Almost every county in Britain has a local family history society. These organisations bring together family historians for monthly meetings, informative talks, fairs and more. They also provide a valuable service to the family history community by transcribing parish registers and other records and putting the transcriptions online for their members, and answering queries from anyone who wants to research an ancestor from the area. However, many family history societies are under threat.
Steve Manning is the chair of the Family History Federation (FHF; ), which, “The membership of family history societies in the UK has been in decline for some years, and now stands at about 70,000. Fifteen years ago it was double that number! But not all societies, or even categories of society, are suffering equally. For example, specialist areas such as the Families in British India Society (FIBIS; ), heraldry and the Anglo-Caribbean continue to demonstrate healthy membership growth. Conversely, many surname-based groups are really struggling to recruit new blood. County and locally based societies take the middle ground. But even then, some proactive organisations are doing really well but less innovative ones are fighting closure.”
