Gould Genealogy revamps website

Australian genealogy store Gould Genealogy is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year, and its twentieth online. As such, it has taken the opportunity to revamp its website, which has now been launched at www.gould.com.au. The company's Alona Tester has blogged a feature looking at previous incarnations of the site, should you fancy a trip down memory lane, at www.gouldgenealogy.com/2016/08/gould-genealogy-website-now/.

Gould Genealogy is also the parent company behind Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au), which does just about everything these days from genealogy cruises and conferences to books and e-books. My latest title for the company, A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, should be joining their book range shortly - watch this space for more details soon!

(With thanks to Alona Tester)

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.

Free software and ebooks from MyHeritage

My Heritage (www.myheritage.com) has announced a couple of major developments worthy of note.

The first is that for those looking for an alternative to the soon to be culled Family Tree Maker software programme, which allows you to sync a tree held on your PC with that on a tablet, My Heritage's Family Tree Builder software actually does the same thing. Until today, it was possible to use the software for free, but only to upload a maximum of 250 people - now they have removed the limit, which effectively means you now have a package for free which does exactly the same thing that FTM did. As FTM's ability to sync with my iPad was the only reason I switched from Family Historian, this is worthy of some serious consideration, not least because it is actually a great programme, I've reviewed it a few times in the past and always liked it. Dick Eastman has the full story at http://blog.eogn.com/2015/12/11/a-special-offer-for-family-tree-maker-users-myheritage-is-offering-the-family-tree-builder-genealogy-program-for-windows-and-macintosh-plus-an-unlimited-size-family-site-for-free/. Dick fully admits that as MyHeritage sponsors his blog, he is biased on this - I'm not, but would totally support his comments, it really is a good programme!

Secondly, MyHeritage has launched a new free digitised book collection of some 150,000 out of copyright books, in a collection it calls Compilation of Published Sources. From what I can see, some of these are available from the Internet Archive and Google Books, but there does seem to be offerings there from other repositories also, so worth bookmarking. You will find the collection at https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-90100/compilation-of-published-sources, and also a short piece on the launch from the US based Family Tree magazine at http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider/2015/12/11/MyHeritageLaunchesNewFreeCollectionOfOldBooks.aspx.

(With thanks to Dick Eastman and US Family Tree magazine)

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/.

The Belfast Blitz - ebook version

News from the Ulster Historical Foundation on Jonathan Bardon's revised book The Belfast Blitz:

The Belfast Blitz – eBook now available
We are pleased to announce that the Foundation’s new publication, The Belfast Blitz by Brian Barton, is now also available as an eBook. Available in ePub and mobi formats, the eBook is priced at only £7.99 (US$ 12.38, AUS$ 16.06, CAN$15.22)

The book is the most wide-ranging, comprehensive and accurate account of the Belfast blitz yet written. Drawing on a rich range of primary and secondary sources it gets closer to the events described than any previous publication. Large numbers of people, including first-hand witnesses, were interviewed, and documentary material was assembled from some thirty archive centres.

Vividly illustrated with almost two hundred original photographs, many previously unpublished, the book also contains for the first time the full list of civilian dead – almost nine hundred names – compiled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It will thus serve as a timely memorial, on the seventy-fifth anniversary in 2016, of one of the most devastating periods in Belfast’s history.

To access the ebook version visit http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/all-departments/belfast-blitz-city-war-years

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.

My latest Unlock the Past Scottish and Irish books now available in the UK

Yorkshire based My History (www.my-history.co.uk) has now made available several more Unlock the Past books within the UK, including my two latest guides, Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis and Irish Family History Resources Online (2nd edition). Here are the details:

Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis
Price: £7
http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Down-and-Out-in-Scotland--Researching-Ancestral-Crisis-UTP0286.html#SID=876

It is perhaps one of greatest truisms of family history research that we will often find that the lives of our ancestors were best documented when the chips were truly down.

There were many battles that our forebears fought for and against in Scotland, both on a personal level and as part of the society within which they lived. There were the laws of the local parish church and the punishments awaiting those who breached kirk discipline; the struggles to avoid poverty and the stigma of being a debtor; the darkest moments of the soul, from mental health issues and illness, to murder and suicide; and the dramatic moments of rebellion, when our forebears drew a line in the sand against a perceived tyranny or democratic deficit. Illness, death, bigamy, abandonment, accidents, eviction, ethnic cleansing - a dramatic range of challenges across a lifetime, and at times, outright tragedy. And close to each of them, a quill and ink.

