BUDDING genealogists were given a helping hand in putting together the branches of their family trees at a family history day near Lacock.

Following an increased interest in personal ancestry over the past few years, partly attributed to television shows such as the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? a series of workshops, talks and displays were held at Lackham House on Monday.

Organised by the Wiltshire Family History Society in conjunction with Lackham Museum of Agriculture and Rural Life Trust, the event attracted both beginners and established family historians from across the county.

After a fairly slow start, more people started coming through the doors, and the talks and advice workshops began to fill with enthusiasts.

Diana Grout, general secretary of the Wiltshire Family History Society, said: "There has certainly been a big increase in interest for people wanting to research their own family histories, and the TV programs have played a part in that.

"Although it is probably mainly older people who really get into researching their families, just because they have more time when they are retired, it is something that people of all ages have been interested in for many years."

Joan and George Crew, from Monkton Park, Chippenham, were just one of the couples who attended the event.

Mrs Crew, 79, said: "We've got a friend who is very much into researching her family history and my sister and my daughter have been doing it as well.

"We thought we'd come along today just to find out a bit more about it all, and from what we've seen so far it looks very good.

"Hopefully we'll be able to pass on some tips to help the others from what we find out today."

Mr Crew, 81, added: "It is very useful for the people of this area to be able to come along to something like this because I'm sure it will help them a lot. I think it's very, very good."

For beginners in genealogy, the history day gave hints and tips on how to get started and where to start looking for records of ancestors, while for the more experienced enthusiasts advice was on hand for if they had got so far back then are struggling to go further.

Jerry King, chairman of the Wiltshire Family History Society said: "We were very pleased to have been able to do the history day at Lackham.

"The idea to hold it came from Andrew Davies (curator at Lackham's Museum of Agriculture and Rural Life) and he invited us to set it up here, which was very good because of Wiltshire's links with agriculture and because a lot of people's ancestors in this area were agricultural labourers."