The GENES Blog (GEnealogy News and EventS) ceased publication on 14 FEB 2020. You will now find all the latest genealogy news and views on Scottish GENES at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com. The GENES Blog archive will remain live, with a record of the genealogy news for Britain and Ireland from 2013-2020. Thank you!
Your DNA story From today, AncestryDNA results look slightly different. We’ve combined the ethnicity estimate with the sub-regions previously called ‘Communities’, to create one powerful view of your family’s origins. Sub-regions are now listed under ethnicity regions – for example ‘Devon & Cornwall’ or ‘Wales & West Midlands’ under Great Britain. Some people will also see Migrations listed – for example, if you have family that travelled to the United States, you might see ‘Settlers of Northern Arkansas’. You can then learn more about how you’re connected to each group, and track your story over time. TIPS AND TOOLS Timeline AncestryDNA results now also include a timeline, revealing the key events that may have affected different parts of your family – and showing the people in your tree who were around at the time.
The break down is slightly confusing. When I click on the tabs showing me to be 52% Ireland/Scotland/Wales, 24% Great Britain and 18% Europe West, all of them basically tell me that my DNA has ancestry from those regions but that I am specifically linked to Scotland.
I think it is telling me that the non-indigenous percentages are
likely part of my Scottish DNA make-up as derived further back in time
from immigrant ancestry. Could now be the time when I 'trade in my lederhosen for a kilt'...?!
Interestingly the Scotland group tags in Nova Scotia in Canada within its reference population.
I'll have to get my head around what this is all actually trying to tell me - it's time to dig out Blaine Bettinger's book, and to get properly stuck into Ancestry's own help guide on all of this...!
My next 5 week lonScotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts on November 6th 2017 through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd. Here's a description of the course:
This is an intermediate level course in Scottish family history for those who are going back beyond 1850. You should have some experience with research in the Old Parochial Registers of the Church of Scotland and in using major websites for Scottish research. This course discusses sources that fill the gap when the OPRs are uninformative or missing; for example, records of parish and town administration, occupations, land transfer and taxation. Using these records involves several different locations. You will learn how to check online finding aids and how to find the most effective way to obtain records that may be online, in print, on CD or microfilm. This is the second course on Scottish research. If you have not taken Scottish Research Online please check its description.
Lesson Headings:
* Kirk Sessions records and parish poor
* Burgh records and town poor
* Occupations, taxation and early lists
* Land transfer and the value of sasines
* Land, inheritance and estates
Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. See How the Courses Work.
STUDENTS SAID: well structured chats with opportunities for questions as well
In late 2009 I was invited to go on a ghosthunting event at Inveraray Jail in Argyll by a tour operator. I wrote up my escapades for two magazines, a short piece for Scottish Memories, and a longer piece for Discover my Past Scotland. As we get closer to Hallowe'en, here's the article from DMPS (with a couple of links updated) - enjoy!
Ghostbusting in Inveraray
Chris Paton goes in search of the paranormal at a 19th century jail…
A few years ago a discussion was aired in British genealogical magazines about whether the use of mediums was a valid tool for family history research. Personally speaking, I don’t believe in ghosts at all and am a complete sceptic, so have never paid attention to any of this in a professional capacity.
I should add, though, that this actually flies in the face of family tradition! In my mother’s paternal ancestry, the Grahams were members of a spiritualist church on Belfast’s Shankill Road. My two times great grandfather, Edwin Graham (see pic on right - he's on the back row at the right), was in fact the secretary of the Ulster Christian Spiritualists Society and rather dramatically made the newspapers across the UK in 1926 when he organised an experiment in Belfast City Cemetery to photograph a funeral, inviting well over a hundred spiritualists to bring their cameras along to take photographs as the deceased was lowered into the ground. Edwin believed that it might have been possible to capture images of other spirits in attendance, and a press report later claimed that he had been convinced that he had seen the ghost of his brother at the graveside. I have no doubt Edwin must have seen a spirit of some kind on that day, though whether we are taking the floaty, spooky kind is in my mind very open to question.
Nevertheless, having said all of that, I dearly want to believe that there is something true about the paranormal. After all, wouldn’t life be just ever so much more exciting? My wife and I regularly watched the television series “Most Haunted”, myself as an enthusiastic sceptic – how did they do that, what could have caused that noise? – and my wife with a view that there could be more to it than meets the eye. So it was with a great deal of enthusiasm that we recently took up an invitation from Ghost Events Scotland (www.ghostevents.co.uk) to attend one of its ghost hunting vigils at Inveraray Castle.