But through all of these episodes, there is an even greater story that emerges, of how our ancestors overcame such struggles. In this Unlock the Past guide, genealogist Chris Paton goes in search of the records of ancestral hardship in Scotland, to allow us to truly understand the situations that our ancestors had to endure and overcome across the generations, to help us become the very people who we are today.


Irish Family History Resources Online (2nd edition)
Price: £9
http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Irish-Family-History-Resources-Online-UTP0282.html#SID=876

There is a popular belief that Irish family history research is virtually impossible because ‘all the records were burned in the civil war’. But as Northern Irish born family historian Chris Paton demonstrates, the glass is most definitely half full rather than half empty when it comes to research in the Emerald Isle. Many records still exist which can help with your ancestral pursuits, and for those unable to make their way to Ireland to carry out research, the internet is finally coming to the rescue, as more and more material is increasingly finding its way online by the day.

This concise Unlock the Past guide explores the key repositories and records now available online, and will prove to you that if you have been put off with Irish research in the past, now is absolutely the time to take another look.



Ebook editions are also available from www.gen-ebooks.com. These are in PDF format, with the Scottish title available for AU$7.95 (about £4.15) and the Irish title at AU$9.95 (about £5.20).

For the full range of books now available from My History, please visit http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Unlock-the-Past-Booklets.html.

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.

Roll up, read all about it! British and Irish Newspapers book sale

Genealogy Ebooks (www.gen-ebooks.com) has just started a new regular newsletter to bring you details of all of its latest releases and offers. The first edition includes details of newly released books including my new titles Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis (AU$7.95 = approx £4.02) and Irish Family History Resources Online (2nd edition) (AU$9.95 = approx £5.03), as well as new books from Janet Few ('Til death us do part - causes of death 1300-1948), Noeline Kyle (Nurses & midwives in Australian history - a guide to historical sources), Thomas MacEntee (500 best genealogy & family history tips) and Paul Milner (Buried treasure - what's in the English parish chest).

In addition there will be a monthly promotion in the newsletter for an ebook title and I am delighted to say that the first to be selected selected for this is my book British and Irish Newspapers, which receives a 50% discount for the month of March only. This is now on sale at the BARGAIN price of AU$3.95 (usual price AU$7.95), which works out at just £1.99 in Sterling at current exchange rates!

To see a sample from the book please visit file:///H:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chris/My%20Documents/Downloads/utpe0285s_british_and_irish_newspapers.pdf, where you will find the contents list, the introduction and the index in a downloadable PDF format. To purchase a copy please visit http://www.gen-ebooks.com/british-and-irish-newspapers.html.

I have written several other guides for Unlock the Past which are also available in ebook format, including Discover Scottish Church Records (£5.03), Discover Scottish Land Records (£5.03) and Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records (£4.02), and you will also find many other titles on the Genealogy Ebook site from genealogy authors based around the world. (I've indicated the current Sterling equivalent of the AU dollar prices in brackets!). For availability of print copies of my titles (and others) in the UK, Australia and Canada, please visit the Books section at the top of this blog or via http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

And just to add that for details of genealogy cruises from Unlock the Past, the parent company of Genealogy Ebooks, please visit www.unlockthepastcruises.com!

Chris

For details on my range of 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.

Family Tree Maker user guide

I announced a few days ago that my new book on British and Irish newspapers had just been released by Unlock the Past (via http://www.gould.com.au/British-and-Irish-Newspapers-p/utp0285.htm), but the company also has another title that might be of interest to readers here in Britain and Ireland. So You Are Totally New to Family Tree Maker (New Edition) is written by John Donaldson. Here's the blurb:

Family Tree Maker, usually called FTM, is Australia's largest selling genealogy program. It has enjoyed huge success and is now in its 22nd iteration as FTM 2014. In December 2013 Ancestry.com announced Family Tree Maker for Mac 3 which was released in Australia in March 2014.

The program has developed extensively and since purchased by Ancestry.com in 2004, it has become even more tightly integrated with the Ancestry.com database. It has become very internet aware with its use of Bing Maps and the ability to link to internet sites like Trove from within the program as well as using a very convenient web clipping and merging capability.

