Society news

We hope to start a new session of Beginners' Classes in mid October. They are open to members as well as non-members. To reserve your place on this course, or to get further information, please contact us at the Research Centre. The classes normally take place on Wednesday evenings, 7pm to 9pm, for six weeks. The course fee is £30, and non-members can take up an optional discounted Annual Membership at the conclusion of the course.

Work is progressing in the Members' Area. We now have name indexes for graveyards in the Angus Glens, Carse of Gowrie, North East Fife and, shortly, the Sidlaws. After logging in, you can access them from the Burial Ground Data page. There is no search facility, but, for each area group and for each graveyard, names are listed alphabetically, making it easier to identify names when there are spelling variations. These indexes come from Monumental Inscriptions published by TVFHS and booklets or CD-ROMs can be purchased from the Bookshop. If you have not yet requested your Members' Area password, then do so using the Website Enquiries subject on the Contact Us form,

The date of the 2012 AGM has been announced - http://www.tayvalleyfhs.org.uk/news/52-tvfhs-2012-agm. This year sees the end of their term of office for several council members and office bearers, resulting in a number of vacancies. Nominations are invited to fill these posts.

Other snippets

I have a vague memory of hearing, as a youngster, about The Mars Training Ship which was moored in the Tay. I always used to think the ship was for "bad boys", but a recent talk I attended not only quashed this theory, but proved to be extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Author Gordon Douglas has written a book and has developed a web site which you might enjoy. "We'll send ye tae the Mars" is the title of the book, and his website can be found at www.sonsofthemars.com.

A recent email to the Centre has alerted us to a new website you might like to check out.

Quoting directly from the information given in the email, "the Bygone Dundee website was launched on 21st March, and is a place to view and share memories of old Dundee. It is packed full of articles, reminiscences and photographs of Dundee over the last century, much of it taken from materials housed in the Local History Library. Be part of this project by submitting your own memories or past experiences".  Visit: http://bygone.dundeecity.gov.uk.

We have all heard of on-line games (and maybe some of you regularly play!), but here is one which is designed to bring your family tree research to life!

At brightsolid (the local company who produce FindMyPast, Genes Reunited, The British Newspaper Archive), they are currently working on a new on-line family tree game. It will allow people with a large amount of family history to share that raw information with other family members in a whole new way - turning your family tree into a grand house where your ancestors live - a house full of historical facts and figures with a wide choice of costumes and décor options to match every detail of your own family story.

In order to make this game as relevant as possible to established family historians, brightsolid would like to talk to you.  If you are interested in helping the game developers out, please either let me know, or contact Robbie Graham direct at brightsolid (send him an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Robbie will follow up with a few questions for you to answer.