A bargain, an event, and a website

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Today, for frugal family historians, I’m sharing a bargain, an event, and a website that could help you further your research in one way or another.

Bargain

If you’re thinking of taking a DNA test to discover more about your ancestry, the company MyHeritage is offering a limited-time price of £34 (+ £5 P&P) for their DNA test kits.  This is a pretty reasonable price as these kits tend to be more than double that – in this case, the regular price tag is £79.

No date for the end of the offer appears on the website; at least, not that I could see. You can get more mileage out of the test by uploading your results, free of charge, to the website GEDMatch.

This site has been involved in controversy about privacy and data security, having been used to trace criminals using the DNA database without the consent of the kit owners. You can read about it here. So you’d need to consider this when deciding whether or not to share your DNA test results with GEDMatch.

Event

On a more upbeat note, Scottish Indexes are holding a free virtual genealogy conference on 23rd November. You can watch on Zoom or via the Scottish Indexes Facebook group, and if you wish, join in by submitting questions for the presenters. 

The speaker programme runs twice throughout the day, covering time zones around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to the United States and Canada. About a week before the event, you'll be able to download a conference timetable for the region where you live. Join the event for as much or as little of it as you want. In between the talks are live Q&A sessions on the speakers’ topics, and there are also two general Q&As with the conference hosts.

This time, the presentations are as follows:

'On the Boll: agricultural and landholding terminology in Scottish records' by Robert Urquhart

'Housing the Miners' by Kay Williams

'Town and Gown – St Andrews University Archive' by Sarah Rodriguez

‘Historic Scotland in the archives: Using Historic Environment Scotland Archives to explore historic sites around Scotland’ by Joseph Waterfield

'Using the internet & PRONI for Northern Irish research' by Chris Paton

'Beyond ScotlandsPeople: Breaking Down Brick Walls in Scottish Research' by Alison Spring (yes, that's me).

Website

The Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh is the oldest and largest medical library in Scotland. Founded in 1682, it now hosts a range of digital collections of medical sources. You can explore these and find useful records such as a database of WWI doctors in Scotland, and information on English-speaking medical students in mainland Europe.

Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Digital Collections