Back from Ireland - re-energised!

I got back from Ireland last night after a week away. It was my first time on the island since my last visit to PRONI in Belfast pre-pandemic in February 2020, my first time in the republic since my niece's wedding in 2018, and incredibly, my first in my wife's home village of Piltown since 2016. The occasion for the visit this week was my mother-in-law's 90th birthday, and a good time was had by all!

 

On my long list of things still to do in my life, I finally managed to get up to Clonmel in Co. Tipperary for a dander - I've driven through it so many times, it is also where my wife was born, and I was determined this time to properly explore! Clonmel is an extraordinary town just oozing with heritage and history, and a place I know I'll certainly be returning to in the future for a more in depth exploration. 

I also managed to spend some time looking for an old farmhouse which used to be in my wife's family in the mid-19th century, and was delighted to find it, although I now need to examine several resources to try to determine if the building on site is the original, or a later replacement. (The kind of thing that genies love to have fun with!)

But more importantly, this visit for me has drawn a line under an extraordinary few years on a few fronts, not least of which was the Covid pandemic - Covid is still with us, and will be treated with the same respect and caution towards a worthy enemy that it deserves (it took my father), but just being able to get back into a plane once again, to meet up with family and to explore, was a very liberating experience, both physically and mentally. Absolutely next on my list is a visit back home to Belfast, hopefully in the next month or two, and with any luck, a visit later this year to Orkney (my 50th birthday present from 18 months ago, still to be enjoyed!).

So now I am back in Scotland and ready to get stuck in again! As well as my regular client work and writing routine for UK magazines, including a new column for Computeractive magazine, I am currently working on my next book on researching Belfast ancestry, which will be followed by the development of a couple of new courses for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Limited (one on Ireland, another on Scotland). I also intend to start a new series of short videos in the next few months via my YouTube channel, and I am delighted to say that I am also now currently updating some previously published content for Australian based Unlock the Past - I will announce more on both in due course. I also have several talks lined up this year, details of which are at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/talks.html.

Another project I am delighted to be continuing with is the editing of the monthly eNews for the Association of Professional Genealogists (www.apgen.org), having resurrected it on a voluntary basis at the start of the year, after a hiatus in its publication of several months. I had originally agreed to do so for six months, until an editor could be found, but having enjoyed the experience so much, I ended up applying for the position myself. Long before I worked in the television and genealogy industries I actually trained for two years at the University of Ulster to be a graphic designer, so it's been a lot of fun falling back onto some long ago acquired skills and combining them with some current ones!

And just for the craic, in amongst all of that, I am also hoping to move again later this year, closer to Glasgow - so you know, fun and games! Onwards and upwards - and time to enjoy the craic again.

Here's a couple of pics of Glasgow as I got in last night...

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.