Coincidentally, “Most Haunted” had actually visited both Inveraray Jail and the town’s nearby castle just a few weeks prior to our invitation, recording all sorts of apparent poltergeists and spooks. The Ghost Events Scotland night would be a similar sort of endeavour, with séances, Ouija boards, and a friendly medium to guide us around. Would things truly go bump in the night - or would we just keep bumping into things?
Inveraray Jail
Located on the shores of Loch Fyne in the heart of Campbell country, Inveraray Jail was first opened for business in 1820 as a prison of eight cells, where both male and female criminals, and debtors, could be locked up after a trial in the adjacent courtroom. A new prison block with a further twelve cells was opened in 1848, and the whole operation continued until 1889 when it was finally closed. Having been to the prison several times before, it was never hard to imagine the horrendous lives of the prisoners who resided there. From a genealogical point of view, the museum also provides many useful resources for family historians, not least of which is its online database of prisoners located at http://www.inverarayjail.co.uk/our-history/, providing information on those convicted, their crimes and in some cases details of transportation, though it does not provide case notes for any of those said to still be haunting the place! Prisoners faced a gruesome time within, having limited facilities, poor food, a small courtyard for exercise, and the occasional whipping with the birch.
Arriving at the Jail at 10.00pm on the Saturday evening of the event, we were hastily gathered into a room for a briefing on the forthcoming six hour vigil, which initially started with some ‘training’. This was in the form of acquiring ‘protection’ against any prospective baddies out to get us through the vigil, mainly by imagining some sort of white light around us – an interesting start, I thought. We were divided into two teams, and our team, led by a lady called Linda claiming to be a medium, was soon being escorted to the prison’s new block.
Once inside, with all the lights switched off, Linda apparently began to sense the spirits of a John and Hugh Campbell pacing up and down their cell. They seemed fairly quiet to me, so instead I began to wonder what life must have been like each night for the prisoners, particularly in the winter with its short daylight hours. It was minus eight degrees outside, and not much warmer inside. As we left the ground floor, Linda announced that we were now being followed by a violent sheep stealer called Robert Stewart. Not one for having my sheep stolen, I quickly moved upstairs with everybody else. (In fact, a consultation of the database after the event did reveal that a person of that name from Glencoe was imprisoned in 1855 for 15 months for sheep stealing from three farms.)
In an upstairs room, we were then asked to try to talk to spirits using a Ouija board. People get awfully spooked by Ouija boards, but not being a believer in the paranormal, I did not worry about having a go! I duly stuck my finger firmly on the glass, and after several minutes I was soon receiving the message loudly and clearly that my finger was getting very cold, but nothing more. Clearly 19th century prison discipline must have worked, because none of the spirits there were attempting to say boo to a goose.
But what about the notorious cell ten? A malevolent spirit was said to physically throw people from the single hammock fixed to its walls. We were all asked to squeeze in and a volunteer was asked for to lie on the bed. Too good an opportunity to put my feet up for a few minutes, I duly volunteered. I was surprised at how comfortable the bunk actually was, but sadly surprised by nothing more. I have to concede though that there is something distinctly surreal about lying on a bunk with ten people standing around you in the pitch black waiting for you to be violently attacked.
After swapping Linda for the organiser’s parapsychologist, we then proceeded to do an ‘EVP’ experiment. This involved asking three questions into a voice recorder, and leaving gaps in between. Once played back, some weird noises did emerge in the gaps. Some believed that these were spirits trying to break through, but I was not at all convinced.
The final event of the night, once again with Linda, was a visit to the court room. In total darkness we had to perform a role play, apparently seeing a trial underway may have excited spirits to come out and play! So rather bizarrely I suddenly found myself as the judge, standing beside the mannequin of the museum’s judge, sentencing some poor wee woman I had never met before in our team for having stolen her neighbour’s dog (I should add that no animals were harmed in the making of this production!). A séance was then held in the middle of the room. As one of the party excitedly yelled out “I challenge you in the name of God, and even he who cannot be named, to show yourself!”, my wife, a big fan of the Harry Potter books, looked to me and said “Who, Voldemort?”
So was it worth the visit? For me, nothing spooky happened, and as my wife put it, she went in a believer and came out a sceptic. But it was most definitely worth it to be allowed a free run around the museum and to experience it in a way that one normally cannot get the chance to. It was also a lot of fun. Would I go again? Definitely! And those ghosts know that this arrogant, sceptical genealogist has yet to be broken - they have as yet got everything to play for...!
UPDATE: Here's that Most Haunted episode in Inveraray - boo!
(Having just gone through an exceptionally busy period, much of it overseas, this review is a little late in coming, but the book is certainly worth a plug!)