The program is sold throughout Australia and New Zealand in retail packs that include access to Ancestry.com paid databases.

This book is intended to be the first of a series about Family Tree Maker, and covers the absolute basics that users, with very little computer understanding can get up and running.

The book will take new users through installation, registration, activating an Ancestry.com subscription, followed by an introduction to creating or importing files. The book introduces new users to the eight workspaces within the program with enough simple explanation to start using it.

Extensive use is made of screen shots to assist the user to understand what he or she is seeing on the screen.

So for everyone who is just starting out on Family Tree Maker with FTM 2012, FTM 2014 or FTM for Mac 2 or FTM for Mac 3, this is a book for you!


The book costs AU$14 in paperback, or AU$7.95 as an ebook - it can be bought at http://www.gould.com.au/So-You-Are-Totally-New-to-Family-Tree-Maker-p/utp0371.htm.

I should add that I used to absolutely hate this version of the programme - but have recently been convinced of its value following the original appearance of the rebooted version of the software a few years ago. This was partly because it was the software chosen for the University of Strathclyde genealogy programme on which I tutored last year, forcing me to use it in marking student assessments, but I now use it more wilfully as my primary programme for personal research (though not for client work), because it effectively allows me to sync my tree online at Ancestry and on my iPad - making it a much more powerful and worthwhile tool than it ever was before. The fact that it is now available in a Mac format will also be of interest to many.

I still don't like its boring tree charts though! But if you have the programme, I suspect this guide will be a good investment.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.

Wow - a huge thanks to all you Irish researchers...!

After a long day up to Edinburgh and back to do some client research, I found an envelope awaiting me on my desk when I got into my house. It turned out to be the latest royalty cheque from one of my publishers, Pen and Sword - and I very nearly fainted when I opened it!

It transpires that within a six month period, from June to December, over 1400 copies of my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet were purchased, both in paperback and ebook editions. Taking into consideration that there were sales leading up to June, and since December (including Saint Paddy's Day), I think it's safe to assume that's a couple of thousand copies sold so far, which by far makes that the fastest selling book I've ever written. So a HUGE thanks to all of you who have purchased a copy so far, and I sincerely hope it has helped with your research to date.

The online Irish genealogy scene is transforming by the day, with many new datasets coming onto the internet, the most important of which this year has to be the new website from GRONI in Belfast (https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk), offering access to civil records births, marriages and deaths for Northern Ireland at just £2 a record. If you have recently just got the bug because of the new site, trust me, there is a WORLD of additional material awaiting ye online, both for the north and the south of Ireland - a world I have specifically sought to define in the book, along with a lot of context about the records, a wee bit of craic, and a few pretty pictures along the way!

So if you have just got the bug - why not take a look at the Pen and Sword website at http://pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/ to see a preview of the book, which can be purchased in paperback, Kindle and ePub formats.

And if, like me, your connections are a mix of Norn Ironish with a hefty dose of mainland Britain thrown in there for good measure, the newly released second edition of Tracing Your Family History on the Internet is also now on sale. It's shares some of the content of the first edition, but has way more sites and pages, and err... an extra inch in height. Because books should be BIG! lol England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, even Gibraltar and the Falklands are featured, and loads of overseas countries where relatives may once have emigrated. It's available via http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Family-History-on-the-Internet/p/6050/.

Oh, and on the Irish front - something wicked this way comes from yours truly... but more on that in due course!!! :)

Chris

Time to find your inner Irish...! All the best online Irish genealogy resources can be found through my book Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet - in print and ebook formats. "Very useful, makes me wish I was Irish!" - Saint Patrick, patron saint.

Ancestry - free access to Irish records

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) is offering free access to selected worldwide based Irish records collections until 11.59pm March 17th. Visit http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/irish for access.

