On November 16th the Brevard Genealogical Society and the Central Brevard Library in Cocoa hosted our first ever Family History Fair. Our theme was, "Solve Your Family Mystery, Explore Your Family History." This free event was attended by over 200 people of all ages, and lots of volunteers in teal shirts, who all appeared to be having a good time!
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| Georgia and Dee at the entrance to the meeting room. |
We literally took over the library for the day! The main hall was filled with tables where we offered demonstrations of four different genealogical software programs, an Ask-An-Expert area and various informational tables from the DAR, SAR, Scottish Society, French-Canadian Society, and many more. Another meeting room was turned into a speaker's hall where we offered visitors the opportunity to attend four different lectures during the day on subjects as wide-ranging as beginning your genealogy, to learning more about the use of DNA in genealogical research. Our staff computer training lab was also put into use offering popular classes on using Family Search and Ancestry.com. Even the library's children's area was decorated for the day and staffed with volunteers who assisted our young attendees with completing artistic family trees, locating ancestor's home countries on maps and globes, and giving tips on interviewing family members.
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| David and grandchildren in the foreground with Mary and an SAR member. |
Obviously an event like this takes a lot of planning and we have Georgia and David Ralston and their wonderful committee to thank for pulling this all together! I would also like to thank all those companies and groups who provided goodies for our gift bags such as Community Educators Credit Union, Tourist Development Council, Cocoa Village Association and the Brevard County Historical Commission.
Hope to see even more of you next year!!
