ABOUT THE 
ASSOCIATION 

ITS MEMBERS 
& AFFILIATES 

ATTENDANCES 
AT EVENTS 

RESEARCHING 
WELSH SOURCES 
(to follow) 

1911 CENSUS : 
TRANSLATIONS 
FROM WELSH 

RELATIVE 
LINKS WEBSITE 
CYMRAEG 
(to follow) 

ITS AIMS AND 
OBJECTIVES 
ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION:
HOW IT IS ACHIEVING ITS AIMS

HOW IT IS 
ACHIEVING 
ITS AIMS 

  • Whilst the Association is an independent organisation in its own right and with its own constitution, it has adopted the role of a regional grouping within the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS), to which all of its member societies belong.
     
  • A representative of the Asssociation gave evidence on behalf of the FFHS to the Parliamentary Select Committee considering the digitisation and transcription of birth, marriage and death certificates. The concerns about inaccuracies in transcribing Welsh personal names and place names, if the work was carried out in Asia, were noted in the Committee's Final Report.
     
  • The Association's half-yearly meetings act as a forum for the exchange of ideas between member societies, and this can lead to the spread of best practices. It can also lead to the promotion of joint actions in areas of common benefit, which may be beyond the resources of a single society.
     
  • A past example of co-operation between its member societies was the joint hosting of a British Family History Conference, held some years ago at Aberystwyth. More recently, the Association has manned a "Wales" stand at some of the major Family History fairs and events, to give out leaflets and information about those of its member societies that are unable to man an individual Society stand.
     
  • The first edition of the book "Welsh Family History - A Guide to Research" was jointly produced through the Association, as was the more recent book "Researching Family History in Wales".
     
  • The Association is represented on the British Genealogical Record Users Committee and The National Archives (TNA) Online User Advisory Panel As a result of its membership of the latter, the Association was able to be involved with TNA's project to make the 1911 Census online, and provided feedback on the pilot site prior to it being 'beta tested'.
     
  • The Association's Chairman gave PowerPoint presentations on Family History Research in Wales at the Who Do You Think You Are? - Live Show at Olympia in 2009 to a combined total of over 350 people and repeated the presentation in 2010. The Association's representative from the National Library of Wales has managed an NLW Welsh Help Desk at that Show since it began in 2007.
     
  • The most recent example of the Association's work on behalf of its member societies and family history researchers in Wales is its liaison with findmypast.co.uk on the development of the 1911 Census website. It has worked closely with the company to provide translation tables and guidance to users to help interpret the Welsh language versions of the Household Schedules (about 130,000 out of more than a million schedules for Wales). Please see the link button at the top of this page for similar guidance. When all the counties in Wales had been made available on the site, the 1911 Census Blog kindly acknowledged the Association's collaboration:
    "Our profound thanks to Geoff Riggs and the members of the Association of Family History Societies of Wales who have developed and made this information available - we are very grateful for your time and effort, and are sure that users of the site will appreciate your contribution hugely."
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