FAMILY history hunters have been invited to climb their family tree when the Oxfordshire Family History Society’s annual fair comes to Woodstock.

Volunteers from a range of history societies will be on hand to help visitors research their ancestry.

And they will have the chance to take part in a DNA project which seeks to identify common Oxfordshire names and where they originate in the county.

Publicity co-ordinator Wendy Archer said the event, which runs from 10am until 4pm on Saturday at The Marlborough School in Shipton Road, will give visitors the opportunity to find out about ancestors across the world.

She said: “There are two halves to the fair this year.

“One is that we have got one room entirely dedicated to Oxfordshire.

“Partly it will have advisors who will help visitors find their ancestors and generally get them started.

“We will also have books and CDs covering various regions.

“The other room will have experts from lots of different family history societies from Bristol right across to Suffolk.

“Families in the British India Society will also be there.”

Advisors will be able to help people find out all the information they need to start researching their own family and the Oxfordshire Family History Society wants to add to its own research by getting visitors to take part in its DNA scheme.

People with a documented maternal or paternal ancestral line originating in the county can buy one of two testing kits priced at £85 and £60 and then send a cheek swab off to a lab for analysis.

The results can help them match with people in other countries who share their ancestry, and can also be used to trace the route families with these common surnames took through Oxfordshire and beyond.

Mrs Archer said: “We now have more than 100 names on a database and we are hoping that some of the people who come along will get engaged with that.

“Harris, for example, is a name which occurs a lot in Oxfordshire.

“A lot of people have tested for that, while Quartermain is common around Garsington .”

The fair on Saturday is free to attend.