General Chat

Was anybody like me and a few others left disappointed by this years show. I was sat having a cup of tea over hearing a couple who had bought tickets for yesterday and today, they had seen everything they wanted to see within their first day. I could not see Genes at all and asked many people. I only went for the one day, having been to London for 3 previous shows and spending 2 days..

I am not surprised that Genes was not there ........


They were not there last year, the few staff they have left were co-opted to work on the FMP 1939 Register stand then.

Now there are even fewer staff working for GR .............. they probably think it wasn't worthwhile.

This site is going down terribly compared with what it used to be

Once you've been a couple of times there is less to do. I found the last Olympia show very quiet and by then I was only interested in the FHS stalls in the hope they had something new.

I did have a cheap ticket for Birmingham this year but couldn't go as I had a bad ankle and didn't fancy being on it al day. I also needed to work out how long I would be there so I could book seats on the train. In the end, with a bad foot and knowing I would have to fight for my seat I didn't bother.

Genes was probably tucked away but part of the FMP stand. Estelle said she was attending and would have been pleased to swap her FMP hat with the GR one. When I and others met her at the Olympia shows, she said she enjoyed putting faces to board names.

Has FH passed it's peak? With so much more available on the internet, there's less interest in attending 'Fayres'. The first time someone goes, its like being a child in a sweet shop. After that, there's rarely something new.

I went to the show and for me this was the first time. I enjoyed it.There wasn't enough time to cover all I would have like but that was partly because I had to do a stint on a stand and I didn't do my homework before going. There were lots of talks, I would have liked to have had the time to listen.

Often the thought that FH has passed it's peak is mentioned in our Society but when we hold local 'small' fairs it seems amazing to us that there are groups of individuals who don't know about our Society or the facilities available on the doorstep.

We started running Courses again, just to cover basic research, and most join our Society after the course finishes. I find people do use the internet a lot but aren't aware of basic research when we talk face to face. Of course there are the usual ones who take a complete family off someone else's tree and then say the Family History has been done. :-)

I was disappointed last year so I didnt go this year.