NSW Colonial Secretary's Letters 1826-1856 join Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new Australian collection, indexed as part of its World Archives Project:

New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Letters, 1826-1856
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61481
Source: State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia.

The collection New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Letters, 1826-1856 consist mainly of copies of letters to the Principle Superintendent of Convicts and to the Land Board in relation to the assignment of convict servants. Letters and records of various events make up the majority of the collections: petitions by convicts for sentence mitigation, marriage permission requests, character memorials for potential settlers, land grant or lease applications, official visit reports, information about court cases, and lists of assigned servants. These files were organized by the Colonial Secretary, or Secretary to the Governor of New South Wales.

The colony of New South Wales is located on the south-east coast of Australia and became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Prior to that date it was a British colony whose first settlement was a penal colony governed by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. During the time period of this collection, 1788 through 1856, 10 different governors were assigned to the colony, which existed in a steady state of anarchy until the appointment of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who cracked down on active rebellion leaders and built local infrastructure in the form of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. Mentioned in this collection is Governor William Bligh. An officer of the British Royal Navy, he had the reputation of a firm disciplinarian and was appointed the fourth governor of New South Wales in 1805 with the assignment to straighten out the colony and clean up the corrupt rum trade. He was deposed in 1808 by a group of settlers in what is known as the Rum Rebellion, and held captive until 1810.

Within these records you can find significant information about your ancestors if they lived or immigrated to New South Wales during this time period. If they requested to marry, resettle in New South Wales, or acquire a land grant these requests would have been processed by the colonial secretary or other administrative personnel. For more general information about Australian records and research see Searching for Roots Down Under by Janet Reakes in the Learning Center. This article provides a short history of the settlement of Australia, suggests other databases on the Ancestry.com site to search, and includes a brief summary of the kinds of records you can look for in order to further your research.

Information in this database:

Given name
Surname
Event date
Event description

This collection is only partially indexed but all of the images may be viewed using the browse.

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.

Ancestry adds Canadian Fenian Raids bounty applications

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new Canadian dataset which may be of interest to those with an interest in Ireland's 19th century overseas attempts to repeal the union with Britain by force:

Canada, Fenian Raids Bounty Applications, 1866-1871
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61221
Source: Fenian Raids Bounty Applications, 1866-1871. Record Group 9. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

From the site:

About Canada, Fenian Raids Bounty Applications, 1866-1871

This database consists of bounty applications for veterans having served during the Fenian Raids of 1866 to 1871 in Canada.

Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian Brotherhood, Irish nationalists based in the United States, launched raids against Canada in an effort to force the British government to withdraw from Ireland. The raids took place at Campobello Island, New Brunswick; Ridgeway, Ontario; along the Quebec/US border at Eccles Hill and Huntingdon; and in 1871, an attempt was made to invade the province of Manitoba. To combat the Fenian threat, the Canadian Militia in both Ontario and Quebec was called out on several occasions, often for only a few days at a time. The Fenian scare was so widespread in British North America that the Nova Scotia Militia was also called out from time to time, although no raid took place in the colony.

Decades later, the federal government decided that all those who participated in the defence of Canada during the Fenian raids (and who were still living) would be provided a grant or bounty of $100 upon application under the terms of the Fenian Raid Volunteer Bounty Act (1912).

This database consists of lists of names, applications (2 sided), both allowed and disallowed, for the bounty as well as some records relating to pensions for those who were wounded, taken ill or killed while on active duty.

Application details available may include:

Name of Veteran
Muster Date
Muster Place
Discharge Date
Battalion

To see subsequent pages for possible statements by witnesses and comrades: press the arrow right to go to the next page.

Browse lists of names for Nova Scotia claims which are also included in Vol’s 28-38.

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102.
For details on my Scottish & Irish genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
For my genealogy research service, please visit http://www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk.

Ancestry makes Commonwealth collections free over Easter

Free access to several collections on Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) for Easter:

ACCESS MILLIONS MORE RECORDS
Get closer to your overseas family right now
Your Free Access to millions of extra Commonwealth records starts now.

Our four-day Easter Free Access* is sure to lead to new discoveries. So don’t delay, get searching our extensive collections and reveal your relatives overseas.

*Access to the records in the featured collections will start on 14 April and be free until 17 April, 2017 at 23:59 BST. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collections using an Ancestry.co.uk Worldwide paid membership.

To see a full list of the records in the featured collections please visit http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/group/commonwealth_records.

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.

South Africa occupational index on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has uploaded a collection of potential interest to those with connections to South Africa:

South Africa, Occupational Index, 1864-1918
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61327
Source: Various sources from across South Africa.

The following is the collection's description:

This index includes records from the following collections of South African occupational records.

