From the sunshine of Valencia to the moody Northumberland skies, my holidays have given me time to reflect on the past 12 busy months and to take stock of things. I like to plan ahead and use the Mountain of Goals template to plot my research areas, goals and targets for the next few months (click here to get your free copy!)
I have achieved a lot over the last year, with full membership of RQG (Register of Qualified Genealogists) and, I am thrilled to announce, that I have passed my Masters’ degree with the University of Strathclyde. In addition to my academic goals, which were set at the beginning of September last year, I have been accepted as a Director to the RQG, which I am really chuffed about!
February and March were busy months with client work taking priority over my university work, which were reversed in April and May as my dissertation deadline was fast approaching! One particular project that I am keen to complete has taken me down many rabbit holes over the course of the research and seems to be a never-ending list of possibilities – a large family with links to a famous mariner which I hope to write up in the forthcoming months. At the moment I am calling this project ‘Finding William’ which may resonate with many of my readers as we all seem to have at least one person who is the illusive ancestor still to find!
My dissertation topic was on the Temperance Movement and a new website has been set up to enable my findings and stories on the women in this movement in England during the Victorian period, to be made available to view – watch this space and I’ll post the links once I have updated the site.
I would like to do more work on this area and will be spending the rest of the year developing this, whilst ‘Finding William’. I am presenting some findings from my dissertation research at the forthcoming Women’s History Network (WHN) conference in September and hope that this will be the beginning of a series of short talks on the Temperance Movement.
September seems to be already full of conferences (AGRA & WHN), archive visits are planned and my research is ready for the dedication it needs to move forward.
[1] Winskill, P T. (1892) The Temperance Movement and its Workers: A record of social, moral, religious and political progress. Vol. III London; Glasgow; Edinburgh; Dublin: Blackie & Son Limited., p239(227). https://www.tradeshouselibrary.org/uploads/4/7/7/2/47723681/the_temperance_movement_and_its_workers_~_a_record_of_social_moral__religious__and_political_progress_~_1892.pdf : accessed 6 June 2023.