Spring 2015 Speaking Events

Spring 2015 Schedule of Speaking Events

I often get asked when and where can I come and hear you speak. This spring I get to speak in a number of different locations in northern Illinois, but also in Missouri and Canberra, Australia. Come and join me if you can and if you already read my blog please do introduce yourself.

15 Jan. 2015 – Town and Country Public Library, 320 E. North Street, Elburn, IL . For more Info.

A New Location: Steps for Quickly Getting Started

17 Jan. 2015 – Cary Area Library, 1606 Three Oaks Road, Cary, IL . For more Info.

A New Location: Steps for Quickly Getting Started

7 Mar. 2015 – Midwest Genealogy Center, 3440 S. Lee’s. Summit Road, Independence, MO. For More Info.

Finding Your English Ancestors: The Big Four
Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: The Big Five
Effective Use of England’s National Archives Website
Are You Lost: Using Maps, Gazetteers and Directories for British Isles Research

16 Mar. 2015 – Zion Genealogical Society of Lake County, IL, Beach Park Village Hall, 11270 W. Wadsworth, Beach Park, IL For more Info. (A Reschedule)

Finding Your Ancestors in Ireland

26-30 Mar. 2015. – 14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry – Canberra, Australia. For More Info.

Scotland – Maps and Gazetteers for Research
Buried Treasures: What’s in the English Parish Chest
Tracing Your Pre-WWI British Soldiers
Digging for Gold – Locating British Miners and their Records
Genealogical Lecturing Skills (lunchtime talk)

14 May 2015 – McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society, Pointe Outreach Center, 5650 Northwest Hwy, Crystal Lake, IL For More Info.

Finding Your English Ancestors: The Big Four

Unlock The Past 8th Genealogy Cruise to the Baltic Seaports

Saturday 11 July 2015 to Saturday 25 July 2015 Baltic Cruise — 8th Unlock The Past Genealogy cruise from Southampton to the Baltic Seaports 11-25 July 2015.

Unlock The Past Cruise to the Baltic Seaports is scheduled and space is filling up. If you are interested check it out on the UnLock The Past website. I recently gave 24 different lectures, in three cities and I promoted the cruise at those venues. Since returning I have had further inquiries so I thought it best to post a fresh reminder of where to find information and summarize the trip – some may say a trip of a lifetime – and you get to hear me again 🙂 This is the companies 8th Genealogy Cruise – for 14 nights from Saturday 11 July 2015 to Saturday 25 July sailing from Southampton England to the Baltic Seaports aboard the Celebrity Eclipse, operated by Celebrity Cruises.

The key speakers are Paul Milner (myself, just in case you came here via a search engine and you missed who’s blog you are reading); Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List fame (http://cyndislist.com) from the United States; Carol Baxter, the History Detective, a great history writer from Australia (www.carolbaxter.com) ; and Chris Paton from Scotland who writes British GENES, a must-read blog for keeping up-to-date on the news from the genealogy world in the British Isles (http://britishgenes.blogspot.com). Other confirmed speakers include Rosemary and Eric Kopittke, Helen Smith, and Shauna Hicks from Australia; Daniel Horowitz from Israel; Dr. Janet Few, Caroline Gurney and Jane Taubman from England; and Carol Becker from the United States. The presentations in the program are still being worked out but you can see the outline. No matter your interests it will be a great conference and you will get to hear some of the best speakers in the world and have opportunities to learn from one another.

This cruise will offer over 100 topics offered in 50 sessions; special interest groups; Research Help Zone times offering one-on-one and small group opportunities with the experts; opportunities to purchase Unlock The Past and author publications; with visits to some of the world’s great cities along the way. There is also an additional signup bonus for those singing up by November 10 – see website for details. Please also note that much of the cabin block assigned for this conference is selling out fast, so if you are interested make contact soon.

From Southampton the cruise will sail to: Zeebrugge (Brussels) Belgium; Warnemunde, Germany; Muuga (Tallinn) Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; and returning to Southampton.

