Explore (your family history)! Engage (learn from the experts)! Enjoy (the company of genealogy friends)
Have you registered? I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to hearing the talks delivered by the six marquee speakers: topics on DNA and Genetic Genealogy; sharing family history online; updates from the UK genealogy community; and ‘mind mapping’ for genealogy, and much more. Read on for further information about the talks that some of the 22 session speakers will present on:
There’s an old adage, loosely rewritten, ‘You need to know where you’re from to know where you’re going’ which may be attributed to Maya Angelou. This little phrase rings true with Sunny Morton’s sessions where she talks about unravelling the past and discovering the truth in those family stories that are passed down through the generations. These stories can often be the base of our family history or they may be what lights a fire for us to discover more about our roots. Do you have any ‘truths’ to pass on to your family and how will you back up your evidence?
The genealogy community has been encouraged to collaborate and share our research, making it fun and interesting for everyone, including the younger folks. Mark Thompson shares his family’s experience of transcribing and sharing their common ancestor Eleanor’s letters, while learning about their families’ interactions with historical events that occurred during the early ’20s, the Great Depression and World War Two. Mark will also share a few tips about how they plan to pass on these stores and life lessons to the next generations in their families. Maybe you will come away being inspired!
Our family often travelled during summer holidays to distant places when I was young, and one of the favourite things we did to prepare was to pore over maps to plan our route and choose famous landmarks to visit. The Secrets of Maps delivered by Sher Leetooze will uncover your ancestor’s connection to the land and help you find the hidden clues in the makeup of their villages and towns and distances that they may have travelled for work, entertainment or even to form relationships. Sher also covers the parish maps for Britain which she says is an important tool for everyone. Get your map pins ready!
Newspapers! Everyone loves a juicy story and where better to find it than in a newspaper article. In Dave Obee’s presentation, A Fresh Light on Old Newspapers, Dave explains the intricacies of OCR technology and the best search techniques to get past those disappointing results. His talk on Eastern European Research Online will be one you won’t want to miss, as Dave has been researching his ancestors in the old country for many years. He shares his experiences, in which he reveals a few scary moments, of visiting the villages where his ancestors lived in Eastern Europe. I have attended both of these talks and believe me, there is a lot to benefit from!
Arun Konanur’s 2 hour DNA session, Genetic AI: Methods for Automated Intelligence using CMA and AASK, has been rated as ‘Advanced’, so if you have been investigating and utilising your DNA results for a few years, the methods Arun shares will enhance your research. There will be a lot of help with this hands-on session, and you will be given guides and various tools to help you understand the process and, as well, a trial subscription to DNAGedcom. Arun believes that this process will be so useful to genealogists that he has filed a patent for his invention of a process called CMA, Correlated Multiphasic Analysis which, paired with various formulas and intel scripts, interrogates DNA and constructs relationships between existing DNA results in various databases. Be sure to add this workshop to your DNA schedule for the conference. You might just find your missing link!
Together in Toronto!
