Having spent an exceedingly enjoyable evening with over thirty professional genealogists last night in Glasgow City Centre, the walk to the SECC from the Ibis this morning – laden down with the laptop, books and other research material – was a little chillier than I had hoped. Travelling to Glasgow, I decided to pack for every eventuality from lovely summer sun to cold winter breezes and the weather has graced us with more of the latter than the former. To be honest though, when you are in an exhibition centre for most of the day, the climate outside is fairly irrelevant!
The Ask the Experts tables were booked up very early in the day and for me, today has been – for a large part – a day of trying to educate the genealogical public that names aren’t always written in a particular way. Many visitors to the Guild stand and Ask the Experts table have been utterly convinced that the way their ancestor’s names were spelt on the marriage certificate [or other document] was THE ONLY WAY. Thank to FamilySearch, Ancestry or FindmyPast, it’s easy to swiftly prove them wrong.
Barbados marriages, South African deaths, baptisms in Lancashire and tracing back a few generations of a Scottish family …. just a few examples of some of the advice given today, including passing on email addresses of researchers across the globe who can assist further. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!
And shortly, I will be heading to the Symposium on The Future of Professional Genealogy, having been invited to attend the discussion regarding the potential need for a framework for genealogical education, licensing and/or regulation. Watch this space – I’ll report back soon!
What a shame that today is the end of the event! I am sure that Immediate Media made a rash decision cancelling Sunday, but I guess we’ll never know how successful the three-day event would have been, so they will be raving about how fantastic it has been over two days.
