Migration Talk at Society of Genealogists

I am giving a talk about Mother Nature’s Impact on Family Migration & Relocation for the Society of Genealogists on 4 January 2024.

People have migrated away from their places of birth for eons. Within recorded history we can trace the dislocation of families, indeed whole communities, because of war, politics, religious persecution, racial and cultural intolerance, employment or lifestyle prospects, and any of a number of other societal-related reasons.

But there were many circumstances where Mother Nature had an important impact on the decisions people made to pick up and leave. Among these are:

·         long-term changes to the environment through climate change,

·         gradual alteration of habitat through natural processes, and

·         loss of homes, businesses or family members from disasters.

Sometimes the moves were relatively local – across a parish or county; sometimes they were across the country; sometimes people moved from rural to urban settings; sometimes moves involved travel to other parts of the globe.

Throughout most of their existence, humans have been preoccupied by the need to obtain food. And for at least the last 100 centuries that involved primarily first-hand production in agricultural settings. Because of that, the condition and quality of the land being cultivated has been of paramount importance. When natural phenomena prevailed to impede the capability of producing food – through such events as drought, floods, land erosion, weather, or other disasters – many people elected to seek out better conditions elsewhere.

Tune in to learn more about whether Mother Nature played a role in your own ancestors’ lives. The presentation is aimed at everyone curious about reasons their ancestors moved.

Tree Inconsistencies Presentation

I am giving a talk about finding and fixing Tree Inconsistencies on 21 December 2023 to the Family Tree Plus Gadgets Club meeting.

You need to be a member of Family Tree Plus, either on a 7-day free trial, a one-month pass or a full member, which gets you access to all of their benefits in addition to the magazine subscription.

I will go through the use of the MyHeritage Consistency Checker, which I explored on a blog post on 31 October 2023 as well as describe how inconsistencies and mistakes can be identified and fixed using several programs many of us use in keeping our own trees organized. In the mix are short discussions about identifying problems in the Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic and Legacy genealogy programs.

We all know the problems that can arise when assembling family trees, especially those in the public realm. Often, they revolve around the addition of the wrong people which results in errors in whole family lines. Other mistakes include confusing people with the same or similar name.

What I will look at in the presentation are the honest mistakes we might make in recording data, how we can recognize them and what we can do to correct them.

These we can put down as Tree Inconsistencies.

Tune in if you have an interest in keeping your family tree at least mostly error-free.

Family History Federations’ REALLY USEFUL Family History Show

I am pleased and honoured to be able to have a presentation included in the FHFRUFHS next week – November 17-18, 2023.

This year the show has many very interesting workshops on offer. Some lucky people who register early will get to participate with the facilitators. There will be expert panel “open to anyone who would like to discuss or receive advice on genealogical challenges by interacting with the experts.” The event will have an exhibition hall and, even if you cannot attend in person, you can always email the vendors.

There will be several other pre-recorded specialist talks. One of these will be mine. The timing of the presentation has yet to be confirmed.

I put together a summary of the information search, including all the twists and turns I encountered, for my wife’s great-grandmother, Elizabeth Couper (1833-1904). The exercise was a learning process about how and where to search for Scottish records. We learned important lessons about the accuracy of records as well as the veracity of those who provided information to complete those documents.

Find out more on the website.

Buy a ticket and enjoy the proceedings.