Kirsty Wilkinson's new Scottish book available on Kindle, plus a new blog

For an update on Kirsty Wilkinson's new book, Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems, please visit Scottish GENES at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2020/02/kirsty-wilkinsons-new-scottish-research.html.

* This blog will cease to carry news from February 14th, with Scottish GENES (https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com) taking over from then. You can subscribe to Scottish GENES for a daily email feed in the right hand column on the page, at the top.

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Pre-order my next book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet

My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, is now available to pre-order from publisher Pen and Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/17717. The book is scheduled for publication on April 30th 2020.

Here's the blurb!

Scotland is a land with a proud and centuries long history that far pre-dates its membership of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Today in the 21st century it is also a land that has done much to make its historical records accessible, to help those with Caledonian ancestry trace their roots back to earlier times and a world long past.

In Tracing Scottish Family History on the Internet, Chris Paton expertly guides the family historian through the many Scottish records offerings available, but also cautions the reader that not every record is online, providing detailed advice on how to use web based finding aids to locate further material across the country and beyond. He also examines social networking and the many DNA platforms that are currently further revolutionising online Scottish research.

From the Scottish Government websites offering access to our most important national records, to the holdings of local archives, libraries, family history societies, and online vendors, Chris Paton takes the reader across Scotland, from the Highlands and Islands, through the Central Belt and the Lowlands, and across the diaspora, to explore the various flavours of Scottishness that have bound us together as a nation for so long.


As with all my books, I hope it proves to be useful!

Don't forget also that Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records is also now available at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848 - I've just noticed that it is also now available to purchase in the United States on Amazon.com.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Pre-order Finding Your Scottish Ancestors by Kirsty Wilkinson

A quick plug for a pal with a new book on the way!

Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: Techniques for Solving Genealogy Problems
Kirsty F Wilkinson
(Robert Hale Ltd, to be published 27 Jan. 2020)

Tracing family history has become increasingly popular over the last few decades and the availability of many records online means that those fortunate enough to have Scottish ancestors can easily access many of the sources they need to build their family tree. However, as research progresses, most family historians will eventually hit the dreaded 'brick wall' and find themselves unable to proceed further.

This book provides a wealth of information, advice and techniques to help solve these genealogy problems and gives family historians the tools they need to track down even the most elusive forebears. Contents include: sources for Scottish family history research, both traditional archives and online resources; techniques for searching and interpreting genealogical records; planning and recording research and, finally, common genealogy problems and their solutions.

The book is available to pre-order in the UK at www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Your-Scottish-Ancestors-Techniques/dp/0719830532/

COMMENT: Kirsty is an expert genealogist based in Edinburgh who absolutely knows her stuff - I'm very much looking forward to seeing this when it comes out next month!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Christmas is coming, where's the goose...?!

If you are short of a present or two for your genealogy obsessed relatives (or your genealogy obsessed self!), a quick plug for my latest two family history books from my publisher Pen and Sword (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk), which you still have time to order and obtain before Christmas Day!

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848
£11.99 (plus p&p)

Despite its Union with England and Wales in 1707, Scotland remained virtually independent from its partners in many ways, retaining its own legal system, its own state church, and its own education system.

In Tracing Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, genealogist Chris Paton examines the most common records used by family historians in Scotland, ranging from the vital records kept by the state and the various churches, the decennial censuses, tax records, registers of land ownership and inheritance, and records of law and order.

Through precepts of clare constat and ultimus haeres records, feudalism and udal tenure, to irregular marriages, penny weddings and records of sequestration, Chris Paton expertly explores the unique concepts and language within many Scottish records that are simply not found elsewhere within the British Isles. He details their purpose and the information recorded, the legal basis by which they were created, and where to find them both online and within Scotland's many archives and institutions.


Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (Second Edition)
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483
£11.99 (plus p&p)

In this, the fully updated second edition of his bestselling guide to researching Irish history using the internet, Chris Paton shows the extraordinary variety of sources that can now be accessed online. Although Ireland has lost many records that would have been of great interest to family historians, he demonstrates that a great deal of information survived and is now easily available to the researcher.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, organizations such as FindmyPast Ireland, Ancestry.co.uk and RootsIreland and the volunteer genealogical community, an ever-increasing range of Ireland’s historical resources are accessible from afar.

As well as exploring the various categories of records that the family historian can turn to, Chris Paton illustrates their use with fascinating case studies. He fully explores the online records available from both the north and the south from the earliest times to the present day. Many overseas collections are also included, and he looks at social networking in an Irish context where many exciting projects are currently underway.

His book is an essential introduction and source of reference for anyone who is keen to trace their Irish roots.

This latest title in Pen and Sword's most excellent genealogy library is one of the very best I have ever read, with thoroughly practical examples of websites where you can get information from, in many cases for no cost (you'll notice I avoided using the very wrong phrase "for free"!) The websites mentioned have genuinely free information, and they all work. Chris Paton has written a brilliantly useful book - we happen to have Irish ancestry in our family, and will be delving into this information just as soon as we have the time. In the meantime, I urge you to get this book and do the same!

- Books Monthly


And coming soon...

Over the Christmas holidays I will be working on my next two books:

Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet - already written, and now at the proof stage, this title will be published in April 2020 and I hope will complement Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records!

Sharing Your Family History on the Internet - I'm still at the keyboard with this one, and will announce more about it in due course!!!!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - out now!

I'm delighted to announce that my latest book from Pen and Sword, Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records has now been published and is available to buy via https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848 and other retailers.

Here is the blurb and the contents list:

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry through Church and State Records: A Guide for Family Historians

Despite its Union with England and Wales in 1707, Scotland remained virtually independent from its partners in many ways, retaining its own legal system, its own state church, and its own education system.

In Tracing Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, genealogist Chris Paton examines the most common records used by family historians in Scotland, ranging from the vital records kept by the state and the various churches, the decennial censuses, tax records, registers of land ownership and inheritance, and records of law and order.

Through precepts of clare constat and ultimus haeres records, feudalism and udal tenure, to irregular marriages, penny weddings and records of sequestration, Chris Paton expertly explores the unique concepts and language within many Scottish records that are simply not found elsewhere within the British Isles. He details their purpose and the information recorded, the legal basis by which they were created, and where to find them both online and within Scotland's many archives and institutions.

Contents

Glossary

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Research Resources
- National Records of Scotland
- ScotlandsPeople Centre
- Court of the Lord Lyon
- National Library of Scotland
- Historic Environment Scotland
- Registers of Scotland
- Scottish Council on Archives
- Scottish Archive Network
- National Register of Archives for Scotland
- FamilySearch Family History Centres
- Scottish Association of Family History Societies
- Commercial websites
- Handwriting
- Languages

Chapter 2 – Civil registration
- Establishment of Civil Registration
- Registration of Births
- Illegitimacy
- Locating Birth Records
- Minor Records of Births
- Stillbirths
- Adoption
- Vaccination
- Locating Vaccination Records
- Marriage
- Registration of Regular Marriages
- Irregular and Civil Marriages
- Locating Marriage Records
- Minor Records of Marriage
- Divorce
- Registration of Deaths
- Locating Death Records
- Minor Records of Death
- Register of Corrected Entries

Chapter 3 – Church of Scotland records
- Background
- Old Parish Registers (OPRs)
- Baptisms
- Naming patterns
- Foundlings
- Stillbirths in parish records
- Missing baptisms
- Marriages
- Marriage customs
- Irregular marriages
- Deaths and Burials
- Finding the records
- Kirk Session records
- Locating Kirk Session Records
- Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly
- Heritors

Chapter 4 – Other churches
- Switching churches
- Finding dissenter records
- Other Church Denominations
- Scottish Episcopal Church
- Locating Episcopal church records
- Roman Catholicism
- Locating the CPRs
- Smaller denominations

