I'm back in Scotland after a day's visit to Belfast, having attended the
Back To Our Past (
https://backtoourpast.ie) event in the International Conference Centre, where I gave a talk on
Tracing the Irish in Scotland. I thoroughly enjoyed giving the presentation, which seemed to go down well, with a packed room and some great questions at the end! A sincere thank you to all who came along - it's only the second time I have ever given a talk back home, and you all make me more homesick by the day!
There were two lecture streams both on Friday and Saturday, one comprised of DNA based topics, the other on all other matters family history, and Martin McDowell of the NIFHS and all who helped out and who spoke are to be truly commended. I managed to sit in for Andrew Kane's excellent talk on the NIFHS, also briefly to listen to Ken and Alison Tait's DNA talk, and I understand from Irene O' Brien of Glasgow City Archives that she had a well attended talk also, as did Jonny Perl and Debbie Kennett with their respective DNA talks. It was also great to meet Jonny of DNA Painter (
https://dnapainter.com) for the first time, and to twig his own Norn Irish connections!
I had intended to give a review on the Back To Our Past event itself, but it is not an understatement or in any way an exaggeration to say that there really was
very little to review.
This is the third time I have been to a BTOP event. The first was in the RDS in Dublin a few years back, with an entire hall filled with vendors from across the genealogical spectrum. My second visit was two years ago, when the event visited Belfast for the first time, at the slightly out of the way Titanic Centre - there were a fair few vendors, on a smaller scale than the Dublin event, but with a lot of energy, albeit not being particularly well signposted from the ground floor, which I imagine must have affected footfall.
Then there was today's event, where the following genealogy related bodies exhibited:
- North of Ireland Family History Society
- FamilyTreeDNA
- PRONI
- National Archives of Ireland
- Accredited Genealogists Ireland
And unless I missed anybody, I think that was it. The first two were based in the corridor outside the main hall, the rest were in the corner of the main exhibition room, which was predominatly filled with exhibitors for the Over 50s show. One of the tables just along from the genealogy tables was a funeral directors, with not even a registrar in attendance, talk about a missed opportunity! I spoke to most of the genie heroes who were present and exhibiting, and their dedication in attending was genuinely respected and appreciated.
But really - is this supposed to be the premier genealogy event in Northern Ireland?
Northern Ireland has some of the most wonderful archives, libraries and committed family historians I have ever met, and also some of the funniest and most decent people on the planet. I hope one day there will be a truly national family history event in Ulster within which they can all shine, supported by the media, and with many exhibitors from the Republic, Britain and beyond, in a world class accessible venue.
I have no idea why it has become so diminished, but I left Belfast utterly convinced that, unless there is a massive change in the future, Back To Our Past is really just not going to be that platform.
Chris
You can pre-order my new book,
Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at
http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available,
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.