To book the cruise or for more information check out Unlock The Past site at www.unlockthepastcruises.com/cruises/8th-unlock-the-past-cruise-baltic . If the schedule for this genealogy cruise does not meet your need, check out the upcoming Unlock The Past cruises sailing across the Atlantic; a European river cruise; or around Australia and New Zealand. There is certainly lots to choose from, and all are well organized conferences.

Come Join Us.

Early Registration for British Institute closes September 15

Header for the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History from their website

Early Registration Closes September 15 for the British Institute.

The 2014 British Institute to be held 20-24 October in Salt Lake City is organized by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History.

This year’s speakers and topics are:

Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond by Paul Milner
Scottish laws, regulations and records are different from the rest of the British Isles, yet with enough similarities to create confusion for the unwary. This course will address the fundamentals of all the major record groups, examining how to search the indexes, exploring what is and is not available online. Case studies will highlight the research and record evaluation processes to determine next steps. Individual consultations are available to assist each participant with their personal research.

Researching Your Irish Ancestors by David Rencher
This course is designed to help the student of Irish genealogical research, whether beginning or advanced. Strategies for establishing a sound beginning and building on that foundation using proven research techniques will be coupled with an understanding of what records sources are available online, on microfilm and in Ireland. Individual half-hour consultations are provided with the course coordinator to assist each participant with ways to extend their research.

Welsh Family History Made Simple by Darris Williams
Welsh family history is different from other localities in some significant ways. Those differences are not impossible roadblocks. Understanding the peculiarities is a good first step to success. Record knowledge is important but not the key. Understanding how to search, evaluate evidence and collate information will resolve many difficult research situations. This course will provide examples of problems, aw well as strategies and skills for learning more about your ancestors.

From Simple to Complex: Applying Genealogy’s Standards of Acceptability to British Research by Tom Jones
Through hands-on activities, lectures, and discussions, participants will learn how to use widely accepted standards to measure their genealogical work’s accuracy and to assess others’ genealogical conclusions. In the process they also will learn about genealogical research planning, its implementation, genealogical reasoning, and the preparation of credible genealogical products.

For speaker biographies, details on lodging and registration go to www.isbgfh.org

Yes, I am teaching the week long course on Scottish Research so do come join us.

Registration for British Institute 20-24 October 2014 now open

British Institute Program details from website

Registration for the 2014 British Institute is now open. The British Institute is 20-24 October, 2014 at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah, and arranged by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History.

The classes are small enough to allow for good student / teacher interaction in 20 hours of classes, plus one on one guidance sessions with the instructor next door in the world renowned Family History Library.

This years instructors are: Tom Jones – From Simple to Complex: Applying Genealogy’s Standard of Acceptability to British Research; David Rencher – Researching your Irish Ancestors; Paul Milner – Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond; Darris Williams – Welsh Family History Made Simple.

Note – Early Registration ends 15 August and the price goes up. These courses do fill up so make your reservations early.

Come join us as this will be a great learning experience and you can immediately put what you learn into practice in the best genealogy library in the world.

Unlock The Past 8th Genealogy Cruise from England to the Baltic Seaports 11-25 July 2015

Unlock The Past has confirmed the key speakers on its 8th Genealogy Cruise for 14 nights from Saturday 11 July 2015 to Saturday 25 July sailing from Southampton England to the Baltic Seaports aboard the Celebrity Eclipse, operated by Celebrity Cruises.

The key speakers are Paul Milner (myself, just in case you came here via a search engine and you missed who’s blog you are reading); Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List fame (http://cyndislist.com) from the United States; Carol Baxter, the History Detective, a great history writer from Australia (www.carolbaxter.com) ; and Chris Paton from Scotland who writes British GENES, a must-read blog for keeping up-to-date on the news from the genealogy world in the British Isles (http://britishgenes.blogspot.com). Other speakers who have provisionally signed up include Rosemary and Eric Kopittke, and Helen Smith from Australia; and Carol Becker from the United States. All but Cyndi Ingle have been on past Unlock The Past genealogy cruises, so are well known by this cruising audience.

