Province of York Cause Papers database

The Federation of Family History Societies has a news item online concerning the Province of York Cause Papers database online. From the article:

This searchable catalogue of over 14,000 sets of records relates to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York. Not all of the cases relate to people who lived in the diocese of York, as some concern appeals originating from other dioceses within the northern province of the Church of England.

The full piece is available at http://ffhs.org.uk/news/news140608.php

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Weavers with attitude!

Another in an occasional series of reprints from articles I've written elsewhere, including my Scotland: Walking in Eternity blog, where the following first appeared in November 2010.

Weavers with attitude

One of my favourite historic records found to date is the following from the records of the Weavers Incorporation of Perth in 1703, proving that many Scots three hundred years ago had the same healthy attitude towards authority as their descendants do today!


Perth the ffourth day of August 1703

Whilk day the master court of the weavers of Perth being convened in the c[h]urch all in ane voice inlays and fynes John Huttsone weaver in Perth in fforty shill[ing]s for his abusing the present Deacon and any other of the laite Deacons[,] abusing and miscalling the said Deacon Archibald[,] and several times Called the s[ai]d Deacons Raskells and villainds and often times commanded them to kiss his airs and thairfore he is fyned in other ffourty shilling[s]

Perth is where my Paton weaver ancestors hailed from - which may explain my own healthy attitude to authority at times! :)

UPDATE: At the time when I first wrote this the records were in private hands, but they have now been deposited with Perth and Kinross Archives. A web project that I placed online a few years ago has some additional records for Perth's handloom weavers - it can be found at http://perthweavers.bravehost.com. Note that the records concern the burgh of Perth, and not the county of Perthshire.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Home Office 'considering' adding mums names to English/Welsh marriage certs

The campaign to have mother's names added to English and Welsh marriage certificates - something that has been the case in Scotland since 1855 - has so far attracted 67,000 signatures. The campaign has now prompted a response from the Home Office, thanks to a written question by Caroline Lucas MP.

The response is as follows: "We are currently considering how the information contained in the marriage entry can be updated to include this, and to reflect changes since the coming into force of the Regulation of Marriages Regulations 1986, as well as the most suitable opportunity for doing so."

So, not a lot of progress as yet - but at least an acknowledgement so far from Westminster of the necessity to have it included. The full petition update is available at https://www.change.org/p/mothers-names-should-be-on-marriage-certificates/u/53b14b283519f622270070b8, where you can also add your name if you have yet to do so.

(With thanks to Ailsa Burkimsher Sadler via email)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FindmyPast launches RAF and RFC records

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has released 450,000 Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force service records in partnership with The National Archives, including 342,000 Airmen’s records never seen online before.

The majority of records in this collection date from 1912 with the formation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and include men who continued to serve in the RAF up until 1939. The earliest records date from 1899 with the Royal Engineers Balloon Service in the Boer War.

The records, comprising National Archives series AIR 76 (Officers’ service records) and AIR 79 (Airmen’s records) contain information about an individual’s peacetime and military career, as well as his physical description, religious denomination and family status. Next of kin are often mentioned and this too has been fully indexed and is easily searchable.

The collection is searchable at http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/british-royal-air-force-airmens-service-records-1912-1939?_ga=1.77632980.1175916522.1363352244

(With thanks to Alex Cox)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Glasgow Women's Heritage Cycle Trail

Glasgow Women's Library (http://womenslibrary.org.uk) held a heritage cycle trail event in the city on Saturday 28th June to highlight women's cycling history. From its site:

The bicycle has been an important fixture in women’s history. The ride will stop off at Nelson’s Column which was a meeting point for suffragette rallies. The bicycle enabled suffragettes to distribute leaflets and promote events, thus playing an important role in the women’s suffrage movement. The route will also take cyclists to Anderston, where industries such as shipbuilding and engineering thrived. Many women were employed in these industries and cycling gave them a greater freedom and independence. It changed the way they dressed as the restrictive styles of the 19th Century weren’t conducive to riding a bike.

The full story is at http://womenslibrary.org.uk/2014/06/19/womens-heritage-bike-ride/

Although the trail has already happened, you can pick up a copy of the Women’s Heritage Bike Ride map from the Library, which is open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm and 7pm on a Thursday. (It's based in the same building complex as the Mitchell Library)

(With thanks to Sue Johns and Gabrielle Macbeth)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Ancestry re-indexes First World War army records and adds new sets

Ancestry has launched three new First World War Collections, and updated several other key sets.

First the new sets:

Canada, Ledgers of CEF Officers Transferring to Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1919
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9148

England, The National Roll of the Great War, 1914-1918
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9283

UK, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, 1914-1919
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60454


The following have also been updated:

British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1114

British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1219

British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1262

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1543

Ireland, Casualties of World War I, 1914-1922
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1633

UK, Citations of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1913

UK, Silver War Badge Records, 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2456

UK, Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2706

Of these, note that Ancestry, like FindmyPast, has now completely reindexed its First World War army service records, sourced from WO363 and WO364, and listed here as both service and pension records (they are all service records, some were used for pension applications). With Ancestry, included in the indexed entries are all family members named in the records - not just the soldier himself. So now you can search for children, wives and more. Peter Calver has worked through an example of this on his latest Lost Cousins newsletter, accessible at www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/latejun14news.htm.

I've had a look myself, and from what I can see it looks like additional names have only been indexed if the relationship has been specifically given. I'm also unclear as to how much of the content has been reindexed - for example, I have the service record of my 2 x gt grandfather's brother, John Graham, born in 1887 Belfast, though indexed on Ancestry as 1888 in the WW1 Service Records collection. The fact that it is the right John Graham is confirmed by a letter included with the papers from my three times gt grandfather Edwin - but Edwin's name has not been picked up by Ancestry from this letter as his father. So Ancestry may have only looked at certain documents in doing so. Nevertheless, a better index is always appreciated.

Have fun!

(With thanks to Peter)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Scottish Genealogy Network visit to St. Andrews

I attended the Scottish Genealogy Network visit to St Andrews yesterday, for the latest in our monthly meetings, which I think we should probably describe as our monthly jolly genie jamborees, being so much fun! Each month we meet up to network, catch up on latest developments that will affect our genealogical research as professional genies, and most importantly, to try to engage with the wider archive, library and FHS communities to help with our personal continuous professional development, usually by way of a visit to an archive or some other institution.

