The Society held an Open Day in the Alloway Church Halls on Saturday 8th October from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Members of the Committee and ten other local members helped to man the laptop computers, fiche readers, book and M.I. sales stalls, as well as Paddy Mathieson and her team providing tea, coffee and cakes for our visitors. Between 40 and 50 people attended throughout the day. 15 minute introductory talks on "Getting Started" and "Certificates" were given from 11.15 a.m., and from 1.30 p.m., by Andrew Dinwoodie and Sandy Murdoch. The Society's three laptops, manned by Graeme Savage, Andrew Gray, Andrew Dinwoodie and Sheena Harling, plus those of Susan Christie and John Weston, were linked by John in a network connected to the internet which enabled over 100MB of download traffic, mainly from www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, to help about 16 visitors to research their ancestors. The obsolete microfiche proved still of value, with Netta Espie and Sheila Dinwoodie helping to search the pre-1855 records for another 3 visitors.
In attendance were members of Maybole Historical Society with an outstanding display of photographs of "Maybole Past & Present", which attracted a lot of interest, and members of East Ayrshire Family History Society with a display of their publications. In the course of the day our Society sold 6 M.I. booklets and a number of library books deemed surplus to our current requirements, and two new members joined.
Andrew Dinwoodie.
