All The next meeting of the Oxfordshire Family History Society will take place on Monday 27 February 2012 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 "The Wise in Heart Should be Called Prudent – Oxfordshire friendly societies". This will be presented by Shaun Morley. This presentation about friendly societies will explore these nineteenth century organisations that were present in almost every village and in towns. They were local in nature, and a very high proportion of men from the labouring classes belonged to them, meaning many of our ancestors experienced the conviviality they offered, and the sickness insurance they provided. The "red letter" day in village communities was the club day, a celebration for the whole community. The location of extant records of use to family historians will also be discussed. Our speaker, Shaun Morley, is a recently retired senior Police officer with Thames Valley Police who is due to complete his DPhil with the University of Oxford this year. He teaches weekly classes, at summer school and on the MSc programme for the University. He is also the author of "‘Oxfordshire Friendly Societies 1750-1918", which was published last December by the Oxfordshire Record Society. Shaun will be selling copies of this splendid book at the meeting, and it will become available to purchase on our society's bookstall shortly thereafter. 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 For a list of future OFHS meetings, please see :- http://www.ofhs.org.uk/meetings.html Any queries, please contact me. Paul Gaskell Publicity Officer Oxfordshire Family History Society www.ofhs.org.uk