So yesterday the plan was for an early start to St. Andrew's Holy Trinity Church, where John Knox famously preached the opening salvoes of the Scottish Reformation. This was the first time I had returned to the church in about twelve or thirteen years, having previously been there to direct part of an episode of a BBC Scotland TV series on the history of the Kirk (specifically about John Knox), but the church has a much longer history than just one event.

There's a great exhibition about the history of the church itself inside the building - but what will be of particular interest if you are researching Scottish family roots, and you happen to be in St Andrews, is the display of some of the means by which the kirk session sought to instil discipline in its flock (as part of the Godly Commonwealth ideal that Knox gained from Calvin amongst others). One of the first exhibits you come across is a bench with the word Repentance inscribed on it, on which those who had been hauled before the kirk session were subsequently made to sit in front of the congregation to be publicly humiliated if they had been found guilty of an offence. I suspect those guilty of antenuptial fornication were made to sit at opposite ends... I took some pics using my iPad, but this one didn't come out so well, so take a look at https://www.flickr.com/photos/safetyrazor/9292291018/in/set-72157634643709699/ for an image.

Also present and on display was the Stool of Repentance from the seventeenth century - you'll be guaranteed those guilty of antenuptial fornication were not allowed to sit on each other's laps (this was very much for the individual sinner!) - and a Scold's Bridle (aka a Bishop's Branks). This was an iron muzzle that was placed onto an offender's head, with the bridle inserted into the mouth, with a protruding bit that into the mouth which pressed the tongue down, preventing the offender from speaking. I tweeted about this last night, and one reader responded "Fortunately, some of us were able to go to Confession", which made me laugh. I wonder how many who ended up sitting on the stool with their bolted into a birdcage contemplated whether the Reformation had been quite all it had been cracked up to be - even if only for a moment! Also present in the church are a wonderful war memorial, and the Sharp Aisle, holding the supposed tomb of Archbishop James Sharp, who was murdered at the hands of nine Covenanters in 1679, he having turned on Presbyterianism to implement the diametrically opposed theology of episcopal Anglicanism (under the rule of bishops) through a harsh regime of persecution. The tomb itself, though, is said to be in fact empty.

After our church visit, we had a bite to eat, and then went for a wee dander to the abbey and then along the shore for a walk towards the castle, before heading to our next location, where we were joined by additional members of the SGN who had come for the afternoon session only. The venue was the newly refurbished St Andrew's University Library Special Collections facility, recently renovated in December of last year. Greeting us was archivist Norman Reid, who I first had the pleasure of meeting at a conference in Dundee last year, where we had both given talks within the same afternoon session. At that event Norman had described the set up at the facility as being a slightly awkward one, in that the Special Collections Department was temporarily based in a portacabin somewhere in St Andrew's, as work on renovating the main facility was under way. Well now he was able to show us the reading room, and my immediate thought was "if only all Scotland's reading rooms were so gorgeous" - the room has 45 seats for postgraduate students, each with sockets for laptops, though there is open access for non-students also. Magic.

Norman then led us into a side room where he had laid out several documents for us to see. He started by explaining the set up of the Special Collections facility. The university is the third oldest in the English speaking world, and so has been collecting materials for centuries. In addition, for several decades the institution has also acted as an unofficial local authority archive for north east Fife, and much of the whole county. The upshot of that is that when doing Fife research, don't just think of the Fife Archives facility at Markinch (near Glenrothes) as the only archive, because St Andrews also hosts many valuable collections, including kirk session minutes, burgh records, etc (the two archives work quite closely on many projects). The archive is responsible for the university's books and manuscripts collections (some 210,000 books alone, and manuscripts from 1st century Greek papyrii to modern business records), for the university's own institutional records (muniments collection), and a photo collection of images, including particularly significant holdings from the advent of photography in the 1840s-1860s, with St Andrews a major centre in the development of photography. In total the archive holds about thirteen and half kilometres of shelving.

There is one disadvantage with the facility, in that the collections are not stored on site, and so if you wish to visit you must identify what you would like to see by 3pm of the day before your visit (the off site storage is a couple of miles away, so there is one productions delivery a day). When you first arrive you will be asked to register, so bring photo ID with you. There are three separate catalogues online - a rare books catalogue, a manuscripts and muniments catalogue and a photographic database. These are quite extensive, but nothing like complete - Norman made the point that because so much is online, people often assume that if they can't find a record on the online catalogues, it mustn't be held by the archive - that may well not be the case, so email them to ask for advice. One thing Norman mentioned was that with archive cataloguing standards having changed so much in recent times, particularly since the advent of online cataloguing, a lot of the archive's collections are inadequately described in modern terms, and they are probably about a century behind in trying to catalogue everything by modern criteria - but a lot of material is still catalogued, it just may not be online yet. The online catalogues are accessible at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/.

Some of the treasures we were then allowed to look at included family history materials on the Playfair and Anstruther families, the kirk session records from Holy Trinity Church, a kirk session register detailing coal distribution from the 19th and 20th centuries, a 15th century heraldic chart tracing a tree back, a roll portraing the history of the English royal family, a honeymoon diary, a merchant's ship log book detailing voyages to Norway from Scotland, and much more.

After an hour and a half we said farewell to Norman, before heading off to a couple of hostelries for beers and teas. It was a great day out, with great weather and good company. Next month we're off to Hawick!

If you work professionally within the Scottish genealogical scene, there is more about the Scottish Genealogy Network at http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.co.uk.

(With thanks to Norman Reid, to SGN member Caroline Makein for facilitating the visit to the archive, and to Emma Maxwell for the group pic!)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Lack of easy to find source info on FindmyPast continues to frustrate

FindmyPast has a blog post up about Irish Petty Session Registers now reaching 21 million records - it's at http://blog.findmypast.com/2014/21-million-irish-petty-sessions-court-registers-on-findmypast/.

In the past, FindmyPast Ireland - when it was a separate entity before being integrated into the new version of the site - carried a list of all the different courts included which specifically noted the year range available for each. I have just spent ten minutes trying to find that list, and cannot now do so from the home page. The guide at http://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/irish-petty-sessions-court-registers-1828-1912?_ga=1.18584057.1175916522.1363352244 has nothing on this, and although you can choose the court in the main search page (through one of their tedious filters), there is no detail on the year range available alongside each.

Fortunately, with this blog acting also as an archive, I have found the original link that offered this list at http://www.findmypast.ie/articles/news/another-petty-sessions-court-records-top-up - but this seems to be the state of play at 20 million records in November 2013, with no indication as to what is in the current update. I also cannot access this from the site if searching from scratch - although the earlier blog post still exists via this direct link, when accessing the current blog from any of the FindmyPast platforms, it just cannot be found as an archived story.

