British Isles Research Seminar

British Isles Research Seminar
In order to attend these classes you must register. To attend in person click here. If you are going to attend online click here. When registering please check ALL of the days that you wish to attend. We will use Eventbrite to process your registration. Your information will be processed in accordance with their privacy policy located at Eventbrite’s privacy policy. IN PERSON CLASSES ARE GOING TO BE HELD IN MAIN FLOOR CLASSROOMS B & C.
TIME	Monday, 13 March	Tuesday, 14 March	Wednesday, 15 March	Thursday, 16 March	Friday, 17 March
9:00-9:50 AM MDT	NO CLASSES THIS HOUR				Tracing Irish Roman Catholic Ancestry
10:00-10:50 AM MDT	NO CLASSES THIS HOUR				Finding Ancestry in Ireland Civil Registration Records
11:00 – 11:50 AM MDT	NO CLASSES THIS HOUR				Ireland Census & Census Substitutes
1:00-1:50 PM MDT	Blessings and Curses of Tracing Welsh Ancestry	How to Trace England Ancestry Online	Scotland’s ‘Lost’ Other Half: Tracing Difficult Ancestral Lines in Scotland’s Non-Parochial (Church) Registers	Turning the Tables on Tracing Elusive Ancestry in England/Wales Civil Registration Records: How to Trace Ancestry Using Online BMD Indexes	The Scots-Irish: Plantation and Settlement of Ulster in the 17th Century
2:00-2:50 PM MDT	Welsh Naming Patterns and Customs	Tracing Non-Church of England Ancestry	Using Church of Scotland Parochial Registers to Trace Scots Ancestry	England Resources for Family History at findmypast	Key Websites for Tracing Ancestry in Ireland

Class Descriptions

Monday, 13 March

1:00 PM MDT – Blessings and Curses of Tracing Welsh Ancestry (Darris Williams, AG®):

This class illuminates the many advantages and how to overcome some of the disadvantages and peculiar challenges in doing your Welsh family history and genealogical research. Make discoveries which empower you towards greater success along the trails.

2:00 PM MDT – Welsh Naming Patterns and Customs (Craig Foster, AG®):

Tracing Welsh ancestry prior to about 1780 can be a bit tricky if you don’t how the Welsh used naming patterns for naming their children (called patronymics). Come and learn exactly how to properly and accurately construct your Welsh family genealogies.

Tuesday, 14 March

1:00 PM MDT – How to Trace England Ancestry Online (Todd Knowles, AG®):

This class integrates the most valuable, available resources for helping you trace your ancestry online. And it will also provide you with a knowledge of a myriad of possible England resources and records found in the world’s largest England Family History records collections websites available to researchers! Let Todd help you jump-start your family’s England genealogy, quickly!

2:00 PM MDT – Tracing Non-Church of England Ancestry (Todd Knowles, AG®):

This webinar promises to provide proven ways that help you trace ancestry in England’s non-parochial (including nonconformist) churches and other religious denominations, including (key resources for) tracing Jewish ancestry in England.

Wednesday, 15 March

1:00 PM MDT – Scotland’s ‘Lost’ Other Half: Tracing Difficult Ancestral Lines in Scotland’s Non-Parochial (Church) Registers (Phil Dunn, AG®):

Can’t find your Scottish ancestor[s] at Scotlandspeople.gov.uk in the pre-1855 era? Did you know that nearly half of Scotland’s people chose to attend a non-parochial church denomination (outside of the established Church of Scotland)—the main reason why so many of these peoples’ names don’t appear in the ScotlandsPeople (the government) website? So come learn how to research the other portion of Scotland’s population in this difficult era using non-parochial (nonconformist) church registers, as well as some additional records, and by using a few unique search strategies along the way.

2:00 PM MDT – Using Church of Scotland Parochial Registers to Trace Scots Ancestry (Craig Foster, AG®):

This webinar provides a treasure-trove of key information about how to advance your ancestral research in Scotland’s online church records—including Church of Scotland (and Roman Catholic records). The key government-sponsored website will be demonstrated and how you can search records found therein.

Thursday, 16 March

1:00 PM MDT – Turning the Tables on Tracing Elusivwe Ancestry in England/Wales Civil Registration Records: How to Trace Ancestry Using Online BMD Indexes (Mark Gardner, AG®):

This popular class will address all Birth, Marriage, and Death civil registration (U.S.A. equivalent of vital records) indexes now available online, including a discussion of all the new and critical new data changes and additions now made available online at the GRO website! Don’t know how to identify i.e. all the children born to your ancestor in post-1837, without having to ‘break the bank’, ordering numerous certificates of birth? Come find out how to do an end-run to identify them all—for free, and much more!

2:00 PM MDT – England Resources for Family History at findmypast (Mark Gardner, AG®):

Come and learn the treasure-trove of database resources available to researchers at findmypast. This website has fast become one of the top online sites for doing especially England and Irish family history research, currently. Mark will demonstrate the amazing resources including an update on new offerings.

Friday, 17 March

9:00 AM MDT – Tracing Irish Roman Catholic Ancestry (Phil Dunn, AG®):

This webinar provides you with all the outstanding changes and latest advancements that will transform the way you approach your Roman Catholic research in Ireland. Did you know that two iconic websites in a recent collaborative effort have re-shaped how you conduct your research? Phil will unveil all the wonderful details that will help you trace your elusive Irish Catholic ancestors.

