April free online events

Quite a few free family history events are coming up in April, covering a broad range of subjects.  Among them are, in chronological order:

Legacy Family Tree Videos and MyHeritage are jointly sponsoring the fourth annual 24-hour webinar marathon on 13th-14th April.  A wide variety of topics includes presentations on Irish, Polish, and Spanish research; genetic genealogy; and research methodology. Among the speakers are Elizabeth Shown Mills, Judy G. Russell, Cyndi Ingle, and Ugo Perego.  You can register at https://familytreewebinars.com/24-marathon/

The following day will see Scottish Indexes' 20th Conference, and, as has become customary for this internationally-inclusive event, each presentation will be aired twice to allow viewers from time zones around the world to watch and ask questions of the speakers.  The programme for the 15th April conference is:

Making the Most of Scottish Prison Records - Emma Maxwell

Caledonian Asylum Petitions - Lorna Kinnaird

My Cousin Sophia - Karen de Bruyne

Scottish Kirk Session Records - Chris Paton

Aberdeen Bodies: Bodysnatching, Riot & Dissection - Dr. Dee Hoole

Using DNA for Family History - Michelle Leonard

Keep an eye on the website for the day's timetable, which will also feature a general Q&A session with many of the presenters joining in.  This is one of the most popular aspects of this conference!

Finally, on Saturday 22nd April, the 33rd Scottish Association of Family History Societies' annual conference will take place online, running from 9am to 5.30pm UK time (which is now UTC+1/BST).  The theme of the day is "Haste Ye Back" and the scheduled speakers are as follows:

Emigrant Homecomings -  Prof. Marjory Harper

Digitising Aberdeen City Records - Dr. Jackson Armstrong

Oral History and Records - Tom McKean

Settling In and Creating Home in the North-East - Nicolas Le Bigre

Using DNA in Family History Research - Alasdair Macdonald

War Brides - Ken Nisbet

Sailing to Philadelphia - Alison Spring

Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy at least one of these events, and add to your family history research skills and knowledge!

Online Irish Records for St. Patrick's Day

 

If you have Irish ancestry, you may have been told that in Ireland “all the records were burned”.  Not so! And now many Irish family history records can be accessed online.  Below are just a few websites to get you started. 

Irish birth, marriage, and death records – indexed images from civil registration and earlier church records: Irish Genealogy.ie

Census records – the only remaining available years for all of Ireland are 1901 and 1911: National Archives of Ireland Census returns

Was your great-grandpa in the navy?  Search for his record at Irish Merchant Seamen 1918-1921

Ulster Covenant signatures – a huge petition in opposition to Irish Home Rule in 1912. Many signatures are from Irish migrants living in places such as Glasgow.

Many more record sites are listed at Ireland Online Genealogy Records on the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

And of course, with this being a frugal family history blog, all of these resources are completely free to search and view!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and happy ancestor hunting!

RootsTech 2023: Online and In-Person

 

This year, the RootsTech genealogy conference has morphed from its last two years’ online-only format into a hybrid event, meaning in-person attendance is now possible as in earlier years.  The significant online element has widened the event’s reach and made it more inclusive to those around the world for whom a trip to Salt Lake City is out of the question.  It also means that speakers don’t need to be on the ground at the conference, either.

Which is why for the third year running I’m able to contribute to the hundreds of video classes showing from 2nd of March onwards (or 11pm on the 1st if you’re in the UTC time zone).  This year, I’m giving the following presentations:

10 Sources for Researching Your Scottish Ancestors - Without Certificates

Learn about the best resources to use to track down your Scots ancestors when birth, marriage, or death certificates aren't available, or are hard to find. Many of these resources are free to use.

 

Frugal Family History - Tips for Tracing Your Family Tree on a Budget  

Tracing your ancestors need not be an expensive activity. Learn about many of the free resources that can be drawn on to grow your family tree.

 

Killing Off Your Ancestors - 10 Sources for Identifying Deaths  

Even though your ancestors may have lived long ago, finding out about their deaths can teach you a lot about their lives. Discover the many sources of information which will shed light on this important part of their history.

 

These videos will be available for at least twelve months, alongside my previous presentations for RootsTech.  You can find them all at 

https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/speakers/alison-spring/en

Each talk has an accompanying syllabus or handout which you can download from the same RootsTech page as the video, containing links to the websites I refer to.

Do get in touch with me if you have any questions about any of these RootsTech talks.

 

Happy St David's Day: National Library of Wales

 

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Credit: Rhyshuw1~enwiki , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

If you have Welsh branches in your family tree, these records, hosted by the National Library of Wales, are well worth exploring.

This list includes just a few of the indexed, original sources they have made freely available online.  I recommend exploring the website to see more of what they offer.

Crime & Punishment   

Tithe Maps 

Welsh Newspapers  

Welsh Journals including magazines 1735-2007 

Marriage Bonds pre-1837 

Wills proved in Welsh ecclesiastical courts before 1858 

There’s also a first-steps guide to family history research, a guide to church records in Wales,  and a list of independent researchers who carry out work for clients at the NLW.

So, with all those resources, you can start your search for your Welsh ancestors right away!

 

 

  This post was originally published in 2021. Links have been updated.