Lectures – Chris Paton & Karen Fortin

Records of births, marriages and deaths provide a fantastic starting point for identifying our ancestors’ names and where they lived, but in terms of trying to understand how those ancestors once lived, there is no better resource to plunder than a good newspaper. Over the last two centuries in particular, newspapers have recorded the daily events that have shaped our forebears’ lives, and in many cases have identified specific tales about them, as well as notices and advertisements directly concerning them and their contemporary communities.

 

Originally from Northern Ireland, but with both Scottish and Irish roots, Chris holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde, and works as a professional genealogist, running the Scotland’s Greatest Story research service. He has been a resident of Ayrshire for almost two decades, but in the past has also been based in the English cities of Plymouth and Bristol, the Scottish city of Glasgow and town of Helensburgh, and the Northern Irish town of Carrickfergus, from where he originally hails.

 

As well as teaching Scottish and Irish themed courses for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), he has also tutored for the University of Strathclyde’s Genealogical Studies Postgraduate Programme (www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/). Chris is, In addition, a published author of several book titles (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/books.html), a regular monthly and bi-monthly contributor to several genealogy magazines, and to his own daily genealogical news feed, the Scottish GENES blog.

 

 

Google Earth tours can be a fun way to share your genealogy with your relatives. Tours can be created to visually illustrate the life and travels of one ancestor or the migration of a family over generations.

 

Karen Fortin received a Bachelor’s Degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. She worked at the Barbara S. Ponce Public Library in Pinellas Park, FL for 30 years before deciding to focus on genealogical research.

 

Karen’s passion for history and research led her to an interest in genealogy. She began volunteering with the Pinellas Genealogy Society in Largo, FL in 2012, and was the society’s president from 2014-2017. Karen began providing genealogy and history presentations in 2016 and has lectured at various genealogical societies and public libraries, and for other interested organizations. One of her goals is to help people explore historical periods, places, and events so that they can better understand their ancestors and the world in which they lived.