Similarly, on the Irish Prison Registers page at http://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/irish-prison-registers-1790-1924, there is a section at the end marked Full list of prisons. Except it does not carry even a partial list of prisons. (UPDATE: thanks to @kaffgregory for highlighting a link with this info - it's available at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/full-list-of-the-irish-family-history-records/institutions-and-organisations/irish-prison-registers-1790-1924)

Despite recently acquiring content like the plague is in town, FindmyPast has seriously diminished as a resource in the last few months in terms of the user experience, as far as this humble genie is concerned. It seems now to have some Borg based mentality that FindmyPast has itself become the source - but detailed information on what is available is ESSENTIAL for those trying to carry out meaningful research, as opposed to thinking its users just want to do a 'lucky dip' search and hoping something might pop up.

One day I hope that someone at the new FindmyPast actually gets it. I really do.

UPDATE: right, here goes - it seems the way to find source info is to click on the box on the home page that states "What's new? Find out about our latest updates." The full list of collections is then accessible by clicking the Articles link at the top, at which point you then get the World records list that used to be so easy to find from the home page. The confusing problem now with the site is that under the Search Records tab on the home screen there are two options - Search all records, and A-Z of record sets - neither is anything like as useful as accessing the collections via the World list, as such source info is not forthcoming.

A lot of work has clearly gone into the new FindmyPast site. But not a lot of thought...

(With thanks to @kaffgregory)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FamilySearch adds First World War army service records

FamilySearch has added the surviving First World War army service records from the National Archives collections WO363 and WO364 - aka the 'burnt records' - in a browse only format at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2125045. There are some 43,542,691 images - but they can unfortunately only be accessed from one of the LDS church's family history centres.

There's more on the records at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_Kingdom,_World_War_I_Service_Records_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records) - the same records have been available on Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) for many years, and have also recently been added to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk).

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FamilySearch guide to Norfolk

FamilySearch's wiki has a new guide online for ancestral research in the English county of Norfolk.

The FamilySearch blog has a feature on the new guide, including a lit of parishes, at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/free-guide-norfolk-england-ancestors/, whilst to access it directly visit https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Norfolk.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Who Do You Think You Are series 10 participants

Dick Eastman has news of the latest line up for the next series of Who Do You Think You Are, which will include, amongst others, the Big Yin, Billy Connolly, and Brian Blessed. Here's hoping the latter finds a cousin called Gordon - "Gordon's alive!"

For the full line up visit http://blog.eogn.com/2014/06/27/who-do-you-think-you-are-uk-version-announces-10-new-guest-stars/

(With thanks to Dick Eastman)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

PRONI - After the Gathering and Sunningdale demise conferences on YouTube

PRONI (www.proni.gov.uk) has added two videos to its YouTube site in the last week:

After The Gathering: Dissonant Voices In Irish Diaspora Studies
http://youtu.be/fQheMfEihgc

Queen's University's Institute of Collaborative Research in the Humanities, DCAL and the Ministerial Advisory Group of the Ulster Scots Academy hosted this symposium focussing on diaspora histories, representations, culture and politics following the events of the Irish government's Gathering year.

This event was held in PRONI on 6th June 2014.
Speakers included in this video are:

Dr Dominic Bryan, Queen's University Belfast -- 'Defining Ireland: Those gathered for Irish Studies'

Dr Johanne Devlin Trew, University of Ulster -- 'Whose diaspora, whose migration, whose identity?' Migration and diaspora in the Northern Ireland context since 1921

Prof Mark Boyle, NUI Maynooth -- Recasting diaspora strategies within care frameworks: The case of the Ireland's the Gathering 2013

Dr Barry Vann -- 'Natural Liberty in the Bible Belt: Ulster-Scots Emigration and Explaining Voting Patterns in Southern Appalachia'


and

PRONI - Sunningdale, The Ulster Workers Council Strike & Their Legacies
http://youtu.be/6cTqR9q-0dE

'Disclaimer' - ***Please note that PRONI is not responsible for any language in this video which some people may find offensive***

The 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first power-sharing executive is an opportunity to reflect on the nature of democratic practice in Northern Ireland. This one-day conference, which took place on 23rd May 2014, aimed to explore not only the reasons for the sudden demise of the 'Sunningdale Assembly' during the Ulster Workers' Council Strike but also the divided legacies that demise bestowed on Northern Irish politics.

The questions that surround the Sunningdale power-sharing experiment continue to resonate within Northern Ireland today:

- Democracy has widened, but to what extent has it deepened?
- In what ways and in what areas are people's voices not being heard?
- How can political disenchantment, apathy and differing views on democratic legitimacy be managed?
- What do we, as a society, do about groups who feel alienated from mainstream politics?
- What are the reasons behind the resilience of violent factions?

This unique event brought together historians, journalists, commentators, eyewitnesses to the executive, archivists and political scientists to address these and other issues relating to the long struggle for democracy in Northern Ireland. It aimed to assess the lessons of the Sunningdale failure and asks how they apply to contemporary Northern Ireland.

Speakers include Professor Arthur Aughey; Sir Kenneth Bloomfield; Dr Sarah Campbell; Dr Jude Collins; Dr Anthony Craig; Dr Aaron Edwards; Dr Gordon Gillespie; Professor Thomas Hennessey; Mr David Huddleston; Mr Alex Kane; Dr Brendan Lynn; and Dr Malachi O'Doherty.

Hosted and sponsored by:
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland
The Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, University of Ulster
The Political Studies Association, Irish Specialist Group

This conference took place on 23rd May 2014 in PRONI.

(With thanks to @stephenscarth)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

More Kent and Norfolk records on FamilySearch

Further collections released on FamilySearch for Kent and Norfolk over the last week - these are browse only, and seem to be available only at a FamilySearch family history centre:

England, Kent, Manorial Documents 1241-1976
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1949795

(NB: These in fact contain records beyond Kent - Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Yorkshire)

England, Norfolk Register of Electors, 1844-1952
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1824705

England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1416598

The following collection has also been updated, though no details as yet on how:

Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009 updated
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1784428

(With thanks to @lizl_genealogy)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

New subscription site offering WW1 war diaries coming soon

Many thanks to a British GENES reader who has just sent me the following information:

There is a very significant development taking place in WW1 military/family history with the digitisation of the entire WW1 medal rolls and the availability of these rolls (firstly by CD-Rom) and then via a new website 'The Naval & Military Archive'.

