Shropshire Family History Society Tue, 16/10/2012 - 19:00 Venue - The Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury SY2 6ND Subject - "Caribbean Family History Research in the UK and its Growth" Speaker - Carlston Walters "The lead speaker will be myself - Carlston Walters, (others may be involved on the night - to be clarified.) I was working as a secondary school teacher at the time that I was invited to lead/teach one of the 10 week beginner's classes initiated by Solihull Library/College on 'Caribbean Family History' over the academic year Sep 2006 to May/June 2007. I was not really Genealogy/Family History trained, though I had exposure to it, so had to learn it and teach it at the same time. This engaged my interest over the time I taught. >From these classes a group evolved - the Caribbean Family History Group - Solihull & Birmingham. (Initially just Solihull to indicate where we operated from) which involved myself, some of the students from both sets of classes taught (a set that I taught and another set taught by David Hayes - he is responsible for the LDS Sutton Coldfield Family History Centre.) and other individuals who linked up with us in due course. The group met on a bi-monthly basis from 2008 where we had meetings to share what we had learned, listened to speakers, sought to develop etc.. In the intervening months and at other times, those of us that could, would go down to London - to the LDS Family History Centre to view the microfilm records of the Caribbean islands, that they held there (now at National Archives). This proceeded until early 2010, where we decided as a group to put on an exhibition of Caribbean Family History as part of Black History Month. With the great help of Solihull Library staff (especially the able and gifted Tracey Williams) we put on that exhibition with enjoyment and success - getting both radio and a some TV coverage in the process. We repeated/updated this again in October 2011 but in the meantime we also took the exhibition to Nottingham Library and were sought, to be involved in Who Do You Think You Are Live - 2011, as an operating Caribbean Family History Group after Ainsley Harriott was invited back to the event. The group then became officially organised as a constituted group in June 2011 and are due to have our first AGM in April this year. We wanted to be back at Who Do You Think You Are 2012 after the experience in 2011 where we learnt just how relevant Caribbean Family History research is to both Afro Caribbeans and Europeans with ancestry that lived there for a while. We achieved this and once again had a good experience, which we hope to repeat in 2013" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Non-members are welcome to attend for a £2 charge.