Merry Christmas from Scottish GENES!

Hi folks,

There is not a lot happening currently in the lead up to Christmas, and we are all nervously awaiting the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 with regards to any potential restrictions heading our way again with archives and libraries. One unfortunate development is that we have postponed our trip to Ireland next week to see my elderly 89 year old mother-in-law in County Kilkenny, as we don't want to unwaringly take over an invisible gift to her, but we're looking forward to celebrating her 90th in a few months time in County Kilkenny. It's been almost 2 years now since I have been back home, but it's not going anywhere, it'll be there in due course!

 

I've just finished off my last big Scottish research genealogy report prior to Christmas (with added Suffragettes!), and had a wonderful evening on Monday talking to my branch of the North of Ireland Family History Society in Larne. It's been a mad auld year! I've managed to get two books published from Pen and Sword, have written a brand new course for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd on Irish genealogy, written and presented a 20 hour long institute programme, served for several months on the board of the APG, given umpteen talks online, and much more.

I want to thank all of you who have attended my talks, who have bought books, attended the courses, or commissioned me to carry out research - despite the many difficulties we've been through this year (not least the loss of my father at my end), it's been fun for the most part, and I look forward to getting stuck in again next year. There will be one or two wee developments with this blog in particular heading into 2022, including resurrecting something I used to do when I first launched it way back in 2007, I'll also be bringing you some Scottish GENES bites, and more!

I'm happily going to head off for a few days now into sheer, blissful delinquency (mince pies! wine! turkey!), but if there are any genealogical developments over the next few days I'll obviously put up a quick note. Heck, I might even do some of my own family history research over the next few days - time off for good behaviour!

In the meantime, have a blithe yule / Nollaig Chridheil dhuibh uile - and I will see you on the other side!

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.