Tracing Your Dublin Ancestors (4th edition)
James G. Ryan and Brian Smith
Although this is a fourth and revised edition of the popular title, this is the first edition I have actually read - and a handy guide it will certainly turn out to be when I go chasing my three times great grandmother Teresa Mooney from Dublin City! The book deals with both the nation's capital city and the wider county of the same name.
The book is broken down into thirteen chapters. The first provides a basic introduction, followed by a very useful section on administrative divisions, including a handy list of Dublin county civil parishes (with the years in which Griffiths Valuation and the tithes were published/recorded) and relevant maps.
Chapters 3-10 deal with record types. Civil registration, censuses and census substitutes (from 1468), church records, directories, probate material, gravestone inscriptions, newspapers and land records. The section on church records, and where to find them, is worth the price of the book purchase alone - with detailed descriptions of holdings for every denomination, with links on where to find some availability online.
The chapter on gravestone inscriptions is limited to published resources on inscriptions only, and appears to overlook some major online offerings on burials, not least Glasnevin Cemetery's online database (www.glasnevintrust.ie/genealogy), and the Irish Genealogy Project Archives (www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/dublin/index.htm), which has superb photographic records of headstones in cemeteries such as Mount Jerome.
The land records chapter has some useful details on where to find estate papers of some key Dublin families, whilst Chapters 11 and 12 detail some published family histories, and further reading resources. The final chapter rounds of the book with some useful library, archive and society addresses.
Overall this book provides a real eye-opener for researchers as to the wealth of material that is not available online, as well as online, with useful contextual explanations as to what the records are. A superb contribution to available handbooks on Irish research, and an absolute essential for those like me with Dublin ancestry.
Hampshire, Portsmouth Baptisms Did your ancestor's baptism take place in the UK's only Island City? Search over 555,000 original Portsmouth Parish Baptisms to find out. Published online for the first time in association with the Portsmouth History Centre, the Portsmouth parish registers date back to the early 16th century and pertain to Church of England parishes in the deaneries of Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, and Havant.
Hampshire, Portsmouth Marriages
Add another branch to your family tree by uncovering the details of your Portsmouth ancestor's spouse with over 379,000 parish marriage records covering the deaneries of Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, and Havant. Search transcripts of these original parish registers to discover when your ancestor married, where they were married and the name of their spouse. Records will also reveal the couples' birth years, residences, occupations, marital statuses, marriage type (banns or license), the names of both their and fathers and their father's occupations.
Hampshire, Portsmouth Burials
Discover the final resting place of your Portsmouth ancestors with over 312,000 brand new parish burials. The records span from the 16th century to present day; however, due to privacy concerns, there is a 100-year cut-off on publishing parish records.
Hampshire, Portsmouth Parish Registers Browse
Browse through 873 volumes of original parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials held at Portsmouth History Centre. These records pertain to Church of England parishes in the deaneries of Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, and Havant. The majority of these registers pertain to Anglican records, but there are a few that relate to other denominations: Congregational, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, United Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist. All denominations were required to register life events with the established church until 1837.
Hampshire, Portsmouth Workhouse Registers
Were your ancestors admitted to the workhouse on Portsea Island? Explore over 60,000 admission and discharge registers spanning the years 1879 to 1953 and uncover details of the relief they received. Portsmouth's workhouse was built in 1725 and by 1777 housed up to 200 inmates.
Irish Newspapers
More than 101,000 records and one brand new title, the Carrickfergus Advertiser have been added to our collection of historical Irish Newspapers this month. The Advertiser currently contains over 1,300 issues spanning the years 1884 to 1919 and will be updated further in the future.
The National Library of Wales (https://www.llgc.org.uk/) has an online survey for interested users to fill out concerning a proposed Broadcast Archive. From the Survey:
The National Library of Wales Broadcast Archive is a brand new ambitious project at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth! With financial support from the HLF, we’re receiving BBC Cymru/Wales sound and video recordings to add to our collections. So, that’s all of the original recordings and their digital copies, which will be added to the ITV Wales film and video archive already kept at the Library We will be: preserving the collections for ever by keeping them safe in a brand new storage area making it digitally available for the public to view All of the material will be available to view in 4 digital viewing hubs that we will be opening in Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Carmarthen and Cardiff and 1000 clips will be available to view online on our website. The collection is unique in that it records all aspects of life in 20th century Wales. It includes radio recordings from the 1930s and television from the 1950s and with over 360,000 sound and video items to choose from the programmes are as varied as life is in Wales! Maybe you will discover a clip of your favourite rugby game, news of an event you remember, an exciting episode of your favourite soap opera, a piece of comedy that makes you laugh until your sides hurt, your favourite pop star or a children's programme that reminds you of your childhood ... or even maybe a clip of your grandparents ... And there are sports programmes, news, documentaries, soaps, dramas, comedy, music and children’s television ….. And so much more ….. The programmes are as varied as life is in Wales ….. We really want to develop a project that you will love and so we need to know what you want us to do! Help us at the National Library to plan and develop a project for you by taking five minutes to answer this questionnaire!
