Last weekend I attended the Who Do You Think You Are? Live exhibition held at the Olympia in London. It runs for three days, and I went along for the Friday and Saturday.
What struck me on Friday was how CRAZY busy it was in comparison to last year. I like going on the Friday, because I have this idea it’s a “quiet” day. Not so! I also filled up my time with four talks and the Keynote lecture with Q & A, so by the end of the day I was feeling rather overwhelmed.
It doesn’t look that busy in this photo, but it was!
The most illuminating presentation I attended was Debbie Kennett’s “A Beginner’s Guide to DNA”. A fellow IHGS student and I raced into the Olympia to get seats for her 11am session, and were not disappointed. Debbie gave a clear and concise overview of the three main tests you can take : Y-DNA (males only), mtDNA and Autosomal, and explained how they can be used for genealogical connections. I found it completely fascinating and now want to get everyone in my extended family tested!
In my Ask the Experts session I scored Dominic Johnson as my expert, and wished I had brought along my palaeography assignments instead of a question about my South African ancestor! Last year I had been inspired by her workshop on palaeography.
In the few spare minutes I had between talks, I managed to get my hands on a Flip Pal mobile scanner and find out all about it, with plans to buy the next day. I also purchased four books on my ‘Want to Buy’ list (hurray for show specials!):
- Bruce Durie’s Understanding Documents for Genealogy & Local History, The History Press (2013)
- Simon Fowler’s Tracing Your Army Ancestors, 2nd ed., Pen & Sword (2013)
- Celia Heritage’s Tracing Your Ancestors through Death Records, Pen & Sword (2013)
- Debbie Kennett’s The Surnames Handbook, The History Press (2012)
One of the best parts of the day was chatting to the staff from IHGS, and catching up over dinner with fellow students.