It has been called the fastest growing leisure activity - the search for our family origins.

Maybe it is due to the popular television series, 'Who Do You Think You Are', which may have stirred thoughts of our own roots; or maybe 'The Antiques Roadshow', where objects that have been handed down in families have fostered a 'need to know' feeling as to who owned them in years gone by.

Maybe we wonder who was the person in the old photograph reproduced in the local paper, who looks a bit like the grandparent we remember. There may even be tales of an ancestor who lived in a castle, but it doesn't matter whether our ancestors owned the castle or just worked there.

It is now possible, more than ever before, to find out if the half remembered stories we heard as children are true.

Every year, since its formation in 1982, one of the branches of Dyfed Family History Society stages an Open Day in one of the three counties in West Wales.

This year, it is the turn of the Llanelli branch to play host. The open day will be on Saturday, September 18, between 10 am and 4 pm at The Drill Hall, Murray Street, Llanelli; adjacent to the multi-storey car park. Entry is free.

Carmarthen Record Office will be present to help visitors with their research, as will Glamorgan Family History Society, local history groups from around Llanelli and, of course, all the Dyfed FHS branches from Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.

John Mayo from Llandeilo will be there to offer a photograph restoration service, plus other representatives of local interest to members of the public.

Whilst the internet is a vital source of information, research in the local record office is essential, together with membership of the local Family History Society.

Dyfed FHS members in each of the counties in West Wales have transcribed and indexed many parish and civil records to aid themselves and other researchers.

Go along and browse, see what you can find out - it's fun to talk to others with the same hobby and there will be lots of people around ready and willing to help you get started, or to advise on what records to look at next if you are presently stuck and can't get back beyond, say, greatgrandad.

In Pembrokeshire, meetings are held on the second Monday in each month at Prendergast Church Hall, Haverfordwest, at 7.30 pm, unless members are out and about in the summer months - transcribing gravestones in a particular churchyard or visiting places of local historical interest. Keep a look out for posters in libraries, town halls, etc, giving details of speakers at monthly meetings, etc.