WDYTYA Live 2015 at Birmingham

After many years at Olympia in central London, Who Do You Think You Are? Live made its first foray out of the capital with the event in Glasgow last August.  The Scottish event was curtailed, so some doubted the move to The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) on the outskirts of Birmingham would be a success.  The announced return to the NEC next year, on the 7-9 April 2016, suggests otherwise.  For me, Birmingham had an added bonus of visiting my Aunty Dorothy, who attended the event for the first time.

Dorothy (not in period dress) in the 1939 cafe

Dorothy and myself are different kinds of attendee.  Dorothy was more interested in the talks than the vendor stands.  She found the Workshops listing on the WDYTYA? Live website difficult to find, navigate and print. That was an obstacle to her discussion on which talks were most interesting with the two friends she invited along.  An iphone/ipad app was an innovation this year, but there was no android app or Google calendar file for download and import.  Dorothy's relaxed approach was to arrive in time for lunch, attend a couple of talks, browse a few stands and chat with people in the 1939 cafe.  She enjoyed herself so much she came again the next day.




My full time 3 days required a lot more stamina, which I enjoyed just as much as Dorothy.  My focus included networking with other professional genealogists, learning about newly available resources, and helping people on their ancestral journeys.  I particularly enjoyed spotting Strathclyde alumni badges.  I managed to squeeze in only a few talks between stints on the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) stand and Ask the Experts. 

Ask the Experts area

My time giving expert advice flew by leaving me in need of the bottled water provided between each 20 minute session.  I helped people by reading secretary hand (an old style of handwriting), explaining property tenures, demonstrating online resources and search strategies, and pointing out records housed in offline archives.  An enquirer presented a type of document I had not seen before, so I also learned something new.

Attendee exploring records at the findmypast stand, The Genealogist Tithe Record poster

An important function of an exhibition is the demonstration of products.  The big online genealogy vendors, Ancestry, findmypast, My Heritage and FamilySearch all made their websites and records available for attendees to explore.  The Genealogist promoted their Tithe Record collection with a large poster, but provided no access to their website or records at all.  That was disappointing, as I particularly wanted to see the tithe maps.  On asking a staff member showed me the website on a tablet computer.  That was even more disappointing.

'Online map' and 'digital map' to most people means Google maps, bing, or satnav.  Mapping technology is now ubiquitous and there are plenty of examples of online historical maps, including tithe maps, that make good use of the technology.  In There Be Dragons – Finding Tithe Maps for England and Wales I voiced disquiet about this company's ability to present good quality online tithe maps.  Sadly, it seems my fears have been realized.  The map I was shown was a poor quality black and white image, which I think was from microfilm.  Neither the map image nor the pin markers were georeferenced or geocoded.  In my book, that makes the markers seriously un-smart. 

General Register Office stand

My experience at the General Register Office (GRO) stand was much more fruitful.  Following the Deregulation Act passed just a few weeks ago, it is now legal for civil registration records in England & Wales to be made available in a form other than an officially certified copy.  It will be up to the minister, whoever that will be after the election, to consult and implement any changes to current arrangements.  The GRO representative told me that about half of the registers have already been scanned, which is encouraging.

WDYTYA Live 2015 was stimulating and informative.  I look forward to next year.

EXPECTATIONS

WHAT CAN I EXPECT IN 2015?

It is at this time of the year that we all get bombarded by new year resolutions and with the launch of the Genealogy Do-Over by Thomas MacEntee many of us are reviewing our work at setting ourselves goals for this coming year.

It is important that we give ourselves time to reflect and for those of us in the northern hemisphere the long winter evenings can be the best time of year to do this.

As I may have mentioned previously last January I attended one of The Boot Camps that Thomas and Lisa Alzo have been running. 

Next weekend they are running their Research Right Boot Camp (which sold out within a day), if you have not been able to sign up for this then it will be available from the following week. I have managed to sign up for this and hope to pick up some useful tips.

