As many of you will know, the National Family History Fair is once again being held, on Saturday September 12th (ie, as I write, "tomorrow"), in Gateshead Stadium. I recommend it as a very convenient place to make contact with just about everybody and every organisation active in family history on a national or a regional scale. All the local (Northumberland and Co Durham, Tyne & Wear etc) county record offices and major reference libraries will have tables, as will organisations such as the NDFHS, the SoG, Ancestry, TNA etc and a good selection of local societies from all over the country. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss your problems with other, knowledgeable, people, and to purchase the latest publications in all sorts of media. Yes, there is a small entrance fee (the size of which I shall not mention) but I am certain any family historian would think it money well spent. The Fair is open from 10.00am to 4.00pm. I, for one, will be there for most of that time, and at lunch-time, rather than queue for the inadequate in-house cafe, I will probably be to be found in the Ship Inn (which I also recommend) a 5-minute walk directly north of the stadium, on the banks of the Tyne, which has an extensive food menu. I'd be very happy to meet any subscriber to this list. Geoff Nicholson