So here we go again!
As of midnight last night, mainland Scotland has effectively gone back into a full coronavirus lockdown, in a similar manner to that which we experienced last March. We're not alone, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland doing likewise, and also the Republic of Ireland. A nephew of mine in Ireland was fortunate to be able to get married on January 1st, with 25 folk in attendance - a day later and he would only have been able to have six folk there.
I'm seeing too many notices from archives and libraries stating that they are closed now in line with the new restrictions to identify them all, so this is just a note to say that if you were planning to visit any Scottish archives in January, it's best to check directly with their websites for an update - and I would not be at all surprised if their re-opening gets pushed back further into February at least, with the prevalence of this new coronavirus strain likely to cause some real problems for the foreseeable future.
A possible difference with this new lockdown for genealogists is that we have been through this all before, and are perhaps a little better prepared, with not quite the last minute panic in working out how to use Zoom, etc! There are plenty of online courses taking place and soon to take place (I am currently writing a new Irish themed course for Pharos Tutors), and plenty of online events happening. Here in Scotland, for example, the next Scottish Indexes online conference is taking place on January 30th (see www.scottishindexes.com).
If you are self-employed and working in the genealogical world in the UK, the Self-Employment Support Scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme may be able to assist, and for anyone experiencing any problems and in need of a little help, the Crisis Lines page on this blog at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/crisis-lines.html has numbers of many societies that can assist (and don't forget your local MSP or MP may also be able to assist).
The 2021 Scottish census has been postponed until 2022, but the English, Welsh and Northern Irish censuses, at least as things stand now, are still planned to go ahead in March. It will be interesting to see if that continues - you can find out about these censuses at https://census.gov.uk and https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/census/2021-census (and for Scotland at www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2021).
Stay safe 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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