All The next meeting of the Oxfordshire Family History Society will take place on Monday 28 February 2011 at the usual venue at Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1AB. Doors open at 7.15pm for coffee, help with both genealogy and computers, and the bookstall, exchange journals and the library. The subject of the talk is "Worship, Weird & Wonderful – Religious Sects from the 17th to 20th Century", which will be presented by Alec Tritton. Prior to 1837, many of the records used by family historians are extant because of the record keeping of firstly the established church and government records relating to taxation and legal matters. There were though many people who preferred not to worship in mainstream religion and were often persecuted as a result. Some such as the Quakers kept meticulous records, some such as the Shakers emigrated but for many others there are few surviving records. There are also many sects that exist outside of mainstream non-conformity. The lecture will look at some of the more colourful cults, some of which are still extant. At the end of the lecture, the audience will be aware of a number of these sects that flourished all over the English speaking world, why and how such sects came about and what, if any, records exist, together with an introduction to the old dissenters from the Civil War. Our speaker Alec Tritton has been a family historian for over 25 years specializing in burial grounds, graveyards, grave robbery and obscure nonconformist sects. From 2002 to 2006, he was Chairman of the Federation of Family History Societies and for the previous three years, the Chairman of the Guild of One-Name Studies. He has also been Vice-Chairman of the Society of Genealogists and is currently on the Lectures Working Group and Chairman of the Halsted Trust. He maintains the Societies three blogging websites as well as their mailing lists and professional research directory. All members, potential members and their guests are welcome. For directions as to how to get to the Exeter Hall, please see :- _http://www.ofhs.org.uk/ExeterHall.html_ (http://www.ofhs.org.uk/ExeterHall.html) For a list of future OFHS meetings, please see :- _http://www.ofhs.org.uk/meetings.html_ (http://www.ofhs.org.uk/meetings.html) Any queries, please contact me. Paul Gaskell Publicity Officer Oxfordshire Family History Society _www.ofhs.org.uk_ (http://www.ofhs.org.uk/)