I have not managed to do much research at archives in the past two or three years and have been concentrating on getting a new organisation system in place. 
Those limited visits I have made were to look for parish registers not yet available online. 
I am hoping that next weekend's Boot Camp will help me optimise my research process so that I can make the most of my visit to Salt Lake City next month.

GOALS

1. Complete my reorganisation process
2. Optimise the research process
3. Ensure that all my sources are cited as accurately as possible
4. Make the most of visiting my cousins in the US and Salt Lake City for the Rootstech/FGS 2015 Conference

HOW WILL I ATTAIN THESE

This may sound a little "corny" but as the words of that song say "with a little help from my friends".

The genealogy community are a supportive group of people and by sharing and supporting each other we can all achieve our goals.

We must be realistic in what we aim to achieve and reassess the situation when we don't reach the endpoint we wanted.

Thomas MacEntee urged everyone who participating in the Genealogy Do-Over to slow down. Speed is not important getting it right is our aim.

The right plan with realistic goals will get more done. "More haste, less speed" is the saying that comes to mind.
I have parish register microfiche and some English counties have digital images available online, once I know what I have then I can concentrate my research objectives on those records not available in my home or via the Internet.
Some may say that goal number 4 should be number 1 and in the short term that is true. However without the other goals then I may not attain number 4. Goals 1 and 2 may not be reached before I leave the UK and 3 most certainly will not but that does not mean I cannot achieve number 4.

Preparation will be the key to my success and in my March post I will tell you if I achieved my goal and in April how I plan to make the most of my trip to Who Do You Think You Are Live.

Next month I hope to give you my impression of the first day at Rootstech 2015/FGS conference.

The Changing Face of Genealogy Collaboration

We talk about collaboration and telling the stories of our family almost as though it is something new. Surely this is the real reason why so many of us get interested in genealogy in the first instance. Whatever our age we all like to hear about things that have happened be it last week or last century.

This month I have decided to write about collaboration and how the perception of genealogy has changed due to the internet and our increasing use of what is available to connect with others.

When I first started researching our family history (I am also researching my husband's family) the internet was in its infancy and we were on dial up. This was expensive and you would go online pick up your emails and read them later.

Collaborating with others was difficult but not impossible and like many others I used some of the Rootsweb mailing lists of relevance to my research interests.

The only other way of communicating with fellow researchers was to belong to a family history society to find other researchers and contact them by post.

Research in those early days, even just finding a reference to order a certificate, meant heading off to record offices or local archives where you had to trawl through microfiche or film to find what you wanted. There were some indexes available mainly through local family history societies which did help you find the right roll of film.

Programmes like WDYTYA http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t575 which is showing its 11th series in the UK have changed public perception and sparked interest in the hobby. Despite only a small proportion of the resources available being online, what is there has made a difference to the way we both conduct and record our research.

These changes have taken place over a relatively short space of time and it is true that there are those who have not truly embraced the changes.

There has been discussion on social networks about how family history societies may need to change to connect with the needs of their members. Some have been forward thinking and have reached out to researchers across the world by providing access to online education but this may not be an avenue that every society can or should copy.

The societies I belong to in England have changed some of the things they do but we must not forget that they rely upon volunteers. The direction that each society takes will depend upon who has the time and inclination to commit to the development of that society. This can lead to a society stagnating because none of its members has the inclination or time to commit to change. If you belong to a society which may be stuck in the past don’t forget to make suggestions, they may get ignored, but any society is only as good as its members are willing to make it.

What do you want from your society? Don’t forget to tell those who help run the society, you may find that others think the same.

I have mentioned discussion on social networks and these have become the equivalent of the mailing lists of the past but more. Facebook has groups for genealogy and Google+ has its communities. There are also others such as Twitter and Pintrest. Whereas we communicated by email and text in the past we now have a much more visual way of sharing. This has enhanced our ability to share our experiences but opened up more challenges when we publish online what might be copyrighted. Will these copyright challenges limit our experience?

