Members share their family history research, photographs, maps and artefacts. Advice is offered to new researchers and plans, ideas for future research and new finding aids are discussed.

  • Frequency & Time: 1st Thursday in the month, 10am-12noon.

  • Venue: Park Road Resource Centre, 53 Park Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, NG19 8ER

  • Contact: Viv Brown or email Groups’ Coordinators

Want to know more? Get in touch….

Programme 2026

Family History Group

  • January – 1st 2026 NO MEETING THIS MONTH.
  • February – 5th The Family History Group will meet at Park Rd Resource Centre between 10-12 noon when the topic will be  1. A photo with a paragraph or two of your own choice to send to the excellent website of local interest which we looked at in Dec-  www.ourmansfieldandarea.org.uk  
  • Bring in any type of old postcard.
  • 3.Comparing maps to see how places have changed over time like the ones brought in of Mansfield. We can look on the Internet if you don’t have any paper copies yourself.
  • Using electoral rolls to find a missing ancestor.
  • March 5th – The Family History Group will meet at Park Rd Resource Centre between 10-12 noon when the topic will be                                                           1.Continue writing up a past piece of research to send to www.ourmansfieldandarea.org.uk   A photo with a paragraph or two of your own choice to contribute to this excellent website of local interest which we’ve looked in earlier sessions. eg your school days, where you worked, an ancestor with military service or a special place around our district etc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               2. Houses in your ancestors’ history.  From your research, can you find out more about the type of house your family lived in the past. The 1911 Census was filled in by the householder and it tells not only who lived at that address, but also how many rooms etc. Perhaps you could find a photo from the various websites like the Inspire Picture Archives, or Picture the Past.   Some of us have looked at this topic before, so perhaps you could research how that location changed over time as our group discovered last month when they compared OS maps showing Mansfield Woodhouse over time, thanks to Dave Clarke.
  • April 2nd – The Family History Group will meet at Park Rd Resource Centre between 10-12 noon when the topic will be – The Group will be continuing to look at houses we or our ancestors have lived in like last month. You can use census returns for 1911 and 1921 or even earlier and bring in any photos, maps and deeds you might have.
    Afterwards there will be a “ buddy session” so bring in research, mobile phones or computers to help solve our queries and share our knowledge.
  • May 7th – The Family History Group will meet at Park Rd Resource Centre between 10-12 noon we will be sharing any new personal research and new discoveries about your great-grandparents or even great-great-grandparents and the use of a fan- style tree to record the information.
    We will be looking at birth and marriage certificates and census returns etc, so bring in your mobile phones, I-pads and computers for a buddy session afterwards so we can help each other find out more.
  • June 4th – EXCITING NEWS  We will be visiting the Coal Authority Building on Berry Hill to look at plans and maps about the mining industry, organised by Dave Clarke. We will leave Park Rd Resource Centre at 9.50 am by shared cars and return back there by 12 noon. There will be very little walking, but plenty to fascinate us so save the date as numbers for our visit to the Coal Authority are limited, only members of the Family History Group will be able to attend on this day.
  • July 2nd – The Family History Group will meet at Park Road Resource Centre between 10-12 noon. As it’s the 250th Anniversary of USA Independence, we are looking for any family connections with North America. One or two of our group have been surprised to find great uncles and aunts who actually did emigrate or that relations came to Britain from there.
    Obviously not everyone has such links so let’s also look at Military records which has its own section on Ancestry. Records are being updated all the time and one of our group has recently found that her great uncle, who died aged 19 at Gallipoli during WW1 and is commemorated out there, can also be found on a memorial in St Lawrence’s Church, his mother’s parish church.
  • August 6th – 
  • September 3rd – 
  • October 1st – 
  • November 5th –
  • December 3rd – 

Regards,

Viv Brown.

Any queries please contact Viv Brown.