The Membership Page
Table of Contents
Updated 14th November 2005
Benefits of Membership
Please note :- The databases mentioned below are NOT on line and CANNOT be accessed by members. We offer FREE look ups, by Society volunteers, on all our records as detailed below
1. FREE searches of all our parish baptisms, marriages (pre 1837 only) and burials databases: these searches are not available to non members.
2. FREE searches of Glamorgan county census returns of 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 & 1901
3. FREE searches of Monumental Inscriptions – most parish churches in Glamorgan, some chapels and municipal graveyards
4. FREE searches of Welsh Wills Index pre 1858
5. Searches of 1891 census for Aberdare, Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil & Pontypridd/Rhondda by local members
6. Glamorgan Strays service – people born in Glamorgan who appear in other counties
7. FREE search of 1992 edition of IGI for Wales, England & Scotland
8. Society journals which are produced 4 times a year
9. 6 in county branches, Bridgend, Cardiff, Cynon Valley, Pontypridd & Rhondda, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea. The branches meet on a monthly basis and have a variety of speakers; members are able to attend any / all meetings.
Some branches produce a newsletter which keeps members up to date with events in between journals.
10. Internet mailing list where you can ask for advice, help, keep up to date with Society news, exchange data, etc.
11. Projects teams which are undertaking various projects around the county – members can volunteer to help out with any projects.
12. Resource centre at Aberkenfig which holds all Society publications and some from neighbouring counties too, 1901 census available and soon GRO indices 1880 – 1901 on microfiche
13. Members interests database which can put you in touch with others who have similar research interests.
14. Help column in each journal.
15. Submit articles for inclusion in the Society journal
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How Can I join ... ?
The Membership Secretary is :-
Mrs. Judy Hodges,
Flat 24 Ryan Court,
Whitecliffe Mills Street,
Blandford Forum.
Dorset DT11 7DQ
e-mail address :
Judy Hodges
Membership of the GFHS normally costs ten pounds for UK and European based members and twelve pounds for other overseas members, which includes four journals per year. Member's research interests are published free of charge in the journal, which has a circulation of over two and a half thousand and is also widely read in libraries and exchanged with over a hundred family history societies world-wide.
Subscriptions run from January to December and are renewable on January first irrespective of the date of joining.
For existing members you can renew via the Parish Chest or use the form printed in the December issue of the journal - Please quote your membership number in either case
To Join On Line and pay by credit card. Click Here and you will be taken to the Parish Chest website where you can use any of the following credit / debit cards
For UK tax payers the Society can benefit from collecting the tax element of your subscription from the UK Inland Revenue. click below for a form
Click Here for the Gift Aid Declaration Form
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Payment Methods ...
A few alternative methods of payment
The cost of changing monies from one currency to another is extremely high, and this is why I am directing the attention of all our members, wherever they may be, to the various ways in which their monies can be paid - as painlessly as possible - into the Glamorgan FHS account.
1. British Cheques made out the Glamorgan FHS, British Banknotes or Mint (unused) UK stamps are acceptable, (e.g. 20 stamps x 25p = £ 5.00). Stamps can be obtained from the British Philatelic Bureau, 20, Brandon St. Edinburgh, Scotland, EH3 5TT. The Bureau will send you an order form covering all UK stamps available, and payments can be made by Mastercard Visa. There is a very small handling fee, and it is a fast service.
2. British banknotes value £ 5, £ 10 or £ 20 usually travel safely inside a letter
3 International Currency Express will issue cheques in British Pound Sterling for a fee of $5, and payment may be made by credit card. The company is located at 427 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA. Tel: 1-888-278-6628. Fax: 1-310-278-6410. They have an office in Washington DC. Tel: 1-888-842-0880. Their website is http://www.foreignmoney.com/
4. Australian members of the Genealogical Society of Victoria, are able to obtain STERLING cheques from the society to make small purchases, charging $4.50 (again less than bank charges). We understand that some other Australian Societies have the same arrangement.
5. Canadian members in Ottawa, Vancouver, London and Kitchener can pay via ACCU-RATE FOREIGN EXCHANGE, which will supply a STERLING check for the exchange rate only, with no additional charge for issuing the checks.
