Hello Here are the final details for our Petrie Family Gathering in the Marryat Hall Dundee on Saturday 11 August starting at 10.00 am. If you have indicated that you will be displaying your Petrie Family Tree and memorabilia, please meet in the Marryat Hall, City Square around 10.00 am to set up your Family Displays, have a blether and be ready for the Petrie public at 12 noon. A table or part table as you wish, will be available for your family information and display. We are not permitted to attach anything to the walls of the Hall, but the Hall staff are trying to obtain Vertical Display Boards for our use, however these may be limited in number and are not guaranteed to be available. So I would suggest best to devise your display to be mainly shown on table top. You can of course hang items/notices/family tree's etc from the tables. It would be very much appreciated if you could try to make your display as interesting and eye catching as possible, some suggestions would be, using photographs with descriptions of the people or place etc, or you could highlight as a small poster your main interest Petrie families on a separate sheet. Some of you might hold a variety of records on your particular Petrie relatives, copies of these would be most interesting.....along with any other memorabilia you might have that would have a family or historical interest. A cheap & cheerful method of producing a "stand up display" of your Information Sheets or wee posters, is to sellotape them to the front of old greeting cards... it works a treat !!! :o) Please do not feel you have to "stand by" your table throughout the day, (unless you want to) as we want you to enjoy the Gathering and other displays too !!! :o) Just keep an eye out for anyone obviously engrossed in your display.....they might be a long lost relative !!! Do remember though that if you have anything of particular value to you on your display, always remove it before leaving your table unattended. We will also have a Petrie Information Table, which folks can use to look up a variety of Petrie information, including transcriptions of Petrie bmd certificates, as well as Gravestone Inscriptions & pics, Census Details, etc etc. I am bringing along a couple of PC's and Jim Petrie (Isle of Wight) is bringing his laptop, so we can have access to the Petrie of Scotland database and some of the information downloaded from our website, these will initially be manned by Jim Petrie, Wilma Gall & Helen Peacock. But they will likely need some willing volunteers to take over from them at some point during the Gathering, so please feel free to offer on the day. If you have anything at all that you feel would be useful to add to the Petrie Information table, please do bring it along. Stephen Baker has devised a "Petrie Visitors Info Form" which the Petrie public may complete if they wish to pass on details of their Petrie connections, these forms will be made available as they enter the Gathering, so even if they do not find a Petrie connection on the day, we can enter them into the database and may be able to pass on further family details and connections at a later date. It would be helpful if you could wear your Name Badges at the Gathering too.... for our own benefit and for the public so they can spot group members amongst those at the Gathering. Hazel will be manning the Ticket Table between 10 am & 12 noon, for those of you who have to collect & purchase their Ceilidh Tickets and Bus Tickets. We would really like to have this task completed before the public join us....else they might all want a ticket too !!!! :o) Also joining us with their own displays are the Dundee City Archives Dept. They will be setting up a small display in the Hall but since they are located on Shore Terrace which is directly behind the Marryat Hall, they also plan to offer a Guided Tour of their archives to show the vast variety of records they hold..... although not everyone will have a family interest that would be found in the Dundee Archives, the tour will show the type of records and facilities you will find available in Council Archive Departments throughout Scotland. We will also have the Dundee Registrar's Genealogy Unit, with their display of information available from their Genealogy Unit and the Scottish Records Office. They plan to offer demonstrations of how best to find Family History information using the records available in Scotland.... A note of interest Alan Gray one of the Registrar's who is attending to the display...is married to a Petrie !!! :o) Tay Valley Family History Society will also be with us, offering a major selection of their publications for sale on the day or to order for postal delivery, as well as further information on the extensive library, the research facilities and membership benefits available at Tay Valley FHS, in Princes Street, Dundee. Dundee & Angus Tourist Board will also have a display stand available with a large selection of brochures of the various attractions available in the area. Cafe Services will be supplied by Marryat Hall, and will be available from 11.00 am. and throughout the day. The Gathering will finish at 4.30 pm. Entrance to the Gathering will be free of charge, and I suspect that we might also create an interest for many who may not have Petrie connections, but do want to know more about Family History....where possible please accommodate them with further advice, or point them in the direction of the Genealogy Unit Display, Dundee Archives Table or the Tay Valley folks. I am also very pleased to let you know that our Gathering Event has been successful in securing a Grant of £250 to cover "Essential Conference Costs" from the City of Dundee & Angus Convention Bureau. This will cover the cost of the Marryat Hall Hire + 1 steward , our Liability Insurance, Data Protection Act Fee and other incidental expenses. How to get there.... The Marryat Hall is also located in the City Square, Dundee ... for a good on-line map showing the location Use http://uk5.multimap.com/ enter the full address : Marryat Hall, City Square, Dundee and use a scale of 5000 ...you can then print it out for reference. Saturday is a very busy day in Dundee City Centre, unfortunately we will NOT have the Underground Parking Facilities in Crichton Street, that we enjoyed at the Civic Reception A good and relatively cheap car park is available at the New Overgate Shopping Mall which is located directly across the road from the City Square. You can park in the New Overgate car park, and take the lifts onto the 1st floor of the Shopping Mall, turn left and straight ahead for the outside doors. You'll spot the City Square across the road. The location of the Overgate car park entrance is at the junction between Barrack Street, Willison Street and Bank Street, you will find this on the above map too. Well I think that's most things covered for the Petrie Gathering in the Marryat Hall, should anyone have any further queries please just drop me a line..... Oh dear it turned into a "blether" ....didn't it !!!! Woops !!! :o) Cheerio the noo Norma