CELEBRATING A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2021 & SOME NEW PROJECTS FOR 2022
New faces, new places, new roles
The past year has seen the continued flourishing of online genealogy gatherings, giving members of groups and societies the opportunity to come together and connect across the globe – chatting, brainstorming, planning projects, and holding meet-ups. It’s opened the door, providing the chance to learn in new ways and make new family history friends, which distance might otherwise have prevented.
A familiar face, to many, but in a new role on the family history scene, is Dr Janet Few – newly appointed President of the Family History Federation this summer. With a passion for getting young people into genealogy, and a rallying call to societies to embrace all that the virtual world has to offer the family history community, Janet is very much looking at where family history is headed next.
This forward-looking energy is also a hallmark of historian Dr Wanda Wyporska, new CEO at the Society of Genealogists, appointed this summer too. Wanda is keen to encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to genealogy – harnessing the specialisms of other fields to inform genealogy research, but also showcasing all that genealogy has to offer other academic disciplines. Key to her mission too, is to encourage the message that family history is for everyone.
A fond farewell to Les Mitchinson, former Director of Education at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, must also be given. Les invested his genealogy knowledge and trademark enthusiasm into overhauling the IHGS course offerings, and numerous students have benefitted,
