The society’s annual open day (including its AGM) is organised by each of its local groups in turn. In 2018 the East Dorset Group hosted a very successful open day in Wimborne
Like many other family history societies, the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society (SDFHS) was founded in the mid-1970s. The group was formed after several likeminded people first came together to record gravestones and other monumental inscriptions in local cemeteries, and to transcribe parish registers. Most lived in the area around Sherborne, in Dorset, and Yeovil, only five miles away, but in Somerset. Since the two counties have always had strong links, when the society was launched at Yeovil in September 1975, it was a natural step to include both counties in the name.
From the start the SDFHS aimed to be as inclusive as possible. As our first president said in the very first issue of our journal The Greenwood Tree: ‘It should embrace all who are interested in their Somerset or Dorset ancestry, wherever they now live, and all those having the good fortune to live in either county who are interested in family history, no matter where their roots may be.’ The geographical spread and the range of genealogical interests of our worldwide membership of around 1,500 still reflect this diversity.