Handouts from Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2011

The Society of Genealogists, London, has posted handouts for the presentations and workshops given at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event at London's Olympia, which ran from 25th to 27th February.

They're mostly of PowerPoint slides but packaged as PDF documents, so you should all be able to read them. If you haven't got a PDF reader, you can download Adobe Acrobat from our Joining page.

The handouts include:

• In and Out of the Record Office - An overview of what information can be found in church registers before 1837 by Alec Tritton.
• Latin: The Next Big Thing in Genealogy - There comes a time when every BMD & C record had been pored over, filleted and wrung dry. Where then? by Bruce Durie.
• Stuck in London? Resources at the Library of the Society of Genealogists and elsewhere - Founded in 1911 as the Society of Genealogists of London the SG library holds some unique and remarkable resources for anyone researching London Families by Else Churchill. There are also some additional notes provided by Else to accompany this presdentation.
• Using the census records online - by Peter Christian.
• Your Norfolk Ancestors; an insider's guide - How to find and use resources from the well known to the hidden gems by Gill Blanchard.
• Preserving Family Treasures - This lecture covers techniques to save your pictures and papers by Maureen Taylor.
• My Ancestors came from Essex: where can I find out more about them? - An illustrated exploration with examples of the sources for research by Eric Probert.
• Why Pay? The top free websites - No one likes to pay for information unless they have to by John Hanson.
• Joining the dots: bringing all your information together - Some suggestions on how to bring together the many different sources of information by Anthony Adolph.
• Starting from Stratch by Dominic Johnson.
• Using the Imperial War Museum and UK National Inventory of War Memorials for Family History Research - A look at how the holdings of the Imperial War Museum and using war memorials can further your knowledge and understanding of your relatives' service during the First and Second World Wars by Sarah Paterson and Jane Furlong. The presentation was mainly illustrated so they have provided copies of the leaflets from the IWM they are Army, Merchant Navy, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Prisoner of War.
• Finding Nonconformist Records Online - This talk will look at websites that contain nonconformist records by Alec Tritton.
• How Do I Research Before 1837? Sources at the Society of Genealogists and elsewhere - For some getting back before the census years can be a challenge by Else Churchill.
• Nottinghamshire Family History - Where Nottinghamshire lies in relation to other counties by Dominic Johnson.
• Beyond the Census and BMDs: fleshing out the skeleton - The first records most family historians search are censuses and birth, marriage & death records by Ian Galbraith.
• Understand Your Ancestors Through Their Handwriting - The lecture aims to increase awareness among genealogists of the rich information available about ancestors from their handwriting in wills, marriage certificates and letters by Adam Brand.
• Researching Families in British India - Over three million Britons lived in India over the three and a half centuries of British involvement in that country by Peter Bailey.
• Making Contact: surnames and pedigrees online - Once you've got back a few generations, one of the most important ways of making progress in your family history is making contact with others who have interests in the same surnames or perhaps even share some of your ancestors by Peter Christian.
• Looking at Family Portraits: artworks and photographs, 1780-1920 - This illustrated talk begins by discussing British portraiture and the rising demand for hand-crafted portraits in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by Jayne Shrimpton.
• Lesser Known Sources for Family History - An illustrated exploration with examples and case studies of the unusual sources for research into the lives of ancestors by Eric Probert.
• Smart Genealogy Solving Genealogical Brick Walls - Everyone hits a brick wall sometimes by Dr Geoff Swinfield.
• My Top 10 Websites for Family Historians - My guide to the best websites to kick-start you in family history by John Hanson
• Yorkshire family History - resources in Britian's largest county by Roy Stockdill and Jackie Depelle. There are two handouts here - Internet resources and archives.
• Records of Deaths and Burials - All good genealogists learn to kill off their ancestors. Records of death and burial can be tricky to find but often provide the vital clues by Alec Tritton.
• Treasures of the Society of Genealogists: online and in the library - This talk looks at some of the unique collections and resources held by the Society of Genealogists which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2011 by Else Churchill.
• Retours: Scottish Land Inheritance - Up until the 1860s it Scotland, it was not possible to leave "real" property in a Testament, and only some Testaments even contained Wills. by Bruce Durie. There is a supplementary presentation on Scottish Wills and Inheritance.
• How to Make Google Work Harder for your Family History! - Discover innovative ways to work smarter and find more family history golden nuggets than you thought possible with the power of Google by Lisa Louise Cooke.
• Irish Records: Beyond the Obvious - After a brief summary of the usual sources, the talk will cover a huge variety of lesser known sources by Rosalind McCutcheon.
• The National Wills Index - Wills are probably the most important source of information to the family historian after census records and bmds - and typically provide far more interesting information than either by Ian Galbraith.
• Family History in the Thames Valley - This lecture will advise you of the many available resources both online and at local archives by Chad Hanna and Gillian Stevens.
• Are Your Ancestors Frozen in Time? - Keeping up with the latest ways to record and preserve our genealogy is a daunting task by Claire V Brisson-Banks.
• I'm Stuck! How can I find my lost ancestors? - Everyone hits a brick wall sometimes by Dr Geoff Swinfield.
• My Ancestors were in the Parish Registers - well they chould have been! - A look at whats in parish records, where you can expect to find in them and why your ancestor may not be there by John Hanson.
• Reading the Writing of the Past - You have your register, you have your will but con you read them? by Barbara Harvey.
• Caribbean Genealogy - The unique Caribbean Family Dynamic and how it can affect/impede research by Sarah Tomlin.
• Moving from Amateur to Professional: making the leap - Many professional genealogists started out by doing their own family history research by Eileen Ó Dúill.