Chapter 5 - Where were they?
- Census records
- National Identity Register
- Electoral Registers
- Valuation Rolls
- Burgh assessment rolls
- Poor law records
- Tax records
- Inland Revenue Field Books
- Forfeited estates
- Maps
- The Statistical Accounts of Scotland
- Other gazetteers

Chapter 6 – Land tenure
- Scotland
- Feudalism
- Royal burghs
- Charters
- Instruments of Sasine
- The Registers of Sasines
- Liferents and Trusts
- Registers of Scotland
- Registers of Deeds
- Estate papers
- Tacksmen
- The end of feudalism
- Udal tenure
- Other forms of tenure

Chapter 7 – Inheritance
- Moveable estate
- Testaments
- Calendars of Confirmations and Inventories
- Heritable estate
- The Services of Heirs
- Precepts of Clare Constat
- Trust dispositions and settlements
- Types of Heir
- Ultimus haeres records

Chapter 8 – Law and Order
- Scots Law
- Sheriff Courts
- Privy Council
- Criminal prosecution
- Case Study: The Mount Stewart Murder
- Fatal Accident Enquiries
- Court of Session
- Debt
- Case Study: Matthew Campbell of Waterhaughs
- Bankruptcy
- Case study: John Brownlie MacFarlane
- Commissary Courts
- Franchise and burgh courts
- Trade incorporations
- Justices of the Peace
- Admiralty Court
- Court of the Lord Lyon
- Police and prison records
- Transportation
- Capital punishment

Bibliography / Further Reading

Index


Enjoy!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Book launch: Tracing Your Ancestors Using DNA

From the University of Strathclyde:

DNA research is one of the most important and rapidly advancing areas in modern science and the practical use of DNA testing in genealogy is one of its most exciting applications. Yet there is no recent British publication in this field. That is why this accessible, wide-ranging introduction is so valuable. It offers a clear and practical way into the subject, explaining the scientific discoveries and techniques and illustrating with case studies how it can be used by genealogists to gain an insight into their ancestry.

The subject is complex and perhaps difficult for traditional genealogists to understand but, with the aid of this book, novices who are keen to take advantage of it will be able to interpret test results and use them to help answer genealogical questions which cannot be answered by documentary evidence alone. It will also appeal to those with some experience in the field because it places the practical application of genetic genealogy within a wider context, highlighting its role as a genealogical tool and suggesting how it can be made more effective.

BOOK LAUNCH:

THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER, 19.00 - 21.00
ROOM 748,
CENTRE FOR LIFE LONG LEARNING,
UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE,
GRAHAM HILLS BUILDING,
40 GEORGE STREET,
GLASGOW,
G1 1QE.

COMMENT: It's a great book! You can read my review at https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/review-tracing-your-ancestors-using-dna.html

(With thanks to Linda Kerr, via the Scottish Genealogy Network)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

The Drunk Women Solving Crime tackle the Mount Stewart Murder of 1866

So it's a typical Sunday, when I suddenly learn from a niece in Waterford, Ireland, that a book that I wrote a few years back has just been the subject of the latest edition of the Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast, recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe on September 25th...! 🤣🤣🤣

Episode 58 looks at the brutal murder of my 3 x great gran Janet Rogers, nee Henderson, in 1866, which happened at Mount Stewart Farm in Forgandenny, Perthshire, and about which I wrote a book in 2012 (The Mount Stewart Murder: A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case). It's Scotland's longest unsolved murder case by a modern police force, and has a few twists and turns along the way.

Apart from the fact that there are questionable pronunciations of words such as Forgandenny and Crichton, and a recurring obsession with ploughman's lunches, I'm still very honoured to have had it featured as the main story! 😂😂😂😂

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes at https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/58-drunk-women-live-with-isma-almas/id1425174819?i=1000451116871. You can also find the series of podcasts on Spotify.

The book itself, written in 2012, can be purchased from the History Press at https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-mount-stewart-murder/9780752460208/ in print and ebook formats.

