Three Days in Court: The Story of Enoch Whitehouse
Enoch Whitehouse (1893-1954) was born aboard a canal boat, the youngest of 10 children. Being a transient family who were based on the waterways of England, the Whitehouse family proved tricky to trace through government records. However, a search of the British Newspaper Archive revealed that Enoch appeared in court three times in his life – twice as a witness and once as the defendant. This talk looks at these fascinating legal cases, while also investigating how the newspaper reports can uncover more details about Enoch’s daily life.
Plotlines
PlotLines began with a conversation between a father and daughter about how difficult it can be to picture the worlds of classic novels. Created through an ongoing collaboration with AI, it transforms out-of-copyright books into animated journeys, plotting characters, places and key moments on maps of their own era. Quotations, period images and carefully researched routes add context, while uncertainty is made clear. In this recording, we’ll see PlotLines in action, following Professor Challenger and his companions from London to South America in Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic The Lost World.
Writing Your Life Story Club
What did you wear, and what memories do those clothes bring back? In this special short edition of the Society of Genealogists’ Writing Your Life Story Club, attendees reminisce about the fashions they loved—or perhaps regretted—including platform soles and other memorable styles. Their conversation shows how clothes can unlock vivid stories about particular times, places and stages of our lives. Enjoy a taste of this friendly, supportive monthly club, where prompts and shared memories help Gold members record their experiences for family, friends and future generations before those precious details fade.
Lost Anchors: The Irish of Rue Champlain, Quebec City
The wealth of 19th century Quebec City was built on the timber that flowed through its port and used in its shipyards. The Irish of Quebec built the ships and stowed the timber. Beneath the Citadel there is a road that follows the small strip of land between cliffs and the water. This road, rue Champlain, linked coves, docks, and shipyards. A study of the Irish immigrants who lived and worked along this waterfront in the waning age of wooden ships reveals a unique community lost to history.
Getting to Know a Nineteenth Century Rural Farming (U.S.) Neighborhood Through Maps
After discovering the log home of her great-great grandparents thanks to an 1888 map, Crystal has relied on old maps to tell more stories of the 19th century farming community than the census records alone ever could. Then she started building a new map to better understand a journal. While at the 1874 log house that started it all, hear stories of the neighborhood and get a peak at the online map now open to others.
SoG Book Club: The Dover Trunk Murders
Enjoy a special ten-minute mini edition of the SoG Book Club, recorded for AATP, with acclaimed author Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Hear us discuss his brand-new novel, The Dover Trunk Murders, including the inspiration behind the story, his research, and the challenge of transforming historical crime into compelling fiction. This recording offers a taste of the fascinating conversations, author insights and friendly atmosphere members enjoy at SoG Book Club events. Discover what the Book Club is like—and why joining the Society of Genealogists could open the door to future discussions.
Sharing Family History Stories From PowerPoint to YouTube
We all have stories that need to be recorded. Big or little ones that make you smile, cry, laugh, and remember family, and memories in your One Place Study. But how do you record these in a fun way that the family will enjoy? This session will show examples of stories turned into short videos. Show images and talk about them in PowerPoint. Save as a mp4. Create a YouTube channel to store and share all of these videos.
Gigant Street, Salisbury: Murder, Poverty and Beer
Gigant Street is a side street in the city of Salisbury which just keeps coming up in research! The site of a successful and long lived brewery the homes in the area seem to have houses the poorest of the city and violence was rife. This talk looks at the history of the street and some of its more colourful residents.
HouseStories – Sharing our Stories and Creating Timelines of our Family Homes and Preserving them for Future Generations
HouseStories is a new house history saving platform creating a living timeline of dates and stories for Britain’s homes. Founder Donna explains how to find addresses, add dates, memories and photographs connected to family homes, preserving the human stories that traditional records cannot always capture. “Follow a House” of interest and receive notifications when a new memory has been added. Learn how HouseStories can connect past and present residents, helping families and future generations rediscover the lives lived behind every door. You can also leave messages against any property, especially if you are trying to reconnect with a lost family […]
Not My Family History: Why We Care About Other People’s Stories
Family history is often assumed to be about our own ancestors, but some of the most compelling stories belong to people with whom we have no personal connection. Drawing on experience of publishing historical narratives for modern audiences, this talk explores how researchers can transform archival discoveries into engaging stories. From criminals and scandal to everyday lives, it considers why readers become invested in strangers and what family historians can learn from narrative storytelling techniques to engage wider audiences.