Family History

Convenor: Debra Charnley

To contact Debra, please email salfordu3a@gmail.com marking the subject line of your email ‘FAO: Debra Charnley‘.


Venue and time/date: We meet in Community Room 3 at Eccles Gateway on the third Tuesday of the month from 10:30-12:30.

There is a small charge (£2.50 per person) for each session to cover the cost of room hire and refreshments.

Our members are keen family historians, each of whom is working on building out their own family tree and collecting the stories that surround it. We meet once a month to help each other research ancestors, overcome brick walls, and explore new resources, tools and approaches. The group is suitable for all levels from beginners to the more experienced. We are currently welcoming new members.

We do not offer any form of taught course but aim to learn from the shared experience and expertise of our members. Our meetings normally address a specific subject in the first half, followed by an informal session where we help each other with our own family research tasks and challenges.

In 2023, we are planning to explore different resources that will help us to reach back into the 18th and early 19th century i.e. before the advent of civil registration and census-taking.

Programme 2023

DateTitleSpeaker/Leader
17 JanMaps and how they can help your family story unfoldSusan Browning/Debra Charnley
21 FebFilling the gap between censuses: electoral rolls and poll booksDebra Charnley
21 MarUsing online newspaper archivesDavid Jenkins
18 AprGravestones and memorial inscriptionsHelen Wiles
16 MayGuided tour of Weaste cemetery.
Tour will start at 2pm – further details to follow
Pete Kilvert (Friends of Salford Cemeteries Trust)
20 JunNon-conformist recordsFiona Ellis
18 Jul
15 Aug
19 Sep
17 Oct
21 Nov
12 Dec*
*Second Tuesday of the month

Programme 2022

You may also be interested in:

We were pleased to have a display at the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society fair held at Central Library in March 2022. We shared short case histories around some of our more interesting ancestors which you can see by clicking on these links:

If you are ready to get started with some family history research then you might like to look at the information sheets produced by Stephen Dyer, U3A Genealogy Advisor, which can be found by clicking here.