Tuesday, 31 December 2019

2019 Year in Review


Blog Posts

I posted 19 times on my Discover Genealogy blog and 17 times on my Mother Nature’s Tests blog. This activity was not quite as busy as in past years as time was taken up with research and writing of many other articles.

Published Articles

It was a busy year for writing articles for various magazines and journals. I had ten of them published in 2019:
·         Changing LandscapesDiscover Your Ancestors magazine – April, number 72
·         A Family Tragedy: The 1866 Pennine FloodGoing In-Depth magazine – July, volume 7, number 6
·         Finding Birth Parents: Success and Not-So-MuchCrossroads, the quarterly journal of the Utah Genealogical Association – Fall issue
·         Should you start a One-Name Study if there is no one to take it over?Journal of One-Name Studies, quarterly journal of the Guild of One-Name Studies – July-September, volume 13, number 7
·         The Great Frost & FamineFamily Tree (UK) magazine – Christmas issue, volume 36, number 3
·         The History of Old OccupationsFamily Tree (UK) magazine – March, volume 35, number 6
·         Losing the ‘a’: A reminder lesson surname spellingThe Devon Family Historian, the quarterly journal of the Devon Family History Society, February, number 169
·         Families in Peril: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12 - Going In-Depth magazine – April, volume 7, number 3
·         Surname Search Limitations for a One-Name Study - Journal of One-Name Studies, quarterly journal of the Guild of One-Name Studies – October-December, volume 13, number 8
·         Memphis Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878Internet Genealogy magazine – December/January, volume 14, number 5

One of my 2018 articles for the Journal of One-Name Studies won a Guild Award of Excellence given in April 2019:
·         Surnames Origins – Why? When? Why then? – October-December 2018, volume 13, number 4

Presentation & Webinars Given

I presented the following talk to the English & Welsh Special Interest Group of the Alberta Family Histories Society in January and to a genealogy group of retired teachers in March. It was also the subject of a webinar for the Virtual Genealogical Association in July:
·         Using Parish and Other Records . . . to determine now natural phenomena affected people and communities in the past

Plans for 2020

I have submitted four articles for publication and have several others in various stages of research and writing.

I am scheduled to present talks to the Family Tree Live 2020 conference in London in April. And I will be giving a webinar as part of the Legacy Family Tree Webinars in May and another to the Virtual Genealogical Association Conference in November.

This on top of the hopefully more regular blog posts and my own family history research.

Thank You. . .

. . . to all me regular blog readers. I hope you have found at least some of the posts of interest and value. I look forward to contributing other useful information next year.



Friday, 20 December 2019

Family Tree Live 2020 (London) Talks



I am going to London in April 2020 to attend and deliver three presentations at Family Tree Live, hosted by Family Tree magazine (UK) in partnership with the Family History Foundation. See their website for all the details.

My talks include:

·         Genealogy and the Little Ice Age: Information and perspective offered concerning studies of the families living during the prolonged harsh living conditions of the Little Ice Age (1300-1850AD), and

·         The Great Frost & Famine: The impact of the 1739-41 cold weather event on people and communities across Europe; a model for other similar events of the Little Ice Age.

I will also do a workshop about:

·         Natural Phenomena and their effects on the lives of our ancestors: Examples of how different types of natural phenomena significantly impacted lives and livelihoods in the past centuries and how people responded or adapted.

Tickets are now on sale for the event. I hope many of my readers here will be able to join me on April 17th and 18th, 2020, at historic Alexandra Palace.



Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Christmas Memories


At this time of year, most of us think about past Christmases, the times we were growing up or raising our own families. If we are lucky, we can relive those occasions with pictures. In this post I present highlights of seven decades of Christmas festivities in several photo compilations.

I can only go back to the 1950s in this selection. I do have hundreds of photos taken in previous decades, but, curiously, none were taken during the Christmas season. Maybe I will have to do a Summer pictorial later.

Common themes in these montages are Christmas trees, gifts and, of course, dinners. Many celebrations were also centred on children and grandchildren. I have lost count of the number of turkeys that were consumed, or the gallons of wine that were downed, not to mention the (probable) tons of fruits and vegetables and acres of pies that were part of the feasts.

But mostly the memories are about the people – both family and friends – who gathered to share the fun. Christmas was one of those times when families made a point of getting together, some occasionally travelling great distances to be part of the gatherings.

Many of those pictured are no longer with us, but we have these photos to remember them and the joyful times we shared.

The 1950s…


The 1960s…


The 1970s…


The 1980s…


The 1990s…


The 2000s…




The 2010s…


I hope all readers of Discover Genealogy have a wonderful Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.