For more on the Drunk Women Solving Crime podcasts, visit https://drunkwomensolvingcrime.com

Slàinte mhath!

(Thanks to my niece Jessica in Ireland, and to the three drunk ladies solving crimes!)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Parochial history of Mullingar digitised

The Representative Church Body of Ireland's Library in Dublin has added a digitised copy to its side of A Parochial History of Mullingar, compiled by the Revd William Reynell, 13th–19th Centuries, as its Archive of the Month offering. The work is essentially a scrapbook of sorts of a variety of sources, running to some 300 pages, as compiled by Rev Reynell.

For further information on Mullingar and the book, visit https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8980/parochial-history-of-mullingar-compiled.

The digitised book itself is directly accessible at https://issuu.com/churchofireland/docs/molyngar

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Update on my forthcoming books

I'm extremely grateful for the many kind comments and reviews that I have received about Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (Second Edition) (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483), it certainly makes it worthwhile from this end in putting it together, and was certainly fun to work on!

My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, is just a few weeks away from being released in November, with the final proofs now sorted. The book can be pre-ordered at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848 for just £11.99 plus p&p. Once published, an e-edition will be forthcoming shortly after.

This is the book that will provide context to many of the Scottish records we take for granted, from vital records and censuses to church registers, court records, and much, much more, the purpose of which is to explain their background, advise where to find them in our many archives (and online), to point out their many uses for family history research, and in some cases, offer some useful advice on the records you have already found which you may never have even dreamed was relevant! What do you need to find, have you found everything, and do you fully understand what you have located - and just as importantly, what you have not? Another fun one to have put together, and I hope you find it equally useful!

Following this, I can now announce that Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet will be published in April 2020, and will neatly complement the previous book, with advice on how to plunder the internet for your Caledonian research, with sources both national and from county to county, and on a range of themes.

Having written three books in a year, I swore to myself that I would never do that again. 'Choose life' I said, move on to other things...

Yeah, that didn't work out!

I am delighted to say I have now been commisisoned to write three more books over the next year or so, the first of which is not geographically related, and on a very different subject entirely - but more on that down the line!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

My new Irish book - Kindle edition now available

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, I have been flat out finishing off the first draft of my next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet (to be published next year)!

I noticed during the week that both a Kindle and ePub edition of Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (Second Edition) is now available on the Pen and Sword website at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. The cost for the elctronic version of the book is just £5.99.

To pre-order Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records (out November) visit https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848.

I hope they help!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scottish Research Online course starts 2 September 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Pre-order Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records

Having just had Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (Second Edition) published (which I am delighted to say is now in Amazon's top ten genealogy best sellers!), next up are my two forthcoming Scottish titles for Pen and Sword.

I have just submitted the final corrections and index for Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, which is due to be published in November. Pen and Sword is already taking pre-orders for the book at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848, at a special price of just £11.99 plus p&p (RRP £14.99).

So here's a wee bit of blurb about book number two the noo...!

Despite its Union with England and Wales in 1707, Scotland remained virtually independent from its partners in many ways, retaining its own legal system, its own state church, and its own education system.

In Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, genealogist Chris Paton examines the most common records used by family historians in Scotland, ranging from the vital records kept by the state and the various churches, the decennial censuses, tax records, registers of land ownership and inheritance, and records of law and order.

Through precepts of clare constat and ultimus haeres records, feudalism and udal tenure, to irregular marriages, penny weddings and records of sequestration, Chris Paton expertly explores the unique concepts and language within many Scottish records that are simply not found elsewhere within the British Isles. He details their purpose and the information recorded, the legal basis by which they were created, and where to find them both online and within Scotland's many archives and institutions.

So just to add, in this book I go into detail on how civil registration has historically worked in Scotland; the nature of the Kirk's history, its many splits, and how to find vital records before 1855; the Scottish judical system; the records of where to find folk and the nature of Scottish land tenure; Scottish inheritance law, and its many record types; and so much more.

