Lest We Forget Glasgow WW1 items digitised now online

Glasgow City Archives has announced that items digitised at its First World War digitisation day earlier this year on April 10th, for the University of Oxford-run Lest We Forget project, are now freely avalable to view online at http://lwf.it.ox.ac.uk/s/lest-we-forget/item-set/6928.

The materials available include photographs, letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings, medals, an oral history recording and more.

Further items from Britain (including Aberdeen, Stonehaven and Edinburgh), and the Isle of Man, are available at http://lwf.it.ox.ac.uk/s/lest-we-forget/page/welcome.

(With thanks to @GC_Archives)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) for just £11.99 at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Historic Medical Officer of Health reports

There's an interesting spot by Canadian based blogger John Reid concerning new Aberdeen Medical Officer of Health Reports that are now available online from the Wellcome Library - John's post is at http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2018/07/medical-officer-of-health-reports-for.html. The post refers to the reports from the years 1890, 1895, 1900 and 1902-1971, for the city of Aberdeen only, although a search of the catalogue shows that there are many other reports from across Britain and Ireland that are also available.

Medical Officer of Health reports from across Scotland for the year 1891 only are also freely available on the ScotlandsPlaces website at https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/official-reports/medical-officer-health-reports.Here's the blurb on the site for this collection:

From 1890 onwards a full-time Medical Officer of Health was appointed in each county in Scotland with a remit to report on the state of health of the county and its various parishes and towns. The annual reports of the Medical Officers give an objective view of the living conditions, diseases and major health issues in different parts of Scotland. Information on the individual parishes and towns are found within the 'registration districts' headings found in these volumes. The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) has an incomplete set of the published reports from 1891 onwards (NAS HH62).

A useful resource to help add some context to the environments where your ancestors once lived.

(With thanks to John Reid)

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

FindmyPast releases British and Irish Roots collection

The latest releases from FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

British & Irish Roots Collection *

Explore this unique resource, handpicked by our in-house experts. Our new British & Irish roots collection brings together more than 95 million records from across a wide variety of records covering the United States and Canada. Each record identifies a British or Irish emigrant who came to North America. For example, Findmypast identified a population register from California that noted that a widow was Scottish and pulled this record into the collection. This new, first-of-its-kind collection gives North American family historians the chance to search for their British and Irish roots all in one place.

The collection includes passenger lists, census records, naturalization applications, and draft registrations, as well as birth, marriage, and death records. The journeys researchers can expect to find include:

• Anyone leaving the UK or Ireland and emigrating to the US, Canada or the Caribbean
• Anyone emigrating from Canada or the Caribbean to the US (this covers the large number of British and Irish emigrants who stopped temporarily in Canada and/or the Caribbean)
• Anyone listed on any US or Canadian record with British or Irish origins, birthplace or parents

* These records are currently free to access at https://search.findmypast.ie/search-world-Records/british-and-irish-roots-collection


British Army, Imperial War Museum Bond of Sacrifice 1914-1918

Discover photographs and uncover details of your WW1 military ancestor's service with an index pertaining to more than 18,000 records found on the Imperial War Museum website. Each transcript will reveal your ancestor's rank, regiment, awards, soldier number and death date.


Kent Baptisms

Over 13,000 records have been added to our collection of Kent Baptisms. The new additions cover the parishes of Meopham, Luddesdown, Cobham, Nurstead and Ifield.


Kent Banns

400 new records have been added to our collection of Kent Banns. An ancient legal tradition, banns are an announcement in church of a couple's intention to marry. Banns were read in the parish (or parishes) in which the couple lived on three consecutive Sundays before the wedding and provided an opportunity for the congregation to put forward a reason why the marriage may not lawfully take place.


Kent Marriages

More than 3,000 new records have been added to our collection of Kent parish marriage records.


Kent Burials

Over 10,000 new records covering the parishes of Meopham, Luddesdown, Cobham, Nurstead, Ifield have been added to our collection of Kent Burials.


Kent Wills & Probate Indexes

Over 49,000 new probate index cards have recently been added to our collection of Kent Wills & Probate Indexes 1328-1890. The contains consists of records from seven different ecclesiastical Church of England courts across the county and was compiled from four separate sources: the West Kent Probate index 1750-1890, West Kent Probate Index 1440-1857, Kent Inventories 1571-1842 and Kent Will Abstracts 1328-1691, and includes 14 different types of document.