10:00 AM MDT – Finding Ancestry in Ireland Civil Registration Records (Joni Kesler, AG®):

Come and hear Joni share new and thrilling details about how to approach research in the two Irelands’ richest record sources. Did you know that millions of new name entries are now available online for researching these records? She will instruct us on the best practices for researching these important vital records.

11:00 AM MDT – Ireland Census & Census Substitutes (Joni Kesler, AG®):

This webinar provides a unique perspective on the value and use of several in-ordinary and under-utilized Irish records. Come and learn the gamut of these important records, especially their research application in the absence of census records generally. This webinar not only instructs on the direct relationship in how to use these to find critical data in other records, but also she’ll identify other records to be used—such as name lists and indexes—for locating and further identifying your Irish ancestral connections.

1:00 PM MDT – The Scots-Irish: Plantation and Settlement of Ulster in the 17th Century (David Rencher, AG®, CG, FUGA, FIGRS):

This webinar session outlines events surrounding the plantation schemes and the settlement of Northern Ireland from the London Companies and the large landed Estates in Scotland. Come hear David—the Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch International and world renowned Irish genealogical expert—also walk us through the key sources for tracing the Scots-Irish in Ireland and their specific origins in Scotland.

2:00 PM MDT – Key Websites for Tracing Ancestry in Ireland (Mark Gardner, AG®):

Ireland is continually a-fire with new emerging, thrilling online offerings—and for several kinds of key genealogical records! Come and listen as Mark walks us through all the magnificent resources newly available as there are many, and which will totally change the way you approach researching your Irish ancestors.

Presenter Bios

Phil Dunn, AG® is an Accredited Genealogist in England and Scotland research with nearly 35 years professional experience in genealogical research methodology and is an experienced missing persons locator/heir-tracer, formerly for two major UK corporations and, more recently with a local law firm. The son of English parentage, he has lived, studied and lectured in the UK, Ireland, U.S. and Canada, and is a specialist in especially London and ‘Home’ (surrounding) counties, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire, England’s big cities, ‘Brickwall’ 17th Century emigration, the West Midland counties, military, Nonconformist, (esp. Roman Catholic, Huguenots, Germanic churches, etc) British subjects abroad, maximizing users’ experience in the FamilySearch search engine.

Craig Foster, AG® has had an interest in history and genealogy since his youth. He earned two Master’s degrees at Brigham Young University and has worked at the Family History Library since 1991. He has worked as a British cataloger; in the VIP Services (formerly Library Public Affairs) Unit; and, since 2011, as a Research Specialist in British Reference. While Craig loves pretty much all British family history research, he has a particular interest in Scotland and Ireland. He is also very interested in and has researched and written about marriage practices and age at first marriage, generational family relationships, and naming patterns. Craig and his wife, Suzanne, are the parents of three children.

Mark Gardner, AG® was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and has been a professional genealogist since November, 1982. Most of this time has been in the Family History Library assisting individuals locate their ancestors. His love for Genealogy came from his Father who instilled in him at a young age the importance of Genealogical Research. His trips to The British Isles in 1974 and 1976 gave him a sense of the how important History is to the British. Research Trips to the British Isles in 1986, 2008, 2011, 2012 and Australia & New Zealand in 1990 were a very helpful experience. He is currently a staff member of the British Reference/Research Unit since June, 2000 at the Family History Library. He has a great understanding of the British Isles Collection housed in the Family History Library and also online genealogical records.

Joni Kesler, AG® has been with the Family History Library for 30 years. She has worked in the United States, British, Hosting and VIP units. She currently works as a Research Specialist assigned to the Outreach and Discovery Team. Joni enjoys reading and spending time with her family of four daughters, four granddaughters, and one grandson.

Todd Knowles, AG® is an accredited Genealogist who specializes in English and Jewish research. For the past 15 years he has been a member of the reference staff at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Todd has lectured all over the world and his articles have been widely published. In own genealogical search began at the age of twelve and the desire to find more about his family grows every day. His quest to find more about his GGGrandfather, a Polish Jew, has led to the creation of the Knowles Collection, six databases that contain the records of the Jewish people. It currently (as of Jan 2017) contains the records of over 1,400,000 people. Todd also authors a blog about the collection, knowlescollection.blogspot.com. Todd is married with seven children and 2 grandchildren.

David Rencher, AG®, CG, FUGA, FIGRS, is employed as the Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch. A professional genealogist since 1977, he is one of the rare few who have earned both credentials: Accredited GenealogistCM with ICAPGenSM in Ireland research and Certified Genealogist® with the Board for Certification of Genealogists®. He is a past-president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies.

Darris Williams, AG® has a Bachelor degree in Family & Community History. He worked as a British reference consultant at the Family History Library for 15 years and was a co-founder of the FamilySearch wiki. Darris is presently a research community manager, freelance genealogist and family history instructor.

Washington State Genealogical Society Blog

Family Search British Isles Research Seminar

British Isles Research Seminar

Class Descriptions

Presenter Bios