We also interact using our blogs such as this one and many other individual blogs see Geneabloggers http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs/  maintained by Thomas MacEntee.

Whilst webinars http://blog.geneawebinars.com/ are an educational resource they can help provide pointers to things you may not be aware of and they are a great way to get information to those who may not be able to get to conferences or other genealogy events.

Video blogging using the Hangouts on Air on Google+ is becoming increasingly popular and allows genealogists from across the world to communicate by live discussion. They can also be used as a tool similar to webinars and a way to share how you do things.

To finish I would like to tell you about a Google+ community I am setting up to discuss how we get our genealogy software to work for us.

I will post on my blog http://masteringgenealogysoftware.blogspot.co.uk/ when I launch. I want this to be a discussion forum so that we can learn from each other, we all need to collaborate.

Sources - source of pride and envy

Two weeks ago, I flew to London to attend Who Do You Think You Are? Live! Although most genealogists I met were from the British Isles, I also got to meet genealogists from Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, United States, Australia, South Africa and India. Worldwide Genealogists In Real Live.

One of the most fun aspects of this year's visit was being an expert on 'Ask the Expert,' where visitors can book free 20-minute consults. You can read about my experiences as an expert on my blog. I also met fellow members of the Association for Professional Genealogists and talked to many people at the stands.

Me with my Dutchgenealogy.nl bag
(easier to spot than a rose in my lapel when meeting new people)

There was one thing I noticed while talking to this range of genealogists: how much we identify ourselves with our sources. Two genealogists from the UK independently told me, a bit smug, how their birth, marriage and death records go all the way back to 1837. Only to be surprised when I told them that in the Netherlands these records start in 1811, when the civil registration was introduced by Napoleon. Comparing our sources almost felt like a 'mine is bigger than yours' competition.

I must admit I take pride in the excellent records we keep in the Netherlands. I often work with genealogists from the US, where records typically start later or are less informative than their Dutch counterparts. Take US census records, for example. These only record families every 10 years (or 5 years if you are lucky and the state held a census in between the federal censuses). In the Netherlands, since 1850 we have had population registers that describe whole households, but they were kept up-to-date. Families were required to report their departure and arrival so the municipality could make sure the registers accurately reflected its residents. These records are so useful for genealogy and I love educating Dutch Americans about the possibilities for research in the Netherlands.

Example of a population register (Breda, 1917-1938)

It wasn't until I talked to these UK genealogists that I realized that pride in our sources can come across as snobbery. I'm used to being at the 'high end' of these comparisons, where my sources 'trump' those of my discussion partner. These UK genealogists were obviously used to that as well. The way we talked about our sources was almost like we felt superior to the other, which is strange since none of us have any influence on the hand we are dealt.

Genealogy Standards¹

In fact, I think there is an upside to having fewer sources available. Over the last two years, I have been emerging myself in genealogical methods and standards as they are taught in the US, to prepare myself to become a Certified Genealogist. The Americans are light years ahead in terms of methodology, compared to genealogical education in the Netherlands. When you have fewer and less informative sources to work with, you must learn how to make the most of them.

In the Netherlands, the solution to almost any brick wall is always "find more sources." Building a case using indirect evidence even seen as sloppy genealogy by some, because you did not put in the effort to make another trip to the archives to find real evidence. In the US, genealogists need to learn how to combine indirect evidence from a range of sources to prove their case.

Reading about their techniques has been an epiphany for me and has helped me to solve several of my own brick walls. Techniques that work for finding enslaved ancestors have helped me trace serf ancestors. Lesson learned: no matter how wonderful our sources are, we can all learn from each other.

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Notes

1. Board for Certification of Genealogists. Genealogy Standards, 50th-anniversary edition. Nashville, Tenn.: Ancestry, 2014. 100 pp., paper, ISBN 978-1-63026-018-7.