This well-illustrated presentation offers an explanation for the internment and imprisonment in Britain and Ireland of German civilians and military combatants 100 years ago. Guidance is given on accessing useful on-line and other sources in British, German, American and Swiss national, federal, local and specialist archives to find details of the lives of the internees, the prisoners and their guards, perhaps your relatives, including some escapes and deaths. Examples are identified and described of humanitarian support from Quakers, YMCA, Salvation Army and other welfare organisations to discover more.

English ancestors lived in rural communities working the land. We may know nothing more about them other than the designation of labourer shown in the parish registers or census records. This talk will look at other records and ways of discovering more about rural ancestors and the communities they inhabited. It will look (inter alia) at records and resources from 1750-1950, such as parish surveys and reports on agricultural life, land and other tax records, land holding, friendly societies, school and poor law records.

Do you have tartan blood? Feel like you've exhausted the government website and want to know what happens next? You are not alone! Scotland has some of the best records in the world, but so many of them lie just beneath the surface, allowing an unprecedented level of detail to be revealed about your ancestors. Join Myko Clelland, resident genealogist for Findmypast as we walk through the many available records for those with Scottish heritage and where to find them.

Discover tax records, newspapers, electoral and valuation rolls, free churches, militia lists, testaments, illegitimacies, occupational records, census substitutes and much more, learning how to read them and what to look for, and understanding the context that surrounds them. We'll uncover more about your ancestors and how they lived, as we dive in at the deep end to tell the story of our northernmost kin in new and exciting ways.

Once upon a time Irish genealogy was considered impossible, but all that has changed. True, its still difficult, but thanks to the work of archives and libraries in Ireland, working in partnership with commercial and volunteer organisations, there are now over 160 million records online. They include traditional sources like civil records of birth, death and marriage, census records and church registers. But they also include census substitutes like the land valuation records and tax records. Moreover entirely new classes of records have been trail-blazed in Ireland, like magistrate court registers, rebel and military records, and much more. This session will describe what is now online and tell the story of how it happened.

But these sources have posed a real challenge to make available, and can be difficult to use. So this presentation will also describe and explain so users can get the most of what is available. It is also time now to take stock. Where do we need to go to finally make Irish genealogy achievable for all.

Nearly 900,000 Norwegians immigrated, - most of them to the United States, but many to other countries and continents. How could you build a firm foundation in your own research and how will these findings lead you back to the multitude of available Norwegian sources?  Which online sources are most useful, and which will contain the primary records you seek?  The Digital Archives are Norway’s most important genealogical website. What types of sources you will find there? How has the church records, census records, probate records, land records and military records been recorded and what kind of information you will find there? Norway had certain ways of writing names and naming traditions. When and how will they be useful in your research? You will also learn the principles and technical aids of reading the Gothic handwriting and how to record all your findings in programs such as Legacy Family Tree or Reunion.

Cemeteries are a great resource of genealogical information that every researcher will have to use some day. Here your relatives are just waiting for you to visit them, and start collecting all the information they have to offer you. Be prepared and make sure you make the most out of your visit. Don't waste the time in your local cemetery or the one abroad. Come to learn from Daniel the preparation tasks you need to do before and during the visit for your personal research or for an indexing project.

This lecture will help you understand the tombstones terminology and symbols; how to transcribe and translate efficiently the written texts. Daniel will offer you different tools, tips and technologies to help you overcome many of the troubles you will have when dealing with the dead people, and those in charge of their care. You should not die without hearing this lecture.

For over half a decade the presenter has used Social Media to reconnect with cousins, and distant cousins across the globe.  Learn how to create and maintain a “Family Homestead” on Facebook to share memories, stories and photographs.  Learn how to utilize social media to host virtual family reunions for those relatives who cannot attend a physical reunion.

YOUR life, the one you are living right now, is the “family history” of future generations. Believe it or not, your great-great-great grandchildren will one day find your life fascinating—but only IF you record and share it. When preserving our life stories, we can be overwhelmed with questions such as: Where do I start? How much do I include? How do I handle sensitive life situations?

Using clear visual examples, we will show you a proven step-by-step method to make the process of writing a personal history easier and more fun. Steps include 1) Lifeline: How to create a life timeline, 2) Brainstorm: finding story ideas using memory triggers, 3) Story Triage: how to choose the most important events and stories, 4) Low Hanging Fruit: How to (painlessly) write or record your stories, 5) Crummy first draft: editing techniques, 6) Letting it Go: publishing, preserving and sharing your stories. Most importantly, you’ll be excited to get started on preserving your best life stories, knowing that “writing a memoir” doesn’t have to be a monumental task.

There are two main waves of English dissent. The first wave in the 17th Century had at its root the Elizabethan Puritans and from this sprung the Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Unitarians. Of those founded in the 17th Century the Quakers were the most successful and now the only survivor though a great many churches with a variety of beliefs are described as Independent. From the middle of the 18th Century the second wave consisted of various branches of Methodism and includes Calvanistic Methodist and Wesleyans and the influx of denominations from Europe such as the Moravians. A number of other denominations and offshoots existed  such as the Sandemanians, Inghamites, Swedenborgians, Universalists, Irvingites and Countess of Huntigdon Connexion existed. Most of these kept some form of records though the majority of marriages and burials appear in the Church of England registers

Doing genealogical research in Germany is different from other countries. The historical background and the local development mostly are very complex. Even for Germans it is sometimes very difficult to understand and use the structures of organized genealogy in a variety of genealogical societies. The class will give an overview for successful genealogical research in Germany.

During the past 20 years, advances in technology and science contributed to new and exciting ways to research our own family history using DNA. Therefore, genetic genealogy is the application of genetic data and utilities to learn more about a person’s past and how we are connected to other people, even if the genealogical records might be scarce or missing to support these connections. The benefits of this approach are countless. Thanks to the field of genetic genealogy, individuals can now connect to distant genetic cousins, verify research that has already been done, link into other people family trees, discover the origin of specific family lines, understand the ancient migrations of their early ancestors, and so on. Through this session I will share basic information about how genetic genealogy works and the tests available to those that would like to add DNA to their genealogy toolbox.

DNA Painter is a website that can help interpret and demystify your autosomal DNA results. Using practical examples, this session will demonstrate how DNA Painter can be used for a variety of activities including chromosome mapping and relationship prediction for unknown DNA matches.