Trace your family tree at Enterprise Centre

Family trees are a great way to organise and share your discoveries; your online tree can be accessed from anywhere and can be shared with people with similar family interests.

During the past few years internet access to worldwide birth, death and marriage records, passenger and census records have been made available, many for free. Although the knowledge and skill on how to access and search these sites is very limited to the novice genealogist.

Frank Downey, who has over 30 years experience in local history and genealogy, has compiled a series of four one-and-a-half hour tutorials. These will educate the user on how to find web sites and navigate around those sites resulting in alleviating mistakes thus building your own family tree much quicker.

The venue is the IT Suite at Banbridge and District Enterprise Centre, Scarva Road Industrial Estate, Banbridge.

The sessions include individual access to a computer, those who are not computer literate may be accompanied by another person of their choice to operate the computer; Free admission to genealogy website where you will build your own family tree; and instruction on how to access websites, how to search for your family ancestors and when found enter them into your family tree, and then watch it grow.

At the first tutorial it would be ideal to bring basic information regarding your parents and grandparents, ie family name, parish or townland names, dates any birth, marriage and death certificates you may have, photographs or newspaper cuttings as the information from these will be used to form the beginnings of your tree.

Remember it is not vital to have all this information to begin with, but the more detail you can gather the better you will be able to target your research and be more selective when you go online.

The tutorials shall be delivered in the modern IT Suite of the Banbridge District Enterprise Centre, Scarva Road Industrial Estate, Banbridge on Wednesday 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th of February 2013 from 7.30-9pm. The cost £40.

Booking is essential as spaces are limited. Payment and the completion of an application form - this is important as information from this form is used to set up your genealogy website - can be done at the reception of the Enterprise Centre, telephone 028 406 62260; email: [email protected].

Application forms and fee must be received by Friday January 18 and forms are also available to download from www. bdelonline.com.