Thanks to those who have facilitated and attended talks that I have given over the last three days, it's been a busy weekend!
First, the Really Useful Family History Show was an online event hosted by the Family History Federation (www.familyhistoryfederation.com), in which I gave a talk about the Ruhleben POW camp at Berlin, in which 5500 British male civilians were interned in the First World War for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a fairly new venture for the FHF, and despite some issues surrounding communication, the range of talks was superb, there was a good attendance by vendors, and a good buzz online. My talk is still available online for those who registered, at https://youtu.be/s_dP1eZqTV4, although I'm not sure for how much longer (UPDATE: I've just learned that they will be available until Saturday November 21st!). If interested in my Ruhleben website, it is at http://ruhleben.tripod.com.
On Sunday I then had the pleasure to speak to the Virtual Genealogical Association (https://virtualgenealogy.org) conference on British and Irish newspapers, which was great fun, and with a great reception (and with some great Zoom backgrounds and outfits!!). I mentioned my Pen and Sword books in that for future reference (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Chris-Paton/a/1799), but I did also produce a short guide book six years ago for Australian based Unlock the Past on the topic, which can be found online in ebook format at www.gould.com.au/british-and-irish-newspapers-ebook/utpe0285/ (a print version is also available). It was written with an Oz readership in mind, but includes a lot that was discussed in the session.
Finally, last night (Monday) I had the pleasure of talking to the Larne group of the North of Ireland Family History Society (www.nifhs.org/branches/larne/), on the topic of Tracing the Irish in Scotland. Larne in County Antrim was my town of birth some fifty years back, so it was particularly great to be able to talk to my ain folk, and there were a few laughs and some interesting discussion after (for well over an hour!)! I'll be giving the same talk to the society's Causeway branch on May 18th 2021, which I am looking forward to immensely.
Thanks to all who attended the sessions. The next talk I will be doing will be as part of the next Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com) conference on December 6th, where I will be discussing Scottish inheritance records - if you are only used to the probate system in England, Wales and Ireland, brace yourself, we did things differently in Scotland, and there's a lot to get through!!
After the New Year, I will be participating in a fair few online events happening next year (see Diary for those already confirmed at scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/diary.html), for societies in the US, Canada, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England - if you are interested in having me speak, there is a selection of some of my topics available at www.apgen.org/users/chris-paton, and I'd be more than happy to discuss any enquiries.
Thanks again folks!
Chris
Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book 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.
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