The links are here: http://www.naval-military-press.com/first-world-war-campaign-medals.-10.9-million-medals-5-million-soldierscomplete-on-one-fully-searchable-cd-rom-early-bird_price.html and http://ww1wardiaries.co.uk

The second link explains how for a reasonable subscription individuals will be able to go through as many Western Front war diaries as they like, no more individual download charges unless you want to get a copy from the National Archives website. This changes the way they can be used as it makes it feasible to look through multiple war diaries for a small cost. I also emailed Naval and Military Press who confirmed that the other 7 million newly digitised WW1 records on the site (apparently 6.5 million) will be on.

COMMENT: I've had a look, and the Naval and Military Archive site is stated to be arriving 'summer 2014' - the following is some additional info:

The N&M Archive will include the full sets of data currently on our military-genealogy.com website, bolstered by an additional 6.5 million newly digitised WW1 soldiers’ records, plus the War Diaries.

Subscription to N&M Archive includes full and unrestricted access to all these data sets and collections, as well as the 4,700 separate War Diaries. These consist of 1.52 million full colour pages, from WO 95 held at the National Archives, Kew.

Pricing for subscriptions will be modest, starting from under £5 for a 24-hour period to a full year at a remarkable £50.

Definitely one to keep an eye out for!

(With thanks to Justin)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Yorkshire Family History Fair

The 19th Yorkshire Family History Fair takes place this Saturday 28th June 2014, from 10am to 4.30pm, at the Knavesmire Exhibition Centre, The Racecourse, York, YO23 1EX. Admission costs for adults is £4.50, with children under 14 admitted free.

For a list of exhibitors visit www.yorkshirefamilyhistoryfair.com/exhibitors.php.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Forthcoming PRONI talk on war poetry postponed

From PRONI (www.proni.gov.uk), news of a postponement to a forthcoming talk:

LUNCHTIME POETRY: War Words: poetry inspired by the First and Second World Wars
When: Monday 30th June, 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Where: PRONI

This event will be rescheduled at a later date. Please check the PRONI ‘Talks and Events – What’s On’ page and your weekly edition of the PRONI Express for updates.

PRONI apologises for any inconvenience.

(With thanks to PRONI)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FindmyPast finally plans to sort Scottish census citations out

On April 11th I blogged that the new FindmyPast site, amongst all the various problems it had introduced with its new website, had also bizarrely made a dog's dinner of the Scottish censuses source citations. The full description of what the company has done to the census citations is outlined in my blog post at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/findmypast-scottish-censuses.html.

There's not a lot of Scottish content on FindmyPast, so with one of the few dedicated resources so poorly portrayed on the site, I added the following to the FindmyPast's new Ideas and Improvements site at http://feedback.findmypast.co.uk/forums/222583-ideas-and-improvements on May 8th :

Reinstate original census source information on Scottish censuses

The census citations on the Scottish censuses do not make sense any more. They previously did on the old UK site, albeit with some transcription and terminology errors, but never did on the US site, with nonsensical RG numbers which you have now imposed on your new platform. Scottish censuses were not kept at TNA, and are cited differently to English censuses. It may not seem important if you're not a genealogist, but source information is as important as the information contained in the records themselves for those who are.

One hundred and seventeen British GENES readers have agreed with that proposition to date - thanks to those who have done so (and you can still do so if you haven't!)!

Seven weeks later - yes, SEVEN weeks later - I have finally received a note that FindmyPast has finally taken a note of this, with work to address this now 'planned'.

There are of course many issues, affecting the site, and this is but one example, with many other suggestions on the same platform that do not seem to have as yet been considered. Changes are being made, with performance in certain areas now much improved, though some areas could clearly still do with a lot of work - customer service perhaps being just one of them. If people are going to take the time to make suggestions on what needs to be sorted via its own facility to do so, it would be at least useful to acknowledge receipt of said suggestions (or even to dismiss them - not all may be practical!), instead of leaving the proposers in limbo, not knowing whether they have just been wasting their time.

UPDATED 25 JUN: It looks like someone's read this blog post - all the suggestions on the site have now been looked at and updated with a comment on whether they are planned, or under review.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

British Home Children deaths in Canada database

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (http://bifhsgo.ca) has placed online a fully searchable database of some 2284 British Home Children deaths in Canada. The database is accessible at http://bifhsgo.ca/cstm_homeChildrenDeaths.php.

BIFHSGO also has several other Home Children databases available, produced in partnership with Library and Archives Canada, including:

Barnardo's Ups and Downs magazine
http://bifhsgo.ca/cstm_upsAndDowns.php

The Fegan Index
http://bifhsgo.ca/cstm_fegan.php

Middlemore Home Children index search
http://bifhsgo.ca/cstm_homeChildren.php

For more on the society's Home Children projects visit http://bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=4

(With thanks to @BIFHSGO)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Dr John Scally appointed new chief at National Library of Scotland

Dr John Scally, currently Director of Library and University Collections at the University of Edinburgh, has been appointed as the Chief Executive and National Librarian at the Edinburgh based National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk), a post he will take up from September.

Commenting on the appointment, Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, stated

'The National Library of Scotland is a key national collection of international renown. As a cultural and research centre on Scotland and the Scots it is among the best research and reference libraries in Europe. In providing free public access to over 24 million items it is an important part of our cultural and literary heritage and future. I welcome Dr John Scally's appointment as Chief Executive and National Librarian. Under his leadership the Library will continue to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the digital era and provide an excellent service to a growing audience for the Library’s collections.'

The full announcement is available at http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2014/06/national-library-appointment

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Ireland's oldest manuscript to go on display

Ireland's oldest known manuscript, the Codex Usserianius Primus, or First Book of Ussher, is to go on display following conservation by Trinity College Dublin. The work is believed to date to the 5th Century AD, centuries before the better known Book of Kells.

The full story is http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/oldest-known-irish-manuscript-to-be-exhibited-publicly-1.1840340

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Enhanced Irish GRO BMD indexes launch July 3rd

Claire Santry is reporting on her Irish Genealogy News blog that the enhanced GRO indexes from the Republic of Ireland, used to order births, marriages and deaths, will be going online from July 3rd at www.irishgenealogy.ie. These will be a considerable improvement on those available just now on Ancestry, FindmyPast and FamilySearch.

The full story is at http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/major-news-enhanced-gro-indexes-launch.html.