Further details and links are available at https://blog.findmypast.ie/findmypast-friday-december-8th-2515822547.html

Chris

Needing a Christmas present for a family history obsessed love one (or for yourself)?! For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

TheGenealogist adds names from 53 new War Memorials

From The Genealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

TheGenealogist adds another 15,000 names from 53 new War Memorials

In time for Armistice day TheGenealogist has added to their War Memorial records on the website so that there are now over 383,000 fully searchable records.

This latest release includes war memorials from Worcestershire and South Yorkshire as well as some further monuments from Australia,Canada, London and various other British counties. A more unusual one added in this release is from Olds, in Alberta, Canada - the memorial is a Sherman tank!

Fully searchable by name, researchers can read transcriptions and see images of the dedications that commemorate soldiers who have fallen in the Boer War, WW1 and various other conflicts.

These new records are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist.
Read our article on War Memorials that reveal WW1 heros, The neglected Sheffield soldier finally recognised, at: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2017/war-memorials-that-reveal-ww1-heroes-681/.

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

My next 5 week long Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences Nov 6th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Meeting a FreeCEN volunteer in Crete!

It's a small world really! Last night at a Greek taverna in Crete, a couple seated next to me at the bar, Brian and Diane Collins from North Wales, got talking with me. Within seconds we were talking genealogy, because it soon transpired that Brian is in fact a volunteer for the FreeCEN project (www.freecen.org.uk).

FreeCEN is a volunteer based project designed to provide free to access transcriptions of the censuses in Britain from 1841-1891. Volunteers at the Scottish end started with 1841, and are moving forward through the range, whilst English and Welsh volunteers started at 1891 and are moving backwards. It's a long standing work in progress, but has many key advantages over some of the commercial sites, in that underpinning the transcription effort is an equally impressive effort to oversee the quality of the transcriptions using local knowledge, thanks to people like Brian. Brian's role is to check what transcribers are producing, and to make any corrections needed where there has been an error in interpretation from the original source record.

FreeCEN is certainly a site worth bookmarking - I have actually found entries using the site that in the past ScotlandsPeople has not even indexed correctly. And don't forget to check out the future version of FreeCEN, currently available on a beta site at https://freecen2.freecen.org.uk.

(With thanks to Brian and Diane - have a great stay in Crete!)

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Coming soon - Unlock the Past handy guides

Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au) is preparing a new range of 4 page card based 'handy guides' which it will be selling at events in the immediate future, to complement its range of genealogy guide books. The guides contain detailed articles relating to various topics of use to the family historian - the following are the first five titles, of which I have contributed two:

Civil Registration Births, Marriages and Deaths in Britain and Ireland, Chris Paton
Twenty Useful websites for Irish Research, Chris Paton
DNA for Genealogy, Kerry Farmer
GEDmatch Tools for DNA & Genealogy Research, Kerry Farmer
Civil Registration Births, Marriages and Deaths in Germany, Eric Kopittke

Let the team know what you think of them of when you see them, and perhaps what subjects you might like to see added further down the line!

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

Forthcoming talks tour in Australia and New Zealand

I'm delighted to say that this August I will be making my way to Australia and Zew Zealand once again, as part of a talks tour sponsored by Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au) and the Auckland Family History Expo (www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/EN/Events/Events/pages/familyhistoryexpo.aspx) entitled Researching Abroad: Finding British Isles and European Ancestors. I will be participating on the tour alongide German genealogist Dirk Weissleder, and several local speakers including Helen Smith, Rosemary Kopittke and Kerry Farmer.

The following is the scheduled itinerary:

BRISBANE - Tue-Wed 8-9 Aug
Kedron-Wavell Services Club, Chermside South - 9am-4.30pm each day

AUCKLAND - Fri-Sun 11-13 Aug (Auckland expo organised by the Auckland Library)
Fickling Convention Centre, Three Kings, Auckland

SYDNEY - Tue-Wed 15-16 Aug
Parramatta RSL, Parramatta - 9am-4.30pm each day

MELBOURNE - Fri-Sat 18-19 Aug
Veneto Club, Bulleen - 9am-4.30pm each day

CANBERRA - Mon 21 Aug
The Harmonie German Club of Canberra, Narrabundah - 9am-4.30pm

ADELAIDE - Wed-Thu 23-24 Aug
The German Club, Adelaide - 9am-4.30pm each day

PERTH - Sat 26 Aug
State Library of WA, Perth - 9am-4.30pm


I have previously spoken in all of the cities, though only at two of the venues listed in this itinerary (in both Sydney and Perth), and am very much looking forward to catching up with all my friends once again down under!

