genealogy headline picture

We are a friendly group of people with about 20 members, male and female, who share a common interest and fascination with family history, whether it be our own or someone else’s!

“Genealogy” is much more than names, dates and places on a family tree, but also the family stories, (whether they are proven true or not !) the social & historical context that our ancestors lived in, their occupations, and much more beside.

Each of us have varying degrees of experience, some with very little and others with many years and we often find that our individual research takes place on a stop/start basis within our personal lives. Some of us use computers for recording our findings, some are paper based only – but even computers generate paper !

So our aim is to encourage and learn from each other, share our experience and personal research stories, pass on tips and generally give help to each other, and of course to enable people to make new friends within the wider U3A group.

Things we’ve done in 2023.

We had a talk via Zoom on the topic of Brick Walls, which highlighted things we either didn’t know or had forgotten about! We were also provided with an information sheet.

In July we had a visit to Portsmouth Dockyard, hosted by the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust. This enabled us to see some of the things that the Trust has managed to save which would otherwise have been lost.  Certainly worth a visit.

We’ve talked about researching outside the UK, looking at various documents. This didn’t apply to all of us but of course with Genealogy you never know when circumstances will change. We’ve had discussions on Military research and our ancestors’ occupations. One of the group members gave us a talk on their Derbyshire Ancestors which included a Powerpoint presentation.

Lists have been provided so that members could note down where they would like to visit/talks/areas of research/names being researched etc.

We’ve had a volunteer from the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust visit to talk about The Triangle Girls. These were ladies who kept the Dockyard going through the war as many of the men had gone to fight in the war

Late last year we had a visit from the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust who gave a talk entitled A Moment in Time.

In recent years we have visited The National Archives in London, Winchester Archives , The Society of Genealogists, The Spring at Havant and Highland Road cemetery. We’ve done research, with the local history group, on the men who died at the Battle of Jutland and the men on the war memorial at St Andrews church both resulted in booklets being produced. We’ve had talks on Portsmouth, Military Archives, lantern slides, members “brick walls” and The Guild of one name studies.

Our regular meeting is on the first Thursday of each month at “The Church of the Resurrection” in Cosham, from 2pm till 4pm, with a monthly attendance cost of £2 per member, including refreshments! The room also has a screen which enables us to give presentations.

Group Leader: Vivien Walters
Email: contact@portsdownu3a.org.uk

ARCHIVES

Newsletter June – Aug 2017

We had a fascinating talk by Jane Fox in May, followed by a visit to The Elms in Old Bedhampton on 28th May.

Since then we have heard about one of our members DNA results from Ancestry, another member gave us an update on her Sri Lanka research. We had planned to go the Winchester Archives in June but this has been postponed until later in the year. We have been bringing to the meetings things that we have found out about whilst doing our research and giving a short talk about them – “a bit like show and tell”

Finally in August, when we don’t hold a meeting, we enjoyed a cream tea at The Northney Tea Rooms on Hayling Island.

Things in the planning stage:

  • Trip to Winchester Archives
  • Trip to National Archives at Kew
  • Trip to Society of Genealogist in London
  • Talk by George Yalden #
  • Talk by Andrew Negus in 2018 #

# The two talks will be open to all members of the U3A

At the September meeting we will be preparing things for our table at the open day.

Finally anyone who is interested in finding out more about their family history would be most welcome to join us. A modest fee is charged to cover hall charges and tea/coffee etc. At present we do have spaces available for new members, either beginners or experienced. We meet at 2pm at The Church of the Resurrection in Penrhyn Avenue on the 1st Thursday of the month