(With thanks to Claire)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FindmyPast purchases Mocavo

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has just announced that it has purchased American genealogy company Mocavo (www.mocavo.com), founded in 2011. From the press release:

Founded by Cliff Shaw in 2011, Mocavo is a technological innovator in the genealogy industry. Its highly sophisticated search engine brings together, in one place, a diverse range of sources, such as family history record indexes, school and college yearbooks, church records and biographies, which help millions of family history enthusiasts to fill in blanks in their family trees and add colour to their family stories.

This acquisition, coupled with the recent tender win of the 1939 Register for England and Wales and the purchase of Origins.net, forms an important part of the growth strategy set out by Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, and her new team.

Together Findmypast and Mocavo will create one of the fastest growing global genealogy businesses. The two companies will provide customers with easier access and more relevant information to help add colour and depth to family history. Additionally, they both remain committed to delivering on Mocavo’s promise to provide free access to family history records on an individual database level forever. Toward that commitment, Findmypast is announcing today that the full indexes to the US Census from 1790 to 1940 are available for free at Mocavo.com.

COMMENT: It would be good if FindmyPast could reinstate the original census source information for its Scottish entries, amidst all the other disastrous errors awaiting correction on its new site. I think that might impress me more.

(With thanks to Annelies van den Belt)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

WDYTYA Live to move to Birmingham in April 2015

The next English based Who Do You Think You Are Live (www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com) event has now been officially confirmed as moving to the Birmingham NEC next year, and to a new date slot - Thursday 16th April to Saturday 18th April.

The move from London was precipitated by the closure of the Earl's Court exhibition facility near Kensington Olympia, placing additional pressures on the Olympia venue, home to the show since it first started. The change to April in fact brings the show back to its more traditional exhibition period from its earlier years, when it was previously held in April - though as with last year, next year's event will again be a Thursday to Saturday affair, rather than Friday to Sunday one.

From a personal point of view, here in the west of Scotland, it's six of one or half a dozen of the other as to whether it is in London or Birmingham, but from an English point of view I can see this getting a potentially good reception for those in the south east and the north of the country - and hopefully not being in London means the accommodation should be a tad cheaper.

The announcement is at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/news/new-venue-2015 and includes details of a Virgin Trains 25% early booking discount.

In the meantime, something much more important is on the cards - Who Do You Think You Are Live Glasgow! For details on this event, happening from August 29th-31st 2014, visit the main site at www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com. Hopefully see you there!

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Toilet troubles in 1840s Perth

This is an article I first wrote in November 2010 for my other wee blog. 

Toilet trouble in 1840s Perth

I thought I might lower the tone for a bit...

Some people complain of a fear of visiting the doctor. The following is an account of some of the many bizarre things my five times great uncle Dr William Henderson (1784-1870) used to get up to in the royal burgh of Perth in the mid 19th century, as sourced from editions of the Lancet from 1841 and 1845. The first involves a tin terror device, leeches, and the rectum, and is not for the squeamish - I had tears coming out of my eyes when I first read it...!


NEW AND SUCCESSFUL METHOD OF TREATING DISEASE OF THE PROSTATE GLAND.

By W. Henderson, M.D., Perth

On the 1st of June, 1840, a gentleman consulted me under the following circumstances. About four years ago, he first felt a more frequent desire than usual to void urine, accompanied with more or less pain, and followed with frequent slight mucus discharge from the urethra. He was then in London, and the medical gentleman whom he consulted treated the complaint as gonorrhoeal. He shortly after that left London, but, impressed with the idea of the alleged nature of his disease, he continued to take all sorts of medicines, known and secret, without any abatement of his sufferings.

When I first saw him, he felt an almost constant desire to empty the bladder, often passing only a few drops of urine at a time, accompanied with much pain and pressure; occasional severe lancinating pains at the neck of the bladder, which extended throughout the urethra, and were most distressing at the point of the penis; priapisms and emissions during sleep, followed with extreme heat and pain; constant mucus discharge from the urethra; bowels confined; much uneasiness in passing the faeces; a sensation as if some hard substance were pressing from within against the verge of the anus, which no effort to empty the bowel could remove. Sitting for any length of time on a hard seat causes a deep-seated, heavy pain at the neck of the bladder; heat and excoflation at the verge of the anus on taking even moderate exercise on foot, and he cannot ride on horseback at all from the pain it occasions.

On introducing a catheter, to ascertain whether stricture existed, the instrument passed freely until it reached the prostate gland, where there was obstruction and much pain in passing it into the bladder. I then examined the gland with the finger through the rectum; it was much enlarged, and painful on pressure.

The ordinary means, viz. aperients, iodine, leeches, and counter-irritants on the perineum, were persevered with for four weeks, with scarcely any alleviation of the patient's sufferings, and no progress whatever made in reducing the size of the gland.

While pondering on this most distressing case, it occurred to me , that if I could manage to apply leeches upon the gland, through the rectum, they might have a good effect. Accordingly, I had a tube made of tin, a quarter of an inch wide at one end, and half an inch wide at the other end, bent into the form here represented (see diagram, right). I then cut down the wide end of the tube about a third part of an inch, two-thirds of its diameter, in front, corresponding with the bend, leaving the projection behind as a handle to enable me to guide the other end accurately, and keep it steady after it had been properly applied. Having just had the bowel freely emptied, I cautiously introduced the tube, so directed, that by pushing it up in a straight line, its mouth must pass over the centre of the right lobe (the tenderest part) of the gland. As the tube advanced, I made gentle lateral pressure with its projecting point, at the distance of about every line, until the patient experienced a sensation somewhat similar to that felt when the point of the finger was pressed against the most sensible part of the gland. I then secured the tube gently, but steadily, with the left hand, and with the right hand introduced a leech into it, which, I was not a little pleased to find, took readily. When this leech dropped off, I changed the position of the tube, so as to place the mouth of it over the left lobe of the gland, and then introduced another leech, which also took readily.