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Members Interests
Members may view either of theses files by clicking on the appropriate version They contain members interest details that have been published in the Glam FHS journals since September 1996. To comply with the data protection act NO addresses are published. GFHS Members ONLY may have details by contacting the editor - please quote membership number when making enquiries. The lists are updated quarterly to coincide with the appropriate journal issue All updates should be sent to the editor
Members Interests :- Comma Separated version which can be viewed in Excel & Lotus
Members Interests :- Text formatted version which can be viewed in Word-pad or any word-processing packages
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Beginners Notes
How To Trace Your Family Tree - Notes For Beginners
Updated 20th February 2005
Where Do I Start?
1) Collect all available information from family sources:
a) Write down everything you know and interview other members of the family, especially the older ones. Don't forget other branches of the family - now is a good time to re-establish contact with elderly aunts and long lost cousins. Make a note of everything and who told you about it, even if you doubt its accuracy or it seems not to be relevant. There is often a grain of truth in family legends, and sometimes a seemingly useless bit of information will fit into the jigsaw later on. Try to find out from older family members the occupation of their parents, grandparents and great aunts and uncles. Sometimes the greatest breakthroughs are made through sibling rather than direct lines. It also helps to know the religion of your ancestors, especially if they were non-conformist.
b) Gather together all the documentary evidence that you have in the family. Ideally there will be a family bible or an old photograph album with names and dates (now is a good time to write names and dates in pencil on the back of your photographs to benefit future generations), but the following can all prove invaluable for getting you started:
· Birth, marriage and death certificates
· Old diaries or letters
· Newspaper reports, obituaries
· Wartime medals or anything with an ancestor's regimental number
· Inscriptions on family silver, trophies etc.
· Old press cuttings or scrapbooks
If possible find out where your ancestors were buried and note down the monumental inscriptions. Include all people buried in the grave, even if the surname is different.
2) Contact others who may be able to help you:
a) Join your local county family history society. There will always be experienced family historians willing to put you on the right track, and you may even meet someone researching the same name or area. If your ancestors came from another part of the country, join the family history society for that area as well. A full list of societies affiliated to the Federation of Family History Societies is available from your local branch secretary. You will receive a journal which will give you interesting articles about the area in which your ancestors lived and worked, and you will also be able to find out through the "Members' Interests" section whether anyone else is researching the same name. It is surprising how many distant cousins you make contact with once you start researching your family history. Through your local family history society you will also have access to a library and bookstall, as well as to various indexes and genealogical aids.
b) Join a beginners' class in family history if you can. Your local authority will probably be running one in your area starting in September. This will give you basic information and advice as well as introducing you to other beginners for moral support. Family history is one of Britain's fastest growing hobbies.
c) Consider taking out a subscription to a family history magazine; they print helpful articles and items of information, and some run a genealogical helpline. You can also advertise the names you are researching in their "Readers' Interests" section. These magazines are published monthly and can be found in most newsagents. There are 3 such magazines published in the UK:
· Practical Family History – written for beginners to this hobby but just as useful for experienced researchers
· Family History Magazine
· Family History Monthly
NB. Always remember when writing to a researcher who has advertised an interest in a particular name to include a stamped addressed envelope (SAE). When writing to overseas researchers include two International Reply Coupons (IRCs) available at Post Offices.
Which Line Shall I Trace?
Everyone has four grandparents and eight great grandparents and so obviously the further back you get the more names you will be interested in. It is wise to set yourself an objective from the start and decide which lines you are going to concentrate on. Unusual surnames are clearly easier to trace than Smith or Jones, but it is wise to start with the family about which you have the most information or else a family that lived locally, where the records will be easier to consult. If your ancestors were spread about all over Britain and the colonies and you have limited time and money at your disposal then it might be a good idea to embark on several lines. This way you will not lose heart when you have to wait a long time before you can go and find a particular piece of information. While you are stuck on one line you might make great progress with another.
Now I'm Ready To Start, Where Do I Find The Information?
1) Civil Registration Certificates
Civil registration started in England and Wales in July 1837 and it is possible to get copies of birth, marriage or death certificates for £7.00 each. Always make sure you purchase the full birth certificate rather than the cheaper abbreviated one which is also available. It is not possible to consult the actual registers, but the indexes can be consulted free of charge at the General Register Office (GRO), Family Records Centre, 1 Myddelton Street, London EC1 1UW. Copies of the GRO indexes are available on microfilm/fiche at many libraries and record offices around the country. In Glamorgan they are available at the county record offices in Cardiff (029 2078 0282) or Swansea (01792-636589), as well as at the LDS Family History Centres in Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil. Always ring in advance to reserve a reader. The indexes are separate for births, marriages and deaths and are arranged alphabetically for each quarter, i.e. there will be four books or microfiches to search for a birth in any particular year. Make sure you note which quarters you have searched, even if you find nothing, otherwise you might waste time searching the same quarter again. This is particularly important when searching in person at the Family Records Centre, where a crowded search room makes it difficult to search the indexes in strictly chronological order.