From Southampton the cruies will sail to: Zeebrugge (Brussels) Belgium; Warnemunde, Germany; Muuga (Tallinn) Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; and returning to Southampton.

Come Join Us.

Discover English Parish Registers – My new book

I’m pleased to announce that copies of my latest book – Discover English Parish Registers are now available in both print and electronic formats. It is published by Australian publisher Unlock the Past. You can purchase the e-book here for AUS$7.95 and the print copy here for AUS$17 includes GST.

Here’s how the book is described by the publisher. One note to North American readers – it’s written appropriately in the Queen’s English.

English parish records are a fundamental source for English research. In this detailed guide, family historian Paul Milner explains how and why the records were created, beginning in 1538, what the records look like and what information they contain. A well-illustrated case study, with plenty of twists and turns, shows why care is needed to trace back in time from one generation to the next. The guide continues by explaining how and where to access the records (online, microfilm, originals or in print) and concludes by explaining what to do when you can’t find your ancestors in the records.

Here is a practical guide that will help the beginner to avoid mistakes in climbing the family tree, yet the depth and details are here to assist the experienced researcher in understanding how to get the most from parish registers. This publication is a definitive guide to English parish registers that you will wish you had when you first started your research.

2014 Plans for the Future

2014 Plans for the Future

In my last post I reflected on the happenings of 2013. In this post I will use the same themes and share what I have planned for 2014.

Blog and Writing – On the blog I will continue to highlight and review new online and print resources. If there is a topic that you would specifically like to know about let me know and I will see how if I can point you towards good resources.

In addition I want to focus on the fact that 2014 is the centenary of the start of World War One. Almost anyone with family connections in the British Isles in 1914 will have someone who served in the war or was affected by the war. All the new online indexes are making it so much easier to find family members who served in one of the branches of the armed services or the auxiliaries. What I am finding though is that students don’t appreciate what they have found, what the records contain, or what clues they provide to go to the next step. I plan on examining some of the records in detail and demonstrating how to go further.

I am also working with a good friend, a technologically savvy genealogy blogger, to provide mutual support to write for our blogs on a consistently regular basis. The hope and expectation is that we will both post on a more consistent schedule.

In other writing, I am working on a manuscript explaining the records within the English Parish Chest, to be published by UnlockThePast. I will let you know when my new book, already with the publisher – Discovering English Parish Registers becomes available.

I will also continue doing my reviews for the Federation of Genealogical Society’s FORUM magazine, plus for the newsletter of the British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois (BIGWILL).

Genealogical Speaking – I teach an English track and a Scottish track at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama as part of a three year cycle with David Rencher teaching the Irish track this year. This therefore is my year off while David teaches.

Instead I will be teaching a week long program for the 2014 British Institute – Scottish Research: Understanding the Fundamentals and Beyond – October 20-24 in Salt Lake City for the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. Plan on coming to join me for what will be a great learning opportunity. I will also be lecturing at both national conferences – National Genealogical Society conference in Richmond, Virginia (May 7-10) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in San Antonia, Texas (Aug 27-30). In addition there will be a number of regional and local events. Keep an eye on my schedule for a more complete itinerary.

Personal Research – I hope to make some time for my own research, especially my Milner, Finnigan and Doran lines. I will try to share some of their stories. I will be using my World War One focus to explore and learn more about my many family members who served and died during the war.

Please Join Me in this journey by reading my blog regularly, which you can do by subscribing to the RSS feed or subscribing to an email version of this blog. If you know fellow researchers with a British Isles interest do not keep me a secret, let them know you are reading my blog and suggest they may enjoy it.

Happy Hogmaney to all my readers. Let’s all enjoy 2014 and do good research.

2013 Reflection

Happy New Year.

The New Year is a time to reflect upon the past year and to look forward to the new. In this post I am going to reflect upon 2013, and I will make a new posting for what is planned or hoped for in 2014.

2013 has been a great year in many ways.

Blog and Writing– One obvious genealogical activity has been the creation of this blog. I started it in January 2013 in preparation for the trip to Australia. My focus has been to review and highlight new resources for British Isles research. I have occasionally shared research about my own ancestors along the way.