Business Proprietors, 1914
Business Proprietors, 1915
Cape Civil Service Pension List, 1894
Cape Civil Service Pension List, 1895
Cape Civil Service Pension List, 1908
Civil Servants and Justices of the Peace, 1907
Civil Servants Pension Lists, 1900
Civil Service Pension List, 1908
Cullinan Staff Wages, 1903-1918
Field Cornet's Pension List, 1908
Indian Employers, 1861-1911
List of Businesses Registered, 1915
Medical Practitioners, 1910
Medical Practitioners, 1915
Natal Health Officers, 1902
Natal Legal Practitioners, 1902
Natal Railway and Postal Civil Servants, 1902
Public Service And Pensions, 1910
Schedule Pensions, 1910
Tribal Records, 1850

The details provided for each person typically include name, occupation, record date, record place, collection, and source. Depending on the collection, additional details may be available as well.

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.

Asiatic Annual Register records indexes on FIBIS

The Families in British India Society has added indexes to birth, marriage and death records from the Asiatic Annual Register for the years 1806 and 1807 to its online database at http://search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_components&id=1038 - adding to the entries already indexed from 1798-1801 and 1815. The records have been indexed by Pat Sewell and S. Seager.

Note that several editions of The Asiatic Annual Register; or, A view of the history of Hindustan, and of the politics, commerce and literature of Asia from 1799-1810/11are freely available to view on The Internet Archive (www.archive.org).

(With thanks to Valmay Young)

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.

Archives New Zealand releases Samoan village files

Archives New Zealand has released files online concerning the occupation of Samoa in he name of Britain from 1914. Here's the blurb:

Samoan village files from our British Military Occupation holdings have been digitised and are now available online via our finding aid Archway. This series is comprised of local official's inwards correspondence under the British Military Occupation of Samoa.

From 1914 to 1920 Samoa was under British military occupation. This agency was created by Archives New Zealand to describe the various records it holds that relate to this period in Samoa's history. In 1914 New Zealand troops occupied German Samoa in the name of Britain. After World War I the League of Nations made New Zealand responsible for its administration, a situation which continued until Western Samoa's national independence in 1962.

For further details on how to access the records online, visit http://archives.govt.nz/about/news/2016/06.

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.

Scotch-Irish title added to Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a new title to its collections, a book first printed in 1902 looking at the history of the Scots and their diaspora in Ireland and the US:

The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61072

The full title of the book is actually The Scotch-Irish, or The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America, with the term 'Scotch-Irish' an American term for what would be known as the 'Ulster Scots' here, whilst 'North Britain' is an antiquated term (which didn't last for long) for Scotland after the Union.

The collection is presented in two volumes, which can be browsed only. The following is the blurb about the title from the site itself:

This large and informative overview of the history of the Scots-Irish outlines the most noteworthy events of Scottish history. Use this database to acquaint yourself with this group as they appear in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America. The record mentions many prominent Scots-Irish individuals in the revolutionary war and other parts of American history, as well as lengthy discussions of the Great Plantation of Ulster.

Readers in South Britain may also find the book of interest... :)

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.

Chinese cemeteries and capital cities

I'm a wee bit behind on blogging about my current trip to Canada, so a quick progress report on my visit last weekend to the capital of British Columbia, Victoria, located on Vancouver Island.

Following the two events I spoke at in Parksville (see http://www.britishgenes.blogspot.ca/2016/04/thanks-to-qualicum-beach-fhs-for-two.html), I had a short period of R&R in Victoria, as a guest of Pat and Al Hocker. I had previously met Pat on a couple of occasions in Portugal, where she had attended the Lost Cousins hosted Genealogy in the Sunshine events at Rocha Brava, in 2014 and 2015, although this was the first time I met her husband Al, a former surgeon. At almost 80 years old, he was not only the fittest men I've ever met for his age (he goes out and rows his boat every day when I'm still contemplating getting up!), but most certainly one of the wisest - an absolute gent from Kentucky, who also just happened to introduce me to bourbon for the first time. Both made a great couple, and were the perfect hosts, so thanks for a great time!

Pat kindly took me on a tour of Victoria and the south end of Vancouver Island on Monday. Our first stop was the Chinese Cemetery, an extraordinarily tranquil location where many early Chinese settlers (including many who came for the gold rush and to construct the railways) were eventually interred on a temporary basis, prior to their bones being eventually repatriated to China. I love seeing how different cultures inter their deceased, and this cemetery was one which used feng shui in terms of its layout.

We then visited Victoria, and took some time to tour around the BC provincial legislature. We managed to  sit in on the chamber in session for 10 minutes, listening to the politicians from each side shouting at each other! It was interesting to see how similar the layout to the chamber was to that of Westminster, though some what more modern, with desks for the MLAs. I couldn't take pics during the session, so here are a few from outside - the building itself is just over a hundred years old.

We then stopped for coffee in the city centre, before making the decision to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum, one of the city's museums.