Once you have located the entry you want you are ready to order the certificate. The cost of a full birth, marriage or death certificate is £7.00. Applicants who apply in person at the Family Records Centre may collect their certificates on the fourth working day following the day of application. Alternatively you can apply by post, but the cost is higher. Postal applications should be addressed to the General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport, Merseyside PR8 2JD, and each certificate costs £11.50, or £8.50 if the full GRO reference number is supplied. If you apply by post and the certificate cannot be found, £4.50 will be retained and the balance refunded. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to ONS, and payment can also be made by credit card, but please do NOT send cash. Certificates are despatched within 28 days, or 10 days if the GRO reference is supplied. Certificates can also be ordered on-line using the GRO website. Except in the case of a marriage in a large town, where it is usually necessary to know the church or chapel where the event took place, it is often possible to bypass the GRO and order a copy of the certificate direct from the local registrar (look up Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the relevant phone book). This will only cost £7.00 per certificate, the same price as for those visiting the FRC in London, but you will need to send a STERLING cheque made payable to The Superintendent Registrar, and local offices are unable to accept credit card payments.
If you are lucky you will be starting your family history while your parents are still alive, and they will quite possibly have kept you grandparents' death certificates or even their marriage certificates. If the worst comes to the worst and you have no knowledge of even your parents, start with your own birth certificate and work backwards. A birth certificate will give you an address, the names of the parents, the mother's maiden name and the father's occupation. Marriage certificates give the date and place of the marriage, the age, marital status, occupation and address of both bride and groom, as well as the name and occupation of their fathers. Death certificates do not have so much helpful information, but they do give you the age at death if you have no monumental inscription, and this may help you locate the more useful birth certificate.
In Scotland civil registration did not start until 1855, but there is more information to be gained from the certificates, copies of which can be obtained from New Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YT for £13 by post. Scottish birth certificates give the date and place of the parents' marriage, marriage certificates give both parents of the bride and groom, and death certificates give the name of the deceased's parents.
2) Parish Registers
Prior to 1837 the church registers for baptisms, marriages and burials can provide much useful information, but some registers have not survived and some clerics were more diligent than others in the way they recorded these events. Most county record offices have a large number of parish registers available for inspection, often on microfilm. Glamorgan is fortunate in having most of the parish records on open shelves in photocopied form, so that if your ancestors came from a particular parish you can browse through the registers and pick up other members of the family. Glamorgan registers which are not held in the record offices in Cardiff and Swansea can be located at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The Glamorgan Family History Society also holds on computer a list of marriages in the county up to 1837 transcribed from parish registers, and this has been published on fiche. Parish registers are also being transcribed and a large number are already on sale in either fiche or booklet form. For those with Scottish ancestry note that New Register House in Edinburgh will send copies of pre 1855 Old Parish Register entries by post for £13. This service is not available in England and Wales, where photocopies of parish register entries must be ordered from the relevant repository.
3) The International Genealogical Index (IGI)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) promote family history research as an active part of their faith, and the Genealogical Society of Utah have on computer as many baptisms and marriages (not deaths) as they have been able to transcribe from parish registers and other sources around the world. The IGI, as it is called, is produced on microfiche for each country of the world, sub-divided by county, and is widely available for consultation without any obligation to the LDS church. It is available in most large libraries and county record offices, and also in the family history research centres attached to most LDS churches. Note that not all parishes are covered, and mistakes do occur, but it can be a very useful finding aid, telling you which parish register to consult.
4) Census Returns
Together with civil registration certificates the census returns are probably the most useful way of helping you to trace your family back to about 1800, after which things become more difficult. A census has been taken every 10 years since 1801, but it is only since 1841 that individuals have been listed by name. Information given on census returns is secret for 100 years, so at the moment the 1891 census is the latest available for public view. Census returns for Glamorgan are available on film/fiche at the county record offices and main libraries, and the returns for the whole of England and Wales are available at the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddelton Street, London EC1 1UW. Many family history societies have also produced census indexes which can prove invaluable finding aids. The 1881 census for the whole of England and Wales has been fully computerised and indexed in a joint venture by the Federation of Family History Societies and the LDS church, and Glamorgan FHS operates a search service. Full details of search services and publications are available from the secretary.
