More Free Credits For Find My Past

A few weeks ago I told you about the promotion that Find My Past were running, whereby they were offering all of their users 50 free credits.

Well, they're doing it again, only this time it's 40 free credits instead of 50.

All you have to do to claim your free credits is visit Find My Past, and click on "claim free credits." You will then be taken to a screen to sign up for an account, or log in if you already have one.

The code that you will need to use to claim your free credits is

TVOFFER

The code expires on the 2nd of February 2013. Enjoy.

New Online Ancestry Courses

There are a wealth of Internet resources available to genealogists. While some people take up genealogy simply as an interesting hobby, others want to study the topic in more depth. To satisfy this demand increasing numbers of educational establishments are running ancestry courses.

North Highland College UHI in Scotland is the latest to offer a course, and it seems unlikely to be the last in 2013. The college is in fact launching two new ancestry courses, the first offering an introduction to basic Scottish ancestry research and the second relating to ancestry tourism for businesses.

The latter course highlights the growing importance of ancestral tourism to Scotland's economy. The annual Homecoming initiatives which began in 2009 are a way to reach out to the millions of people around the world who have Scottish ancestors. Many of these people have already visited the land of their roots, and many more are sure to follow. This generates a lot of revenue for the Scottish economy each year.

But ancestral tourism also benefits countries all around the world. More and more people are combining holidays with family history research. As the popularity of genealogy continues to grow so too will the trend for ancestral tourism. Now all I need to do is find an ancestor who was from the Bahamas!

Hopes For 2013

I'm hoping that everybody had a nice, relaxing, peaceful Christmas and New Year. I know that I did, but now it's time to get back to the important business of my family history research. 

2013 promises new opportunities for discovering the past as more and more records are released online. This is one of the best aspects of our hobby, in that it is constantly evolving. There is always information lying undiscovered, just waiting to be brought to light. Personally, I have a few brick walls that I still need to break through, and I'm hoping that 2013 will be the year that I finally manage to do it.

I aim to become much more organised in 2013. I want to free up more time for research in my local library, and I'd love to plan more trips to the Scotland's People Centre in Edinburgh.

I'm excited by the opportunities that 2013 will bring. Who knows what further secrets I'll discover in my family's past?