Scottish additions to FindmyPast on Burns Night

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has gone the whole haggis this Burns Night with several Scottish releases:

Scotland, Jacobite Rebellions 1715 and 1745
Discover more about the Jacobites and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Findmypast has digitised this expansive collection of records from The National Archives which includes lists of prisoners and those banished or pardoned along with correspondence, commission records, and briefs evidence. The rebellions had the aim of returning James II of England and VII of Scotland, the last Catholic British monarch, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne of Great Britain after they had been deposed by Parliament during the 1688 Revolution.

Scotland, Glasgow Anderson's College Anatomy Students 1860-1874
Did any of your ancestors study at the Anderson College of Medicine, Glasgow? Discover details of their class dates. Anderson College was founded in 1796 following the will of John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1757. Initially known as Anderson's Institution, it changed its name to Anderson's University in 1828 and finally to Anderson's College in 1877. The Institution's medical school was founded in 1800 when Dr John Burns began lectures on anatomy and surgery. The medical school of Anderson's College became a separate and distinct institution known as Anderson's College Medical School in 1887.

Scotland, Glasgow Smallpox Vaccination Registers 1801-1854
Do you have ancestors from Glasgow? Explore these smallpox vaccination registers to find out when they received their inoculation to help fight the smallpox disease. Smallpox was caused by the variola virus, there are two types of the virus. The more deadly form of the disease is the variola major which killed about 30% of people who were infected. The smallpox vaccine, introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796, was the first successful vaccine to be developed.

Scotland, Glasgow & Lanarkshire Death & Burial Index 1642-1855
Over 283,000 additional records spanning the years 1636 to 2001 have been added to the Scotland, Glasgow & Lanarkshire Death & Burial Index 1642-1855. This index of deaths and burials consists of transcripts of original documents covering the years of 1642 to 1855. From the index, you may learn your ancestors' birth year, death and burial dates, age at death, burial place, and mortcloth price.

Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Registers
Over 223,000 new baptisms, marriages and burials have been added to our collections of Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Registers. The New additions cover 471 parishes across the country and span the years 1800 to 1966. Each result will include both a transcript and image of the original register entry.

Our collection of Scotland Roman Catholic Sacramental registers covers all eight Scottish dioceses: Aberdeen, Argyll & The Isles, Dunkeld, Galloway, Glasgow, Motherwell, St Andrews & Edinburgh, and Paisley, and date back to the early 17th century. The records form part of our wider Catholic Heritage Archive, a groundbreaking project that aims to digitise the historic records of the Catholic Church in Britain, Ireland and North America, and additional new records will be added to these collections later in the year.

Scotland Roman Catholic Congregational Records
Over 55,000 new records have been added to the collection. Congregational records can help you get a better understanding of your ancestors' relationship with the church and include registers of confirmations and communion recipients, as well as parish lists, seat rentals, lists of people who converted to Catholicism and more.

British & Irish Newspaper Update
This week we have added 140,106 new pages to The Archive, meaning in total we are just shy of 30 million pages available to search, with a current total of 29,905,890 pages.

We have added one brand new title, the Sunday World (Dublin), which is full of amusing agony aunt anecdotes, and updated five of our existing titles. Updated titles include the Carlisle Journal, the Perthshire Advertiser and the Manchester Evening News, as well as two of our Irish titles, the Drogheda Argus & Leinster Journal and the New Ross Standard.

Further details, and links, at https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-january-25th-2626990057.html

Chris

My next Scottish Research Online course starts March 11th 2019 - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. For my Scottish and Irish themed books, visit https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Jacobite Histories added to FindmyPast

The latest records added to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Berkshire Registers & Records
Explore over 600 registers and records from the English county of Berkshire. Discover your ancestor in parish registers from Leckhamstead and St Mary, Reading.

Durham Registers & Records
Learn more about your Durham ancestors with our collection of more than 2,800 registers and records from the North Eastern County.

Scotland, Jacobite Histories 1715-1745
Discover more about the Jacobites and the Jacobite Risings with this collection of historical publications. These documents are presented in a PDF format and can be searched by name, conflict, publication title and year, and keyword.