For more on the programme - including details of all the talks that both Dirk and I will be giving - please visit http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/events/researching-abroad-finding-british-isles-and-european-ancestors.

I'll hopefully see you there!

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences May 15th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Thom's Irish Almanacs and Directories on Ancestry

I'm still catching up on some recent developments, but this seems a fairly significant one - a new collection on Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk), released in mid-March, called Ireland, City and Regional Directories, 1847-1946, available at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61314.

The collection consists of Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, and covers all of Ireland, north and south, both before and after partition, as well as Britain. Here's the blurb on Ancestry about the set:

Alexander Thom published the first Thom’s Irish Almanac and Official Directory in 1844. Over the next one hundred years, it grew to include a Dublin street directory, volumes listing the names, addresses, and occupations for residents of other towns and districts in the country, and a wide variety of happenings, institutions, businesses, and departments for Ireland and the UK, including the following:

* County fairs and markets in Ireland
* Parliamentarian directories
* Civil service and law directories for Great Britain
* Navy, army, and militia directories
* Colonial directories
* Universities, colleges, schools
* Churches and ecclesiastical directories
* County and borough directories
* Postal directory
* Peerages

Within the collection, you will be able to find names, places and dates of residence and often an occupation is given as well.

Well worth exploring.

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences May 15th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Living DNA launches service

I've been asked to share the following press release from another new kid on the DNA block, Living DNA, at www.livingdna.com:

New DNA test offers people an HD view of their past

28th September 2016 - Somerset, UK

The world’s first DNA ancestry test which allows people to break down their British ancestry to any of 21 regions in the UK and see how their worldwide ancestry has evolved over history has been launched.

Living DNA has been developed in partnership with over 100 world leading genetics experts, including the team behind the People of the British Isles Study 2015 – the first fine-scale genetic map of the British Isles. The new platform is designed to give people the most accurate and detailed estimate of their extended family tree, stretching back thousands of years.

From a simple saliva mouth swab kit, the new test uses the latest DNA testing technology to analyse over 680,000 DNA ‘markers’, and unlock a person’s genetic code to their past. Instead of looking at pieces of DNA in isolation, Living DNA analyses distinct sections of ‘linked DNA’, and then matches those findings to latest academic research using sophisticated software.

Results are displayed on an interactive online platform, breaking down an individual’s ancestry to over 80 worldwide regions, including 21 UK regions – more than any other company.

In addition, Living DNA’s product is the only one of its kind which allows users to look back over multiple generations to see their ancestry throughout human history, and discover when they shared ancestors with people throughout the world. Most other ancestry tests only look at people’s recent family history, typically going back 4 or 5 generations at most.

David Nicholson, managing director of Living DNA, comments:

“Compared to other ancestry tests out there, Living DNA is like viewing your family history on a high definition TV. By combining the latest DNA testing technology with the most robust academic research, we can give users the most accurate picture of their estimated ancestry.”

The ability for people to explore how their extended ‘ancestry family’ has changed over time is a key feature of the new product, according to Mr Nicholson:

“Our understanding of where we come from as individuals depends entirely on how far back in history we look. Our goal is to put people’s past into context in a way that has never been done before, and let people view their ancestry throughout history, to show how everyone in the world is ultimately connected.”

One of the key academic collaborators Living DNA has worked with in developing its new test has been Dr Dan Lawson from the University of Bristol, one of the authors of The People of the British Isles Study 2015 – the first fine-scale genetic map of the British Isles.

Dr Lawson has been instrumental in helping to develop Living DNA’s ground-breaking software which can now match an individual’s DNA to one of 21 regions in the UK for the first time.

“This is a whole new approach to DNA ancestry testing, and it is highly personal,” explains Dr Lawson. “No other method – either in scientific literature or in the field of personal genomics – can identify the ancestry of a single person to the level of regions within the UK.”