Of particular interest to me here was the section on the huge variety of languages of the First Nations in the region, where I also learned about something I'd never heard of before, despite several visits to Canada - the policy of 'residential schools', to which children were removed from their First Nations parents (often by the police) and given an education in English. This appears to have been a policy that has caused much division and resentment, and one for which the Canadian government recently apologised (the last such school was apparently closed in 1986).

What I found fascinating and tragic about this story was just how familiar it was - I'd previously heard of similar tales from visits to Australia, and even closer to home, where it was not much different to the story of how the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) tried to stop the use of Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland, which led to so much damage to the survival of the language and to the culture. Whilst as genealogists we cannot judge the actions of the past from the present perspective, we can certainly observe the patterns of past policies, and this is one that I'm certainly beginning to realise seems to have been applied equally across much of the former British empire. Thankfully, as with Gaelic, efforts are being made to now preserve the surviving languages and dialects in BC, which can only be a good thing.

After Victoria, it was then a trip inland by plane to Vernon, where I gave four talks on various Scottish and Irish subjects to the society there, which I will blog about in due course. As venues go though, it had one major asset that made the heart glow - a full size replica Spitfire on top of the building. Now that's style...!

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/.

TNA podcast - From British bobby to Hong Kong copper

The latest podcast from the National Archives in England is entitled From British bobby to Hong Kong copper, a 41 minute long talk by Christine Thomas.

The lecture can be listened to at http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/british-bobby-hong-kong-copper/ or downloaded for free via iTunes.

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, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks

Foreign and Commonwealth Office records 1782-1982 workshop

The National Archives at Kew is running a workshop on Tuesday 22nd July entitled From mandarins to mandates, an overview of Foreign and Commonwealth Office records in The National Archives. The workshop "will look at records of the Foreign Office from when it was established in 1782, through to the merger with the Commonwealth Office in 1968 and up to the latest releases of records for 1982."

For further details visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/events/mandarins-to-mandates.htm.

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, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time series archive

I have a real love/hate relationship with the BBC. For one thing, I worked for them for 9 years many moons ago, and walked away from them swearing never to do so again in a production capacity; for another, I attended my first political protest a couple of weeks back outside Pacific Quay against BBC news bias here in Scotland. On the other hand though, when the BBC makes a product that works, it is unparalleled in its brilliance around the world. No-one makes drama quite like the BBC (I am the world's biggest Whovian!), and no-one makes documentaries quite like the BBC, particularly observational documentary series (though these are an endangered species now in the 'celebrity' age).

But the one area where I think the BBC excels in more than anything, and an area in which I never worked but dearly wish I had done (!), is the area of radio documentaries. And one of the most brilliant series ever made, in this wee mortal's opinion, is Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time, which has been broadcast on Radio 4 since 2004.

If you aren't aware, the BBC website has an archive available online containing all 649 episodes of the series that have been broadcast since 2004. These are categorised into 5 areas - Culture, History, Philosophy, Religion, and Science. 187 of these programmes are on history topics, predominantly on English or British based themes, though you will find the occasional programme on topics away from England such as one on Yeats and Irish Politics, or on the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales. The archive is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/archive/20th_century/12.

In most instances you will hear Bragg steering a group of academics through the topic under discussion, which for the most part tends to work, though if you listen to some of the really complex science or philosophy subjects you may experience the same sensation I once did when standing under a huge waterfall at Yosemite - a feeling of being really small! In such cases the fun of the programmes is trying to listen to Bragg seize control of the virtually unintelligible in such instances, to make it manageable for the listener. But the history programmes are usually top notch.

Some examples of history topics include:

Work in the 20th Century
1848: Year of Revolution
Boudica
Alfred and the Battle of Edington
Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
Hadrian's Wall
History of History
London
Athelstan
Chivalry

...and many, many more.

NB: I am unsure whether the programmes can be listened to beyond the UK. For those in the UK, however, they are well worth a dip in to explore.

UPDATE: Thanks to Merv (see below) for confirmation that these can also be accessed overseas. Enjoy!

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, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Ancestry's 'Canadian' British Regimental Registers of Service collection

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) is one of those websites that we know we couldn't live without in genealogical research terms, but from time to time it occasionally incorrectly lists collections when they are launched, for which a quick request often sees a change from the powers that be in Utah (where its parent body Ancestry.com is based). Last night I was alerted to a military resource on Ancestry that resolved a very long standing brick wall - and the reason why I was not able to do so prior to now was the fact that the resource in question is actually not listed for what it actually is.

Here was my research problem - my four times great grandfather William Halliday served with the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Foot, aka the Royal Regiment or the Royal Scots. I had previously been to the National Archives at Kew on two occasions (in 2011 and last year) to work out his service details, by ploughing through the muster rolls for his battalion. I learned that he had signed up for service on December 3rd 1819, but did not join the battalion in India until September 1820, and served on many campaigns in India until his eventual death in 1831, on board a vessel sailing for Scotland from India. In India he married and had two children, a son and a daughter, with the son my three times great grandfather. (The story I've uncovered on them is briefly mentioned in Emma Jolly's book Tracing your British Indian Ancestors, from Pen and Sword).