The following classes and webinars will be hosted online by FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org) in November:
Thursday, November 2, 11:00 a.m., Exploring Death Notices in Norway (Beginner)
Saturday, November 4 , 1:00 p.m., Árbol Familiar para principiantes (Beginner)
Monday, November 6, 10:00 a.m., Using the FamilySearch Catalog Effectively (Beginner)
Monday, November 6, 11:00 a.m., Exploring Emigration Records in Norway—Finding Place of Origin (Beginner)
Monday, November 6, 1:00 p.m., Beginning Swiss Research (Beginner)
Tuesday, November 7, 10:00 a.m., Overview of FamilySearch (Beginner)
Thursday November 9, 9:00 a.m., Immigration and Canadian Border Crossing (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 11:00 a.m., Swiss Census Records (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 12:30 p.m., French Language Indexing (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 12:30 p.m., Italian Language Indexing (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 1:00 p.m., Reivers and Relatives: Ancestors Along the Anglo-Scottish Border (Intermediate)
Thursday, November 9, 2:30 p.m., Portuguese Language Indexing (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 2:30 p.m., Spanish Language Indexing (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 4:30 p.m.,Web Indexing Training (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 9, 6:30 p.m., Leadership Indexing Training (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Monday, November 13, 10:00 a.m.,Using the FamilySearch Catalog Effectively (Beginner)
Tuesday, November 14, 10:00 a.m., Starting FamilyTree: Navigating, Adding, Standardizing and Printing (Beginner)
Tuesday, November 14, 1:00 p.m., England Case Study and Research Strategy (Intermediate)
Wednesday, November 15, 10:00 a.m., Dutch Language Indexing (1½ hours) (Beginner)
Thursday, November 16, 11:00 a.m.,United States Census Records (Beginner)
Thursday, November 16, 1:00 p.m., Lost in London! Tracing Elusive Ancestry in London and Other Big Cities (Intermediate)
Saturday, November 18, 1:00 p.m., Getting Started in Mexico? Why You Should Try Ancestry.com (Beginner)
Monday, November 20, 10:00 a.m., Using the FamilySearch Catalog Effectively (Beginner)
Tuesday, November 21, 10:00 a.m., Staring Family Tree: Preserving Memories Using Photos and Documents (Beginner)
Wednesday, November 29, 10:00 a.m., Web Indexing Training (1½ hours) (Beginner)
TheGenealogist adds to its expanding collection of Parish Records
TheGenealogist has added over 140,000 individuals to their Parish Records for Worcestershire and Warwickshire to increase the coverage of these midland counties.
Released in association with Malvern Family History Society and the Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society, this is an ongoing project to make available high quality transcripts to family history researchers.
* 97,841 individuals have been added to the Worcestershire baptism records
* 44,250 individuals join the Warwickshire baptism records
These new records can be used to find your ancestors’ baptisms, in fully searchable records that cover parishes from this area of England. With records that reach back to the mid 16th century, this release allows family historians to find the names of ancestors, their parents’ forenames, the father’s occupation (where noted), and the parish that the event took place at.
This is an ongoing project where family history societies transcribe records for their areas to be released on both TheGenealogist and FHS-Online, the website that brings together data from various Family History Societies across the UK while providing a much needed extra source of funds for societies.
These new records are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist.
If your society is interested in publishing records online, please contact Mark Bayley on 01722 717002 or see fhs-online.co.uk/about.php
Here at Living DNA, we have been working on an exciting new project that we have officially launched today. The One Family One World project. As you've been a great support to Living DNA I wanted to let you know first.
Our One Family One World project is the first of it’s kind to attempt to analyse people’s DNA results from around the world allowing them to see where they fit into a One World Family Tree, demonstrating how everyone is related if you go back far enough in time and produce an in country regional breakdown of DNA from around the world.
The project involves the use of proprietary technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and will see tens of thousands of computers working together to identify distinctive and shared patterns in people’s DNA.
Eventually we will be running in-country regional projects across the world, today people can join no matter where they are from and we already have a number of specific projects that can be seen here - https://www.livingdna.com/one-family/research.
You can find out a lot more information on the project, and how to get involved by visiting the website at www.livingdna.com/onefamily. If you know anyone that’s already taken a DNA test they can upload their DNA for Free and will benefit from a new type of DNA Matching in mid 2018.
Your support and opinion matters to us, so we would love to hear your feedback on the project. Also, let us know if you would like to get involved in any way - we always value any way in which people would like to work with us.