Greater London Burial Index
Over 109,000 new additions covering 27 Middlesex parishes have been added to the Greater London Burial Index. The records consist of transcripts that may reveal a combination of your relative's name, age, occupation, religious denomination and where they were buried.

British & Irish Newspapers
This week we have added 111,538 new pages to our collection of historic British Newspapers. We have added one new title – the Witney Express and Oxfordshire and Midland Counties Herald – and updated seven of our existing titles. We have added pages to four of our Irish titles, including the incredibly influential Freeman's Journal, as well as adding to our Liverpool and Dover titles, and also to the Music Hall and Theatre Review.

The new additions include;

Witney Express and Oxfordshire and Midland Counties Herald (new title) - 1869-1887
Evening Herald (Dublin) - 1897, 1899, 1901, 1907, 1996
Irish Independent - 1913, 1915
Freeman's Journal - 1912-1919, 1922-1924
Sligo Champion - 1983, 1988-1995
Liverpool Echo - 1973, 1979-1980
Music Hall and Theatre Review - 1910-1911

Further details and links at https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-july-13th-2586088101.html

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.

Jacobite period State Papers online

From Gale, a new collection is now online, albeit behind a paywall (i.e. available through subscribing institutions). Here's the blurb:

State Papers Online: The Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle

An unparalleled documentation of the Jacobite movement, and the opposing forces of the ruling Hanoverian monarchy

Digitized for the first time, the Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle are now available online in their entirety. The Stuart Papers represent the correspondence and personal documents of the exiled members of the Stuart dynasty after 1688. Available here alongside the Cumberland Papers of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and second surviving son of George II, they provide a unique window into the world of the Stuarts and their Jacobite followers, as well as to the incumbent Hanoverian monarchy during a time of continental wars, domestic conspiracies and rival claims to the Throne.

From the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 until the death of the final Stuart claimant in 1807, the Stuart Pretenders were royal exiles in Europe, and at the head of a network of Jacobite supporters at home and abroad. Jacobites at all levels of society corresponded with them and their agents, visited the court-in-exile at St Germain-en-Laye, Avignon or Rome, and reported on the activities of the ‘usurping’ house of Hanover and its supporters in Britain.

The Stuart Papers is that correspondence. The collection tells the story of the lives of James II and his heirs, James Francis Edward (the Jacobite James III and VIII), Charles Edward (the Jacobite Charles III) and Henry Benedict (later the Cardinal Duke of York, and Jacobite Henry IX). Centred around the royal family, the papers allow researchers access to their wives and mistresses, loyal followers, courtiers, and spies around Europe. At various times, there were Jacobite agents and envoys in Italy, Sweden, Spain, Russia, France, Poland and Britain, and a strong Jacobite culture developed in Scotland and among the expatriate Irish who had followed James II to the continent. In this archive, researchers will find domestic plots and international schemes, personal letters between the members of the Stuart family and their closest allies, details of court intrigues and quarrels, even household accounts and menus.

The Cumberland Papers relate particularly to military matters from the Duke’s time as Captain General of the British army in the War of the Austrian Succession and the early stages of the Seven Years’ War, but also include a number of Jacobite documents captured in Scotland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, including letters from Charles Edward Stuart and accounts of his escape to Skye. Elsewhere, British national and foreign policy, parliamentary updates, reports from British colonies, and personal papers relating to the Duke of Cumberland’s role as Ranger of Windsor Great Park, and to his household and estate at Cumberland Lodge are also represented.

The collection is available at https://www.gale.com/uk/c/stuart-and-cumberland.

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.

Battle of Culloden won with swords not muskets

University of Glasgow based historian Murray Pittock has claimed that the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which ended Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite claims to the throne for his father James VIII (& III), aka James the Old Pretender, was won by overwhelming numbers of redcoats using swords rather than muskets. The claims come in his new book, Culloden, based on a reappraisal of contemporary sources and new battlefield archaeology finds.