And over this coming week I will be at home working flat out to complete my third offering - Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet (to be published 2020) - as an additional offering to the above.

More on that in due course, suffice to say that I am determined you will be able to find your Scottish and Irish ancestors, or by ye gods, I'll die trying...! :)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scottish Research Online course starts 2 September 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) now on sale

That thing where you come home and find that the postie has been! Now on sale - Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd edition), by yours truly...

Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd edition)

In this, the fully updated second edition of his bestselling guide to researching Irish history using the internet, Chris Paton shows the extraordinary variety of sources that can now be accessed online. Although Ireland has lost many records that would have been of great interest to family historians, he demonstrates that a great deal of information survived and is now easily available to the researcher.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, organizations such as FindmyPast Ireland, Ancestry.co.uk and RootsIreland and the volunteer genealogical community, an ever-increasing range of Ireland’s historical resources are accessible from afar.

As well as exploring the various categories of records that the family historian can turn to, Chris Paton illustrates their use with fascinating case studies. He fully explores the online records available from both the north and the south from the earliest times to the present day. Many overseas collections are also included, and he looks at social networking in an Irish context where many exciting projects are currently underway.

His book is an essential introduction and source of reference for anyone who is keen to trace their Irish roots.

Contents

Glossary

Preface

Chapter 1 – The Genealogical Landscape
 Recording information
 Gateway sites
 Irish Archives
 British archives
 Libraries
 Heritage
 Societies
 Commercial vendors
 Commercial research services
 Networking and Communication
 Languages

Chapter 2 – The Vital Records
 Civil registration
 Other civil records sources
 Adoption and children
 Records in Britain
 Overseas British records
 Surname distributions
 Parish registers
 Burials
 Wills and probate
 Biographical resources
 Newspapers
 Books and other periodicals
 DNA testing

Chapter 3 – Where They Lived
 Census records
 1901 and 1911 censuses
 1821-1851 census remnants
 British censuses
 1939 National Identity Register (UK)
 Other censuses
 Census substitutes
 Land records
 Other land listings
 Maps, gazetteers and place names
 Photographs

Chapter 4 – Occupations
 The Military
 Merchant Navy
 Law and Order
 Other professions
 The Poor

Chapter 5 – The Decade of Centenaries
 Home Rule Crisis
 Women’s Suffrage
 The Dublin Lockout
 The First World War
 The Easter Rising
 Towards Independence
 The Treaty and Civil War
 Ireland's Revolutionaries
 Legacy

Chapter 6 – Ulster
 Antrim
 Armagh
 Cavan
 Donegal
 Down
 Fermanagh
 Londonderry
 Monaghan
 Tyrone

Chapter 7 – Munster
 Clare
 Cork
 Kerry
 Limerick
 Tipperary
 Waterford

Chapter 8 – Connacht
 Galway
 Leitrim
 Mayo
 Roscommon
 Sligo

Chapter 9 – Leinster
 Carlow
 Dublin
 Kildare
 Kilkenny
 Laois
 Longford
 Louth
 Meath
 Offaly
 Westmeath
 Wexford
 Wicklow

Chapter 10 – Ireland's Diaspora
 Emigration
 United States
 Canada
 Australia
 New Zealand
 South America
 Europe
 Ireland Reaching Out
 Irish Citizenship

Further Reading

Index

To purchase a copy, visit https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483 - I hope it helps!

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.

Keeping busy in the genie world!

Apologies for the limited blogging this week, but it has all been a bit manic at this end, as I continue to try to sell my house and juggle a few other things at the same time!

I have recently started a new temporary part-time job for six months working for a local member of the UK parliament as a caseworker, to cover for a friend who is away travelling on a trip of a lifetime. This is a role I worked on last year for a member of the Scottish Parliament, which is as immensely rewarding as genie work in helping folk with everyday problems. As a consequence, I will be cutting back on my genealogical research service for clients up to Christmas to an extent, albeit not completely (I was over in Belfast on a research trip for a client last Friday, for example), but I will be continuing as normal on writing, teaching and speaking chores. If you are seeking research done in Scotland before Christmas, do drop me a note and I will see if I can fit it in, but if not, I will happily direct you to trusted colleagues who will certainly be able to help.

