Event | Findmypast Live x PHM

Heritage Open Days are teaming up with leading family history website Findmypast for the 2026 festival theme Everyday Histories through a live museum experience.  From factories and kitchens to dockyards and gardens, these are the stories that shaped everyday life across England.

With billions of historical records and detail-packed newspaper archives from every corner of England, Findmypast is the perfect resource to learn about family and local history.

Journey through your family history with the Findmypast and PHM teams and discover more about your genealogy through a series of fascinating talks.

Suitable for all ages (under 16s must have an accompanying adult).

• Drop in event, booking preferred:

Book your tickets

• Talks are available on a first come first served basis.
• Two of the talks include British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation (details below).  If you have any other access needs please contact access@phm.org.uk or 0161 838 9190.
• Take a break for brunch, lunch or an afternoon pick me up in PHM’s café Gather.  A picnic area is also available for those bringing their own food and drink.

Programme of drop in talks:

Find your past: How local history brings family stories to life
10.30am – 11.15am & 2.00pm – 2.45pm*
Jen Baldwin, Findmypast Genealogist
Discover how the places your ancestors lived can help you reveal their stories.  With illuminating Manchester examples, this engaging introduction to family and local history reveals how records like censuses, parish registers, and newspapers bring everyday histories into focus.
*The 2.00pm – 2.45pm talk includes British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation.

The Peterloo Massacre: Remembering everyday local heroes
11.30am – 12.15pm* & 3.00pm – 3.45pm
Jen Baldwin, Findmypast Genealogist, Jenny Mabbott, PHM Head of Collections & Engagement, and Eleanor Whitehead, PHM Collections Manager
Uncover the powerful human story behind what happened at Peterloo, where 60,000 ordinary people gathered in Manchester on 16 August 1819 to demand a voice – and paid a devastating price. Through the eyes of one working class weaver, the voices preserved in records and the artefacts in the museum’s collection, discover how hope, protest, and power collided on that fateful day.
*The 11.30am – 12.15pm talk includes British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation.

Votes for Women: Discovering the Manchester suffragette banner
12.30pm – 1.15pm & 4.00pm – 4.45pm
Helen Antrobus, National Trust Assistant National Curator (Social History), Jen Baldwin, Findmypast Genealogist and Jenny Mabbott, PHM Head of Collections & Engagement
Step into the everyday lives behind the long fight for women’s votes. Discover the remarkable story of Manchester’s iconic 1908 suffragette banner – stitched, carried, and preserved by ordinary women whose actions made history. This inspiring talk shows how to delve into your own family tree to understand the women who shaped you.

Throughout the day:

• Journey through your family history on touchscreens with free access to the Findmypast website.
• Examine the Peterloo artefacts featured in the Findmypast’s A Family History Of… podcast including the sabres, cane, medal and newly acquired commemorative jug in Gallery One.
• Explore more Everyday Histories in Gallery Two from the birth of the NHS to the fight for LGBTQIA+ equality, football, music, and the co-op.
• Discover everyday stories of unity in the On The Line: 100 years of strikes & solidarity exhibition.
• Delve into rare archival material selected by PHM on the theme of Everyday Histories in the Archive (10.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.00pm).