Another busy year in Ayrshire for this genealogist!

It's the end of another busy year of not knowing if I am coming or going half the time, but there has been plenty achieved, and much to celebrate. The biggest change this year was undoubtedly moving house from Irvine to Stewarton in November, marking an end to twenty years of life in North Ayrshire, and the start of a new chapter in East Ayrshire - but still Ayrshire, because, well, you know, you can't beat perfection!

On another front, I am making steady progress in learning Scottish Gaelic, aka Gàidhlig, after years of dipping in and out with the language. At the start of Covid in 2020 I set myself a five year plan to try to consolidate what I had previously learned along with new learning. I completed the Gàidhlig Duolingo course (https://www.duolingo.com) earlier this year, and am now working flat out studying for a SQA Higher in the language (for those in Northern Ireland, it's an equivalent to an A-level), which I will be sitting in 2023 - my first prelims (mocks) are just weeks away! My aim is to try to get to a daily conversational level, with a view to perhaps applying this down the line to a few areas, including genealogy - I have a few ideas on that front, but one thing at a time, maybe learn to walk first before running etc! 

It's been great to really push myself two evenings a week with my two tutors and fellow classmates, it makes a hell of a difference to use the language frequently, even if badly at times - is fheàrr Gàidhlig bhriste na Gàidhlig sa chiste (it's better to use a broken Gaelic than to have Gaelic in a coffin!). If you fancy having a go, I'd recommend Duolingo as a good starting point, with just 15 minutes a day learning - who knows where it may take you?!

On the genealogy front this year, I have written several articles for Family Tree and Who Do You Think You Are? magazines, but at the start of the year I also started a twice monthly family history column for Computeract!ve magazine, with twenty-five columns already produced so far, which has equally been fun, and a return to Future, for whom I used to write when contributing to the now defunct Your Family Tree magazine a few years ago. In addition I have continued to write for British Connections, the journal of the International Society of British Genealogy and Family History (https://www.isbgfh.com), and I was equally delighted to help with the indexing project for North Irish Roots, the journal of the North of Ireland Family History Society (https://www.nifhs.org). Another completely new venture this year has been to edit the monthly newsletter for the Association of Professional Genealogists (https://www.apgen.org), which offers a bit of a diversion each month from the regular fair of genealogy writing and research, but also to tune in a bit more into how things are done internationally! The newsletter is actually free to access by the public, you can read it at https://www.apgen.org/cpages/enews.

On the book front, I finally completed the writing of my next book, Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, which was somewhat delayed due to Covid and my inability for two years to get back over to Northern Ireland. Thankfully that particular drought was broken a couple of months ago, and it has been great to get back home again twice since November. This was by far the most daunting book I have written yet, not because of the subject matter, but because with so much family from Belfast, I really want to get this one right (no pressure!)! I'm looking forward to working on the proofs shortly, and to see it on sale, hopefully, in March. 

Also on the publications front, I have a new publication through Unlock the Past in Australia, the first I have produced for the company in a few years. The book is a newly updated second edition of A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, which you can buy in print down under from Gould Genealogy in Adelaide, or worldwide as an ebook. In addition, I have revised two of the company's popular four-page 'handy guides', which are also now on sale (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/12/new-updated-editions-of-three-of-my.html for details on all). 

Northern Ireland was not my only venture beyond Scotland in 2022. Earlier in the year I finally got back with my family to Piltown in Co. Kilkenny, my wife's home village, for the first time in a few years. I was also briefly able to escape the country by visiting Amsterdam for a city break with my wife, which led to us both contracting Covid, although thankfully not too severely. We had a great time revisiting sites and seeing new ones - the last time I was there was when I was a student at the University of the West of England in 1994, the place has moved on but it is definitely still Amsterdam, a wonderful place with some very friendly people!

On the genealogy front I have also carried out extensive research for several clients. Due to the Covid restrictions here in Scotland, in particular the nonsense we have had to endure from the National Records of Scotland, I had to shift my focus more towards Irish research using online resources, although managed to carry out a fair few Scottish projects also. However, despite the ongoing restrictions earlier in the year with the NRS (now lifted), it was great to be able to get to other institutions, with the first being Edinburgh City Archives - it did my soul good to sit in an archive once again for the first time in a couple of years! 

In addition, it was wonderful to catch up with the genealogy folk at the University of Strathclyde (https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/centreforlifelonglearning/genealogy/), where I studied thirteen years ago (pictured right!) and to give a keynote talk on how it is possible to work as a genealogist on many fronts (that can be summed up very easily - if I can do it, trust me, anyone can!!!). Now that things are - touch wood - normalising, I am hoping to shift the balance of my work back again to half and half between Scottish and Irish research. Due to the rising cost of living I will need to raise my rates shortly, but will announce more on that in due course. 

The most depressing thing in the last year on the genealogy front has been to see the reputation of the National Records of Scotland take something of a nose-dive with regards to its relationship with its user base. I won't go on about that here - I have written extensively about the issues over the last few months - but I hope that 2023 will see a much needed re-adjustment in attitude by the institution towards those it is supposed to serve. I have heard unofficially that there are some fairly extensive changes about to happen at the senior level there, but the staff, including our wonderful archivists, and those of us who use the place, need better really.

On the tuition front, I had another great year with Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (https://www.pharostutors.com), teaching its Scottish courses and my new Irish course, and I am currently in the middle of writing a new Scottish course for the company, which I hope to follow with another Irish course! Again, more on those in due course. It has also been great to give so many talks to societies around the world via Zoom - and in person at long last (in Glasgow!) - if you're interested in me giving a talk, I have a list of topics available at https://www.apgen.org/users/chris-paton. It's also been a joy on a few occasions this year to host talks by others, thanks to Family Tree magazine, and there will be more of these coming up soon! Don't forget that I have made freely available online my talk Discover Your Scottish Ancestors, which you can view at https://youtu.be/tF_LoqHTfBw, or below for convenience:

For 2023, I have a few ideas that I hope to put into place soon, on both writing and the multimedia front, I already have several clients lined up for research, and, fingers crossed, I'll be heading to Orkney for the first time (a delayed 50th birthday present!). I also hope to launch something called Scottish GENES Bites (more soon!), and I hope to get the email subscription issue sorted soon with this blog - apologies for the recent loss of this, Google decided to stop its service, and I have not yet had a chance to come up with an acceptable substitute that will not break the bank, but I am on it! 

In the meantime, don't forget that I am on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheGENESBlog/, on Mastodon at @ScottishGENES@mastodon.scot, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/chrismpaton1/, and for the foreseeable future at least, on Twitter at @genesblog.

I hope you have a great Hogmanay and Ne'erday - Bliadhna Mhath Ùr airson 2023!

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.