Day Two of AFFHO Congress 2015
I missed the morning sessions on Saturday as I wasn’t
feeling very well that morning. I had
been planning on going to Pauleen Cass’ talk The Marriage of Local and Family History – A Bridge
to the Past, & Paul Milner’s Scotland - Maps and Gazetteers for Research.
So my first presentation for the day was by Jenny
Joyce, The UK Gazettes – A Treasure Trove
of Information for Family History. Jenny
used a variety of examples from the gazettes to illustrate the range of
resources that are in the gazettes & how they can help you research
ancestors, events & the social history of an area. She also demonstrated how to access the
gazettes online.
I attended the lunchtime session, Volunteering at The National Archives,
by Roger Kershaw. He presented an
interesting list of the social, emotional & work-related benefits of being
a volunteer at the archives. Roger also
displayed some data that showed how many hours were spent on a project by
volunteers & compared it to how long it would have taken a paid employee to
complete the same work & how much it would have cost the archives to pay
that employee. What can be achieved by
volunteers (the whole ‘crowdsourcing’ concept) is staggering! It costs almost nothing & is done in a
fraction of the time, allowing more resources to be accessed by anyone online.
The afternoon keynote address was by Richard Reid, If You Ever Go Across the Sea to Ireland:
Realities of 19th Century Ireland. I have ancestors from several Irish counties. Richard really put the scope of emigration
from north-west Donegal to NSW from 1859 - 1865 into perspective. My 3rd great grandfather emigrated
from this area in 1861. The richness of
his descriptions of the conditions in Dunfanaghy & the wider area of Cloughaneely
inspired me to buy his book, Farewell my Children
so that I could learn more about the area specifically & emigration from
Ireland around this time in general.
Kerry Farmer’s talk was Learn More from Autosomal & X-Chromosome DNA. I had my DNA tested about 2 years ago but I
haven’t really been able to do anything with it so far. After listening to Kerry’s talk, I know that
if I can get my parents’ DNA tested it will help me determine where segments of
my autosomal DNA came from, & then I will be better able to determine how
Family Finder matches on Family Tree DNA are related to me by using
triangulation and phasing. The idea of
using GEDmatch to create a Lazarus kit for an untested direct ancestor is
intriguing. Again, if I’m able to test
my parent/s’ DNA, I’ll be able to use GEDmatch to its fullest potential. Unfortunately, people aren’t always comfortable ‘giving
away’ their DNA for testing. Kerry’s
book, DNA for Genealogists, has just
been newly revised & released, so I’m looking forward to using it & her
website to look further into my DNA results & see what else I can learn.
The final session I attended for the day was Remembering and Commemorating our Ancestors by
Perry McIntyre. Perry stated that family
historians & historians need to work together to construct a balanced
written history. She also showed images
of a range of memorials & discussed how & why these memorials were
erected to commemorate our ancestors & pivotal events in social history
such as the Irish Famine & the diaspora.
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