Help is at hand for people eager to research their family history in the Huddersfield area … and beyond.

Huddersfield and District Family History Society has its own centre dedicated to research and finding out more about people’s family backgrounds.

The members also help people whose ancestors are from Huddersfield and want to travel over here to see where they families lived, where they worked and where they are buried.

The society’s centre is called The Root Cellar which is in Meltham and open to the public six days a week with members always there to help.

Computers provide access to family history websites such as Ancestry and Find My Past along with lots more family history resources which includes an extensive library covering genealogy and local history.

The society has mapped the graveyards of many local churches which helps people find their ancestors’ final resting places and also have records of births and marriages.

 

 

To offset the cost of running the centre society members are asked to make a donation of £1.50 and non-members £3 for each session.

If people are struggling to do their own research the society’s experienced family history volunteers can carry out research for them which is not just limited to the Huddersfield area. The donation for this service is £10 an hour for society members and £12 for non-members.

Many people visit Huddersfield to find out more about their ancestors and the society can really help with this.

It’s called Ancestral Tourism and could even be a visit from overseas with people travelling from as far away as Canada and Australia.

Jane Harris, of Huddersfield & District Family History Society, said: “We will be happy to plan an itinerary to relevant locations and do some preliminary research in relation to churches, areas where the people’s ancestors lived or places of interest linked to their jobs or social lives.”

The society helped Robbie Beaumont from Canada who was keen to find out more about his ancestors who were cottage weavers in Farnley Hey and Upperthong.

Robbie and a researcher from the society visited Upperthong Church where his great grandfather Sam Beaumont married before emigrating to Canada and he also saw some family graves.

 

 

To give Robbie a great understanding of the textile trade the society took him to the Colne Valley Museum in Golcar which has working weaving and spinning machines.

One person described Robbie’s visit as like the BBC TV programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ but for non-famous people.

Jane added: “Many people from Huddersfield and far further afield interested in tracing their family’s history don’t realise there is this great advice and resource centre here in Meltham. Please use it and certainly don’t struggle on your own if you’re trying to trace your family ancestry. We are here to help.”

The opening hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 2pm-4.30pm; Wednesday 10am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4.30pm; Friday 10am to 12.30pm.

The Root Cellar’s address is 33A Greens End Road, Meltham, HD9 5NW and the society can be contacted by phone on 01484 859229.

Its website is https://hdfhs.org.uk/ and the Facebook site is at https://www.facebook.com/huddersfieldfamilyhistory  

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.

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