Member Article

Jackie Helps Family History Society

A society that relies on its digital and virtual outreach and capacity following the changes that came about during the pandemic has been assisted by one of the leading web developers from North Tyneside.

Jackie Latham, of Jackdaw Web Design, helped out Cleveland Family History Society by revamping and modernising the organisations website. She has also ensured that it is fully accessible, and within the recent guidelines for accessibility.

Introduced to each other via a former colleague, Frances Wilson of the society has found Jackie excellent to work with. She said:

“Jackie has not only done everything we agreed, she has gone above and beyond helping us with lots of digital things such as PayPal and moving the online shop to GenFair. She has also helped me upskill my own offering to the society, in her personable and lovely way. When some of our committee were ready to give up on our online document offering, Jackie saved the day and it has helped us massively with our sales.”

Cleveland Family History Society was set up in 1980 to provide a service for family historians and they cover the old county of Cleveland and part of County Durham and North Yorkshire. They offer assistance and advice to help find ancestors, and have thousands of members whom they give free access to lots of resources. Jackie said: “The volume of documents the Society had meant that they needed a web specialist who is also very patient. I was delighted to help them, and hope they love the new website, the new GenFair shop and the easier to use resource section which is bursting with information.”

The society’s volunteers have transcribed millions of records from original sources of ancestors being born, baptised, married, dying and their burials. A unique source for family and local historians is their large collection of monumental inscriptions taken from gravestones found in over 290 local churchyards and cemeteries in northern Yorkshire and southern Durham.

There is also a zoom programme of speaker events for members and a Facebook page for those looking for information on ancestors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .