The GENES Blog (GEnealogy News and EventS) ceased publication on 14 FEB 2020. You will now find all the latest genealogy news and views on Scottish GENES at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com. The GENES Blog archive will remain live, with a record of the genealogy news for Britain and Ireland from 2013-2020. Thank you!
In his latest Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) newsletter, Peter Calver has given an update on his next proposed Genealogy in the Sunshine conference at the Rocha Brava resort in the Portuguese Algarve. The event, first started in 2014 and 2015, has had a break this year, but is intended to hopefully return next March. Here's Peter's comments:
I can't give you a firm date at the moment, not least because I'm waiting for formal confirmation that Who Do You Think You Are? Live will take place between 6-8th April, as indicated on Facebook. However, I can tell you that we're currently looking at the last week of March for Genealogy in the Sunshine 2017, ie Saturday 25th March to Saturday 1st April - so you might want to pencil all these dates into your 2017 diary.
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.
Congratulations to Peter Calver's Lost Cousins website (www.lostcousins.com) which now has 100,000 members. The site allows you to make connections with relatives through shared connections via various British, Irish, Canadian and US censuses.
The latest newsletter from the site is available at http://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/oct15news.htm - amongst the latest news is an announcement that the site's Genealogy in the Sunshine event, hosted in Portugal's Algrave in both 2014 and 2015, is skipping a year next year, and will be back in 2017.
The second edition of my new monthly British GENES podcast is now available, and I've tried to step things up a wee bit!
In this month's edition, loosely themed on the topic of co-operation and collaboration, I'm running with the following - there are two interviews recorded in Portugal at the second Genealogy in the Sunshine event, with Peter Calver of Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com), and Else Churchill of the Society of Genealogists (www.sog.org.uk); information on the Scottish Genealogy Network; and why you should use family history societies, and where to find them.
Oh, and of course, most importantly, my congratulations to Ireland for winning the Six Nations (apologies - includes my really bad bodhrán playing)!
This podcast, at just over 30 minutes in length, is presented below:
As well as being hosted on Soundcloud, the British GENES podcasts are also now available on iTunes, again, free of charge. Simply search for British GENES and it should be found in the podcasts category - or you can subscribe directly with the following RSS feed - http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:100412349/sounds.rss
On Saturday I flew back from Portugal with my family after a week at the second successful Genealogy in the Sunshine event at Rocha Brava, on the Algarve, organised by Peter Calvers from Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com). I have already previously blogged about the first two days at the event at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/genealogy-in-sunshine-conference-day-1.html and http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/genealogy-in-sunshine-day-2-report.html. On day 3, Wednesday, I had the day off - each of the main speakers got one day off for good behaviour! - and so I took my family to a local attraction called ZooMarina, where we watched dolphin shows, rode on rollercoasters, watched 3D movies about...err, sea turtles, and more besides.
Thursday and Friday were quite busy. On Thursday morning I gave a talk about writing articles for genealogy magazines (commercially based magazines and society journals), discussing how to approach writing articles and publishers, as well as a basic overview on some associated issues such as copyright. John Hanson provided a follow on talk, at which point I then headed to John's apartment to join Else Churchill and several delegates for another brainstorming session to try to push through a few genealogical brick walls. The afternoon session then started with a session presented jointly by Donald Davis and his cousin Donna Fraser about their research into identifying a common English ancestor, followed by a talk by Rebecca Probert on divorce, bigamy and bereavement in England and Wales. There were a couple of interesting points I gleaned from this, firstly that divorce wasn't available in England and Wales until 1660, when it had been available over a century earlier in Scotland, and secondly that the words "single and unmarried" in an English marriage certificate circa the mid-20th century, as opposed to the word "bachelor", may in fact mean the intended was previously "divorced". I gave the final talk on the day about Scottish land records.
On Friday morning, my family and I got up early to observe the eclipse from Portugal! Thanks to some cloud cover, we actually got a brilliant view of the proceedings with the naked eye, as the cloud blocked most of the extraneous light from the sun, allowing us a perfect glimpse of the proceedings, as can be seen here!
For a variety of reasons to do with talks scheduling, an away day on Wednesday, and the much more changeable weather this year (we had a couple of days of rain), Friday morning was the one and only time where I was able to make a brief visit into the village of Carveiro and to then visit the beach at Rocha Brava, but fortunately the sun played ball for both, and we had a great final morning in the region. From 2pm we then had the final sessions of the week, with John Hanson discussing the use of maps in genealogy, Else discussing 17th century sources and strategies for English research, myself discussing how I researched the Scottish based Mount Stewart Murder of 1866 (the victim was an ancestor in what is Scotland's longest official cold case), and then Rebecca ending the week with a talk about the diary of a soldier's wife from the Peninsula Wars of the early 19th century. The week then finally ended with a meal at a restaurant within the resort.
In summary, the programme this year was much more varied with many more speakers than last year, and we had many more attendees, who all seemed to enjoy themselves. The scheduling was perhaps a wee bit too late into the day each day, although there were logistical reasons for that, but it was another highly enjoyable week - albeit with the sunshine a tad less prominent than last year! As well as the official programme, I was able to record interviews with both the SoG's Else Churchill and event organiser, and Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) founder Peter Calver, which I will hopefully be able to include in my next podcast in a few days time.
(With thanks to Peter Calver and all who attended)
The second day of the Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) hosted Genealogy in the Sunshine in Portugal should perhaps have been more accurately described as Genealogy in the Rain, as we had a bit of a downpour - but it did not dampen the enthusiasm of those attending! In the morning I participated at a brick wall brainstorming session with Else Churchill and John Hanson, before having a spot of lunch with the family.
I missed John's first talk in the afternoon on using censuses, but caught up with Debbie Kennett's talk on autosomal DNA tests. This was somewhat towards the more advanced user level, so whilst I understood enough of the talk to get me geared towards taking the Ancestry DNA test that is still waiting for me in my study back home, parts of it were a wee bit beyond me - though Debbie did stress that some of the options she was discussing on how to use the results were geared towards more expert users. Certainly what can be done with the results is impressive, with one example of a genetic family tree that somebody had created identifying DNA segments from many generations of ancestors way back into the early 19th century.
Else then gave an overview talk on the use of English and Welsh probate records on what was the most famous patron saint's day of the year, that's right, Saint Gertrude of Nivelle's Day (cats apparently!), and then I gave the final talk on Irish land records.
In the evening, whilst most of the delegates attended a 'Safari Supper', I ran an online chat session with students on my current Pharos course (Scottish Research Online) before chilling out with my wife and kids and a bottle of wine to toast both Saint Gertrude and of course, Saint Paddy! One note on Saint Paddy's Day is that this is the first year in a very long while where there was seemingly no big release of an Irish records collection by any of the major vendors, which was a tad disappointing - although about 5 minutes before I was due to do my talk Claire Santry did blog an important and useful update on the forthcoming Griffiths Valuation field books which have been digitised by the National Archives of Ireland, which I was able to inform those attending my talk about (and to credit her for!). Be prepared to be very depressed/amused as to why they have yet to go online - see Claire's post at http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2015/03/land-testamentary-csorp-records-from.html!
We're now well underway at Genealogy in the Sunshine in Portugal's Algarve, the second Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) hosted event at the Rocha Brava resort, and so far shaping up to be as much fun as the previous event in 2014.
The weather is every bit as good as last year, the wine is every bit as cheap, and most importantly of all, the craic is right up there with the first event!
However, I really think I amy be getting a wee bit ahead of myself here - so before I recount the day's proceedings, please first meet some friends of mine! :
This year we have a fair few more attendees, with something like 90 folk in all including partners, though only delegates are attending the genealogy conference side of things. My wife and kids are here with me, and all the same presenters from last year - Else Churchill, John Hanson, Debbie Kennett, Donald Davis and myself - and a few more, including John Reid from Ottawa and Donna Fraser from Vancouver, as well as Prof. Rebecca Probert, not to mention our host and MC, Peter Calver from Lost Cousins.
The main thrust of the programme is the afternoon based lectures from 2pm-6.30pm each day, but there is an optional morning session also, with a chance to catch up on some of the talks from last year - although today in fact started with a panel discussion comprised of Else, the two Johns and Debbie, with the topic being the Genealogy Proof Standard.
At 2pm, Else then kicked off the afternoon sessions with a look at how to try to get over brick walls that emerge in genealogy research, followed by Donald's lecture on the creation of the Victorian censuses and the discovery of some surviving 1841 household schedules, which he compared to the equivalent 1841 enumerators returns, putting to bed once and for all the idea that an enumerator's return is a 'primary source' - it is anything but, lots of differences between what was originally recorded and what ended up in the books we see today on sites such as Ancestry, FindmyPast, etc!
After a short coffee break, John Hanson provided an overview on FamilySearch, and then yours truly got stuck in with a look at Scottish marriage records, and the very different way that marriage law worked in Scotland, as compared to England (which Rebecca will be looking at later in the week). Of special note was Peter's very generous participation as a sun blind at one point, as the Portuguese sun temporarily got the better of us!
A great start to the conference, with a great crowd - roll on Tuesday, which is also Paddy's Day! Here's a few pics to illustrate the day...
Later today I'll be making my way to Portugal for the second Genealogy in the Sunshine conference (www.genealogyinthesunshine.com/2015info.htm), hosted by Peter Calver and Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) at the Rocha Brava resort near Caroveiro (or 'Carraveryeryo' as my boys kept pronouncing it last year!). I should hopefully have good wi-fi access there, as last year, and so hope to keep up with blogging whilst there. If the gremlins do for some reason get me, keep an eye out Monday and Tuesday for Irish genealogy developments, something good usually happens for Paddy's Day! :)
In his latest newsletter at http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/jan15news.htm, Peter Calver has announced that he now has a few more spaces available for his next Lost Cousins Genealogy in the Sunshine event in Portugal in March, a week long conference of talks from genies the length and breadth of Britain and beyond (including yours truly!).
Peter's also provided an update on his second Genealogy in the Sunshine venture in Portugal, happening next March. DNA guru Debbie Kennett and myself have previously been announced as attending once again as speakers, but now Peter can reveal that the whole speaking team from last year will be returning, with Else Churchill and John Hanson from the Society of Genealogists, and Vancouver based Donald Davis also set to hit the resort at Rocha Brava once again! For the first time also, Ontario based John D. Reid from the Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections blog (http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.co.uk) will be attending as a speaker, and there will be further speakers announced in due course.
Peter has mentioned that he already has 59 folk signed up, with just a few spaces left now. If you're still considering it, I'll give you my short sales pitch! There's a brilliant genealogy programme - that's a given! As for the rest... everywhere you look in Portugal there seems to be fresh oranges growing, the sun only stops shining at night, the beach is a five minute walk, the beer and wine is cheap, the food is brilliant, and at that time of the year, just before the main tourist season really kicks off, the roads are quiet enough so that when you mistakenly drive on the wrong side of the road for a few seconds, you should just get away with it. And, oh aye - there's a jeep safari!
My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records online course starts on November 5th, and runs for 5 weeks, priced at £45.99. Spaces are still available - see http://pharostutors.com/coursedescriptions.php#302
I'm delighted to confirm that I will be returning to the Rocha Brava resort on Portugal's Algarve next March 14th-21st to speak at the week long Lost Cousins conference event, Genealogy in the Sunshine, now heading for its second year. Also confirmed as a speaker for the 2015 event is DNA guru Debbie Kennett, with many other participants from the genealogy world due to be announced soon. Peter Calver, who is organising the event, is planning to make the 2015 event even bigger and better than the last one, with more speakers, more talks, and even more fun!
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