Between 150 and 200 people turned up at the Queensbury Parish Church on 26 April 1997. We were very lucky to get so much local publicity. The Bradford Newspapers entered into it with a will. Lord Tordoff came, bringing his daughters Kate and Francis as well as Mrs Mills his sister. Mrs Mills is of course a noted Tordoff researcher having been investigating for more than 10 years. Jack Tordoff the well known local Garage owner made an unexpected appearance, he is a celebrity and business man - at one time he owned Bradford Football Club. Diane Harpwood whose mother was a Tordoff came. She wrote the book "Tea and Tranquillisers" published by Virago. The late Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples in the Soap Opera "Coronation Street" had a Tordoff mother and one of the Journalists was very interested in that. We had live music provided by Phillip Tordoff who is the Organist at Halifax Parish Church. The Bradford Family History Society had a stall and gathered some new members, as well as being very helpful. One of our speakers, Ken Kenzie is Chair of the BFHS. We were most fortunate to get the services of Elvira Willmott, who had recently retired as Librarian in charge of the Local Studies at Bradford Library. She gave an interesting talk on exploring more unusual local sources for building up knowledge of your ancestors. The last speaker was Bob Holroyd from America. Bob has managed to fit 12 Tordoff Family Trees together and he and his brother Howard were spending time in England doing more research and visiting friends. Both of them were at Low Moor Church for the Sunday Family Service, a good idea, because then you can look at your ancestors grave stones after the service! Rob Alexander very kindly supplied a list of WW1 and WW2 burials, from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This was put to use the same day as we had a Gentleman who had been named for his late uncle who was buried in Burma. It is sometimes possible to visit various cemeteries with the British Legion who arrange trips to the more remote grave yards. It is always possible to just turn up, as an independent traveller would do, but it may be of benefit to travel in a group to learn more about your late ancestors.
A good time seemed to be had by all: is it worth doing again, and if so can you think of a way it might be improved? Most people seem to want a tree feast, so the best thing would be to display the trees and have separate people to answer specific questions. I did find that I was getting bogged down in general questions, that could probably have been answered by anyone who has experience of Family tree research. I wanted to meet my third cousins! I met some of them, and other people made contact with different branches of their own families. If you do consider going to another Tordoff Day it is worth considering visiting the Archives at Canal Road, Bradford and Local Studies in Bradford Central Library, Prince's Way, Bradford. Make a week or a fortnight of it as there is always for more work to do than you ever envisaged!
Best wishes
Ruth Keyworth
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