Living DNA’s test itself is run on a custom-built “Living DNA Orion Chip”. It is one of the first bespoke DNA chips in the world to be built using the latest GSA technology from market leader Illumina, and tests over 656,000 autosomal (family) markers, 4,700 mitrochondrial (maternal) markers and 22,000 Y-chromosomal (paternal) markers.

A lifetime membership to Living DNA costs £120, including a swab kit, the DNA ancestry test itself and access to a personalised, interactive results platform. Test results typically take 8-12 weeks before they are available, and a bespoke coffee table book of the results costs an additional £39 plus postage and packing. A membership also includes free lifetime updates to people’s results as new ancestry research and population groups are added to the platform and as science evolves.
Quotes

"Compared to other ancestry tests out there, Living DNA is like viewing your family history on a high definition TV. By combining the latest DNA testing technology with the most robust academic research, we can give users the most accurate picture of their estimated ancestry."
David Nicholson, managing director, Living DNA

"Our understanding of where we come from as individuals depends entirely on how far back in history we look. Our goal is to put people’s past into context in a way that has never been done before, and let people view their ancestry throughout history, to show how everyone in the world is ultimately connected."
David Nicholson, managing director, Living DNA

"This is a whole new approach to DNA ancestry testing, and it is highly personal. No other method – either in scientific literature or in the field of personal genomics – can identify the ancestry of a single person to the level of regions within the UK."
Dr Dan Lawson, University of Bristol

COMMENT: The tests being carried out are for autosomal, Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests. The press release says that they test "over 656,000 autosomal (family) markers, 4,700 mitrochondrial (maternal) markers and 22,000 Y-chromosomal (paternal) markers". The mitochondrial DNA follows the maternal line - mum's mother's mother's mother's  etc DNA. Y-DNA follows the paternal line, i.e. your surname line, the father's father's father's father's etc DNA. The autosomal test is for a type of DNA that you inherit from both parents, which can be useful for finding close matches within a few generations on either side. All have their uses. I've not taken the test, so have no idea how it compares to other suppliers such as FamilyTreeDNA or DNA Ancestry.

A minor gripe is that the company tells you they test across the British Isles, but keeps asking you in its video "how British are you?". Ahem...! (Stand down, Ireland, STAND DOWN!!!).

DNA guru Debbie Kennett (who knows more about these things than I ever will!) has a very favourable review of the test at http://cruwys.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/living-dna-new-genetic-ancestry-test.html.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

GB1900 British maps crowdsourcing project launched

From the National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk):

Help save GB place names from being lost for ever

A new online project – GB1900 – is calling for volunteers in Great Britain to help make sure local place-names can live on rather than be lost for ever.

GB1900 aims to create a complete list of the estimated three million place-names on early Ordnance Survey maps of Britain. It will be a free, public resource, of particular use to local historians and genealogists.

The project partners include the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, and the University of Portsmouth.

On their new GB1900 web site, http://www.gb1900.org/, volunteers will work on digital images of all the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey County Series maps of the whole of Great Britain, at six inch to one mile scale (1888-1913). These maps show not just every town and village but every farm, hill and wood – and include names for most of them. The site’s software enables contributors to mark each name by clicking next to it, and then to type in the name itself. They can also add any personal memories they have of the place. To ensure correctness each name needs to be identically transcribed by two different volunteers.

The final list of place names will be not just the most detailed gazetteer ever created for Britain, it will be the world’s largest ever historical gazetteer. It will be released under a Creative Commons licence, making it usable by everyone without charge, and will be of great value for family and local historians.

GB1900 Project website: http://www.gb1900.org/
Further information: http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2016/09/place-names-volunteers

(With thanks to Chris Fleet)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

My new book is now on sale in Australia

My latest guide book for Adelaide based Unlock the Past (my eighth title) is now on sale in Australia. Entitled A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Ancestry, it very much does what it says on the tin! Here's the blurb:

You've decided that you want to trace your British and Irish family history, but have absolutely no idea where to start. If only there was a handy beginner's guide...?

In this Unlock the Past guide, genealogist Chris Paton takes you through the key record sets that will help you get underway with your family history research. He will introduce you to the family history societies and archives that can assist your efforts, and provide a little context to the ancestral landscape within which your ancestors once lived, and into which you will soon be immersed. Along the way he will point out some of the major differences in record types to be found in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

In each chapter Chris also provides a steer towards further books which can further develop your skills as you become more experienced with the subject matter, making this an invaluable introduction.

Warning – once you get started with your family history research, you will never stop...!

And the contents list:

Introduction
Acknowledgements
1. Researching your family tree
- Documentary sources
- Gateways
- Record your finds
- Gadgets
- Brick walls
- Overcome mistakes
- Question everything
- Make your ancestors real
- Damn the rules!
- Further reading
2. Civil registration records
- Basic information
- England and Wales
- Scotland
- Ireland
- Certificate exchange sites
- Further reading
3. Parish registers
- Baptisms
- Marriages and banns
- Burials and deaths
- Locating state church records
- Records of church governance
- Non-conformist churches
- Further reading
4. Monumental inscriptions
- English and Welsh gravestones
- Scotland
- Ireland
- Further reading
5. Cenuses
- What censuses contain
- Online records
- Scotland
- Ireland
- Census substitutes: directories
- Further reading
6. Wills and testaments
- Forms of estate
- Probate and confirmation
- England and Wales
- Recent wills
- Scotland
- Ireland
- Further reading
7. Maps and gazetteers
- Modern maps
- Ordnance Survey maps
- Other maps
- Gazetteers
- Further reading
8. Occupations
- Ancestral context
- Understand the job
- Newspapers
- Dig deeper
- Further reading
9. Societies, archives and libraries
- Umbrella bodies
- National societies
- Special interest groups
- Archives
- Catalogues
- Libraries
- Further reading
10. Social networking
- Facebook and Twitter
- Blogs
- Message boards and forums
- Family tree networks
- Further reading
11. DNA tests
- Types of DNA
- Testing companies
- Further reading
Appendix: The Crown Dependencies
- Isle of Man
- The Channel Islands
Index

The book can be purchased from Gould Genealogy in Adelaide via https://www.gould.com.au/a-beginners-guide-to-british-and-irish-genealogy/utp0289/, priced at AU$12.03. An ebook version will also be available shortly via www.gen-ebooks.com, and then print copies in due course will also be on sale in the UK and Canada, which I will announce in due course.

I hope it is of some use if you are just getting under way with your research!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Latest FindmyPast additions

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com) has added the following collections:

Ireland, Non-Conformist Births & Baptisms
Immerse yourself in 212 years of baptisms from Counties Clare, Down, Dublin and Limerick

Ireland, Non-Conformist Congregational Records
Did your family join one of Ireland's non-conformist communities?

Ireland, Non-Conformist Marriages
Uncover new branches of your Irish family tree

Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941
Over 240,000 new records have been added. Discover valuable information about their voyages, ranks, next of kin, physical descriptions and more. In some cases, you may even find photographs. Was your forefather a salty sea dog?

Britain, Business Indexes, 1892-1987
Delve through over 4,000 additional records in a fascinating index of shopkeepers, businessmen and women, and their companies. A number of records will include photographs of establishments and their proprietors. Discover your captain of industry

Shropshire, Non-Conformist Membership Lists, 1819-1906
Examine lists from Congregational and United Reform Churches across Shropshire to uncover your ancestor’s residence and occupation. Learn about their religious beliefs

Further details at https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/fridays/

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

British Newspaper Archive project almost one third complete

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk), which is planning to digitise forty million pages of content from the holdings of the British Library Newspaper Archive, now based at Boston Spa, Yorkshire, is almost one third of the way through the project, having passed the thirteen million pages mark.

For a list of the latest additions to the site, please see http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/home/LatestAdditions

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

FindmyPast releases Britain, Directories & Almanacs

Just released by FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Britain, Directories & Almanacs

Britain, Directories & Almanacs allows you to explore 112 volumes of fascinating documents spanning three centuries. They include a wide variety of records ranging from trade directories and county guides to almanacs and general directories. Almanacs and directories are an excellent resource for anyone researching their family history and can provide unique insights into how your ancestors lived.

They can include topographical accounts of towns, social statistics and comprehensive guides of local areas as well as full listings of gentry, business owners, trades people, civil servants, church leaders, school teachers and much more! You can also uncover the history of your home and uncover previous proprietors.

Included in the collection is Colonial Office Lists from 1863 and 1870. They includes both lists of officers and those working within the civil establishment throughout the British Empire and can even provide geographical details and histories of regions such as Barbardos, the Cape of Good Hope, Dominica, Malta, Nova scotia, New South Wales and Trinidad.

The collection is formed from records held by the Anguline Research Archives, Gould Genealogy, Yorkshire Ancestors and Eneclann. There are also a significant number of Irish records taken from Dod's peerage, baronetage and knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, and Thom’s Official Directory for Great Britain & Ireland, 1914 – a directory for both Great Britain and Ireland which includes social and economic statistics for all countries involved.

Each record consists of a PDF image of the original document that can reveal where your ancestor lived, where they worked and whether they owned a business. A Transcript box will also be displayed to the left of the image that will clearly mark the title of the publication, where the publication is based and an image number to help you to explore the publication further.

A full list of the many sources that make up the collection is available on our dedicated search page (http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/britain-directories-and-almanacs).

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Thesis - The Eurasian Problem In Nineteenth Century India

Thanks to Jonathan Gentry in Toronto for the following. A thesis by Valerie E.R. Anderson entitled The Eurasian Problem In Nineteenth Century India, from the Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, is available online. Chapter 6 on Law and Marriage is especially of note. The thesis is well worth a read at http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13525/1/Anderson_3334.pdf

The following is the abstract:

ABSTRACT
The Eurasian problem in nineteenth century India was a question of their national identity. People of mixed European and Indian ancestry, were seen by the British as other than European but treated by them as other than Indian. First legal proscriptions and later social mores acted to maintain a barrier between the British and Eurasians but the separation was never complete. The British administration needed Eurasian labour and European men continued to seek Eurasian wives, pulling Eurasians into the sphere of British influence. At the same time, eager to define and preserve the Britishness of its presence in India, the government and European society pushed Eurasians away. Encouraged by the prospect of work to maintain a strong affiliation with British culture moulded through continued interaction and education, Christian and largely Anglophone Eurasians emerged at the end of the century othered again. In the minds of many Indians, the Eurasians, working primarily as government servants, were firmly associated with subjugation and colonial rule.

In colonial India poor or Indianised Eurasians were somewhat of a problem for the British who sought to legitimise their rule with an illusion of European superiority. In late colonial and independent India Anglo-Indians were sometimes perceived as another kind of problem; an unwelcome hang-over from the British Raj. Thus, both their Indian and their European heritage were problematic. A small population with neither political power nor wealth, Eurasians were stuck in a liminal zone between the coloniser and the colonised. As such they were caught up in and buffeted by colonial hegemony, nationalist demands, and the need to put bread or chapattis on their tables. This thesis explores the everyday realities of marriage and family, education and employment, and shows how Eurasian agency in choosing their own lifestyles and affiliations, was gradually eroded by the colonial state.


Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Francis Frith Collection images join Ancestry

Ancestry has added a new database entitled UK, City, Town and Village Photos, 1857-2005, containing images from the Francis Frith Collection. Despite the title, the collection includes images from across Britain and Ireland, not just the UK.

From the site:

The Francis Frith Collection contains photographs of almost every city, town and village in Great Britain, with some coverage of other countries including Ireland. The photos are primarily topographical - of towns, landmarks and landscapes. These include thousands of individual streets, churches, castles, landscapes, businesses, bridges, municipal buildings and locations that have been important in individuals' lives.

Founded by Francis Frith in 1860, the company published over 300,000 photographs which were sold to tourists as souvenirs, and later as postcards. Frith is recognised as one of the great pioneers of photography, having undertaken three expeditions up the Nile to record the pyramids and antiquities of the Middle East between 1857 and 1859. He is best known today for the amazing archive his company created. Today the Collection is famous as an outstanding record of British towns and villages over 110 years and provides a lot of information about everyday life over that period. The company continues to add to the archive and publish in the Frith tradition.

The collection is accessible at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60587 and can be searched by keyword or browsed by locality.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

British Newspaper Archive approaches 11 million pages

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) is fast approaching eleven million pages online - it being currently at 10,986,071 as I write - from some 414 hosted newspaper titles from across Britain and Ireland.

Don't forget that my guide book British and Irish Newspapers is available from Unlock the Past, both as a printed book or ebook. For details on how to obtain a copy from the UK, Australia or Canada, please see my books page at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

UPDATE 14 JUN: Now passed 11 million!

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

County Surveys of Great Britain 1793-1817 may be digitised

There has been a great announcement from the University of Edinburgh's EDINA service, which makes accessible the Statistical Accounts of Scotland from the 1790s and the 1830s/1840s at http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/sas/sas.asp?action=public&passback=. EDINA is currently contemplating the possibilities of digitising and uploading to the internet the County Surveys of Great Britain from 1793-1817.

From the announcement:

The County Surveys recorded comprehensive information on the agriculture, rural economy and political economy of each county in Great Britain between 1793 and 1817. They provide a unique insight into the innovation and agricultural improvement during a significant period in the making of Britain as the first industrial nation. Despite its remarkable historical interest, this resource is currently under-used because very few surveys are available in digital format, and printed copies are difficult to locate and access.

‘The County Surveys 1793 – 1817: Exploring Considered Digitisation’ aims to explore how the creation of a virtual collection can unleash the potential of the County Surveys for discovery. The project is funded by EDINA, University of Edinburgh and scheduled for completion in July 2015.

For the full announcement visit http://statacc.blogs.edina.ac.uk/2015/05/18/the-county-surveys-1793-1817-exploring-considered-digitisation/.

Further details on the project can be accessed via a dedicated blog for the project at http://countysurveys.blogs.edina.ac.uk.

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Ancestry adds Popular Edition Maps, 1919-1926 for England and Wales

Ancestry has released a new collection entitled UK, Popular Edition Maps, 1919-1926 (http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60657). Here's the blurb from the site:

England’s Ordnance Survey began in 1791 in an effort to produce detailed maps of areas in southern England for military uses. Though it took the better part of a century, the Survey eventually mapped the entire country, and the maps were published between 1805 and 1874. In the meantime, the rapid expansion of railroads and urbanization had changed the face of the country, and maps were being put to greater civilian uses. New surveys led to new maps published between 1876 and 1896. These maps were revised again starting in the interwar years and are known as the Popular Edition Maps, 1919–1926.

The Popular Edition maps are included in this database. These detailed maps cover much of Britain and include features such as forests, mountains, larger farms, roads, railroads, towns, and more to help you better understand and even visualize the world your ancestor lived in.

The title is factually incorrect, as this only covers England and Wales, not the United Kingdom - Northern Ireland and Scotland are not included.

Chris

For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

How to find 19th century Irish poor removals from Britain

In Britain the holding of the legal right of ‘settlement’ in a parish determined whether a person could claim poor relief from the relevant parochial authority when the chips were down, perhaps through unemployment or the ravages of old age. If a person did not hold an automatic right to settle, he or she could still move to a new parish with a ‘settlement certificate’ from his or her previous parish, which basically noted that the home parish would act as guarantor and accept liability if the applicant ever required poor relief from his or her new intended home. Without the right of settlement, a person could be forcibly removed from the parish in order to save it from a financial burden for which it did not wish to be responsible.

When the new poor law amendments acts were introduced in England and Wales in 1834, and in Scotland in 1845, the system of settlement was simplified, and new concepts such as ‘irremovability’ introduced, guaranteeing people the right to stay within a parish if they had already been there for a specific period of years. Under the new system, the process of removals continued. Although it died down considerably towards the end of the 19th century, such removals in fact continued until the abolition of the unions in 1930.

Amongst those who were affected by removal were thousands of Irish applicants in Britain. If upon examination it was found that they had no right of settlement they could be deported from the nearest port back to their home parishes of origin in Ireland, with the cost for such a removal charged to those parishes, even if they had been in Britain for decades. The result is that a wealth of documentation has survived concerning the fate of thousands of Irish folk forcibly ejected from the country and sent back over the water.

The primary place to start when searching for names of those removed is the local British county record office covering the area of interest. If you think that an ancestor spent some time in a workhouse (England/Wales) or poorhouse (Scotland), or claimed poor relief, a useful site to get you started in trying to find their initial application for such assistance is the Workhouses website at www.workhouses.org. Each institution has a dedicated page providing information on its history and any records known to exist, as well as noting the record office holding them (usually with a link to its site). Alternatively you can also search the catalogued holdings of most British records offices through the English based National Archives catalogue Discovery at http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/advanced-search or via the Scottish Archive Network at www.scan.org.uk/catalogue.

The Moving Here website is sadly no longer available, but when running it cited a good example of the types of records you might find in such offices - thankfully the page has been cached by the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20120516032448/http://movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/irish/settling/removal_1.htm. Amongst the many record types illustrated is a digitised copy of one of sixty five volumes from 1801-1835 recording the names of poor people who were deported from Liverpool to Ireland (in this case from the year 1834), as sourced from Lancashire Record Office. The site also gives examples of other useful records, including the original examination papers relating to an individual’s case, as well as material relating to the removal as held in the relevant Quarter Session’s papers for the area in question.

Another extremely useful website listing such removals is the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers site at http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp. Unfortunately this is only available through subscribing libraries and academic institutions, and not to general public access. Here in Scotland, access is freely available to the public via the National Library of Scotland's Licensed Digital Collections (https://auth.nls.uk/ldc/).

The database itself contains all of the sessional papers created by the House of Commons from 1800-2008, with additional material going back as early as 1688. Amongst these papers are letters concerning individual cases and detailed annual reports from the second half of the 19th century recounting vast lists of Irish people on a parish by parish basis who were returned to Ireland. In addition to providing their names, the British parish of residence and the parish in Ireland to which they were removed, they also contain additional information such as their ages, the number of members within their family who were deported alongside them, the length of time spent in Britain and the causes for their removal.

To find the records on the website, the simplest way is to search using the catalogue, though you may need to use various search terms to locate the records, such as ‘poor removal’ and a date range. The earlier 19th century records tend to concern ether various bills and legislation on the poor laws themselves. The records listing removals in this period tend to be more statistical in nature, with most not naming those who were removed, and instead providing numbers of ejected from each parish with any associated costs. It is not until the middle of the century when more genealogically useful material begins to appear on the site. A good example is a 16 page document from 1849 listing correspondence between the Poor Law Commissioners of Ireland and England concerning the removal of a man called John McCoy from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Armagh in the previous year. Originally from Keady, McCoy had lived in Northumberland for 46 years, the last fifteen of which had been in All Saints parish in Newcastle, which should have rendered him ‘irremovable’. Despite this, he was deported after having claimed just three days poor relief at the workhouse, causing something of a row across the Irish Sea.

The first detailed list of paupers on the site is that published in 1863 detailing all the destitute poor removed from England and Scotland and sent back to Ireland from December 1st 1860 – December 1st 1862. Several similar reports then follow, with the latest equivalent list dating from 1878. The records are surprisingly detailed and list many individuals and their causes for removal, but are unfortunately not keyword searchable. This means that you will have to browse your way through them to the parish of interest. In most cases the counties and parishes are presented in alphabetical order, although the names of the individuals are not so arranged within each parish list.

The records can be immensely detailed. In 1875, for example, a listing for a Margaret Gillespie is noted by the authorities in Sunderland, describing her removal to Belfast. Although her age is not recorded, the record states that she had two children, four year old Mary Ellen and six months old Charles, and that she had resided in England for seventeen years, though with a ‘considerable time spent in Scotland’. The reason for her removal is given as her ‘inability to earn a livelihood’. In returns for Lancaster in the 1878 report, the information is laid out more formally, almost as if it was a census return. Patrick Mulhall aged 45, his wife Bessy aged 40, children Mary (19), Ellen, (17), Michael (15), Joseph (7) and Elizabeth (5) are each recorded separately one after the other, with all noted as having been in the city for seven months, and having returned to Belfast for a ‘want of work’.

Not everybody was forcibly removed though, and cases are also included of voluntary resettlement. In 1878, for example, 15 year old Luke Kerr is noted as having been in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire for some 19 weeks, but was removed voluntarily after recovering from the affects of an accident. Relatives in Ireland had advanced money to the poor law authorities in the city to pay for his removal, and he was then sent back to Skerries in County Dublin.

If you cannot gain access, some records are freely available on Raymond’s County Down website at www.raymondscountydownwebsite.com/html/index2.htm, covering the years from 1867-1869, and 1875-1878. Well worth a look!


For more on Irish research, check out my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet book from Pen and Sword, available in paperback or in an e-edition - see my Books section above, where you can also find a range of other useful Scottish and British genealogy based titles.

Chris

Stuck for a Christmas gift?! I have a series of genealogy books available in the UK, Australia and Canada, on Scottish, Irish and British based subject areas. Further details at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. Santa approves!