Digging deeper into the past at the University of York
June 2010
are very pleased to say that the York Archaeological Trust are bringing their group to us again this year they stay with us from July until September every year - York is renowned fro its archaeological riches and of course draws interest from all walks of life.
Toby Kendall, who oversees the visitors and organises the accommodation told us:
The trainees that use the accommodation are aged from late teens all the way into their 80's.
They come from all parts of the world, New Zealand to just outside York. I think we have had just about every continent apart from the South Pole!
They come to dig for all sorts of reasons including fun, curiosity, university course requirements, interested in doing archaeology at university, night classes, professional skills etc the list is almost endless.
We seem to get a lot of teachers/medical professionals as it seems to draw their curiosity.
The course outlines depend on how long they stay, 1 day to several months, but the big thing that we do is make sure that people learn by actually doing the archaeology. The trainers are really experienced in what they do and just make sure that they deliver the techniques and then try and instil confidence in the trainees - the techniques are relatively simplistic, but digging can be very difficult.
"Another kind of digging in to the past "
We are also pleased to say that we are welcoming back the Yorksgen Group to our self catering accommodation this year, this will be their 8th year staying with us, they stay during July, during which time the visitors can stay for 1 or 2 weeks.
Janice Wood is a local resident and organises the accommodation for the group and she told us:
Yorksgen is an internet mailing list forum, for people with ancestors from Yorkshire. Currently, there are 1,040 members who regularly give and receive research help online. Each year, in July, we have a conference in York. Our visitors come from all over the world. Last year we had people from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Portugal, Canada, USA, Scotland and various parts of England. This year there will be a similar mix. Many of our group have come back year after year, since we started in 2000.
Being able to use the University accommodation is especially good, as it enables us to conveniently use the research facilities at the Borthwick Institute for Historical Research and is also central for travel to all other parts of Yorkshire.
Also particularly good for our group is the kitchen space, which we use as a common room and where local visitors can come in and share their local knowledge with our visitors.
Family History and genealogical research is the fastest growing leisure activity now, due to the popularity of some TV shows and the huge success of websites such as ancestry.co.uk.