I am now delighted to confirm that I will be heading over to the USA next year on two conference trips, the first to the Celtic Connections conference in Illinois at the end of July 2020, and the second to run the Irish tract for the ISBGFH's British Institute in Salt Lake City in October 2020. The last time I was in either Illinois or Salt Lake City was during a filming trip for a Scottish Television documentary series in 1999, and so I am very much look forward to both. I will blog more about both of these in due course.

Over the next few weeks I will be finalising my third book this year for Pen and Sword, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, and am looking forward next month to the release of my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd edition) - you can pre-order this book at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483.

I have several talks up and coming in Scotland and England for the rest of this year:

• October 5th 2019 Lanarkshire Family History Show - An Irish house history
• October 5th 2019, Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS (Glasgow branch) 2pm-4pm, Renfield Saint Stephen's Church Centre - Glasgow, 260 Bath St, Glasgow G2 4JP - Discover Scottish Church Records
• October 19th 2019, Manchester & Lancashire FHS, Manchester, England - Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis
• October 21st 2019, Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS. Irish genealogy - house history, and Q&A
• November 13th 2019, Central Scotland FHS, Stirling, Scottish Research Resources before 1800

My next Pharos based Scottish courses are coming along soon also:

Scottish Research Online (102)
Course Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: 02 Sep 2019
Cost: £49.99
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102

Scotland 1750 - 1850 - Beyond the OPRs (302)
Course Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: 04 Nov 2019
Cost: £49.99
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302

So little time, so much genealogical work to be done...! :)

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.

Update on my books, talks and courses

Apologies for the gap in blogging over the last week. I spent all of last week on a final push to complete my second book this year, Tracing Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, which is now with the publisher, Pen and Sword.

I've also had an update on the publication schedule for my three books with Pen and Sword - Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) is now looking like it will be published this August, whilst Tracing Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records is provisionally set for November. My third book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, will follow in 2020.

I have a few other irons in fires on other possible projects, but will blog about those in due course. In the meantime, some forthcoming talks I will be giving:

• October 5th 2019 Lanarkshire Family History Show, Motherwell - An Irish house history
• October 5th 2019, Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS (Glasgow branch) 2pm-4pm, Renfield Saint Stephen's Church Centre - Glasgow, 260 Bath St, Glasgow G2 4JP - Discover Scottish Church Records
• October 19th 2019, Manchester & Lancashire FHS, Manchester, England - Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis
• October 21st 2019, Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS. An Irish house history (plus Irish records Q&A)
• November 13th 2019, Central Scotland FHS, Stirling, Scottish Research Resources before 1800
• January 18th 2020, Aberdeen & NE Scotland FHS (Edinburgh branch) - Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis

And a reminder that my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, commences on May 13th 2019 - full details are available at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302.

Finally, I've given my research service website a bit of an update, at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk - let me know if I can help with your research!

Chris

My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts May 13th 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. 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.

Update: Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed)

A quick update! I had hoped that my second edition of Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet would be published by now, but it was pushed back by Pen and Sword (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk) a few months, due to an absolute flurry of new material coming out this summer.

However, it is definitely happening - and for proof, you can now pre-order the book via Amazon!

The book is listed at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tracing-Irish-Family-History-Internet/dp/1526757818/ at £14.99, and with the following blurb:

In this, the fully updated second edition of his bestselling guide to researching Irish history using the internet, Chris Paton shows the extraordinary variety of sources that can now be accessed online. Although Ireland has lost many records that would have been of great interest to family historians, he demonstrates that a great deal of information survived and is now easily available to the researcher. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, organizations such as FindmyPast Ireland, Ancestry.co.uk, RootsIreland and the volunteer genealogical community, an ever-increasing range of Ireland's historical resources are accessible from afar. As well as exploring the various categories of records that the family historian can turn to, Chris Paton illustrates their use with fascinating case studies. He fully explores the online records available from both the north and the south from the earliest times to the present day. Many overseas collections are also included, and he looks at social networking in an Irish context where many exciting projects are currently underway. His book is an essential introduction and source of reference for anyone who is keen to trace their Irish roots.

