Chris PatonOriginally from Northern Ireland, Chris Paton is a Scottish based professional genealogist, running the Scotland’s Greatest Story ancestral research service (www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk). A regular contributor to several UK and Ireland based family history publications, and author of eleven family history books (two of them into 2nd editions), he also writes the daily British GENES (GEnealogy News and EventS) blog at www.britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk, as well as his own personal genealogy blog http://chrispatonsblog.blogspot.co.uk.

A holder of a Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies, Chris has tutored for the University of Strathclyde’s postgraduate genealogical studies programme (www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy), and teaches online Scottish genealogy courses through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com). He has lectured across Britain, Canada and Australia, and currently serves as a member of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland user forum and a director of the Scottish Archive Network.

Unlock the Past Cruises – 2nd, 4th & 8th

Chris was also the featured presenter at the Unlock the Past Sydney expo on October 2010. Here is a video interview with Chris at the expo.

Web sites

Publications (UTP = published by Unlock the Past)

  • A beginner’s guide to British and Irish genealogy (UTP)
  • A decade of centenaries: researching Ireland 1912-23 (UTP)
  • British and Irish newspapers (UTP)
  • Discover Irish land records (UTP)
  • Discover Scottish church records (UTP)
  • Discover Scottish civil registration records (UTP)
  • Discover Scottish land records (UTP)
  • Down and out in Scotland: researching ancestral crisis (UTP)
  • Irish family history resources online (UTP)
  • Researching Scottish family history
  • The Mount Stewart murder: a re-examination of the UK’s oldest unsolved murder case
  • Tracing your family history on the internet
  • Tracing your Irish family history on the internet: a guide for family historians

Topics

  • A beginner’s guide to British and Irish genealogy
  • A decade of centenaries: researching Ireland 1912-23
  • British and Irish newspapers
  • British censuses and substitutes
  • British civilian POWs in the First World War
  • Civil registration in the British Isles
  • Discover Irish land records
  • Discover Scottish censuses (and substitutes)
  • Discover Scottish church records
  • Discover Scottish civil registration records
  • Discover Scottish family history
  • Discover Scottish land records
  • DNA and genealogy
  • Down and out in Scotland: researching Ancestral crisis
  • Genealogy without borders
  • Irish records online
  • My ancestor was a weaver
  • Researching British and Irish ancestors in the First World War
  • Scots and Gaelic – d’ye ken the difference?
  • Scottish burgh and trade incorporation records
  • Scottish inheritance records
  • Scottish marriage: instantly buckled for life
  • The decade of remembrance: remembering Ireland 1912-1922
  • The Mount Stewart murder
  • Using PRONI and Northern Irish resources
  • Writing family history articles