I'm heading to Salt Lake City in 2025!

So the big news that I have been sitting on for a bit is that I am going to be one of the instructors at the International Society of British Genealogy and Family History's British Institute in Salt Lake City in October 2025, teaching twenty hours on Scottish family history research. It's going to be a great week, with my pal Paul Milner covering England, and my fellow Norn Iron chums Gillian Hunt and Fintan Mullen, from the Ulster Histoical Foundation, covering Ireland. I'm firmly convinced that everyone will have an Ulster accent at the end of the week, just as the good Lord intended...! My week long programme is provisionally entitled Feudalism, Foes, and Fornication: Tracing Your Family History in Scotland, covering all of those topics and everything in between!

I've previously taught at one British Institute for the ISBGFH in 2021, covering Ireland, but this had to be switched to a virtual event due to Covid, so I am finally looking forward to getting to to Salt Lake City again! I've only been there once before - in 1999, when I had a day off whilst filming on a Scottish Television series (called Celtic America), and in the year before I started taking an interest in family history.

I'm looking forward to getting to the Family History Library at long last, and to catching up with many folk, not least Megan Croll Heyl who has been patiently keeping us all on track over the last few years!

It's going to be great craic! In the meantime, for details on this year's British Institute, please visit https://isbgfh.com/bi/. Once the registration page is live for our event in 2025, I'll blog an update.

And keep an eye out next January for a talk I'll be giving for the ISBGFH online, more on that soon!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

ISBGFH British Institute 2021 - Tracing Your Irish Family History

News of a big event for me this year, which I hope you might come along to!

Last year I was supposed to be travelling to Salt Lake City to deliver a week long lecture programme on Irish genealogy, as part of the annual British Institute run by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. The event, due to be held in October, would have comprised of twenty hours of taught content across ten sessions (2 x 2 hour sessions per day), and I would have come back to Scotland with a glorious tan and a great new accent. Unfortunately, due to Covid, the full event for 2020 had to be dramatically scaled back to a smaller online programme, which was a great deal of fun but condensed to a delivery of four 90 minute long topics.

Well it's now 2021, and Covid still has a grip on us all, but I am delighted to say that whilst I am still unable to get over to Utah, this year the ISBGFH's British Institute will be run at full length, with yours truly delivering on 20 hours of Irish content entirely online, in a programme series entitled Tracing Your Irish Family History, from 11-15 October 2021. In addition, there are further options to listen to 20 hours of content from Paul Milner on English genealogy, and similar from Bruce Durie on Scotland, and Darris Williams on Wales.

Here's the official event description from the site (https://www.isbgfh.com/BRITISH-INSTITUTE):

WELCOME

The International Society for British Genealogy and Family History (ISBGFH) welcomes you to the virtual British Institute (BI). This year’s institute focuses on Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales.  The British Institute is open to ISBGFH members and non-members alike.

We all recognize that COVID-19 changed businesses. Genealogy is no exception.  If we want to continue and grow, we need to change, modify, and adapt.  Our instructors plan to offer you tools to help you do just that.

To cause the least disruption, the BI is using the virtual setting via ZOOM and coming to you in four courses–five days each in Mid-October. During this time, we will gather to learn, share, and enjoy the history of our ancestry!

While we encourage you to take advantage of all four courses, we are offering different options to fit your schedule and interests. Attend one course LIVE each week (11-15 October, and 18-22 October) or all four by accessing the recordings.

MEMBERSHIP

If you are not a member of ISBGFH, you may wish to consider joining. A yearly membership is only $25 USD, and the benefits of membership include our British Connections quarterly plus full access through the website to the British Connections archive dating back to 2000. If that isn't enough - you also get access to recordings of our Winter Webinar Series including handouts.

For the grand membership benefit, you qualify for discounts to our British Institute. Since COVID has shut down in-person events in Salt Lake City, BI has gone virtual and each course will be recorded for those who are registered. Each Institute course also has a robust syllabus that is a great source of information and references for you to view and review.

We highly recommend that if you choose to become a member of ISBGFH, that you purchase your membership and wait until you receive your confirmation email with log in information before registering to attend BI. This guarantees receiving membership discounts.  


And here's a description of the basic event structure:

 

I'm still pulling together the full programme, but to give an idea of what was originally planned (which I won't deviate too far from!), I gave a live talk session early last year offering the proposed overview for the 2020 event, which should give you an idea of some of the content that will be available. You can watch this below (or at https://youtu.be/yFK90UrmZMk):

There will be some minor tweaks to my original plans to allow for more online research (rather than at the Family History Library in SLC, which was the original plan) whilst we carry on through the pandemic.

Registration is now open at https://www.isbgfh.com/event-4293293 - the event should be great craic (a lot of fun), as I like to be serious in what I do, but not always in how I do it!

I hope to maybe see you there!

