Saturday 9th June and Saturday 13th October 10.30am-1pm
Tickets: Adults £16
An Intermediate Practical Half-Day Workshop at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (Portsmouth Historic Dockyard)
With a vast number of TV programmes, websites and magazines specialising in genealogy it is no surprise that more and more people are intrigued by their ancestry. With that in mind, the National Museum of the Royal Navy is offering visitors the opportunity to learn how to interpret information from Naval service certificates and discover what archive resources are available at practical half-day workshops in June.
Continuous service for naval ratings was introduced from 1853 to encourage ratings to stay in the Royal Navy as a career and maintain a trained force in return for longer term service benefits. This workshop aims to give participants an overview to the information contained on a naval ratings continuous service certificate, plus an indication of the meaning of standard abbreviations.
Organiser Allison Wareham – Librarian at the National Museum of the Royal Navy explains: “Finding out about naval ancestors is all part of the trend for family history and we are well placed to help out. Many family historians with a naval ancestor have the certificate of service and they can provide a great deal of information about the personal background of the rating and his time in naval service, but it can be a complex document to interpret. Following on from last year’s successful workshops, which showed how to locate service records of naval ancestors, the library staff have researched and devised a follow-on workshop to interpret the information held using a real case study sent in from a remote enquiry. The workshop also gives a chance to use the museum library’s facilities exclusively on a Saturday to undertake research on their own ancestor’s certificates with the staff on hand to advise and point them to the right sources”.
Participants are required to have a copy of their ancestor’s service certificate prior to the workshop.
OUTLINE OF WORKSHOP (Timings are approx.)
10.30am - Welcome, introductions
10.40am – The Naval Service Certificate: what information is there?
A general introduction to the historical development and layout of the certificate, what information was recorded and the standard abbreviations used. A case study will be examined as part of this illustrated talk.
11.20am – Independent research
Exclusive use of the Museum library’s resources and facilities with staff on hand to assist in finding out more about their recorded service. Internet facilities to assist participants will be available.
1pm – Workshop ends
All participants will receive an information pack with essential information for interpreting the data contained on the certificate. Light refreshments will also be on hand.
Please note this is a ticketed event with limited spaces and booking is essential (indicating preferred date).
In the event of oversubscription, the NMRN will try and offer an alternative date or maintain a waiting list for further workshops to become available.
For further event details contact 023 9272 3795 or email library@nmrn.org.uk
