Why become a member?
You may ask, "How can you help me?" or "what's in it for me?" or "what do I get in return for my membership?" - in other words, what are some of the unique benefits that the GSSA offers its members:
First things first: We do not undertake research for people. We help you do your own research.
So, what do we do then?
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Well, first of all, membership of the branch exposes you to all our members' collective knowledge, which has been built up over years. So should you join, you get access to that knowledge, and you can start asking questions on the discussion groups. For this purpose, we have a document in which all our members' interest-profiles are recorded, so that you can know exactly for whom you can ask for help, on what surname.
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Secondly, membership of a branch of the GSSA gives you access to the wider GSSA community - such as the eGSSA branch, which has many online resources that you can already use now, but also to the GSSA itself, from which you can purchase genealogical registers and other relevant products cheaper than the non-members.
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Thirdly, there are branch-specific offers - seeing that branches organise themselves, their offers differ:
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At Northern Transvaal branch, for example, we also provide you with a unique guide. If you are an aspiring genealogist we can arrange a “buddy” to guide you and a mentorship programme. Should you, as a more experienced genealogist, be interested; free access to a paid commercial online database; a monthly newsletter; and of course a standing invitation to our monthly speaker (Since the start of the lockdown period monthly meetings were done on Zoom which were recorded for members to watch later). Furthermore, we offer occasional excursions and depending on the need, training opportunities, where members are instructed in the use of software, databases and the like.