The collections available are:

• Ireland, Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911
• Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864–1958
• Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845–1958
• Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864–1958
• Ireland Census 1901
• Ireland Census 1911
• NewIreland, Select Catholic Confirmation Registers, 1775–1912
• NewIreland, Select Catholic Birth and Baptism Registers, 1763–1912
• NewIreland, Select Catholic Marriage Registers, 1775–1912
• NewIreland, Select Catholic Death and Burial Registers, 1767–1912
• Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1967
• Ireland, Catholic Parish Baptisms, 1742–1881
• Ireland, Catholic Parish Marriages and Banns, 1742–1884
• Ireland, Catholic Parish Deaths, 1756–1881
• Get deeper context about the life and times of your Irish ancestors.
• New York Emigrant Savings Bank, 1850–1883
• Ireland, Lawrence Collection of Photographs, 1870–1910
• Irish Canadian Emigration Records, 1823–1849
• Ireland, Griffith’s Valuation, 1847–1864

Don't forget that my book Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet can be obtained as an ebook, or in print, from www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/.

"Brilliant read, very useful!" St. Patrick, patron saint

(With thanks to Eddie Connolly via @teddiec)

Chris

Time to find your inner Irish...! All the best online Irish genealogy resources can be found through my book Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet - in print and ebook formats. "Very useful, makes me wish I was Irish!" - Saint Patrick, patron saint.

Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records - now on sale

I'm delighted to say that my latest Scottish genealogy themed book is now out from Unlock the Past in Australia. At present it is available in print form from the company via www.gould.com.au/Discover-Scottish-Civil-Registration-Records-p/utp0284.htm at AU$17 (inc GST) plus p&p. An e-edition, if you prefer to read it via your PC, Mac or tablet in PDF format, will be available in the next couple of days (http://www.gen-ebooks.com).

Here's a description of the contents, and what it's all about really!

Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records

This guide from family historian Chris Paton takes a look at the vast world of Scottish civil registration records. Scotland commenced the statutory registration of births, marriages and deaths within the country in 1855, second seventeen and half years after a similar process had already got underway in England and Wales. The information lost to the family historian by such a late start is, however, more than made up for by the fact that Scottish registration records are the most detailed of all those found within the British Isles.

But what was the law behind Scottish registration, and how did it differ to England, Wales and Ireland? Who was legally obliged to do what and when, what were the penalties for default, and how might such knowledge help with our ancestral research? Why were all the forms of Scottish irregular marriage not abolished in 1939, and what angered the country's doctors? Where are the records not found online via ScotlandsPeople, such as those for adoption, vaccination, civil partnerships and divorce - and what vital records does the General Register Office in England hold for Scots as far back at the 1760s, and far beyond Britain's shores?

The book is structured as follows:

Contents:
Introduction
Acknowledgements

Part 1. Civil registration in Scotland
Establishment of civil registration
Registration of births
- Illegitimacy
- Locating birth records
- Minor records of birth
- Stillbirths
- Adoption
Vaccination
- Locating vaccination records
Marriage
- Registration of regular marriage
- Irregular marriage
- Registration of irregular marriage
- Introduction of civil marriage
- Same sex marriage
- Locating marriage records
- Minor records of marriage
- Other marriage records
- Divorce
Registration of deaths
- Medical certificates
- Locating death records
- Minor records of deaths
Registers of Corrected Entries
The Book of Scottish Connections

Part 2. Registration in the British Isles
England and Wales
- Births
- Marriages
- Divorce
- Deaths
- Locating English and Welsh records
- British overseas and military records
Ireland
- Locating Irish records
Crown dependencies

Appendix 1. Glossary
Appendix 2. Further reading
Appendix 3. English and Welsh BMD indexes in Australia and New Zealand
- Australia
- New Zealand
Index

It's the latest in a series of more indepth guides that I have been producing in which I have been trying to find out what really makes the records used within Scottish genealogy tick, going well beyond ScotlandsPeople into aspects of law behind civil registration, record availability, and British generated documents found beyond Scotland's borders. Other titles produced so far include Discover Scottish Church Records, and Discover Scottish Land Records - and I'm already hard at work on the next one...!

Incidentally, if you are at the National Family History Fair this coming Saturday, in Newcastle, I believe some copies may be available there.

I hope you find it of some use - enjoy!

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

Ebook versions of my Scottish books

Ebook versions of two Unlock the Past published Scottish titles I have written, Discover Scottish Church Records, and Discover Scottish Land Records, are now available from a new venture from Gould Genealogy in Australia, at www.gen-ebooks.com. The purchase costs is slightly cheaper than the paperback editions, and there is of course no postage. The books are available in PDF format, so can be read on tablet devices as well as your PC/Mac. Hope they help!

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.