My Genealogy at a Glance: English Research, published by Genealogical Publishing Company late in 2012 has been selling well throughout the year. I have written the manuscript for Discover English Parish Records which will be published by UnLockthePast publishing early in 2014. I will let you know when it is released.

I continue to write book reviews for The FORUM, the quarterly newsletter of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the bi-monthly newsletter of the British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois. This activity is a large part of my personal learning process.

Genealogical Speaking – This has been a bumper year with 80 presentations given to audiences on three continents, in three countries – United States of America, Australia and England. Let me give a few more details.

The first overseas trip to Australia started with an UnlockthePast cruise conference from Sydney to Noumea and Fiji, though our cruise never made it to Fiji (electrical trouble!). This was followed by lectures in six cities: Sydney; Brisbane; Perth; Adelaide; Canberra and Melbourne. The trip included 39 lectures covering a wide variety of English, Scottish and Irish research. There was also lots of interaction with enthusiastic and knowledgeable British Isles researchers.

The second overseas trip was to the Exodus: Movement of the People international conference in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England where I gave two presentations on Irish and Scottish Migration to North America.

In the United States I taught a week of classes on Scottish Research at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Birmingham, Alabama. This along with lectures given at the Federation of Genealogical Societies national conference, regional and local events has made it a great year.

Personal Research – this has focused primarily on my Milner line. I learned about my Australian convict James Milner and got to visit the area of Tasmania where he lived. I wrote about this visit in my blog earlier this year. On the trip to England I spent three wonderful days visiting churches and communities where my ancestors come from in Kent. I also got to photograph parish registers still held by two Roman Catholic Parishes, looking for my Finnegan and Doran ancestors in west Cumbria. Nevertheless, with all the speaking and writing there is never enough time to do the personal research that I would love to be doing.

Exodus: Movement of the People Conference – Hinchley, Leicestershire, England

I leave today to travel to Hinchley in Leicestershire England to speak at the Exodus: Movement of the People Conference on 6-8 September. The focus is on the story of migration from, to and within the British Isles.
The three day event provides a who’s who’s of lecturers from the genealogy and academic history community from around the world all focused on one subject – British migration. There are twenty-one sessions given by eighteen speakers. I am giving two lectures:
Scottish Emigration to North America: Before, During and after the Rebellions
Irish Emigration to North American: Before, During and after the Famine.
If you are interested in seeing the program have a look at www.Exodus2013.co.uk. I am interested in seeing in what ways the British events are different from the American, Canadian and Australian events at which I have spoken. I will provide some feedback.

Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research: Scottish Research Track

Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, June 9-14 at Samford University, Birmingham Alabama.

I am excited as next week I get to teach a whole week course on Scottish Research. IGHR as it is more familiarly known is the longest running Genealogical Institute in North America, and possibly the world. It has been operating for over 45 years. There are 10 education tracks running simultaneously. Courses for England, Scotland and Ireland are offered on a three year cycle. I coordinate and teach the English and Scottish courses, while David Rencher, the Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch teaches the Irish course.

This will be an intense week for the 25 adult learners in the class. 19 lectures with computer class time over the 4.5 days of the Institute.

•    Scotland — Definitions, Sources, Repositories and Processes
•    Scottish Emigration to North America
•    History of Scotland
•    Scotland — Internet: Commercial Sites
•    Scotland — Internet: Free Sites
•    Find the Correct Place: Maps and Gazetteers
•    Civil Registration
•    Making Sense of the Census
•    Church Records for B/M/D
•    Kirk Session and Poor Relief Records
•    Inheritance: Wills and Executries
•    Inheritance and Transfer of Land/Buildings
•    Burghs and Their Records
•    Occupation Records
•    Scots in the British Military (2 sessions)
•    Overlooked Sources: 17th and 18th Centuries
•    Overlooked Sources: 19th and 20th Centuries
•    Planning your Trip to Scotland

Think about IGHR for your future educational needs as it is too late to register for this year