Family History Open Day (2018)

Despite the competing attractions of rugby and the Olympics on the telly, nearly eighty hardy folk turned out on a bitterly cold February day to see what we had to offer at our Annual Open Day.

They were not disappointed.

Top of the bill was Janet Huckle, who was dating old family photos.  Janet always draws in the crowds, and this year was no exception – the queue for a consultation with her was longer than ever.

Searching for ancestors on the Internet was as popular as ever, with Terry Davis, John Peters and Chris Broom kept busy using their expertise to help visitors research their family trees.

And away from the computers, Di and Henry Mann had an excellent display demonstrating how to write and record, in hard copy, the life of an ancestor, using timelines and charts.

Guest volunteers included two volunteers from the Parham Airfield Museum, Chris Pratt and George Brown, who came with information about the top-secret British Resistance Organisation that was active locally during the Second World War.  They even brought along a couple of machine guns for us to play with!

And Adrian Gregory was there signing and selling his entertaining new book about recent memories of Richard Garrett’s engineering works.  Much has been written about the earlier history of Garrett’s, but very little of its later years. Several of the visitors at the Open Day knew Adrian and many of the people mentioned in his book.

Peter Drew’s extensive and beautifully arranged collection of old photos and newspaper clippings about the Aldringham/Thorpe/Sizewell area was fascinating, and well patronised, and the Group’s collection of old maps, graveyard surveys and war memorial catalogues was referred to by many people during the course of the day.

Refreshments were served by the Long Shop, and included hot soup – most welcome on a freezing day.  All in all the entire event was a great success, and raised over £140 in donations and refreshments for the Long Shop funds.

You can view photos from the 2018 Open Day here, and read about the 2017 Open Day here.

 Maggie Strutt