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Searching for your roots — seminar in Parksville on Friday

Speaker, a professional genealogist, specializes in Scotland and Ireland

There's a few spots left for the Qualicum Beach Family History Society's seminar this Friday.

The seminar is called Researching in Scotland and Ireland with Chris Paton, an internationally-recognized professional genealogist who runs a genealogy research service and teaches Scottish-based family history courses online. He is an expert in Scottish and Northern Irish ancestry and currently lives in Scotland.

QBFHS past president and conference chair Lorraine Butler said the information presented will be relevant to many Parksville Qualicum Beach residents.

"There are a number of people in our area who are searching Scottish roots, so Chris is going to be talking to us about different approaches to researching your Scottish relatives of the past," Butler said.

For the seminar, Paton will be talking in the morning about researching in Scotland, and the afternoon session will be about researching in Ireland.

Topics include The Godly Commonwealth: Discover Scottish Church Records and Discover Irish Land Records.

The first seminar starts at 8:30 a.m. and the second starts at 1 p.m. at the Quality Inn Resort Bayside in Parksville. Tickets are $25 per session. To register, email Donna Fraser at missionairey@gmail.com.

The following day, QBFHS is having its international genealogy conference, which sold out about six weeks ago.

The speakers will include Colleen Fitzpatrick and Paton.

Fitzpatrick is an internationally-recognized forensic genealogist. She has been involved in high profile forensic identification cases including, the Unknown Child on the Titanic and the Abraham Lincoln DNA project.

The conference starts at 7:45 a.m. at The Beach Club Resort.

Throughout the day, Fitzpatrick and Paton will be giving different talks on topics such as Forensic Genealogy: CSI Meets Roots, How DNA Can Help You With Your Family History and Genealogy Without Borders.

Butler said there will be people coming from Nanaimo, Victoria, Vancouver, the interior and even Alberta.

The QBFHS meets the third Wednesday of each month. The next meeting is April 20 at

7 p.m. at the Qualicum Beach Legion(180 Veterans Way). Paton will also be speaking at the meeting. QBFHS president Lola Cook said people can attend as guests for the meeting before deciding on becoming a member.



Lauren Collins

About the Author: Lauren Collins

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media's national team, after my journalism career took me across B.C. since I was 19 years old.
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