Friday at the OGS conference in Toronto

So Friday turned out to be a bad day for Scotland, the nature of the defeat being more epic than I could ever have dreamed possible. 

No, I'm not talking about the 5-1 thrashing inflicted on us by Germany, I'm talking about my participation in the game of Genealogy Jeopardy at the OGS Conference in Toronto, Canada, where I showed that I was definitely in the same league as the national footie squad when it comes to competitive sport... 

We kicked of the quiz at 8.45pm, at which point, thanks to jetlag, I had been up for 18 hours (I awoke just before 3am local time, and I'm allowed to make excuses!), and it all went gloriously downhill from there! The worst moment was when I was asked to provide a question for an answer something along the lines of "A genealogy term represented by GPS, which does not stand for Global Positioning System", and I just froze, with audience members commenting "Oh come on!", as I dreamt of Scotland's single goal in Munich, and realising far too late that rather heroically I also had nothing left in the tank! (The answer was Genealogical Proof Standard, the failure to answer of which is a capital offence in the genealogical world, and in three other worlds in the known universe). The winner was genealogist Mags Gaulden, who also gave an entertaining plenary session earlier on the seven words you can never use in genealogy, who soundly thrashed myself and my fellow defeatee, athough not quite as defeated by me, local genie Janice Nickerson. Ah, sure, it was good craic, and it'll be grand next time....!

 

Earlier in the day I gave a two-hour workshop session, Sharing Your Family History Online, which was great fun with those in attendance, after which I visited the marketplace, where I managed to catch up with a few friends - not least the epic Mr Paul Milner, with whom I once sailed the high seas. I briefly touched base with the APG stand also, but will do a proper visit around all the stalls hopefully later today.

It's now early Saturday morning, and I'm shortly to give a plenary session after breakfast on Reimagining Genealogy, followed later by a talk on the newest developments in Scottish genealogy. 

At least on these I am fairly sure I won't have to worrry about goal difference...!

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.

I've arrived in Canada for the OGS Conference

I've arrived in Canada, my tenth visit to the country since 1999, seven of which have been for genealogy events. However, it has been seven years since I was last in Canada (and Ontario), so I am very much looking forward to catching up with folks!

I reached my hotel at Toronto yesterday at midday, after a comfortable flight with Air Transat from Glasgow, although I was not able to check in until 2.30pm. The conference proper has not started yet, although there was an early bird AI workshop organised which had 45 attendees, and which was very well appreciated. Having checked into my room at the hotel and conference venue, which is very close to Toronto Pearson Airport, I soon discovered that we were right under the flight path for planes landing there, and so I spent a good half hour just sitting and watching planes flying over me from my 12th floor window - it's very addictive! (You can certainly hear them coming in, although thankfully it all quietened considerably between 12.00am and 6.00am this morning!)

After a quick evening meal, I had a chance to catch up with Ken McKinlay from BIFHSGO (https://www.bifhsgo.ca), who I last saw seven years ago in Ottawa, and who was recently awarded by the society for his contributions over the years. It was interesting to compare notes with Ken on Canada's pandemic experience, and its impact on the genealogy world, with that in Scotland and the UK, which was very similar indeed with regards to the embrace of Zoom, the impact on traditional meetings and conferences, as well as on the archive and library sector. I was also able to catch up very briefly with Jonny Perl from DNA Painter, local genealogist Marian Press, and Daniel Horowitz from MyHeritage (a former flatmate from a previous OGS conference in St. Catherine's, Toronto, a few years back!).

At 7.30pm I attended a re-enactment of the first ever Burns Supper to be held in Scarborough, Toronto, in 1834. I though this was to be a damatic re-enactment that we would all watch, which it was in a way, but with one minor tweak - the audience was the cast! - and so I ended up playing the part of a Mr Cowan who chaired proceedings! It was good humoured, and whilst pronunciations of Scottish names such as Lesmahagow, Buccleuch, Lanarkshire and Strathaven were definitely lost in translation on this side of the Atlantic (!), it was a very effective way of tuning into the mentality of those colonists/settlers who arrived here in the early 19th century from Scotland, and their reasons for leaving the country in the first place, as well as connections to Burns and Ayrshire itself.

After that it was an early night for a jet-lagged me. Today I'm looking forward to giving a two-hour workshop on Sharing Your Family History Online, before utterly humiliating myself with my lack of general knowledge in a genealogy version of the game show Jeoprady, where I'll be one of the contestants. My jeopardised remains after that will blog an update on today's proceedings tomorrow...

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.

Scottish Record Society cancels AGM

The Scottish Record Society (www.scottishrecordsociety.org.uk) has announced the cancellation of its AGM on May 13th:

AGM 2020 Cancelled: There will not be an Annual Meeting on 13 May. The Covid-19 restrictions mean we cannot hold a gathering, and the NRS is closed for the present. We shall arrange for the AGM to take place once the lockdown restrictions are lifted, perhaps in the autumn.

(With thanks to @ScotRecSoc on Twitter)

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts May 4th - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. 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.