08 April 2016

WDYTYA? Live 2016: Day 1

I arrived in Birmingham early afternoon on Thursday in time to catch the first must-see presentation on my on my list. Mark Jobling of the University of Leicester speaking on Fathers and sons, the next generation: the Y-chromosome in the genome sequencing era. He explained the history of Y chromosome testing and why most of it will never likely be of much interest being highly repetitive. On the other hand the number of SNPs being found on the Y chromosome continues to grow rapidly.

One thing that impressed me at the conference was the wide aisles making it seem less busy that previous WDYTYA events I've attended. There also seemed to be more
small presentation venues than in previous years in addition to the main Society of Genealogists presentations. Some organised by commercial outfits were not so small rivalling the capacity of those of SOG and they were often shorter for those of us with limited stamina. The image is for a smaller venue where presentation were given by TNA staff.

After my presentation on Canadian genealogy, which was surprisingly well attended considering the other attractions, including a presentation by Janet Few at the same time, I went to a reception by Findmypast. It was a great opportunity to network with Debra Chatfield, Audrey Collins, Catherine Desmarais (from APG), Janet Few and Chris Braund, and Celia Heritage,

FMP showed a map of the counties for which they have detailed BMB records and announced they would be adding parish records from Leicestershire in the coming months.

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