Missing baptisms

Back to more work on the Scottish black servants academic journal paper. Now typing up the story of John Ogilvie Glasgow, a servant just outside Dundee. Whose baptism was - like so many others - missing from the ScotlandsPeople indexes. Though in this case it was not so much a case of systemic racism among those compiling the original indexes, but rather the GRO for Scotland and ScotlandsPeople had missed out an entire register of Strathmartine parish baptisms from their computer indexes! Luckily they had the original paper records, and I had traced this one through a separate baptisms index on FindMyPast. ScotlandsPeople were able to email me a digital image.

Big Finish update

Crikey, they’re rolling back to the old website and old app. Full details here.

I'm relieved that they're rolling back. Though from a software/data perspective it's also rather a nightmare for them to contend with, given people have placed orders on the new website. But it's probably easily the best option for them now. Albeit drastic. I'm honestly impressed that they've decided to do this. And I wish them well.

Mixed experiences watching the Worldcon recordings

I’ve now watched 5 panels, and will watch many more in the coming weeks and months. Generally things are working well. But today’s viewing was very much a tale of two halves.

“Scot-ish: The Influence of Scotland on Fantasy Worldbuilding” was a delight, with an all Scottish panel talking about Scotland and how it’s depicted in fantasy and scifi too, across all mediums. Only hampered by one panelist who was a bit far from his microphone. But the repartee was a delight.

By contrast “It's Life, Jim, but Not as We Know It”, with a bunch of space scientists talking about the search for life in space, was exasperating. None of the in-room panelists were clearly audible, all too far from their microphones. However there was another panelist calling in remotely, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Who was clearly audible, and constantly good value. I ended up fast forwarding through much of the other speakers though, just unable to hear them enough, despite trying repeatedly. I did turn on the captions.

A friend of mine watched many Glasgow Worldcon events live, and ran into similar problems. He gave lengthy and detailed feedback to the con in one of their dedicated feedback sessions. Including raising the problem of people not using their microphones correctly. And often inaudible questions from the room, at least for the online audience. So I am expecting to have more problematic experiences as I watch more.

Still very grateful to have any chance to see it though. We hung on to our very early bought attending memberships, just in case we might get there for a day visit after all. But in the end relied on the streaming.