Tag Archives: family history education

Rootstech Ramblings – my pick from the live online schedule

by thehistoryinterpreter

So the Rootstech schedule is now available and the excitement is building as we can begin to plan our time for the three days of intensive family history fun from 29 February to 2 March. Do you need to head off to Salt Lake City? – no – although I am sure in-person attendance would be great. Do you need to part with large sums of hard earned cash? Again no, if you are attending virtually, as I am, absolutely free. If you haven’t registered yet you can do so here.

I’ve been trawling the schedule of online talks deciding how to spend my time. It has required tricky choices, as there are often clashes but here is what I’ve decided. Bear in mind that there are plenty of great sessions and because this is not geared to UK time, I have had to forego some presentations that really are in the middle of the night. You can make you own choices here.

These are my decisions, though I reserve the right to change my mind. I’ll be back to tell you about some of them after the event. Thursday first. I am going to kick off at 3pm UK time with Nicholas Dixon’s Metropolitan Ancestors: finding families in Georgian and Victorian London. This complements my own ten minute recorded session that you can view any time London Calling, listing some key online resources for London research. With Smith ancestors in London this one is a must. I’ll follow it with Who is my Ancestor? Tracing individuals with similar names by D Joshua Taylor. Although it is US based, I thought it might be fun. Then an evening session with Diane L Richard Researching Modern Ancestors: unlocking the life of an English Rose, focussing on twentieth century research. This takes me to past my bedtime, so I will call it a night.

Friday next. I thought I’d listen in to the Impact Forum about the impact of family history beyond the genealogy community. I’ve changed my mind several times about the 7pm session but have gone for Reconstructing the Lives of our Female Irish Ancestors by Stephanie O Connell. I don’t have any Irish ancestors of my own, although my grandchildren do but with Forgotten Women in mind, I thought it would be interesting. No choice for what follows as it is my own Marginalised Ancestors talk, so I guess I’d better be there. The talk is written but is a bit too long, so I will need to decide what to leave out. It is going to be a fun talk to do going forward, as I can swap the case studies in and out for variety. Just a heads up. I will be mentioning my Marginalised Ancestors book, which is due to be published on 29 February. At the moment, you can pre-order this at a reduced price from Pen and Sword here. I am not sure if this offer will still be available by 1 March, when I am giving the talk, so if you think you might want the book of the talk, now is the time.

On Saturday I am going for Finding your Common Name Ancestor, with Shaunese Luthy – those Smiths again. Then, with my interest in the history of medicine in mind, Diseases our Ancestors Faced and How those Illnesses Changed our World with Gregory C Gardner. I am going to finish my smorgasbord of in real time talks with Nick Barratt’s Researching English Industrial Labourers.

But there’s more – literally hundreds of recorded talks that I can pick and choose from over the coming weeks. I’ll be back to tell you about my choices from these another time.

Oooh and I’ve just spotted that these delivered live talks will also be available after the event. I’ll definitely be reviewing the schedule and adding more from those that clashed with my choices, or were at less favourable times.

Tales of sorting the garage/sheds and garden will resume shortly – P.S. 190 boxes.

Are your Ancestors Dead? – a family history post

by thehistoryinterpreter

One thing that all but our most recent ancestors have in common is that they are dead. Particularly when we first start out on our genealogical journey, we all have those ancestors hanging from our family tree who are 327 and we have not yet killed them off, in the nicest possible way. The temptation is to focus on births/baptisms and marriages, as they are more likely to progress our tree but it is vital to seek out deaths/burials as well. It is not unusual to find people constructing a tree based on someone who died at the age of two, so could not possibly have married great-granny. It is not just about when they died though; what about the how and the why. Do you know how your ancestors died, or what conditions were prevalent at the time of their deaths, or how their occupation might have impacted on their health? Do you know your byssinosis from your convulsive ergotism and which ancestor would be more likely to suffer from which?

The health problems and deaths of our ancestors are an integral part of our family’s history. Sickness was a very real fear for those who lived in past centuries, diagnosis was not straightforward and cures and preventatives could be ‘unusual’ at best and useless at worst. Illness and disease was such a fundamental part of our ancestors’ lives that we owe it to them to investigate this aspect further, if we want those ancestors to be more than just a two-dimensional name on a page. I do have a particular interest in this topic and several of my presentations cover aspects of the history of medicine. A number of you will have heard tales of my ancestors who habitually fell off (or into) things.

This is the time of year when I revisit this topic, as I am about to present my five-week online course for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring In Sickness and in Death researching the ill-health and death of your ancestors. If you think this post is some kind of convoluted advertisement, you’d be right but it is also because I feel that this is a very important but often neglected, topic. The course will help you to set your ancestors’ lives in context by looking at the illnesses, disabilities and diseases that brought about their deaths or had an effect on their well-being. It covers a variety of records that might provide information about ill-health, or causes of death for specific ancestors, or about prevalent threats to health in the past. The causes, symptoms and treatment of various illnesses are investigated in all their gory and fascinating detail and significant medical developments of the last 400 years are explored. If any of my writer friends have persevered this far, it could be great for historical novelists too. The first lesson begins on 13 August, so if you do want to fill one of the remaining spaces, don’t delay. It can all be done in your own time, from the comfort of your own keyboard, so there are no excuses. The only part that is time-prescribed is the weekly online ‘chat’. I should add that no webcams are used in this process, all you need to do is to type your comments, so you are free to join in wearing your pyjamas. The sources that are referred to are from English records, as they are what I have access to but the principals apply world-wide and you are encouraged to relate what you have learned to your own ancestors.

Advert over – normal service will resume shortly and yes, I know I have left you hanging in Cornwall – one more post to get us home soon, I promise.

Bill of Mortality