One evening in February 1964 a group of workers from the Avro aircraft factory in Chadderton got together at the Gardeners Arms in Moston to share their interest in family history. A society emerged from this first meeting, which nearly six decades later has an international membership, and is one of the largest and most active family history societies in the United Kingdom.
Forty Years with Family History was published on our 40th anniversary and tells more about the society's history.
Photo: Avro Lancaster ‘parked’ outside Manchester Town Hall in September 2018 as part of the ‘RAF 100 Appeal’.
We help both members and non-members to become better family historians. We help members by providing access to a wealth of online information and our Member Forum enables members to share their knowledge and experience. We have specialist knowledge of resources for the Greater Manchester area but do our best to provide support wherever a member's research takes them.
Non-members benefit from our Helpdesk at Manchester Central Library. This is a free drop-in service with a team of experts available every weekday to answer family history questions.
Not every helpful resource is available on public or commercial web sites. Throughout our history we have transcribed and indexed local records and made these available to our members. A good example is our database of over 600,000 names which appear on more than 160,000 graveyard memorials (many now long since disappeared) in and around Manchester. We have indexed admission records for important institutions including the Prestwich Asylum, Henshaw's Asylum for the Blind and The Royal Manchester Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. But these are just highlights of over 200 data sets which can be found in our member only area. And the work goes on! There are always projects in progress and more data for members as a result.
