Back from Covid

The last week has been an experience, with first myself, and then my wife and sons all catching Covid for the first time. I can only presume that I brough it back from Amsterdam, having come down with symptoms on the Saturday after I returned, although it wasn't until last Monday that I tested positive. After a fairly feverish first two days, with a horrendous cough, my symptoms began to slowly ease up, at which point everyone else in my family tested positive midweek. Fortunately we were all vaccinated, and this morning we all thankfully tested negative again, but as I am sure you can appreciate, blogging was the last thing on my mind last week.

But I am now back up and running! This morning I wrote my latest column for Computeractive magazine, and will get stuck into my next book, on Belfast ancestry, again this afternoon. I also have two client research jobs to finish off, but if you need any research to be carried out in Scotland, or if you have an Irish brick wall (especially from the north), you can find out more about my services at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk. Over the next month or so I am hoping to make a trip to PRONI in Belfast, for the first time since the pandemic hit.

I am currently teaching the Scottish Research Online course through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd, but my next Pharos course, Progressing Your Irish Research Online, is not far away, starting on August 19th - for further details on this, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=260. The Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers course will also start later this year from October 17th - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Incidentally, later this year I have just agreed to write a third Scottish course for Pharos, for tuition early next year, and then a second Irish course, but more on these down the line!

Don't forget that the Virtual Celtic Connections Conference 2022, entitled Journey Home, is now up and running, and includes three sessions from yours truly, with a Q&A session with me on September 17th - full details at http://www.celtic-connections.org.

It's time to get stuck back into some family finding - what else would you do with such fine weather?!

* For the latest guidance on Covid in Scotland, please visit https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/.

(Update 20 Jul - tested again this morning, and a VERY faint T line is still showing - so I'm almost back from Covid!)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.