The Society of Genealogists is delighted to announce the programe for its Centenary Conference 2011
Society of Genealogists’ Centenary Conference Saturday 7th May 2011
The Royal Overseas League, Over-Seas House, Park Place, 5 St James’s Terrace, London SW1A 1LP
Breaking the Barriers – Innovative Genealogy in the 20th and 21st Century
The Society’s Centenary Conference is a celebration of the past century of genealogy and the role played by Society of Genealogists. The topics will, of course, look forward to the future of the subject. The conference will include a full day of lectures and networking luncheon and dinner, featuring nationally and internationally known genealogical speakers.
The conference lectures streams examine how the SoG has influenced genealogy over the century. It will look at the period that saw the foundation of the Society. It will focus on issues facing family historians today and the technical advances that may help. We will discuss where we see the subject going in the future. It will show how family historians can take their genealogy further and break the barriers of their research.
Registration from 9.30am
Conference 10.15-6.30pm, Conference Reception & Banquet 7-ca 9.45pm
Conference prices
Conference including lunch (early bird rate up to 31 January 2011) £99
(full rate from 1 Feb 2011 – £120)
Conference Banquet (early bird rate up to 31 January 2011) £30
(full rate from 1 Feb 2011 – £35)
Conference & Banquet (discount early bird rate up to 31 January 2011) £116
(full rate from 1 Feb 2011 £140)
Places are limited. Click here to book a place via the Society of Genealogists online shop
The full conference programme is as follows. Click on the speaker’s name to discover more about them.
| 09.30-10.15 | Registration/Tea & Coffee | |
| 10.15 | Welcome | |
| 10.30-11.30 |
Session 1A From Memory to Digital Record: Personal Heritage, Family History and Archives in the 21st Century An examination of the rise of personal heritage and personal archiving, alongside changes to the way history is disseminated, researched and consumed – mainly driven by broadcast media and the Internet. The challenges to traditional archives are many and varied, and I examine the role of genealogy in expanding the use of non-traditional archives, and the growing influence of oral history and eye-witness accounts that are usually neglected by academic historians |
Session 1B It’s In Our Genes: A DNA Project Case Study This session (by project co-founder/co-administrator) presents the structure of creating and organizing any DNA project, using an established project as a case study. It covers setting project goals and joining criteria; how to publicize the project; persuading participants to join; results and surprises, advertising results and communicating with participants. The program focuses on IberianAshkenaz DNA. Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com as a case study, but is equally applicable to a DNA project covering any ethnicity. This project attempts to prove the family stories of some Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews that their families were of Sephardic origin (with roots in Spain or Portugal).
Sponsored by the Halsted Trust |
| 11.45-12.45 | Session 2A
The Progress of Our Profile – 100 years of the SoG An illustrated account of the Society’s development from 1911 to 2011 and its impact on international genealogical research. Born in borrowed premises, the Society embraced interests across the United Kingdom, British Empire and then worldwide, collecting unique and transcribed materials into its ever-expanding prestigious library. Public access to Government historical papers and archives throughout the past 100 years has been championed by the Society voicing forceful arguments to national committees and consultation groups. With a century of expertise from paper-based notes to electronic storage and delivery of data and documentation, the SoG continues to advance with the times |
Session 2B Dr Bruce Durie FLS, FSAScot, FHEA The Future of Genealogy Education Genealogy is at a cusp – increasing professionalism requires more formal educational provision, and the public is coming to expect educational and professional credentials. At the same time, Genealogical Studies is becoming a recognised academic discipline. How will this be delivered, and what are the implications for existing and intending professional genealogists
Sponsored by the Halsted Trust |
| Lunch | ||
| 14.00-15.00 |
Session 3A Parish Registers: Problems and Progress Parish registers have often been regarded as the primary source of vital statistics prior to civil registration (1538-1837), though this was not the purpose of their creation. Their effective use must also take into account the problems of migration, non-registration and non-conformity. Over the past century, public access to registers has been aided by the establishment of County Record Offices, while the transcription and publication of registers has enabled the wide distribution of much genealogical data. More recently, the searching of registers across parish boundaries has been facilitated by the development of electronic databases and digitization of the original records.