When the tube was withdrawn the blood accumulated in the rectum, and brought on a desire to evacuate the bowel; this was frequently the case, but, from the feculent matter with which it was mixed, the exact quantity could not be ascertained, but it was considerable. This application of the leeches was followed with great relief to the patient; the priapisms and emissions by which he had been so long harassed and weakened entirely ceased, and all his other symptoms were much mitigated. The aperients and iodine were continued. A week after the leeches were again applied, and acted equally well. After this, the pressure on the sphincter ani, and desire to empty the bowel, were scarcely at all experienced; and the mucus discharge from the urethra altogether disappeared. The only uneasiness which he now felt was the heat and lancinating pains in the gland and urethra, particularly at the point of the penis, wheich were occasionally a little troublesome. Two days after the last application of the leeches, I examined the gland with the finger, through the rectum; it was now greatly reduced in size, and pressure upon it gave very little uneasiness. Six days afterwards, the heat and pains in the gland and urethra being still occasionally felt, and attempt was again made to apply the leeches as formerly, which failed. When the tube was withdrawn the cause of the failure was manifest, the introduced end of it being quite filled up with feculent matter. Something had occurred to prevent the patient from taking his aperient at the usual time, and his bowels had not been properly relieved. A similar occurrence was guarded against on the following day, when the leeches acted well. The relief which the patient experienced was now so complete , that, except continuing the aperients and iodine, nothing more was done for two weeks, when I again examined the gland. It had now decreased to about the natural size, but pressure on the right lobe still gave a little uneasiness. On this part one leech was again applied, which acted well.

At the end of other two weeks, I again examined the gland, through the rectum, and a perceptible degree of tenderness still remaining when pressure was made upon the right lobe, one leech was once more applied upon it, which after a little manoeuvring, acted well.

From that time the patient has continued well, and was some time ago married to a lady to whom he had long been attached.

So far as I know, this is the first time that leeches have been used in the manner above pointed out for disease of the prostate gland; and if, in the hands of other gentlemen, this mode of applying them shall prove as beneficial as it has been in mine, it will, in an practical point of view, be an improvement of no small value; for it is well known to the profession, that there are few structures in the human body which occasion more trouble and anxiety to the medical attendant, or which are more painfully harassing to the patient, than the prostate gland when in a diseased state.

In thus applying leeches, the most essential requisite is to have the rectum well emptied of all feculent matter immediately prior to their application; for if this should be neglected, the operator will be foiled in his endeavours to make them take.

Another point which requires attention is, the close application of the mouth of the tube to the parietes of the rectum over the diseased portion of the gland; because if this be not acrefully attended to, the leech may pass through the tube into the bowel. This actually happened in the above case, and occasioned some anxiety to myself, and much alarm to the patient; but, fortunately, no unpleasant consequences followed, for in about eight minutes after its passage through the tube, the leech made its escape through the sphincter ani.

The tube should be cautiously introduced with its mouth directed over that portion of the gland on which the leech is wished to be put, when lateral pressure should be made with the end of the tube against the gland, to ascertain the most sensitive point. This can be easily found by pushing the tube either a little higher up, or drawing it a little lower down in the rectum, and making lateral pressure at the distance of every line, until the patient experience a sensation somewhat similar to that produced when pressure made with the point of the finger is made upon the gland. Having found this spot, the tube is then to be held steadily with the left hand, and a leech introduced into it with the right hand, when, if the rectum have been properly emptied beforehand, it will be found to take readily. When the first leech drops off, if another be wished to be applied, the mouth of the tube should then be moved a little round either to the right or left, as the case may require, so as to make a fresh wound, and another applied in the same manner. If the heat of the tube cause the leech to become refractory, by pushing the corner of a towel into the tube so as to force the leech up to its duty, I invariably succeeded in making it take.

This practice is rational, free from danger, and, with a little address, easily executed, and, in this case, has been eminently beneficial.

Should any of my professional brethren do me the honour to repeat this experiment, I should esteem it a special favour if they would take the trouble to communicate the degree of success which may attend it, either through the pages of THE LANCET, or to me personally by letter.

Perth, Dec. 2, 1840.

"This practice is rational" - haha, love it! 

William's inventiveness with metal devices for solving medical problems in the areas where angels feared to tread continued in 1845, when he once again wrote about an invention designed to help a male patient clear out his blocked bowels. The Lancet article that he penned shortly after, "Intus-Susceptio Succesfully Treated by the Injection of Tepid Water Through the Rectum", published on August 19th 1845, is far too long to reproduce here completely, but the following paragraph gives an idea of the problem he was faced with, and how he overcame it:

(August) 5th.- Was called early in the morning; (patient) had passed a very restless night; the pains in side and back, and hiccough, which came on during the night are very distressing; has vomited two or three times. Repeat enema. Twelve o'clock, noon: enema was simply returned; stercoraceous vomiting. The symptoms were now so urgent, and the duffering and prostration so great, that I made him aware of the danger he was in, and the necessity of having recourse to more powerful means for relief. The patient eagerly declared his willingness to submit to anything,a nd begged of me to proceed. I then had a tin tube, thirty-four inches long and three-sixteenths wide, fitted into the nozle of a large enema syringe, and a short piece of wider tube soldered on the other end, and fitted to receive the pipe of a small funnel. Through this I injected tepid water into the bowels through the rectum. The tube with the funnel was thirty-seven inches and a half in length, and when raised upright, produced a pressure upon the bowels of a column of water that height. When a little more than the second quart of water had passed, and the patient was calling out to stop, or he should burst, I observed a shock in the tube, accompanied with a gurgling noise, and a quicker descent of the water through the funnel. I now withdrew the tube, and at the patient's earnest desire had him lifted to the night-stool, when the water was speedily ejected mixed with liquid feculent matter, with complete remission of the pain. In about twenty minutes afterwards he had to be again lifted to the night-stool, whent he remainder of the water was thrown off, mixed with feculent matter as formerly.

Once more, William's radical treatment greatly eased the suffering of the male patient, but on the following day, it had to be applied again. This time, William poured in two quarts of water, and when the last of the water was finished, he took the rubber tube and blew into it with all the force he could exert, until the patient again complained that he felt a "boiling in his stomach" and that once more he felt he was going to burst! But, miracle upon miracles, it worked, and the patient was cured of his painful blockage!!

There is possible a moral to all of this. Such as "Never argue with your physician..." :)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

TNA podcast - Finding my father in Mesopotamia

The latest podcast from the National Archives at Kew is entitled Finding my father in Mesopotamia, a 28 minute family history talk by Jenny Lewis linking the First World War to the recent 2003-2011 Iraq War.

The podcast is available at http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/finding-father-mesopotamia/ or download for free from iTunes.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

FindmyPast uploads nonconformist church records for England and Wales

Findmypast has added two million English and Welsh nonconformist church records from 1640-1898 the National Archives' RG4 collection. The same collections are also available via BMDRegisters (www.bmdregisters.co.uk), The Genealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) and Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk).

