Actor, author and historian Sir Tony Robinson is coming to Liverpool for an exclusive family history event to mark the WWI centenary.
Hosted by Ancestry.co.uk and in association with the Liverpool Record Office, the evening event will be held at the redeveloped and award-winning Liverpool Central Library on William Brown Street, from 6:00pm – 9:30pm on Thursday 4 September 2014.
Sir Tony will discuss the importance of discovering WWI ancestors and talk about his experience learning of his own family links to the Great War. He will also be taking part in an extended Q&A session following his speech, when guests can quiz the TV star.
Sir Tony Robinson will visit the nearby Liverpool Cenotaph Memorial before the event before viewing the Liverpool Record Office exhibition on Liverpool’s Home Front in WWI in the magnificent surroundings of the Edwardian Hornby Library, one of the key historic areas of the building.
In addition, the evening will feature talks from Roger Hull, Research Officer at Liverpool Record Office in Central Library, and Brad Argent from Ancestry.co.uk, who will explain how to get started with family history, including how best to make use of the more than 27,000 WWI Liverpool soldiers’ records on Ancestry.co.uk.
Places are limited, and in order to attend you must register here by midnight on 14 August. Successful applicants will be selected at random and notified by email.
Sir Tony Robinson said: “One of the oldest infantry regiments of the British Army, The King’s Regiment Liverpool lost over 15,000 men in WWI. With the centenary taking place this year now is the perfect time to discover more about our WWI ancestors and ensure their stories are never forgotten.”
Brad Argent, family history expert from Ancestry.co.uk, said: “Liverpool and the surrounding area has a rich and varied history not least in terms of the amount of young men who answered the nation’s call and went off to fight in WWI, with many of them never coming home. ”
Roger Hull of Liverpool Record Office at Central Library added: “Liverpool Record Office has extensive collections of archives from the 13th century onwards and they are being added to all of the time. These are now preserved in ideal conditions in the new state of the art repository, which is a key part of the highly popular and award-winning Central Library & Archive. Visitor facilities have been increased and are also of very high quality and there is great interest in and scope for researching all aspects of your family history.”