I am currently proofing the book and indexing the content, and have also started work on two new family history books for Pen and Sword on Scottish themes.

More news soon!


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.

Men and Arms back in stock at the Ulster Historical Foundation

From the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com), news of a useful resource for those with Plantations based ancestry in Ulster:

Men and Arms: The Ulster Settlers, c.1630 is back in print

Men and Arms: The Ulster Settlers, c.1630, the bestselling volume in the critically important R.J. Hunter Collection is now back in print and available to purchase on Booksireland for £19.99.

Men and Arms is essentially the first ‘census’ of English and Scottish settlers in the nine counties of Ulster in the early seventeenth century. The edition includes extensive additional information on the settlers drawn from a variety of contemporary sources.

For more information visit http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/men-arms-ulster-settlers-c-1630

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.

National Archives has January book sale

The National Archives in England (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) is holding a book sale this January, with up to 70% off on certain titles.

To view the titles available, visit http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/11/Bargains-and-offers/.

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.

New blog: Mother Nature’s Tests

From Wayne Shepheard:

Happy New Year!

I wanted to introduce you to my new blogsite titled, Mother Nature’s Tests. The new site is meant primarily for family historians.

Readers will find information about how people and communities were impacted in the past by natural phenomena – or Mother Nature.

I will write blog posts concerning examples of actual events from all over the world, and how families coped with them. Links will be added to websites and articles, including my own, that may assist genealogists looking for specific data about certain areas.

As I have said in the Introduction to my book, “responses to natural phenomena, and how people adapted to environmental changes are part and parcel of the construction of family histories. Physical changes to human habitats through natural causes may have been underlying factors in decisions to move – to find jobs and/or improved living conditions.”

The blog will be an extension to the book and, hopefully encourage genealogists to explore the natural world, especially with respect to the areas in which their ancestors lived and the physical events that occurred during their lifetimes.

Information about how to obtain a copy of my book is described on the new blogsite.

Mother Nature's Tests blogsite can be found at https://mothernaturestests.blogspot.com

I hope you will come and see what the new site is all about.

Wayne Shepheard

(With thanks to Wayne via email)

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.

Coming soon...

Coming soon...

Watch this space!

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.

Book review: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors

My review of one of the greatest genealogy books out from Northern Ireland this year...

Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors 
[Published as 'Researching Ulster Ancestors' in the UK]
By William J. Roulston
Ulster Historical Foundation, 606 pages, £19.99

If you have ancestors from the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland, this second edition of William Roulston's best-selling book is an absolute essential for your family history library. Long overdue (the first edition was published in 2005), this new version is packed with considerably new and enhanced information, embracing developments online, in various Irish archival repositories, and beyond.

Over twice the length of the original edition (which was 262 pages long), every section has been substantially reworked and updated, providing guidance on records of the various church denominations and graveyards; unique seventeenth and eighteenth century themed resources; landed estate records, the Registry of Deeds and wills; government records, newspapers, books, and emigration records; charities and business records; and even sections on organisations, clubs and secret societies.

An entire half of the book is filled with appendices packed with references to collections for individual parishes and landed estates, presented alongside a wonderfully useful series of civil parish maps for the nine Ulster counties.

Roulston's new guide is the perfect and essential companion to John Grenham's 'Tracing Your Irish Ancestors', perhaps the finest complement that I can convey. It is quite simply an outstanding piece of work – thoroughly recommended.

To order the book, please visit https://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/genealogical-guides/researching-scots-irish-ancestors-the-essential-genealogical-guide-to-early-modern-ulster-1600-1800-second-edition-duplicate

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.