Examining Migration & Researching Migrants in the British Isles

A broad overview of research in Europe - a continent spanning more than thirty countries which has been subjected to wars, political unrest and border changes. Europe is a Continent with different languages, cultures and religions, all of which play a part in family history research. This presentation looks at…

Not every Scottish surname is a Clan, despite what your "Clan Society" says. Are there really "Septs"? And how do we go about getting a Chief?

Learn how to trace the officers and men who served in Britain’s Royal Navy, find information about their ships. Research through online, original and print resources, with case studies.

Do you know the difference between a Peculiar Baptist and an Anabaptist? What types of records the Quakers kept? What the Puritans believed? Understanding the background to and the beliefs of the multitude of non-conformist churches can give us an insight into our ancestors' lives. Learning what records the various groups kept can give us a new lead for our research, or prevent us looking for records that never existed in the first place. This talk will not only tackle those questions, but also give a history of many of the non-conformist churches that existed in England and Wales.

Learn all about the key resources available for researching ancestors in the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. Discover the key archives covering these counties and how to use their catalogues and other resources. Find out where records can be found online both within the main commercial websites and other sites. Learn about key historical events that may impact your research in the ‘Lake Counties’. Investigate where else you can get help for researching here such as published resources and local and family history societies. At the end of this talk, you will be set up for starting your research on your Cumberland and Westmorland ancestors. Note that the talk assumes you have already watched ‘Introduction to County Research in England’.

For many of us who have Irish ancestry, the major question is 'but where in Ireland?' Like millions of other descendants of Irish emigrants, Michelle Leonard has Irish ancestors who left Ireland in the 1840s-60s and on nearly all documents she can find for them their birthplaces were given simply as 'Ireland'. In many cases traditional research is not able to narrow down exactly where in Ireland our ancestors lived and trying to trace them across the seas is often a 'needle in a haystack' endeavour. In this personal case study, Michelle will outline how she managed to identify exact locations in Ireland for her Irish lines using the power of DNA testing and will provide strategies and top tips that could help you do the same.

Discover the building blocks for researching in the English counties. This talk provides an overview of the key facts you need to know to start researching your English ancestors. Unravel why counties have come and gone with changing boundaries and different types of administrative entities. By understanding which records are stored at national or county level and some of the laws that influenced their collation, you will then be able to effectively concentrate on looking at the specific counties your ancestors came from. Learn about the finding aids and helpful resources to ensure you are set up to take a journey through English research supported by our English Research Series.

This webinar is a romp through the top 5 websites where you will find information on your Irish ancestors. Best of all most of them are free! This is ideal if you are at the start of your Irish ancestral research and will give you a good grounding before delving into the more obscure record sets.

We will examine the migration patterns from Scotland to the US and Canada, looking at the push and pull factors, relevant to individual migration time periods. References and guidance will be provided for multiple waves from 17th Century to the present.