Decorate your family tree this Christmas
If you're looking for a unique, interesting and low-cost present this Christmas visit Warwickshire County Record Office to research your own family tree.
To celebrate Christmas the record office is holding FREE drop in sessions during opening hours from 16 Dec – Christmas Eve to start researching your family tree. It’s the perfect present to keep people chatting all Christmas.
Ancestry, a popular family history website, is a subscription based website but is FREE to access at the County Record Office. In addition, the Record Office’s volunteers will be on hand with expert guidance to help visitors explore the database.
Just in case you haven’t seen BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are, the Record Office holds the written history of the county with records dating back to 1116. There is something for anyone with an interest in the history of their school, church, village, town or their family and personal history.
The extensive collections make up six miles of boxed records and volumes including school log books, workhouse records, court and hospital records, census and parish registers to name but a few.
Sam Collenette has just been appointed the new Archive Service Manager and is keen to welcome new people through the doors. She said: “We’re lucky to have such good collections and the staff and facilities are excellent. We also offer a popular volunteer programme and hope to provide more places to help people develop their archiving skills.
She continued: “What makes working with archives so exciting is that you never know what you’re going to find. There’s one item in the Warwick Castle collection that no-one will believe, I can’t say anymore because we’re keeping it under wraps until a very special exhibition next year.”
Sessions will run between Thursday 16 December and Friday 24 December at selected times during our opening hours. Please call ahead to book a half hour slot on 01926 738959. The record office backs onto Priory Park in Warwick and is easily accessible by train or bus.
Warwickshire County Record Office is involved in safeguarding, managing and developing Warwickshire’s archives so that they can be accessed, interpreted and enjoyed by all those with an interest in Warwickshire’s past and its people. We hold records dating from the twelfth century up to the twenty first.
For more information, visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/countyrecordoffice or call 01926 738959.