The Spring Lecture Tour: a report by Gillian Hunt
In March 2014, I went to the USA with the Executive Director, Fintan Mullan, to take part in my very first overseas lecture tour. Our former Research Director, Dr Brian Trainor, began this in the 1970s and Fintan has been doing them now for fourteen years so I was a little apprehensive following in such great footsteps!
We began in Denver
CO where we had our largest crowd of the tour and as I had never spoken to that size of an audience before I was a little nervous but really enjoyed it! The day flew in and soon we were on the road to our next destination.
We spoke in ten venues in eight states across the USA. As well as Denver, we visited Des Moines IA, Lincoln
NE, Bolingbrook IL, Chicago IL, Memphis TN, Boise ID, Greensburg PA, Philadelphia
PA and South Orange NJ. I was amazed at how much ground we covered in the fifteen days, taking only two internal flights (Memphis – Boise, and Boise – Newark NJ); the rest of the journey we made by car, travelling over 2,000 miles!
I had my first experience of driving in the USA, on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and on the ‘wrong’ side of the car! I eased myself in though by driving on the nice straight interstates and leaving the city driving to the much more experienced driver!
I really enjoyed meeting our overseas members and friends and was taken aback by the hospitality that the USA is famous for – so many people making us feel at home and feeding us great food! It is impossible to choose one highlight of the lecture tour, I have very fond memories of meals with the committee members and our hosts in all the places we were invited to speak. It was also a great privilege to have the opportunity to speak to so many people about my passion – genealogy.
The lecture tours are a great opportunity for our Guild members and supporters to discuss their research objectives with us on a one-to-one basis, as well as to hear talks on research sources for Irish and Scots-Irish genealogy, information on travelling to and around Ireland, what to see and do while there, and the repositories and resources available for family historians.
Our well-stocked bookstall with a wide range of publications on family and local history is always popular, giving people the opportunity to browse and buy books and resources that are not normally available locally.