Federation Of Family History Societies

Don Steel, a founder of the FFHS, dies

Many of you will be saddened to learn of the death after a long illness on Monday 7 April of Don Steel. Don was instrumental in the founding of a number of family history societies, but also, perhaps most importantly, the founding of the Federation of Family History Societies in 1974.

As an accomplished author Don was a driving force behind the early volumes of the Society of Genalogists ‘National Index of Parish Registers’ series. Later as education officer for BBC South West, Don was the pioneer behind the 1979 BBC TV series ‘Family History’, narrated by Gordon Honeycombe and based on Gordon’s own researches. The following year Don wrote ‘Discovering Your Family History’ to accompany the series.

For over 40 years Don Steel made a major contribution to the family history world as a speaker and author. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists.