On Friday I had a notification on my Facebook page to say that it had been fifteen years to the day that I had graduated in 2007 from the University of Strathclyde's postgraduate certificate course in Genealogical Studies, as part of the very first intake. The course was established by Bruce Durie, aided by tutors such as Graham Holton and David Webster, and was the first university postgraduate level genealogy course in the UK. When I did the course it was attendance based at the Centre for Lifelong Learning on George Street, with a packed programme of lectures every Saturday, with a wee soiree shortly after each week in the local hostelries with fellow students to discuss how we were getting on!
At the time I had started working already as a genealogist, having taken voluntary redundancy from the BBC to give it a go as a career. I had research skills from 12 years of working in television production, and some knowledge of the basic records from seven years of personal research, but felt that I needed to 'turn the dial up to eleven'. Much of the first year's study covered areas I was both familiar with and unfamiliar with (most notably with understanding Scotland's fedual past and the records that tied in), but I felt that it provided a huge step in trying to become more 'professional'. The first year's study was followed by another to complete the postgraduate diploma, after which there was no immediate further progression, but at this stage I felt I had achieved enough both on the academic and vocational fronts, and threw myself fully into the job as a full-time vocation. It's been a fair auld craic since then!
Since that first year, there have been many changes. Led today by Tahitia McCabe, the course now progresses to Masters level, and is taught entirely online, although students do gather annually for a students event in November. I'm looking forward to visiting this year's event tomorrow in Glasgow where I will be giving a talk on Irish land records, and another on how I try to get by as a working genealogist! (And it will be the first event that I will have spoken at in public since Feb 2020!)
If you are looking to professionalise your interest in genealogy, I would thoroughly recommend the University of Strathclyde's programme. There are various entry level courses, including a free MOOC course, as well as the postgraduate programme itself, all of which you can find out more about at https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/centreforlifelonglearning/genealogy/.
Congratulations to all who have made it through the various levels of the course over the last 15 years, to this year's graduates, and to the tutorial team still fighting the good fight - here's to the next 15 years!
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.
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