Well, the Internet being what it is, it should come as no surprise that someone’s already taken the initiative to come up with one!

GENEVA, the Calendar of GENealogical EVents and Activities, is a joint project between GENUKI (the virtual reference library of genealogical information for the UK and Ireland) and the Federation of Family History Societies (an association for genealogical societies with a  interest in England, Wales and Ireland). It lists dozens of special events, fairs, talks and other activities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with a link to each event’s website or web page.

The list’s compiled by Malcolm Austen for GENUKI and the FFHS. At present the focus is heavily on England and Wales, but the calendar’s open to events all over the world – “just as long as they pertain to UK & Irish ancestry”, as Malcolm says.

So if you’re gripped by genealogical Wanderlust, or if your local society has an event that you’d like to publicise – or even if you’re planning an event and are keen to avoid clashes with other events nearby – why not visit the GENEVA website?

GENEVA – online calendar of GENealogical EVents and Activities

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/

You can browse six journals online:

• Gentleman’s Magazine
• The Annual Register
• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
• Notes and Queries
• The Builder
• Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine

Visit their website for more information:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/

The excellent Access to Archival Databases facility has a vast number of subjects. By no means all of them are directly relevant to genealogical research, but a fair few are. Here are the best examples, but there are others – and it’s worth keeping an eye on the list from time to time to see what else is being added:

• Germans to America Passenger Data File, 1850-1897
• Famine Irish Passenger Record Data File, 1846-1851
• Italians to America Passenger Data File, 1855-1900
• Russians to America Passenger Data File, 1834 – 1897

(NB Poland was divided between the German, Russian and Austrian Empires in the 19th century, so if you have Polish ancestors who emigrated during that time you may well find themin the German or Russian records.)

You can find out more at the US National Archives Access to Archival Databases home page:
http://aad.archives.gov/aad/

Founded in 1885 as the Huguenot Society of London, the Society changed its name in 1986 to reflect its wider membership. It seeks to promote the publication and interchange of knowledge about the Protestant Christians who fled France to avoid religious persecution in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many of whose descendants are largely unaware of their ancestors.

The Society has published a large number of PDF guidesto help those researching their Huguenot ancestry – starting with a basic guide on how to proceed with research, and giving all kinds of more specific pointers such as a French glossary, a guide to Huguenot settlers outside London, and how to search in France for ancestors who arrived in Great Britain and Ireland after 1710.

Sadly the Society’s journal, Huguenot Families, ceased publication in 2008, but back copies are still available from the Society’s website.

For more information, visit the Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland’s website:

http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/family/

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

It’s funded and maintained by a bewildering range of government departments and public sector bodies – the register offices and public records offices for all parts of the United Kingdom, plus the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the network of academic archives throughout Britain, the Imperial War Museum and even the old records from the pre-1947 India Office.

There’s a whole section full of topics of interest to family history researchers, with useful information about civil births, marriages and deaths registration, religious records (parish registers), censuses, wills, immigration and emigration records, military records, and adoptions. They’ve also got several guides on how to get started in the whole field of family research using original records, genealogy software and records on the Internet. Reviews of useful books and a handy reading list round off this excellent resource for the novice genealogist.

FamilyRecords.gov.uk

With an extensive and ever-expanding catalogue of transcripts from parish records, 19th-century censuses and land ownership returns, it’s rich in official data for births, marriages, deaths and settlements. South Wales is especially strongly represented, particularly Monmouthshire (Gwent) and Glamorgan, but records for other parts of Wales are there too if your Welsh family history lies in, say, Flintshire or Merioneth. (The 1873 Returns for Owners of Land are also available for Scotland and Ireland.)

As if that wasn’t enough, there are even sections recording the inscriptions on war memorials, monuments and gravestones.

All of the data is freely available online, although some of the data sets are also available for purchase to help pay the site’s running costs.

And if all that wasn’t enough, there are several links to other useful online resources.

To find out more, visit:
http://www.cefnpennar.com/

Set up in 1979, the Guild is an association of genealogists undertaking specialist research into specific family names and their variants. Where people researching their own family history have got blocked, other references to the same surname may often provide the key and allow them to make further progress. This is particularly the case where the name is a rare one. (Where it isn’t, DNA testing may help.)

Guild members are willing to undertake research into paid enquiries. Some of the information Guild members have unearthed is also available online.

If you’re a dedicated genealogist and are interested in this branch of genealogy, membership is £12.00 a year and offers a wide range of benefits.

For more information see:
http://www.one-name.org/

The website contains a large collection of articles and many other resources, including information about how to date medieval documents. The Julian calendar was used in medieval times and dating conventions in medieval documents can cause problems for genealogists. However, this website offers a path through the maze with clearly written advice and useful tables.

For more information see:
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/index.html