BPMA at Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE

The BPMA had a stand at the recent Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE event at Kensington Olympia. The event was held on the weekend of the first Bank Holiday in May. This national family history show builds on the popularity of the television show of the same name. It attracted in the region of 12,000 visitors and was therefore an unmissable opportunity to reach a wider audience.

Our stand made the most of this opportunity to tell potential users about our resources. Many of the visitors were initially curious about what we could offer family historians. We explained that we held staff records of postal employees such as pensions and gratuities, appointment indexes and minute books. As the Post Office was one of the largest employers in the country most people find a postal ancestor somewhere in their family.

In addition to individual staff employment records we also have a range of records which can give an insight into what it was like to work for the  Post Office in the past. These records include staff magazines, records relating to staff welfare, training and working conditions, and union publications (you can find more information about family history research in our Visiting section).

Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE aimed to attract a wide audience and included a Military History Show and an Archaeology show. This also gave us an opportunity to talk to visitors about our other records. These include records relating to the Post Office Rifles and records relating to the postal services in wartime.

The show was also a good opportunity to meet other stand holders. These included various family history societies, software suppliers and other archive organisations. By making these groups aware of our existence and the records we hold we hope to reach an even greater number of potential users.

All-in-all it was a very successful (if rather tiring) weekend. We will have a stand again at next year’s event BPMA at Who Do You Think You Are? which takes place 28 February - 1 March 2009 and hope to meet even more potential users there.

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