The National British Fair for Family and Local History will be held on 10th September 2005 at the Gateshead International Stadium on Neilson Road in Gateshead. Last year's event attracted nearly 2,000 attendees to examine the wares of 104 exhibitors. This year's event promises to be even bigger. More than 120 exhibitors are already scheduled to attend.
Visitors to the fair will have access to:
- 1837 online - the first website to put the indexes to the complete sets of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England & Wales from the 1837 to 2002 and British Nationals Overseas from 1761 to 1994 online. Previously, the only way to perform such a search would have been either to travel to the Family Records Centre in London or to visit certain record repositories & libraries. The indexes searched are scans of originals, enabling you to view a piece of history from your own home.
- The National Archives - with its main family history fair's team, will feature their online catalogue and provide expert advice on the family stories located in the files that fill 100km of shelves at Kew. Visitors also will be able to learn how to get the best out of the Archives' massive catalogue and will have direct access to many other documents.
- A million online wills
- Imperial War Museum - will provide help and advice on researching your military ancestors
- The Society of Genealogists with FREE advice from this National family history society
- The Scottish Genealogy Society and other organizations from Scotland will provide advice and help in researching Scottish ancestry.
All the major national publications will be present including:
- Family History Monthly
- Family Tree Magazine
- Ancestors Magazine
- Your Family Tree
- The Family and Local History Handbook
- other booksellers
Exhibitors from all over the British Isles offering products and services, including:
- Record Offices
- Libraries
- Museums
- Special Collections
- The Napoleonic Wars
- Black Sheep Research
- Major Indexers - Such as Stepping Stones, S&N Genealogy and Seaham Super Index plus many others.
In addition to the free 16-page Fair programme, there will be many free gifts and offers available only on the day of the Fair. Your Family Tree Magazine will be giving away a free 8-generation Ancestral Wall Chart (A1 size).
Some exhibitors will be providing free Internet lookups, and others will be running competitions.
A full list of exhibitors is available at http://www.nationalfamilyhistoryfair.com//exhibitors.htm
To learn more about the National Family History Fair, go to http://www.nationalfamilyhistoryfair.com//home.html