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Virtual British Institute - October 12th-14th 2020

I've been hard at work over the last three weeks preparing my talks for the forthcoming Virtual British Institute (https://www.isbgfh.com/Virtual-British-Institute), which will take place from October 12th-14th online. Here's the short description of what to expect:

Due to Covid-19 the 2020 British Institute will be virtual. Each presenter will introduce topics they will cover in 2021, so you can begin your research while at home. Basic through intermediate levels of instruction will be offered in four 'live' presentations with 'live' question and answer time. From the comfort of your home access a full syllabus highlighting relevant record groups. Courses will run consecutively, so take one or all three from Oct. 12 - 14.

We are offering the following courses:

Tracing Your Irish Family History on 12 Oct 2020
Chris Paton

English Research: Fundamentals and Beyond on 13 Oct 2020
Paul Milner (further details at https://www.isbgfh.com/page-18079)

Hidden Treasures in Welsh Family History on 14 Oct 2020
Darris Williams (further details at https://www.isbgfh.com/page-18078)

As can be seen, I'll be kicking off on the Monday with four Irish themed sessions, each at 90 minutes in length, and broken down as follows:

TRACING YOUR IRISH ANCESTORS

CHRIS PATON

Monday, October 12th

1. Church and State: Ireland's vital records
This session will explore how to locate ancestors in Ireland using the civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths from 1845 and 1864 onwards, both online and in Ireland itself, as held at both the GROI in Roscommon and the GRONI in Belfast. It will also examine how to understand and utilize the records, and to appreciate their strengths and limitations.

Chris will then look at the various church denominations in Ireland, how they were structured, and the types of records they kept. He will explore how to locate surviving material, to equally identify what has not survived (and why), and to understand where Protestant and Catholic Ireland occasionally overlapped, with the role of the Church of Ireland as the state church.

Where gaps in such records exist, Chris will further discuss how other sources may be able to provide alternative information to plug those gaps, including resources in Britain.

2. Irish land records
In this session Chris will provide an understanding of the administrative boundaries within which various records were created and gathered in Ireland, look at how to locate places mentioned in records in Ireland, and to understand what those place names might mean.

He will also provide an introductory overview of the key land records available for ancestral research - the surviving censuses and census substitutes, the records of land valuation and taxation (including 19th century tithe applotment book and Griffith's Valuation), the Registry of Deeds, the value of estate records – and of course, how to find them, both online and in the island's many archives.

3. Daily life in Ireland
As well as the basic resources to establish the genealogy of our families, additional record sets exist that document their role and status in society, and often their fate.

In this session Chris will look at additional resources that can place our families in context, including, for example, freeholders lists and absent voters lists, the administration of the poor law and the role of the poorhouse in Ireland, and education records.

He will also look at surviving judicial records and the records of law enforcement, and provide a flavour of what might be out there, by exploring a case study of a 19th century murder which unblocked a genealogical brick wall, and pushed a family narrative back a hundred years to the mid 18th century.

4. The Decade of Centenaries
From 1912-1923 a dramatic transformation occurred in Ireland, culminating with the Partition of the island into the two constitutional territories in existence today. In this session Chris will explore the dramatic events of the period, which are today being commemorated north and south of the island as the 'Decade of Centenaries'.

These include the struggle for Home Rule and the defiance of the Ulster Covenant, workers' rights and the Dublin Lockout of 1913, the Suffragette campaign for the enfranchisement of women, the pause on all fronts created by the First World War, and the subsequent sacrifices made in the British Empire's name. During the turmoil, Ireland experienced its Easter Rising, which led towards a constitutional turning point, with the Conscription crisis, the subsequent War of Independence against British rule, the Partition of Ireland into two administrative territories, and the resultant tragedy of the Irish Civil War.

So yeah, I'm a little busy just now pulling it all together (three down, one to go!), but it should be a lot of fun!

There are still spaces available - for further details, and to sign up, please visit https://www.isbgfh.com/Virtual-British-Institute - and I'll hopefully see you there!

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts August 31st - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Registration for 2020 Virtual British Institute now open

From the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History (www.isbgfh.com)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLORADO

Given the current restrictions on travel as the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, we at ISBGFH have made the decision to change our 2020 British Institute to a three-day Virtual event. This allows people to attend, to attend more than one course and to remain safe while learning from our instructors.

OCTOBER 12-14, 2020
As planned for the in-person event, we will have three instructors, one each day:

• Chris Paton – Irish Research
• Paul Milner – English Research
• Darris Williams – Welsh Research

Each instructor will present 8 hours of online instruction (live) and will be available to answer questions. All sessions will be recorded and access to the recordings will be open until the end of November, 2020.

Attendees can attend one full day, all three days, or a combination of any two days. There is a discount for ISBGFH members.

Registration for the Virtual event is now OPEN

For details: https://www.isbgfh.com/BRITISH-INSTITUTE

Contact: InstituteDirectorISBGFH@gmail.com

COMMENT: Should be fun - I hope to see you there!

(With thanks to Megan Heyl)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course starts June 8th - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is out shortly, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.