FindmyPast's collection is available at:

Baptism
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/england-and-wales-non-conformist-baptisms

Marriages
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/england-and-wales-non-conformist-marriages

Burials
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/england-and-wales-non-conformist-burials

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Castles from the Clouds - Welsh heritage from the air

Welsh heritage agency Cadw (http://cadw.wales.gov.uk) has released a series of vidoes on YouTube showing some of its historic sites as filmed from the air.

To access the videos visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlFJT58FH6PPMyYuabMLm6pFChRirQiQD

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire records on Deceased Online

Genealogist Emma Jolly has blogged about the latest additions for Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire to the Deceased Online website at www.deceasedonline.com, and the discovery of a burial record for a member of her family in Benholm Cemetery, in Johnshaven.

The latest release has records for

Benholm
Aboyne
Arbuthnott
Banchory Devenick
Banchory Devenick (2nd Ext)
Banchory Ternan
Auchterless
Cruden

Emma's post is at http://deceasedonlineblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/kincardineshire-aberdeenshire.html

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Strathclyde University's Bannockburn family history project - official launch

I've just returned from the new Battle of Bannockburn Centre in Bannockburn (http://battleofbannockburn.com), where I had the great pleasure to attend the formal launch of a new exhibition there which looks at the family histories of seventeen people who fought at the battle itself on June 24th 1314. The research has been carried out by students on the University of Strathclyde's Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies (www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy), led by Tahitia McCabe, with fellow tutors Graham Holton, Andy Douglas and Ali MacDonald helping to steer the whole effort over the last year. Tahitia, Graham and Ali described the remit and extent of the project, before we heard from Stewart Stevenson MSP, former minister with the Scottish Parliament and a keen (very keen!) genealogist himself. Sponsors of the project included DNA testing company Family Tree DNA, and genealogy firm MacDonald and Rees.

As part of the project the team was keen to integrate the latest science and developments in the field of genetic genealogy - in particular the growing area of deep ancestry and the use of SNP markers (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) as opposed to the more traditional Y-DNA techniques using STR markers (Short Tandem Repeats). In the past, testers (all male) have compared their STR results from their Y-chromosomes to see how closely related they may be to each other, but the use of SNP (pronounced 'snip') markers allows the whole of humanity to be codified into different family branches. As more markers are identified by the boffins in white coats, the more family branches can be established, so that those with a single surname, e.g. a clan surname, may in fact belong to one of many family branches - you may be a Stewart, for example but a certain SNP marker may reveal you to be related to the Stewarts of Appin, as opposed to the Stewarts of Balquhidder, or Bute, etc.

Two gentlemen were officially announced at the event as having proven connections to those who fought at Bannockburn, on the Scottish side (they did also try to find English equivalents!). Both descend from Walter Stewart (born 1296), 6th High Steward of Scotland, who fought with the Bruce, and whose son with the Bruces daughter Marjorie became King Robert II. These are Arthur Stuart, 8th Earl Castle Stewart, and Paul John Thompson, and although they were not able to attend, they did send specially pre-recorded messages discussing their delight at being involved. The paper trail led the university to Earl Castle Stewart, whom they asked to participate in a DNA test, whilst London stockbroker Paul John Thompson was somebody who had himself tested, and whose genetic signature was one uncovered from the DNA database as one of potential interest. Neither had any knowledge whatsoever of their connection to the battle beforehand - both have a common ancestral Stewart line until about 500 years ago, before their lines diverged.

As Ali's a good friend, I asked him to talk a bit about the project. He mentions how this growing area with the use of SNPs in fact ruled out one candidate as having been descended from someone at the battle - he had a SNP marker which  was found in a branch of the Stewart family that wasn't there, despite him being a promising candidate initially. It's all fascinating stuff, but here's the man himself...!



(Also accessible via https://soundcloud.com/chrismpaton/2014-06-21-ali-macdonald-on-the-univ-strathclydes-bannockburn-project - UPDATE: Ali's dropped me a note to correct a minor error - at 4.30 he says Clanranald was descended from John, Lord of the Isles and Margaret Stewart; that should actually be descent from John and his first wife Ami MacRuairi)

Pictured below are tutors Ali MacDonald, Graham Holton, Tahitia McCabe and Stewart Stevenson MSP, and some of the postgraduate diploma students who helped to steer the work.

Congratulations to all - the exhibition will run for six weeks, and Tahitia has informed me that there will be an online presentation of aspects of the research in due course, for those who may not be able to make it.

If you are interested in the postgraduate courses, check out the website for information on fees, enrolment deadlines, and curriculum.

(With thanks to the tutorial team, and especially to Ali for the short interview)

UPDATE: An article on the project appeared in The Times on Thursday June 19th, p.6, entitled DNA research project reveals the living descendants of Bannockburn's warriors. It's at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4123642.ece, though bear in mind that The Times now operates behind a paywall.

UPDATE: Visit Scotland also now has a piece on the exhibition at http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/dna_battle_lines_drawn.aspx

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

PRONI user forum meeting - latest developments

Yesterday saw another 4am start to get to Belfast for the latest user forum meeting at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.proni.gov.uk). The weather was glorious, and when the weather is glorious, so too is an early morning ferry trip across the Sruth na Maoile, armed with a good coffee and a bacon bap! We kicked off the meeting at 10.30am.

PRONI is in a very busy period just now, not just because of its obligations with regards to the current historical abuse enquiry in Northern Ireland (with cataloguing and other responsibilities taking up a lot of manpower), but also with its continuing drive to become one of the most user friendly national archives out there. A TONNE of activity is under way just now - here are some of the highlights:

1) The First World War

PRONI is currently preparing a range of activities to help commemorate the start of the First World War. Ian Montgomery briefed us that a guide to the archive's resources concerning the conflict will be hopefully online by early July, in a PDF format file, whilst a separate education resource is also being worked on just now.

From August there will also be a blog type feature launched through the PRONI website, detailing on a monthly basis several case studies of those affected by the conflict - it will be a sort of "Voices of the First World War" narrative based type of affair. This is still under development.

A conference will also take place on September 5th to publicise the launch of PRONI's First World War Sources guide.

Joy Carey also provided a great overview of the recent project to digitise the Derry War Memorial books, in collaboration with Derry City Council's archive (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/derry-first-world-war-memorial-records.html). These primarily detail those from the city of Derry or its immediate environs, though also includes some who had connections with the city, for example apprentices. Amongst the papers were some examples of additional materials found such as letters written by soldiers, a great collection. It was interesting to hear about the behind the scenes aspects of this, with the files originally scanned in TIFF format for storage in PRONI's digital repository, with JPEG copies then made from these for practical use, and then PDF files, the format in which the collection is made available online. The files are about 6MB in size, as this was the maximum practical size that could be catered for through their online platform.