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Session 3B The Past, Present And Future of Records Preservation and Public Access This talk will review the changes to preservation of and access to genealogical records d over the last 100 years and will then describe the current state-of-the-art tools and future developments. Included will be an assessment as to how genealogists have contributed to and adapted to these changes |
| 15.15-16.15 |
Session 4A Dr Gill Draper, FRHist. Soc, FSA. Beyond The Grave: Challenges of Family Reconstruction Before the 18th Century This illustrated lecture explores the challenges of taking a family history back in time beyond the 18th century, perhaps even to the Middle Ages. Using the example of the Godfreys of Lydd, Kent, it considers material from church brasses, plaques, monuments, wills and antiquarian pedigrees. The lecture argues that two technological innovations make family reconstruction in the distant past seem ever more possible: the huge amount of material now available online and the use of relational databases like Access to bring together people with the same surname. It reviews both the pitfalls and the potential of this approach. |
Session 4B Family History Communication in the 21st Century – Blogging, Social Networking and Ezines The digital world is changing; no longer is it sufficient to just put up a static website as there are more people using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other Social Networking sites than search the Internet daily. The search engines today prefer blogs with regular fresh new content. This creates a challenge to the average family historian wishing to make their genealogies available to the widest audience on the World Wide Web. This lecture will help to explain how these new uses of the Internet can be used for family history |
| Tea & Coffee | ||
| 16.30-17.30 |
Session 5A Beyond Soundex Name matching systems, such as Soundex, have been seen as a tool for social and local historians but lacking the accuracy needed for family research. But as available datasets get larger and larger, search automation seems more attractive. This paper compares the many different methods of name matching in use within the databases we use regularly and suggests how a family historian might proceed |
Session 5B I’ve Got a Little List – Digital & Other Sources for the “Long 18th Century” 1688-1837 An overview of the sources that can supplement the deficiencies of parish registers using what are known in the SoG Library as “local lists” generated for ad-hoc need or census substitutes and lists generated by the parish such as the duties on baptism and marriages 1695-1706 or the provision for parish poor; lists generated for defense such as musters and militia; lists generated by the state for taxation and lists of voters and ratepayers. Some of these underused treasures of the SoG will be digitized for the forthcoming business index and other projects. |
| 17.45-18.30 |
Session 6 – Juliet Nicolson The Perfect Summer. Dancing into the Shadow in 1911 The summer of 1911– the year the SoG was founded – is seen through the eyes of a series of exceptional individuals including a debutante, a choir boy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler and the Queen. A new king was crowned and audiences swarmed to Covent Garden to see the Ballet Russes and Nijinsky’s gravity-defying leaps. The aristocracy was at play, bounding from house party to the next; the socialite Lady Michelham travelled with her nineteen yards of pearls while Rupert Brooke a 23-year-old poet spent the summer swimming in the river at Grantchester. But perfection was over-reaching itself. The rumble of thunder from the summer’s storms presaged not only the bloody war years ahead: the country was brought to near standstill by industrial strikes, and unrest, exposing the chasm between privileged and poor as if the heat was torturing those imprisoned in society’s straitjacket and stifled by the city smog. Children, seeking relief from the scorching sun, drowned in village ponds. What the protagonists could not have known is that they were playing out the backdrop to WWI; in a few years time the world, let alone Britain, would never be the same again. Juliet Nicolson illuminates a turning point in history.
Presented by the Halsted Trust |
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| Comfort Break or Bar | ||
| 19.00 | Reception | |
| 19.30 | Conference Banquet | |
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Musical Entertainment by Catherine Howe Banquet Talk 1942 ….. “in afternoon went to Soc of Genealogists, cost £3.3.0, a fine place.” A fascinating glimpse into the diarised accounts of genealogical research undertaken by two members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England, the first in 1889 and the second in the 1940’s. |
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