The 1851 census is the first one of real use to the family historian, as for the first time the exact place of birth is given for each individual, as well as his or her relationship to the head of the household. The census returns are divided into enumeration districts and are listed in street order, so it is necessary to have an address in order to locate a family on the census. If your ancestors came from a small village, however, you will probably only have to look through a few pages to find them. Death certificates, normally the least useful in terms of information, are invaluable if you have an ancestor who died in the early 1850's. By looking up the address on the death certificate in the 1851 census you should find your ancestor listed, along with his place of birth. This will tell you which parish register to search for his baptism.
Note that in the 1841 census returns the ages given for adults were usually rounded down to the nearest five. The enumerators did also make mistakes, and as they were often dealing with people who were illiterate the spellings vary a lot. It is always a good idea to find a particular family on more than one census if possible. Not only can you assess more easily whether ages and places of birth are correct, but you might find older or younger children or grandchildren appearing on the census at each ten year interval. If you find the family but your ancestor is missing, search a few pages either side. Often in large families some of the children were to be found living nearby with relatives or neighbours.
5) Wills
Wills can provide a lot of useful information about family relationships, as well as giving you an insight into how your ancestor lived. All wills proved since 1858 have been indexed, and the indexes can be consulted at First Avenue House, High Holborn, London. The index will give you the date the will was proved, the date of death, the address of the deceased, the name and address of the executor and the total amount bequeathed. If you want a copy the cost is £5 for each will. If you have consulted an index elsewhere (there is for example a copy of the index up to 1932 at the county record office in Cardiff), you can obtain a copy of the will by writing to The Court Service, York Probate Sub-Registry, First Floor, Castle Chambers, Clifford Street, York YO1 9RG giving the name and date of probate from the index and enclosing an SAE and a cheque for £5 made payable to H.M.C.S. Even if you can't consult the index, if you send £5 to York giving the name and date of death they will make a four year search for you.
Before 1858, Wills were proved either in the local diocesan probate court or (if a will involved property in more than one diocese) at the Prerogative Courts of Canterbury or York. Wills proved at Canterbury are usually known as “PCC Wills”. Wills proved in Wales are held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and copies can be obtained either by letter or via their website at a modest charge, depending on the length of the document. PCC wills are held in The National Archives, and can now be located and viewed or downloaded on-line at TNA website (look under Shop Online, then DocumentsOnline), the charge being £3.50 per will.
6) Trade Directories
Just as we have Yellow Pages and Thompsons today, so the Victorians had their trade directories. Most libraries and record offices have a good collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century trade directories, such as the Kelly's Directory for South Wales produced each year. If you know that your ancestor was a carpenter or a shoemaker you can locate him in the trade section, or you might find him listed alphabetically in the residential section. The directories for 1881, 1891 etc. can be very useful for finding an address by which to locate the family in the census returns.
Where Do I Go From Here?
If you have managed to work out a skeleton family tree back to the last century using the sources listed above, the chances are that you will have become well and truly hooked, and will want to start putting flesh on the bones. By this time you will no longer be a complete beginner, and will know your way around record offices and microfilm readers, as well as having read up a bit on the subject. Hopefully you will also be taking an active part in your local family history society and helping others to find their roots as well as listening to some very interesting talks. Listed here are some of the records you should try consulting next. members of the family history society will be pleased to tell you more about them. Please do not be afraid to ask for help at meetings.
1) Professional records, apprenticeship records etc.
2) Military and naval records
3) Land tax returns, tithe schedules and title deeds
4) Manorial records and estate records
5) Court proceedings and quarter session records
6) Records of the overseers of the poor
7) Electoral rolls
8) Pre 1858 wills proved in ecclesiastical courts
Welcome to an absorbing hobby. You will be surprised at how interesting your ancestors were, even if they never got into Who's Who or seemingly did nothing to distinguish themselves. You will find yourself becoming more and more interested not only in who they were and when they lived but in how they lived.
Further information on membership of the Society can be obtained from:
The Membership Secretary: - Mrs. Judy Hodges, Flat 24 Ryan Court, Whitecliffe Mills Street, Blandford Forum. Dorset DT11 7DQ
e-mail: Judy Hodges
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Page updated 18th July 2005