Joy also updated us on their project to try to identify photographic portraits from the Strabane area, available via the archive's FLICKR stream (https://www.flickr.com/photos/proni/). There are 763 images online, and so far 30 have been positively identified. An exhibition featuring some of the images may soon be happening at Strabane Public Library.


2) School records

This was a new one on me, but PRONI has a collection of Education Committee Applications which underpinned the creation of the National Schools movement in Ireland in the mid 19th century. Catalogued under AD/1, these are to be digitised by PRONI, with those for Down and Fermanagh to be sorted first. It is possible, though not guaranteed, that the first three counties may go online later this year. In total there are some 5774 applications, and these include information such as teachers' salaries, requests for money for books, and much additional context for each school in the six counties of what now comprises Northern Ireland. This was fascinating enough, but late last night after I got home, I discovered that an ancestor I had spent part of yesterday afternoon researching at the archive has tuned out to have been a school teacher and JP in Islandmagee, so I am VERY much looking forward to these now!

Also announced was the fact that PRONI is considering the digitisation of historic school registers, something they may potentially put out to tender. Watch this space!


3) Church records digitisation

PRONI is now digitising new church record accessions deposited with them, but also some historic collections that are poorly presented on microfilm, with some early records from Derry having recently been completed. The plan is to spend up to three months a year on this, through it is not intended that the bulk of records already available on microfilms will be digitised, it's mainly new collections.


4) Royal Victoria Hospital

Another digitisation project concerns the hospital admission books for the Royal Vic in Belfast, from 1914-1916, which it is hoped may go online in March 2015. As ever, this is not a guarantee, but a target they are currently aiming for, but this should be a cracker for those with Belfast links.


5) Coroners records

There are some BIG changes coming on the PRONI website concerning the cataloguing of coroners records. At the moment, PRONI has a series of coroners records available on the Name Search database from 1872-1920, broken down as follows for the seven districts included (six counties and Belfast):

Antrim, 1872-1899
Armagh, 1881-1899
Down, 1872-1920
Fermanagh, 1887- 1920
Londonderry, 1891-1891
Tyrone, 1890-1899
Belfast, 1894-1904

The archive has also recently catalogued 13,000 coroners' records from 1969-1999, but rather than include these in the Name Search database, they have been included directly within the main catalogue.

Now here's the big change - the Name Search coroners records database for 1872-1920 is to be discontinued as of next Wednesday 25th June, with these entries also to be included in the main catalogue. (Everything else in the Name Search database will remain as is, don't panic!). The reason for this is that the coroners collections have been completely re-catalogued, so now have new accession numbers, making the original database redundant. In addition, next Wednesday should also see the addition to the catalogue of 3000 coroners records from 1950-1968. This then leaves the period from 1921-1949, which will be addressed over this summer and added in due course - meaning that very soon all the records from 1872-1999 will be accessible via the PRONI main catalogue (though there are gaps at a regional level pre-1922 as to what has survived).

NB: all records prior to 1920 are open to access. After 1920, to view coroners records you will need to make a Freedom of Information request. You will then be allowed to see a copy, though it may be redacted to protect information on anyone mentioned who may still be alive (to comply with data protection).


6) Recent acquisitions

Some great new deposits have been made recently at the archive, the one that will probably interest most is the acquisition of records from the Blackstaff Spinning Mill on the Springfield Road from 1866-1999 (including records for subsidiary mills at Doagh and Lurgan). These are currently being catalogued.

A major collection of circus material gathered by Dr Richard Hunter, described as one of the most colourful collections PRONI has ever collected, has been acquired, covering the period from 1940-1960. It includes photos of circus performers and programmes from across the world.

Records from the Fermanagh based West Ulster Farmers Co-Operative from Fermanagh from 1898-1990 have also been obtained.


7) Cataloguing 

Detailed work is continuing to catalogue the Londonderry Papers under D3099, including the letters of Lord Londonderry and Lady Londonderry. Of note was a series of letters mentioned by Brett Irwin concerning Lady Londonderry's role as patron to Scottish pianist Duncan Morrison, as well as correspondence by her in support of the linen industry.

The PRONI catalogue will be updated again on Wednesday June 25th.


8) Irish Archival Resource

This is something that was described by Wesley Geddis during the meeting as something that PRONI is currently involved with, and something for professional genealogists to take a particular note of. Here in Scotland we can access various catalogues from archives across the country through a site called the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) at www.scan.org.uk, whilst the English and Welsh have an equivalent called Access to Archives at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a. In Ireland, there hasn't really been that kind of facility until the fairly recent creation of the Irish Archival Resource at www.iar.ie. This is a catalogue platform that archives north and south of the border contribute to, with some 1000 collections represented by 50 participants - PRONI's contribution to date extends to 50 collections.

Unlike PRONI's own catalogue, the items on IAR are catalogued to fond level only (a sort of broad overview) as opposed to the much desired but time intensive item level, but what the site does is flag up a resource for a search term, and tell you a bit about it, and where to find it - in some cases it even mentions where collections formerly held by PRONI have been relocated to, if they have been transposed somewhere since their initial acquisition. It is a slow burner, in that PRONI will add a small amount to it each year, but it is the closest thing to SCAN that there is, and particularly useful being an all Ireland platform.

A lot of people believe that very few records exist in Ireland, with the oft cited Four Courts explosion the usual cue for gloom, doom, weeping, gnashing of teeth and keening. I would counter that the biggest problem in Ireland in actual fact is that so little is catalogued, or that at least what is catalogued is not accessible online - so this is a very welcome initiative, and one that will become a genuinely brilliant asset if archives really throw their hearts and souls into it. We reap the benefits of SCAN and A2A here in Britain on a daily basis.


9) Events

Keep an eye out for PRONI's participation at the Lanarkshire Family History Show in Motherwell (http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/lanarkshire-fhs-local-family-history.html), but the archive will not be exhibiting at Who Do You Think You Are Live in Glasgow. However, the North of Ireland Family History Society (www.nifhs.org) will be there, as will the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com), so God's own accent will be well and truly represented here in Alba in the weeks ahead!

So that was it for the latest visit to PRONI - apart from what I got up to after the meeting with my own research, and the extraordinary coincidence that greeted me when I got home connected to what I had just found during the day. But I'll save that for another time... :)

Oh - and here's a wee selfie at the Titanic exhibition! (Glorious weather!)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.