WJS Kent branch

Report of meeting

24th January 2008

Our AGM and the following presentation on family history were held at The Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies, Canterbury, in the conference/lecture room.

AGM: A successful year was reported. We remain solvent. With 5 meetings held (4 in 2006) a substantially increased overall attendance was reported arising from having joint meetings. However, WJS attendance remains disappointing. Recruitment particularly with students at Mid-Kent College has increased our membership from 79 last year to 100 currently. With the increase in membership and the number of meetings, our grant for 2008 has also increased. 2007 has seen Duncan Scaife receive the first ever Richard Dolby - Rolls Royce prize for the Younger Members Competition and TWI Loyal Service Awards being granted and presented to John Rains, Eric Reynolds and Norman Baldwin, who between them have served over 60 years on the Branch Committee in various capacities. Attempts to find additional committee members were unsuccessful during 2007 and Brian Jones resigned owing to pressure of work. The Committee now needs to analyse the returned questionnaires from members to determine its strategy for the 2008/9 Programme and beyond. Attendance: 7 WJS.

Family history: Following the AGM, Norman Baldwin and Celia Heritage (Registrar - The Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies) each presented a talk on family history. Norman explained why he had started over 30 years ago and how he had obtained, presented and made available the data to his family. Celia indicated that the subject had become immensely popular over the past decade and gave a number of potential reasons for its rise in popularity. Celia explained that improved access to records had undoubtedly fuelled the explosion of interest and indicated the various stages of access from fiche through CD-ROM to on-line access had all taken place within the last 20 years. Celia then provided a warning to the unwary about the comprehensiveness and accuracy of all on-line records, particularly with common names. Whilst an increasing number of records continue to be made available on-line, there is a wealth of hard copy data available. The evening prompted many interesting questions. Attendance: Total 13, WJS 8.

N E Baldwin - Chairman, Kent Branch