The Guild of One Name Studies has sent me a press release to publicise their special membership offer, and I think it’s worth having a look at what they have to offer.

The Guild of One-Name Studies is the world’s leading organisation for one-name studies. A one-name study is a project researching facts about a surname and all the people who have held it, as opposed to a particular pedigree (the ancestors of one person) or descendancy (the descendants of one person or couple).  The Guild is a charitable organisation dedicated to promoting the public understanding of one-name studies and the preservation and accessibility of the resultant information. Founded in 1979, the Guild now has over 2,300 members spread across the world, studying over 7,800 individual surnames.

Check them out and see if there is a study for your surnames of interest. If there is you would do well to contact the member concerned. But if there isn’t, why not consider starting your own? If you have already collected a lot of records for your surname that aren’t necessarily related to you they may be of interest to others.

The Guild of One-Name Studies has a freephone/toll free helpdesk for members of the public in the UK, North American and Australia to call the Guild to find out:

• more about undertaking a One-Name Study
• the benefits of joining the Guild of One-Name Studies, and
• the assistance members of the Guild can provide to anyone researching their family history on any of the 7,800 plus names currently being researched

In Australia the toll-free number in Australia is 1800 305 184

What’s more, if you join during the week of Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London you will receive special benefits:

The Guild of One-Name Studies is to offer a special extended membership to new joiners at the forthcoming Who Do You Think You Are? Live show being held in the UK at the Olympia, London on Friday 25th to Sunday 27th February 2011.

Normally membership of the Guild costs £15.00 and covers a period of up to a year with renewal on 1st November 2011.  This special extended membership will cost £20.00 but will include a full year’s extra membership, renewal not being due until 1st November 2012.  The aim of the scheme is to attract more new members and to encourage these members to stay with the Guild for longer and to appreciate and utilise the various benefits available to members.

For people who cannot attend the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, the special offer of an extended membership will be made available to them for a week from when the show opens on Friday 25th February 2011 on the Guild website at:

www.one-name.org/specialoffer.html

This extended membership option has been introduced following the completion of an internal membership retention survey which identified why existing members joined the Guild, their knowledge and use of Guild services and facilities and the reasons why members failed to renew their membership.

If this offer of an extended membership proves successful it could be introduced on a wider basis.

Details of all the Guild facilities can be found at:

www.one-name.org/guildsvces.html

I’ve received a response to my previous post about the fire that destroyed the premises and resources of the Inverell Family History Group from the President, Ann Hodgens:

Dear Carole,
Thanks for publishing the story about Inverell District Family History Group and the big fire which destroyed our library. We would like everyone to know that the group will be continuing and we have new premises already. The group did have a very small amount of material off site, however the wonderful family history and history world have overwhelmed us with their generous offers of duplicate books etc. At present we are unable to accept any offers of research material, however people can register anything they would like to offer, relevant to the wider Inverell district, by downloading from our website http://www.inverellfamilyhistory.org.au a donation form and after completing this, returning the form to us at PO Box 367, Inverell 2360. We we are able to accdept material we will then contact donors.
The wonderful fire brigade people rescued some of our family files containing family trees, copies of BDM certificates, etc and our priority is to salvage what we can of these. We believe we may salvage as many of 200 of these family files which is fantastic.
Our insurance company have authorised an immediate payment to provide us with computer, photocopier, desk, table, filing cabinet, bookshelf and chairs – these are now in place in our new premises at 129 Otho Street, opposite the centrelink offices. Members have generously donated items such as, paper, pens, pencils, stapler, magnifying glass, waste paper bins and even toilet paper!! We hope to be open again next week.
We would like to thank everyone for their amazing and very welcome support through this disaster.
regards
Ann Hodgens
President

Please contact the group directly through their website if you can offer them any assistance.

I have been forwarded the following email regarding the fire in Inverell:

Due to the number of phone calls and E-mails that we have received we have decided to let everyone know that the Inverell Genealogical & Historical Society Inc is not the one named in the news about a Historic Building being gutted by fire in Inverell.

The fire was in the Byron Arcade building which housed a Butchers shop, A Legacy opportunity Shop,  A crystal spiritual shop, a Café And a youth assistance centre as well 2 or 3 other shops on the ground floor and the Inverell District Family History Group shop front and research room. The shops were completely gutted as well as the 14 apartments on the first floor which because smoke alarms were fitted the tenants all escaped without any injuries. All the contents of the shops and apartments were completely destroyed and all that stands now is the façade and some of the other brick walls. An engineers inspection is being carried out to see if the building can be resurrected, we hope this is the case.

The Inverell District Family History Group has lost all their archives, books, family histories as well as various other records on paper and film as well as their CD collection, which are almost all irreplaceable. The computer photo copier and cabinets can be replaced but the records are all lost

You can go to www.inverelltimes.com.au to see the full headline story in the Inverell Times of Tuesday January 26^th.

We will add a story in our February E-History Newsletter, and hope by then to know if the building is to be demolished or not.

Editor:  Inverell Genealogical & Historical Society Inc

World Vital Records is one of the more recent entrants to the online genealogy records market, and has access to a lot of material from Archive CD Books and the Queensland Family History Society.

Their World Collection, which includes Australia, New Zealand and the UK, is normally double this price, and so this is great value. If you are already a subscriber the year will be added on the end. I am now a subscriber until March 2011!

This is a real bargain. It cost me $72.77 in Australian dollars this morning.

The free access announced on the 11th August has proved so popular that they are extending the deadline to the 18th August.

I already have an account with them which I use frequently. Government Gazettes, Police Gazettes, directories, and a lot of content from Queensland FHS make this worthwhile to have a good hard look around!

The ad seems to have miraculously changed, but the half-price offer for the World collection is a great deal, especially if you have, as I do, ancestors from the States as well as Australia and New Zealand.