For the full story, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36791637.

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.

Exhibition on the Jacobite rebellions at the National Archives

The National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) at Kew in England is currently hosting an exhibition on the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, within its Keeper's Gallery, with many documents on display to illustrate the story of the two campaigns. The exhibition will run until January 2016.

Dr Katy Mair and Juliette Johnstone have written a blog post describing what is to be found in the exhibition, as well as to introduce a wider Jacobite themed season of talks and school resources, at http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/keepers-gallery-jacobite-rebellions-1715-1745/

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.

Games of Crowns exhibition looks at the 1715 Jacobite Rising

The National Library of Scotland is hosting an exhibition as part of the lead up to the three hundredth anniversary of the 1715 Jacobite rising, when Jacobites loyal to James VII  first rose up against the Hanoverian regime, just 8 years after the union of Scotland and England to create the political entity of Great Britain. The exhibition charts the period from 1688, with William of Orange's arrival in England, to the Rising itself. Here's the blurb from the NLS exhibitions page (www.nls.uk/exhibitions) :

Game of Crowns: The 1715 Jacobite rising

10 December to 10 May

Treachery, power struggles, royal in-fighting and religious wrangling are all reflected in the 'Game of Crowns' exhibition at the National Library of Scotland.

The exhibition tells the story of the 1715 Jacobite rising as the 300th anniversary approaches. Using contemporary records, books, maps, portraits and songs, it explains this turbulent period of British history.

One of the documents on display will be the order for the massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when 38 members of the clan MacDonald were slaughtered because of their suspected Jacobite sympathies.

The attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne ended in defeat with James VIII — the Old Pretender — returning to exile in France. Thirty years later, his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, suffered a similar fate with the failure of the 1745 uprising.

The exhibition looks in detail at the period from 1688 to 1715 and the fierce contest for Crown of Great Britain, closing with a look ahead to 1745.

For further details visit www.nls.uk/exhibitions/jacobites

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!

Jacobite nobles descendants want names cleared

The BBC is carrying yet another story about the descendants of attainted Jacobite nobles wanting Her Maj to clear their family names, with the story at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-18094251.

Last weekend on a trip to Inverness (that's the second post I've mentioned this today!), I visited Culloden, and in doing some research in the local area into my MacGillivray line realised that my family were right at the heart of the territory inhabited by the clans that fought in the battle and suffered so grievously after. I know also that one family line in Perth had definite Jacobite sympathies, but don't know if they were involved in the Forty Five rebellion, and may never do. I'm no lover of the so-called nobility though, so here's my thoughts on the matter.

If the Jacobite nobles had won, supporting the idiocy of Bonnie Prince Charlie, would it have benefited the ordinary clansmen in the Highlands? It would certainly have spared them the brutal and sub-human retribution and humiliation put upon the ordinary man and woman of the Highlands by soldiers acting on behalf of the Hanoverian regime in the aftermath. But I suspect the real achievement would have been to simply replace one unelected holder of office with another, the House of Hanover with the House of Stuart, with the humble clansman simply there to act as cannon fodder for the next foolhardy, Godforsaken imperial scheme.

Bonnie Prince Charlie used the Highlanders, he had as much interest in Scotland as I have in the sex life of an albino newt. The ordinary clansmen were rallied out of loyalty to their chiefs, and in some cases through conscription, but the majority were neither nobles nor monarchs, and through the results of the nobles' leadership the whole of Highland society suffered immensely, and has never yet recovered. Emigration and clearance, the destruction of Gaelic, there lies the legacy.

So to those descendants of the nobles so desperate to have their family names cleared, go for it. Then go to Culloden and see what your ancestors really achieved for the innocent God fearing man on the streets, in the glens and on the hills, under their leadership. The nobles gambled and lost their lands in the aftermath. A few even lost their lives. But never once think that a wee stain on your ancestral name nearly three hundred years ago matches anything like what was done to Scotland and those who looked up to their leaders in the aftermath.

Just my thoughts on the matter...

Chris

British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton

Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch