The History (Research) of The Friends' Ambulance Unit The Motor Ambulance Convoys and its Members during WW1. Presenter - Paul Handford MBE The talk looks at the experiences of those individuals who, for conscience and other reasons, chose to serve in the non-combatant Friends’ Ambulance Unit (Quakers) during 1st World War. Todays speaker will explore […]

Note Change of Date due to Rail Strike The Staffordshire Enclosure Award Maps Project Presenter - Richard Totty Richard is Chairman Friends of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archives (FoSSA) which successfully applied for a grant from the Midland Ancestors’ Kemp Legacy Fund. Their proposal was to prepare digital images of Staffordshire Enclosure (or Inclosure) […]

Midland Ancestors – The First 60 Years Presenter - Mike Sharpe For our diamond anniversary lecture, Trustee and Professional Genealogist, Mike Sharpe looks back on the Society’s first sixty years. He tracks the Society’s growth from its formation on a wintery night in 1963, through the boom years of the 1970s and ‘80s; to the […]

Due To Unforeseen Circumstances a Change of Date and Speaker The Birmingham Middlemore Emigration Homes between 1873 and 1954 Stories of the Lost Children. A Presentation by Val Hart. Vals presentation is about the work of the Middlemore Homes in Birmingham who emigrated over 5000 children to Canada and Australia between 1873 and 1954. In the […]

Mobility in Your Family History Presenter - Dr. Mike Haynes Human beings are always restless. Throughout history we have moved in different ways. We can migrate to live in different places. But mobility is something different. It is about our journeys to work, to school, the trips to the shops, our holidays. Mobility takes us […]

Note Change of Date (was 2nd  Sep) due to Rail Strike and new topic Friends of Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane Cemetery Speakers: Volunteers of the Friends The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane Cemetery  who formed in 2004, are a group of volunteers working to preserve, research, inform and promote these important […]

Change of Topic & Presenters, booked speaker being unavailable Birmingham in The Blitz - And Some Families Affected by It. Presenters: Jacqui Fielding and Matt Felkin Do you know who the first person to be killed in the Blitz was? About the Air Raid Precautions? About Morrison and Anderson shelters? Bomb maps and excavation zones? […]

The West Midlands Police Museum: History and Archives Presenter - Corrine Brazier Corrine Brazier Corinne is the Heritage Manager at West Midlands Police Museum, now located at the former Central Custody Block, the Lock-Up, in Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham. Re-opening on 9 April 2022, two years had been spent refurbishing the museum which is spread across three […]

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment 1914-1918 Books and Cartoons Presenter - Paul Jaques and David Vaux   D. C. Harries, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Men from the RWR played a major role on the Western Front in WWI. The regiment lost 11,610 men; six were awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery. Paul and David’s […]

Coffee Morning in the BMI We will be holding a Coffee Morning in the BMI Cafeteria at the BMI. Do please come along and join us. Stay after lunch and take advantage of the society resources in our Family History centre  

Lives and Times on the Birmingham Canal System Mrs. Violet Atkins and daughter Violet, on Butty boat RAVEN, 1952. Image from the BCN Society Archive, Bob May Collection. Presenter - Phil Clayton Phils presentation will cover the past and present on the West Midlands waterways, in particular focussing on the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Our speaker […]

Note Change of Date (was 3rd Feb) due to Rail Strike. For the Sake of the Empire Presenter - Peter Middleton A Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in Witton Cemetery marks the last resting place of a Canadian soldier. He had, in fact, been born only two miles away in Witton Lane, Handsworth. This is […]