21 May	Don't rub it out - a look at the treasures of the PRO	Ian Waller
23 April	Don't delay, write today - Family History by post	Jeanne Bunting
26 March	Packer and Sims photographic collections	Alan Watkins
26 February	A Debt of Honour - video and talk	Commonwealth War Graves Commission
22 January	Suicide	Kathy Chater

Oxfordshire Family History Society

Past Meetings