Held on Saturday 27 June between 10am and 4.30pm at Knavesmire Exhibition Centre at York Racecourse – just a few minutes’ walk away from York Railway Station, if you’re travelling by train – this well established annual event (this year’s Fair is the fourteenth) offers exhibits from over 70 different organisations.

As you’d expect, many of the exhibitors are from Yorkshire or neighbouring counties. But there are plenty of others based all over Great Britain, from the Aberdeen & NE Scotland Family History Society to the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society.

The event is sponsored by The Genealogist:

It’s just £4 to get in, and under-14s are free, so you can make a family trip of it – and with a fully licensed bar and cafeteria, refreshments won’t be a problem either.

So why not treat yourself to a day in the historic City of York this summer?

Find out more at the Fair’s web page:
http://yorkshirefamilyhistoryfair.com/

If you’re living in New Zealand – or able to travel there – and interested in genealogy, heraldry and family history, then you’re in luck!

The Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) is holding its next triennial congress in Auckland from 16-20 January. The overarching theme of this congress, the twelfth in a series stretching back to 1977, will be “Preserving the past for the future”. It’s hosted by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists at Kings College, Otahuhu.

The programme is simply packed with hour-long lectures and two-hour workshops, together with several plenary sessions, on a bewildering variety of themes. Guest speakers specialise in all kinds of fields relevant to the Australian and New Zealand family researcher, including local historians, family record archivists, geneticists and practitioners in many more disciplines.

Other special events include the Congress Banquet at Eden Park, home of the All Blacks, and a day tour of Auckland for out-of-town visitors.

Topic profiles, speaker profiles and a full programme are all available from the website, and it’s possible to register (for the whole conference, for single days or for individual events) online. But time’s running short, so hurry!

Website: 12th Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry

Olympia, London

If you have ever wondered what your ancestors were like, where they lived or what they did for a living, Who Do You Think You Are? Live: the National History Show is an event where you can make incredible discoveries about the story of your family.

Following on from two successful events in 2006 and 2007, this is a great chance to take forward your research into your family history, to get a taste for what’s involved if you’re starting out in genealogy, or even to just find out what it’s all about!

With the largest gathering of TV historians, family history experts and nearly 200 exhibitors from Ancestors Magazine to Your Family Tree, this three-day event is a unique opportunity to fill in the gaps in your family tree and make your connection to events in history. There’s plenty of support from major exhibitors such as the Society of Genealogists (over 80 seminars!), and you can hear from celebrities such as Ainsley Harriott and Matthew Pinsent about what they’ve unearthed in their own family research. And if you’re stuck in your research and need advice on how to take it forward, then you can get a 20-minute one-to-one session with an expert.

There’s far too much to mention here! But you can find out more on the Who Do You Think You Are? Live website