Free lunchtime talks at National Library of Ireland

The following free luchtime talks will be given at the Dublin based National Library of Ireland (www.nli.ie) from July 26th 2016:

Sinead McCoole
Mná - 25 years of searching - lessons & leads
Date: July 26th Time: 1.00pm

Dermot Bolger
A reading from his new novel - The Lonely Sea and Sky, followed by a talk.
Date: July 28th Time 1.00pm

Paul McCotter
Territory, maps and genealogy
Date: August 2nd Time: 1.00pm

Fiona Fitzsimons
Explorations in Irish genealogy.
Date: August 4th Time: 1.00pm

Liam Breen / Cormac Leonard (interpreter)
Deaf history in Cabra
Date: August 9th Time: 1.00pm

Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill
"The selkie’s skin" : How Irish oral traditions preserve family and local history
Date: August 11th Time: 1:00PM

Eleanor Fitzsimons
Wilde’s women: How Oscar Widle was shaped by the women in his life.
Date: August 16th Time: 1.00PM

Damien Shiels
The Forgotten Irish: Revealing the voices of Irish 19th Century Emigrants
Date: August 18th Time: 1.00PM

Ambassador O’Malley
Irish American identity: How do we sustain the people to people links between Ireland and the United States?
Date: August 23rd Time: 1.00PM

Aoife O’ Connor
Seen ? Heard ? Records of children in Nineteenth Century Ireland
Date: August 25th Time: 1.00PM

Clodagh Tait
"The Simple annals of my parish poor": stories from parish registers
Date: August 30th Time: 1.00PM

Nora White
Ogham Stones: Our earliest genealogical sources
Date: September 1st Time: 1.00PM

Joe Buggy
Ten free websites for U.S. genealogy research.
Date: Sept 6th Time: 1.00PM

Dan Bradley
Adventures in ancient DNA: Who were the first Irish?
Date: September 8th Time: 1:00pm

(With thanks to the Irish Family History Centre at https://www.irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/article/free-lunch-time-talks-in-the-national-library-of-ireland-2016)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Bletchley Park podcast and Oral History Project

The latest podcast from Bletchley Park includes the story of the sinking of the Bismarck:

This month in the Bletchley Park Podcast’s It Happened Here series, we tell the story of The Bismarck. The iconic German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy 75 years ago. While this clearly did not happen at Bletchley Park, but in the Atlantic Ocean, codebreaking and some of the pioneering techniques developed as part of it played a crucial role in locating the flagship of the German fleet.

Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, explains how work going on in wooden huts in the Buckinghamshire countryside contributed to the ship’s destruction, which was vital for the Allies, both strategically and symbolically.

Jane Fawcett worked in Hut 6 from 1940. She recalls “It may be the most important thing that any of us have ever done in our lives. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we do now.”

To hear the podcast please visit http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/podcast/932393/The_Bismarck.html


Also, Bletchley Park is seeking more participants for its Oral History Project:

Since November 2011 we have visited over 300 Veterans to interview them and hear how enemy signals were intercepted, decrypted and turned into intelligence, as well as capturing fascinating glimpses of their daily lives. We have interviewed people who worked at Bletchley Park and in outstations from the north of Scotland to Australia. Their jobs highlight the broad range of roles people were fulfilling, from the upper echelons of Oxbridge academics via machines operators and clerical staff to cooks, cleaners and even delivery staff from the local bakery.

We are keen to interview anyone who worked:

• At Bletchley Park or its outstations, civilian or military, in any role, however junior
• In the Y services, in the UK and overseas
• In SLUs or SCUs
• In the Radio Security Service
• In the development and construction of Colossus
• In the construction and maintenance of Bombes

We would also like to hear from anyone who lived in the Bletchley area during the Second World War.

For further details visit http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/oralhistory.rhtm.

(With thanks to Bletchley Park)

Chris


For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

No WDYTYA episode on this week

There is no edition of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC1 this week - the final edition, with Frances de la Tour, will be back again next week.

Incidentally, last night I caught an edition of the US version of the series, featuring actress America Ferrera, who played Betty in the series Ugly Betty). An absolutely brilliant episode, as she tried to trace her great grandfather, a general in Honduras, with only one appalling moment - the really blatantly shoe-horned in product placement bit with Ancestry. Thank God our version does not do that! Nevertheless, one of the best episodes I have seen from any version in a long time. The US version is currently being shown on Watch (with Watch+1 an option if you are an hour late!)

A quick word also on last week's UK episode on Mark Gatiss - a great programme, though I did think the vampire section went a bit off tangent for a few moments, as there was only one folklore story raised by Gatiss' ancestor, and it definitely wasn't that one! But great to see PRONI and Norn Iron in all its glory, and especially good to see Bill MacAfee make an appearance (check out his brilliantly useful website at www.billmacafee.com).

And go visit PRONI (www.proni.gov.uk) - you'll love it!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

RCAHMW oral history project requires volunteers in Swansea

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales' CBA committee is looking for help with an oral history project in Swansea, to record stories about the city and to locate old photographic material.

For the full story visit the commission's blog at http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/call-for-volunteers-in-swansea-area.html

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Volunteers needed for Bletchley Park oral history project

Bletchley Park is in need of some volunteer help for an oral history project - from its latest newsletter:

Oral Archive – specialist training for volunteers

Volunteers helping to capture Veterans' precious first hand memories have been given specialist training in interview techniques, and more will follow. A large number of interviews is already planned this year and more Volunteer Interviewers are needed. Anyone interested in helping with this vital project, either by interviewing Veterans in their homes or by transcribing the interviews from a distance, please contact Bletchley Park's Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne jbyrne @ bletchleypark.org.uk or call 01908 272685.

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, which commences May 14th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.

IWM sound archive goes online

The Imperial War Museum has made available online some 14,000 interviews relating to the Western Front and Gallipoli in the First World War. The recordings are accessible at www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/about/sound - for more on the background read Family Tree magazine's blog post at http://family-tree.co.uk/2013/03/iwm-sound-archive-launched-online/

(With thanks to Family Tree magazine)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.

Finchley oral history project

Family Tree magazine has a blog report on the completion of an oral history project in Finchley, which has now led to the publication of a 32 page book entitled Listening to Finchley: Eyewitness accounts of 90 years of change in church and people.

Full details on the project, and on how to obtain a copy of the book, can be found at http://family-tree.co.uk/2012/06/finchley-lives/

Chris

Check out my Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)

GAA oral history project

Here's an interesting piece plugging a new book based on the findings of the GAA oral history project in Ireland, which commenced in 2008 and which has interviewed hundreds of people in all 32 counties. The project deals with the GAA's 125 year history, with the entire collection to be held at the GAA Museum at Croke Park in Dublin. To read the article visit www.sportsnewsireland.com/gaa/71889/

(With thanks to Jill Ball's Australian Genealogists Daily, Sun Jan 1 2012, at http://paper.li/geniaus/australian-genealogists)

Chris