Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical StudiesSpotlight Talks 2026

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Recovering the life stories of enslaved people in Guyana (1796–1838)

Tuesday 27th January 2026 - 6.00pm - 7.00pm GMT. 

Join us online (via Zoom) for the eighth Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies’ Spotlight Talk featuring Dr David Alston, historian and author of Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean, the Saltire Society’s Scottish Book of the Year prize in 2022.

*Please be aware that this talk will present challenging and difficult topics including enslavement and sexual abuse*.

In 1796 Britain seized the Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice on the north coast of South America – colonies which later formed British Guiana and are now the Republic of Guyana. The colonies became, in terms of their white populations, the most Scottish settlements in the Caribbean. But the vast majority of the inhabitants were recently enslaved Africans, brought across the Atlantic before the end of the British slave-trade in 1807 to create and work an increasing number of cotton plantations. Until final emancipation in 1838 Guyana had the highest proportion of African-born inhabitants in the Caribbean, the lowest ratio of whites to enslaved Black people, and the plantations were the most profitable.

For as long as slavery persisted, people were treated as property. One consequence was that enslaved people were recorded in more detail than, for example, free workers in Scotland – in plantation accounts, deeds of sale, manumission petitions, disputes over ownership, advertisements for the recovery of ‘runaways’, complaints about mistreatment and, from 1817, in a compulsory Register of Slaves, updated every three years. These records are gradually becoming more available and they allow the recovery of some of the details of family life in slavery. As a matter of principle, I now begin every talk I give with the life of an enslaved person or family – and I will begin this talk in the same way.

Sexual abuse was endemic in plantation society and this is difficult genealogy considered in that setting. Women who had children by white fathers had a greater chance of freedom and the population of ‘free coloured women’ increased – as did the number of children of mixed race. A few of these children were brought Britain where their life stories tell us about attitudes to race here – often long after the end of colonial slavery.

A recording of the talk will be available for 2 weeks after the event.

How to book

Register your place via our booking site, MyCLL.

Please note that there will be a nominal booking fee of £5.00 which will apply to all attendees.

New to our online booking system 'MyCLL'?

As a first-time user, you will be asked to set up an account with username and password, and provide brief details to create a personal profile. Thereafter you will be able to add the SIGS Spotlight Talk to your basket and pay to confirm your enrolment.

How to join an online Spotlight Talk

Registered participants will receive an email with the Zoom webinar link by 12.00 GMT on the day of the talk.

Participants can also access the Zoom webinar link on MyCLL. Please read the MyCLL Student Guide for step-by-step instructions.

We hope you can join us!

Learn more about Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies

2025

Talk 7 - Wednesday the 24th of September 2025. 

This Spotlight Talk featured Dr Amy Harris, Family History Bachelor’s Program coordinator at Brigham Young University.

Siblings and Singleness: Exploring Family Life Across England and Across Social Classes, 1750-1850. Siblings were essential to family life and household economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. This presentation explores how siblings, particularly those who married late or never married navigated family and property relationships. The experience of the wealthy Sharp family, based in London, Northamptonshire, Durham, and Northumberland juxtaposes with the experience of the Pratt family of southern Sussex to demonstrate how families from different social groups managed households, provided for children, and prepared for later generations. The impact of sibling and property relations on marital choices is also discussed. The case studies are supplemented with findings from a statistical analysis of 9200 co-resident sibling households across England.

Talk 6 - Tuesday the 13th of May 2025. 

This Spotlight Talk featured Alexia Clark of the UK Ministry of Defence’s ‘War Detectives’ team.

The MOD War Detectives are a small team based at Imjin Barracks in Gloucestershire, who are tasked with identifying missing British Service Personnel from the two World Wars and the Korean War. Working closely with the Belgian MOD, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and other partners, their work has two main strands – the identification of remains recently recovered from the battlefields (often during large infrastructure projects), and the identification of those currently buried in graves marked ‘Known to God’.  With over 582,000 men still missing this is no small task, and the job requires a combination of archival research, genealogy, detective work and family liaison.

 

Talk 5 - Thursday the 27th of February 2025.

The fifth Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies’ Spotlight Talk (Talk 1 for 2025!) featured Tania Crossingham, heraldic artist and teacher. Her work has been presented to Queen Elizabeth II and used in Warner Brother Films. In 2023, Tania was appointed as the Honorary Heraldic Artist for the Georgian Royal family, after creating several illuminated documents featuring decorative border designs inspired by traditional Georgian motifs.

Tania discussed the process of designing, drawing and painting the heraldry showing photos of her work.

 

2024

Talk 1 - Wednesday 24th of January 2024. 

The first talk in the series was held on Wednesday the 24th of January. Guest speaker Nathan Dylan Goodwin, a genealogist and author of the Forensic Genealogist fiction series (and other non-fiction and fiction books) discussed how he uses real genealogy and historical facts in his fictional writing. Using his genealogical crime mystery stories as case studies, he explored the issues and problems of combining fact and fiction and the use of authentic genealogical methodology.

Nathan also shared some of the more interesting and less familiar records which he has used in the process of writing his books. 

Talk 2 - Wednesday 22nd of May 2024.

The second talk in the series featured guest speaker Dr Wanda Wyporska, FRHistS, an historian, RootsTech speaker and former CEO of the Society of Genealogists. 

In this talk Wanda explored the intersections of history, family history and identities. Taking her own Anglo-Polish-Caribbean heritage and training as an historian as starting points, she discussed the increasing relevance of DNA and the complexities and assumptions about the categorisation of identities, ethnicities and geographies. Wanda will talked about the relevance of genealogy to current debates on so-called contested history and reparations.

Talk 3 - Tuesday 17th of September 2024.

September's talk featured Dr Maurice Gleeson, honorary research fellow at the Institute who specialises in genetic genealogy and Dr Bart Jaski, a leading academic expert on Irish medieval genealogies. 

Maurice and Bart discussed a recent research study (published in April 2024 in Peritia, the Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland) which considered whether the medieval genealogical record for the Uí Briúin dynasty of northwest Ireland is consistent with the evolving genetic genealogy record. 

They talked about the study, its methodology and outcomes, and the challenges & opportunities of inter-disciplinary research in this field, highlighting the importance of cross-fertilisation between genetic genealogists and medieval historians to advance this field of research.

Talk 4 - Wednesday 23rd of October 2024.

In this talk, Dr Tejpal Ralmill and Professor Gavin Rand introduced the ‘Punjab Registers’ – a unique collection of archival records which reveal the scale of India’s ‘contribution’ to the First World War. Housed in the Lahore Museum, the Punjab Registers detail the names, biographies and service histories of some 320,000 recruits from colonial Punjab.

As part of a project undertaken by the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) and the University of Greenwich, the Registers have now been digitised and transcribed. The digitised Registers – all of which will be available online in due course – provide a unique resource for academic historians, as well as for genealogists and family historians, particularly those from the global Punjabi diaspora.

Tej and Gavin discussed their work on the Registers and the next steps for their project, as well as reflecting on what the Registers tell us about the complex, and sometimes controversial, legacies of empire in the twenty-first century.