Speakers

Dr. Marjory Harper is Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen and Visiting Professor at the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands. Her research focuses on British (particularly Scottish) emigration since 1800. Two of her monographs have won international prizes, and she has published around 100 articles and book chapters. She edited Migration and Mental Health: Past and Present (2016). Her latest monograph, Testimonies of Transition (an oral history of 20th century Scottish emigration) was published in 2018, and a revised version was published as an audio book in 2020. She directs an award-winning online Master’s Programme in Scottish Heritage and is currently preparing a book on emigration from the Northern Isles. She contributes regularly to radio and television programs such as Digging Up Your Roots and Who Do You Think You Are? More...

Chris Fleet has worked at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) since 1994, primarily on digital mapping and putting maps online. His main work has been developing and maintaining the NLS maps website. He has researched, written and spoken widely on these subjects, and is a co-author of Scotland: Mapping the Nation (2011), Edinburgh: Mapping the City (2014), Scotland: Mapping the Islands (2016), and Scotland: Defending the Nation (2018). More...

Kirsty Wilkinson worked as a professional genealogist since 2006. She holds an MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographical and Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and is a member of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives. After successfully running her own family history research business for over ten years, in 2017 Kirsty joined AncestryProGenealogists, the research division of Ancestry,com where she continues to specialize in Scottish research. Kirsty’s first book, Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems, was published by Robert Hale in 2020. More...

Chris Paton

Robin Baird Lewis 

Northern-Irish-born Chris Paton is a genealogist and writer based in Ayrshire, where he runs the Scotland’s Greatest Story research service at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk. As well as contributing to the UK’s best-known family history magazines, he also writes for his own Scottish GENES news blog at  www.scottishgenes.blogspot.com and regularly gives talks to family history societies across the UK and worldwide. He holds a postgraduate diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde, and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Chris has written 22 genealogy-themed book publications. These include Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd edition), and Sharing Your Family History Online, all published in the UK by Pen and Sword Books (UK: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, USA: www.penandswordbooks.com), as well as several titles published in Australia through Unlock the Past (www.gould.com.au). More... 

Robin Baird Lewis BA Hon (Guelph), B Ed (UWO), MA (Guelph) pursued an enjoyable, but relatively sheltered, academic life shared between Ontario and Scotland into the late 70s. Inspired by the goldmine of social history contained in her Carlyle ancestor's letters, Robin transposed  Alexander Carlyle’s story into a Masters of Arts degree, the first MA awarded in the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph (1978).

With that goal achieved, Robin gave up her last National Library of Scotland research ticket to move away from academics and into several careers (since hailing from a Scottish family of artists and artisans who loved to give advice).  These included three "tours of duty" teaching Visual Arts & Design at the secondary school level in Ontario while also mentoring and freelancing in a variety of eclectic artistic media. More...