This year's Previously... Scotland's History Festival is taking place between November 17th-26th in Edinburgh. Some of the events that are drawing my attention, if I can get over to Edinburgh (!) :
A Very Short Introduction To The Napoleonic Wars Scotland : A Century of Nationalism Reformation Dramas Coffee, Tea and a PhD : Mark Huggins : A Thousand Years Of Easter Kings, Demons and Witches Unionists and Jacobites Growing Up In Scotland : A Century of Childhood The Antonine Wall : What World Heritage Sites can do for you
and just for good measure, because it sounds brilliant:
Ghosts, Skeletons and Koopa Troopas: A Brief History of Baddies in Computer Games
In partnership with Edinburgh City Archives, the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) is hosting an exhibition from October 25th - December 1st 2017 entitled Rogues Gallery: Faces of Crime 1870-1917.
The exhibition will include the case papers from the trial of poisoner Eugène Chantrelle, as well as photographs and records documenting the development of the use of forensic photography in criminal investigations.
About Kikcaldy, Fife, Scotland, Poor Law Records, 1888-1912 This collection contains Poor Law Union Records for Kikcaldy, Fife, Scotland ranging from 1888-1912. It includes records for those who received help from the Abden Home Poor Law Institution, originally named the Kirkcaldy Combination Poorhouse. Details vary depending on record type, but you might find facts such as: Name Date of admission Date of discharge Reason discharged Occupation Gender Marital status Religion Age Date of death
The record page unfortunately has a collection description which is just completely wrong, discussing the implementation of the poor law system in England from 1601 and 1834.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record... Scotland is not England!
The Old Poor Law Act in Scotland was passed in 1579, whilst the Poor Law (Scotland) Amendment Act provisions did not commence until 1845. There were never any Boards of Guardians involved in Scotland, instead, we had parochial boards which answered to a Board of Supervision in Edinburgh.
Ancestry may well wish to revisit this description....!
UPDATE 21 OCT: Ancestry has revisited the Historical Context description, and replaced a few paragraphs on the English poor law system with the following extremely short description of Scotland's set up:
"After the Poor Law Scotland Act of 1845, Scottish parishes were able to establish institutions to care for the poor, house them and give out relief. Whilst there was a Central Supervising body, each institution was locally run."
If you need a wee bit more on how Scotland's set up actually existed, do check out my book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html)!
The collection New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Letters, 1826-1856 consist mainly of copies of letters to the Principle Superintendent of Convicts and to the Land Board in relation to the assignment of convict servants. Letters and records of various events make up the majority of the collections: petitions by convicts for sentence mitigation, marriage permission requests, character memorials for potential settlers, land grant or lease applications, official visit reports, information about court cases, and lists of assigned servants. These files were organized by the Colonial Secretary, or Secretary to the Governor of New South Wales. The colony of New South Wales is located on the south-east coast of Australia and became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Prior to that date it was a British colony whose first settlement was a penal colony governed by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. During the time period of this collection, 1788 through 1856, 10 different governors were assigned to the colony, which existed in a steady state of anarchy until the appointment of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who cracked down on active rebellion leaders and built local infrastructure in the form of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. Mentioned in this collection is Governor William Bligh. An officer of the British Royal Navy, he had the reputation of a firm disciplinarian and was appointed the fourth governor of New South Wales in 1805 with the assignment to straighten out the colony and clean up the corrupt rum trade. He was deposed in 1808 by a group of settlers in what is known as the Rum Rebellion, and held captive until 1810. Within these records you can find significant information about your ancestors if they lived or immigrated to New South Wales during this time period. If they requested to marry, resettle in New South Wales, or acquire a land grant these requests would have been processed by the colonial secretary or other administrative personnel. For more general information about Australian records and research see Searching for Roots Down Under by Janet Reakes in the Learning Center. This article provides a short history of the settlement of Australia, suggests other databases on the Ancestry.com site to search, and includes a brief summary of the kinds of records you can look for in order to further your research. Information in this database: Given name Surname Event date Event description This collection is only partially indexed but all of the images may be viewed using the browse.
Several Irish themed collections have been added to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com) this week:
Thrift Genealogical Abstracts
Containing over 150,000 records, the Thrift genealogical abstracts were created by renowned genealogist, Gertrude Thrift, at the turn of the last century. Findmypast's exclusive access to Thrift's abstracts provides a vast amount of genealogical material dating back to the 1500s. Thrift transcribed and created detailed notes from military commission books, parish registers, exchequer bill books, prerogative grants, chancery bill books, freeman rolls, wills, and more. Many of the wills copied within this collection were lost during the fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland in Dublin in 1922.
Thrift also constructed comprehensive family trees for names such as Gennys, Read, Jagoe, Seymour, Rainsford, and Guinness. In the records, you will find twelve pages of the Guinness family tree, beginning with Richard and Elizabeth Guinness, the parents of the famous brewer Arthur Guinness. The tree traces multiple lines and each name includes an annotation of the person's birth and death dates, occupation, accomplishments, and marital status.
Crossle Genealogical Abstracts
The Crossle Genealogical abstracts were created in the 19th century by Dr Francis Crossle and his son Philip. Containing over 657,000 Irish records, this rich genealogical resource contains valuable copies of prerogative court wills from 1620 to 1804, which were destroyed in the fire at the Public Record Office in Dublin in 1922.
Crossle also provides a wealth of material for those tracing military ancestors including yearly Army returns from 1767 through to 1816 and is an excellent resource for those tracing their ancestors in Northern Ireland.
Betham Genealogical Abstracts
Explore abstracts and genealogical sketches created by herald Sir William Betham. Containing over 489,000 records, these notebooks are an excellent substitute for missing records and include abstracts of wills, reconstructed family trees and detailed pedigrees that can be searched by name, year, or keyword.
Cork, Pobble O'Keefe Census 1830-1852
Search over 4,000 records from seven local censuses - 1830, 1834, 1836, 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1852 - from the townland Pobble O'Keefe in Cork to discover who your ancestor was living with as well as their occupation, birth year and marital status.
Yorkshire Burials
More than 75,000 new Yorkshire burial records are now available to search and explore. Yorkshire burials covers the three historic Yorkshire counties as well as records from Quaker and Roman Catholic parishes and municipal cemeteries. The collection allows you to search records from ten Yorkshire archives and family histor
y societies that will reveal your ancestors age at death, birth year, burial date, and burial place.
The following video popped up on my timeline, having been shared in a blogpost by Kelly Faircloth at https://pictorial.jezebel.com/this-video-of-how-medieval-people-walked-is-oddly-compe-1819217663. It features a German gent by the name of Cornelius Berthold addressing an issue that I was never even aware of before - the fact that in the medieval period, people walked in a very different way to how they do today. It was all down to the footwear!
Elsewhere, the National Archives in England has a blog post online at http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/banishing-bulk-conserving-17th-century-volume/ detailing the specific conservation work applied to a 17th century binding of a documents collection from the weirdly and wonderfully named Office of First Fruits and Tenths and the Court of Augmentations, within the Exchequer records held at the facility.
For a great story on a further successful conservation effort, don't forget to visit the website of the Great Parchment Book project at www.greatparchmentbook.org, including the wonderful video on its homepage showing how this important work concerning the Ulster Plantations was rescued after severe fire damage.
From a family history research point of view, Aaron shows that the company's DNA testing kit is useful for establishing cousin connections, highlighting matches in Susanna Reid's DNA profile with cousins in Scotland and Denmark. There is also some seriously cringeworthy discussion on ethnicity, not least with tabloid presenter Piers Morgan's conclusions on his findings - if you can skip through his bits, you'll probably enjoy it more!
As in years past, the purpose of the event will be to unite the international indexing community around the common goal of making more historical records searchable online for free. Last year’s event broke the previous records with more than 100,000 indexers helping to index over 10,000,000 records. This year, we encourage local wards to set their own goals for participation in the event. Local participation will help indexers feel more united with each other and connected with the records they are indexing.
Tracing your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors: A Family History Conference 05-12 September 2018
Celebrate 300 years and more of migration, and mark the tercentenary of the 1718 migration with visits to sites and places synonymous with the migration of Ulster and Irish families to the New Worlds (North America, Australasia, South Africa etc).
During our 7 day conference you will be able to shape your own experiences by choosing to either research in the different archives in Belfast and Dublin or join our staff on daily excursions through Ireland's beautiful landscape to some of its most historic sites.
Trips during our 2018 programme will see you embark on a guided through the Bann Valley, the area in Ulster most directly associated with the 1718 migration; walk on the walls and explore the historic port city of Derry/Londonderry, one of the finest examples of a walled city in Europe; uncover the stories of some of the earliest people to travel from Ulster to Australia at the Down Museum; visit the Ulster American Folk Park which is dedicated to the story of emigration from Ulster to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries; as well as delving deeper into the past with visits to the Hill of the O’Neill in Dungannon to learn about the 'Flight of the Earls' in 1607, when two of Ulster's leading lords left the island for Continental Europe, never to return and Barons Court, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Abercorn whose ancestors migrated from Scotland over 400 years ago.
These tours are also enlivened with visits to other renowned historical sites of interest across the island of Ireland as you will journey into pre-history to marvel at the UNESCO World Heritage site at Newgrange and look out onto the North Atlantic Ocean from the stones of the Giant’s Causeway.
You will also be able to visit Kilmainham Gaol, one of Dublin city’s most important monuments and visitor attractions and view the beautifully illustrated Book of Kells at Trinity College. All this and much much more!
Avail now of our early bird registration offer of only £899.99 (GBP) ($1187 approx.), giving a saving of £50 on the full price of £949.99 (GBP).
Places can fill up fast so reserve your place now, with a deposit of only £299.99 (GBP) per person!
Given the current low value of sterling (GBP) against other currencies now is a particularly good time for overseas visitors to purchase. The present exchange rate values will ensure overseas delegates can make a very tidy saving on the cost.
For more information go to www.ancestryireland.com/family-history-conference/autumn
Or if you have any queries, email: enquiry@uhf.org.uk
Need Help with your Family History Research?
For those of you who are thinking about attending our Tracing your Irish Ancestors conference we would highly recommend the following publications to help you prepare for your time with us.
Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors: The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800 by Dr William Roulston – This book is invaluable if you are researching ancestors prior to 1800 from the nine counties of the province of Ulster.
Tracing Your Irish Ancestors by John Grenham – This is the essential guide to researching your Irish roots.
Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians by Chris Paton – This book gives excellent practical guidance on how to exploit online resources.
This is such a great wee video that it is worth sharing further! Genealogist Amy Johnson Crow has interviewed the US based 'Legal Genealogist', Judy G. Russell (www.legalgenealogist.com) about the ethics of genetic genealogy - the things to be wary of when taking a DNA test. Amy's original blog post is at https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/ethics-genetic-genealogy/, with the YouTube hosted video also displayed here:
Some great points to take on board - thanks to both Amy and Judy.
(With thanks to Jenna Mills for flagging it up for me on Google Plus)
London, Docklands and East End Baptisms, 1558-1933 Over 40,000 records covering the parishes St John Wapping, St Leonard Bromley, St Mary Bow & St Mary Whitechapel have been added to our collection of London, Docklands and East End Baptisms.
London, Docklands and East End Marriages, 1558-1859
Over 10,000 additional records have been added to London, Docklands and East End Marriages, 1558-1859. Covering the parishes of St John Bethnal Green, St John Wapping, St Leonard Bromley, St Luke Limehouse and St Mary Whitechapel, the new additions consists of transcripts of original Parish registers.
Greater London Burial Index
Over 35,000 new records covering Clerkenwell in central London have been added to the Greater London Burials Index. The Index contains over 1.6 million names from more than 230 parishes in the Greater London area and includes records from both Anglican and non-conformist parishes. The index City of London Burials, Middlesex Memorial Inscriptions, the Middlesex & City of London Burial Index and the South London Burials Index.
Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Baptisms
Over 13,000 records have been added to our Collection of Canterbury Archdeaconry Baptisms. The new additions cover the parishes of Chilham, Stalisfield & Staple and each record includes both a transcript and an image of the original document.
Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Banns
An additional 2,416 records covering Chilham, Stalisfield & Staple are now available to search within our collection of Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Banns.
Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Marriages
Add another branch to your family tree by uncovering vital information about your ancestor's spouse with over 6,000 new Canterbury Archdeaconry Marriages.
Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Burials
Explore over 9,000 records from the parishes of Chilham, Stalisfield and Staple to determine where your Kent ancestors were laid to rest.
PERiodical Source Index image update Images have been added to the following titles:
•NewsLeaf, (2012-2013)
•Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, (1918-1923)
•William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine, (1892-1923)
•Wisconsin Magazine of History, (1917-1924)
•Women's Canadian Historical Society of Toronto Transactions, (1896-1923)
•Wyoming Historical and Genealogical Society Proceedings and Collections, (1858-1922)
•Yorkshire County Magazine, (1891-1894)
British Newspaper Update New titles now available to search include:
•Whitchurch Herald
•Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard
•The Atlas
•Winsford & Middlewich Guardian
•Chard and Ilminster News
•Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette
•Worthing Herald
•Denbighshire Free Press
•Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser, Upton Park and Dagenham Gazette
•Loughborough Monitor
•Cardigan & Tivy-side Advertiser
•Leigh Journal and Times
•Thame Gazette
•Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser
•Darlington & Stockton Times, Ripon & Richmond Chronicle
•Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal
TheGenealogist is pleased to announce it has added two new record sets that will be useful for researching the First World War and Victorian soldiers.
● Part one of this release is The Worldwide Army Index for 1851, 1861 and 1871 which adds another name rich resource to the already vast Military record collections at TheGenealogist with over 600,000 records
● Also released at the same time is another 3,368 pages from The Illustrated War News covering 6 September 1916 to 10 April 1918 and adding to those previously made available for this First World War paper from 1914 to 1916
The Worldwide Army Index for 1851, 1861 and 1871
If you have not found your ancestor in the various British census returns, and you know that they may have been serving at the time in the British Army, then this new release from TheGenealogist may help you to find these elusive subjects.
Many thousands of men of the British Army were serving overseas in far flung parts of the British Empire over the 1800s. This index of names is compiled from the musters contained in the WO 10-11-12 Series of War Office Paylists, held at the National Archives, Kew. The 1851, 1861 and 1871 Worldwide Army Index lists all officers* and other ranks subjects serving in the first quarter of 1851 and second quarter of 1861 and 1871, together with their regimental HQ location. The index is, therefore, effectively a military surrogate for the relevant census.
Over 70,000 records have extra notes that can indicate whether a soldier was a recruit awaiting transfer to a regiment, detached from his regiment or attached to another, possibly discharged, on leave, had deserted or retired. Men identified as using aliases are also included. Many notes include a place of birth and former occupation.
Also included within the records are recruits, boy soldiers, bandsmen and civilians working in the armed forces as clerks, pension recruiters, teachers and suchlike. Colonial regiments which invariably had numbers of British subjects are also featured.
The Illustrated War News was a weekly magazine during the First World War, published by The Illustrated London News and Sketch Ltd. of London. The IWN publication contained illustrated reports related entirely to the war and comprised articles, photographs, diagrams and maps. From 1916 it was issued as a 40-page publication in portrait format, having been landscape prior to this. It claimed to have the largest number of artist-correspondents reporting on the progress of the war until it ceased publication in 1918.
I found the following this morning whilst browsing through Twitter, from a person ranting about immigration. The post was made on October 11th. I have hidden the identity of the tweeter (the account page is just horrendous), and also the names of two people whose DNA ethnicity images that have been appropriated to support this rant – one of whom is a friend of mine (and ironically/tragically for this idiot's thesis, not actually British). I have of course contacted my friend to alert to the misuse of this personal information, and have also alerted Ancestry via a response to this idiot's tweet.
In this example, this idiot tweeter is trying to use ethnicity profiling images to show how 'non-British' Britain is allegedly becoming, what with all this European identity mixing in with it, etc. The level of ignorance of British history is truly astonishing in this regard.
Whilst in Australia recently, I had the pleasure to travel on a talks tour with German based genealogist Dirk Weissleder about a great many issues to do with genealogy, and its perception in the UK and Germany. I have commented on some of these for a forthcoming Family Tree magazine article, but one in particular was his observation that DNA testing and genealogy is apparently not at all popular in Germany, for many reasons, including the country's recent history in which the Nazis tried to corrupt the discipline to establish so called 'Aryan' ancestry for members of its party, and because of its attitudes to ethnicity, and what it did with them. It was a fascinating conversation, and one of which I have some sympathy with, because to label any people with an ethnicity tag can be potentially dangerous. To misrepresrent such information is even more so, as history has shown.
This racist tweeter is of course not advertising Ancestry, and Ancestry cannot in any way be held liable for what this idiot has used its imagery for. I remain a fervent supporter of Ancestry's DNA testing service and its cousin connection service. For those doing tests though, there are things to learn. Be careful with how and where you display your ethnicity results (I am as guilty with my own, as I am sure I have shared my own images at some point in reviews), be careful with what conclusions you draw from such results – and be careful not to allow others, as in this case, to make statements and conclusions using your results to reinforce their own warped agendas.
The GRO for England and Wales has launched another trial period from today for the ordering of PDF versions of English and Welsh birth and death certificates. Here is the announcement:
General Register Office (GRO) - PDF Extended Pilot The GRO is piloting a service from 12 October 2017 to provide portable document format (PDF) copies of digitised historical birth and death records. The pilot will run for a minimum of 3 months to enable GRO to assess the demand for this service over a prolonged period. Applications for each PDF cost £6, must be made online, and include a GRO index reference. England and Wales records which are available as PDFs in this extended pilot include: Births: 1837 –1916 Deaths: 1837 –1957
"There is a slight change to the previous trial - once produced, the pdf will be available to download from your account page on the GRO site for a period of time (in the same way that probate service wills are delivered) rather than sent as an email attachment."
With this release the available rolls on the site cover the years 1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930 and 1935 - though please note that the rolls are in fact annual from 1855-1989, with many others available for consultation at the National Records of Scotland, and local archives across the country.
(NB: The database at the ScotlandsPeople Centre and at other family history centres hosting the same system also has the 1935 rolls up and running - I was using them earlier today at the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock!)
