Jeremy Goldsmith is speaking at the Society of Genealogists’ Centeneary Conference May 7th 2011
Speakers at the Society of Genealogists’ Conference
Breaking the Barriers – Innovative Genealogy in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Royal Overseas League , London . 7 May 2011
Jeremy Goldsmith will be speaking on -
Parish Registers: Problems and Progress
Session 3A, 14.00-15.00
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.
Jeremy Goldsmith is an historian and genealogist, and has been fascinated by family history since childhood. After studying at the University of London, he has worked as a professional genealogist since 2006, and became a Member of AGRA three years later. 
He has a particular interest in the sources of genealogy, and a number of articles in the Genealogists’ Magazine, Family Tree Magazine, and Your Family Tree, have aimed to explain the use and limitations of legal, military, and parochial records. He is a member of the Society of Genealogists, and is currently Programme Secretary of the Heraldry Society.
In the recent past he has given lectures to the Heraldry Society and the London Branch of the Yorkshire Family History Group. Later this year (2010) he will be addressing the Oxford University Heraldry Society and the Annual Meeting of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.
