An Afternoon of Family History with Sylvia Valentine (UK)

An afternoon of family history with visiting UK genealogist Sylvia Valentine.

Times are approximate.

Researching Workhouse Records in England and Wales 12 noon.

Workhouse records are more than the admission or discharge of a pauper ancestor. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 created a bureaucratic system across England and Wales to manage local poor law unions, and while not all records have survived, those that have frequently name individuals with a connection to the workhouse.

These include suppliers of foodstuffs and clothing, and services such as dentistry. Your ancestor might have been a workhouse employee or one who oversaw daily management. Sylvia explains the records you might be able to find, from absconding parents to apprentice and smallpox vaccination records.

The Dawson Orphans - From the Workhouse to Oxford University 1pm
Starting with a letter discovered in a workhouse letter book, Sylvia set out to research the story of the five Dawson orphans born in the early nineteenth century. This talk shows how a researcher can use a variety of resources to put together a family history, and how she has pieced the Dawson’s story together using more than twenty-five resources. Spoiler alert! Sadly, there are no happy endings for the brothers.

Smallpox Vaccination Records for Family History 2pm
Smallpox vaccination records might seem an unlikely source for family historians but, where they have survived, they might just help you break through that “brick wall”. This presentation discusses the history of smallpox vaccination, resistance to compulsory vaccination, and suggestions for locating any records, primarily within England and Wales.

Speaker biography
Sylvia Valentine is a UK based researcher and has been researching her own family history for almost 40 years. After retiring from a 30-year career working in the charity sector, she became a student of the University of Dundee, and graduated in 2016 with a Master of Letters degree in Family and Local History. She is now a doctoral candidate researching Opposition to Compulsory Smallpox Vaccination in Scotland in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. She owns her own research company, Recover Your Roots, researching particularly in northern England and Scotland.

Her specialist area of interest are the records created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 - and compulsory smallpox vaccination. Sylvia is an Honorary Teaching Fellow of the University of Dundee and delivers their online family history courses. She is also the Doctoral Fellow 2019 for the Centre for Scottish Studies.

She is a Director of the Register of Qualified Genealogists, (RQG) a member of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, (ASGRA) and is an Associate member of the Association and Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA).

Visit her website for more, and check out her Twitter: @historylady2013

This is bound to be a popular afternoon of events, so booking is recommended. To book please phone Research Central on 09 890 2412 or book online.

https://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/pages/event.aspx?eventid=7777

About HeritageTalks:
Interested in history and heritage? Are you interested in family and local history; the historical stories of New Zealand, the Pacific, and beyond? Then why not come along to one of our HeritageTalks - Waha pū-taonga and hear more about both our personal and our shared heritage? Experts in specialised fields deliver these talks and provide insight into our histories.

HeritageTalks take place at least fortnightly, in the Whare Wānanga, Level 2, Central City Library unless otherwise stated. Booking is recommended although not essential.