In tracing back to William's first muster roll entry, however, it simply noted that he had "transferred from Europe" - and there was some further confusion with payments commencing for 7 years service and 14 years service which implied that he may have actually signed up earlier in 1814 and 1817, and not 1819. Not knowing from where he had transferred, and potentially which other regiment (if he had signed up earlier than 1819) put me off one other fairly obvious possibility in hindsight, that he may have been directly recruited by the 1st Foot themselves.

Step forward Edinburgh based genealogist Kirsty Wilkinson... At the Scottish Genealogy Network CD event last Saturday, Kirsty gave a great talk on a project she was working on concerning Edinburgh military attestation records held at Edinburgh City Archives. As the Royals Scots was the regiment to which William joined, I asked Kirsty if she had found any entries in the collection for a William Halliday, to which she replied she had not. However, last night, she very kindly sent me a note from a collection she had been using on Ancestry, entitled Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900. There was a William Halliday listed there, a private who had attested in December 1819, but with the 1st Battalion - might this have been him?

At first, the page did not indicate what had become of this person, but it did give me a description of him, an age (born 1797), and birthplace, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, not Scotland. The collection is fully searchable by name, but only lands hits on the pages where the soldiers' names are noted - in this case, however, the description was actually carried across two pages. When I stepped through to the following page, lo and behold, there it was - a note to say that this William in the 1st Battalion had transferred to the 2nd Battalion in March 1820. Having been through the muster rolls for the 2nd Battalion at this point, there is only one William Halliday - so this is almost certainly my four times great grandfather, an Irishman rather than a Scot.

So what are these records? Well one thing is for certain, they are not Canadian! These are British Army regimental depot description books held at the National Archives at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) under WO25, offering a description of soldiers upon attestation, but often worth consulting to see what became of a soldier many years later. They have been digitised and presented as a collection of British Army records for soldiers who saw service in Canada - but they are depot books for British regiments that served across the whole of the British Empire, with many soldiers named within them having never set foot in Canada. OK, I can see that they are available to Canadians via their Ancestry platform as an important record set for research, but they are equally useful back here in the country which created them in the first place!

As currently presented, they are accessible via the basic subscription of the Canadian based Ancestry site - www.ancestry.ca - but not as a standard military resource through the UK site. To access them here you need to have a worldwide subscription for the site. I have emailed Ancestry to ask if they might consider renaming them, or at least granting British users of Ancestry access via the basic subscription, as with other military resources. The person I have emailed is away until the 22nd, so I'll bring an update in due course (or if I hear sooner!).  I just wanted to alert you all that a fundamentally brilliant UK military resource is there online - but in disguise, and at the moment, out of reach for many.

(With thank to Kirsty Wilkinson, @genealogygirl on Twitter)

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, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

United Empire Loyalists records guide at LAC

Library and Archives Canada has uploaded a blog post detailing its records holdings on United Empire Loyalists - essentially those colonists who fought on the British side during the American Revolutionary War, and who were forced to flee to several Canadian provinces after the Americans' victory.

The LAC guide is accessible at http://thediscoverblog.com/2014/05/08/the-united-empire-loyalists-finding-their-records/ - further records are also held in provincial archives in Canada.

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.

Lower Canada censuses 1825 and 1842 on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following two censuses to its Canadian holdings, which may be of interest if you had emigrant ancestors heading over the Atlantic in the early 19th century.

Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1825
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9807

Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1842
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=9808

Lower Canada was a former British colony situated along the St Lawrence River that covered the southern portion of the modern-day province of Quebec and the Labrador region of modern-day Newfoundland and Labrador.

These collections were digitised by FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org), and can also be freely searched there.

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, which commences May 14th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.

Historians consider legal action against British Government

The Guardian has an interesting story today concerning thousands of files dating back to the 1840s, still held by the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which have yet to be released, in breach of the 30 year rule (see my previous blog post at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/foreign-office-hoarding-historic-files.html). The article notes that historians at Oxford, Cambridge and London universities are contemplating taking the department to court to force them to comply with the Public Records Act, to have the files released into the public domain.

It should be noted that there is most definitely a genealogical interest here - included amongst the files is a vaguely described collection entitled "Birth, death and marriage registers", taking up 20.88 metres of shelf space in the storage facility at Hanslope Park, 60 miles north of London, where the documents are currently being held.

Following the FCO's disclosure of the documents' existence in October, the Government has promised that the records "of the greatest public interest" will be handed over to the National Archives at Kew over the next six years. Concerns remain, however, as to how much will be handed over, and on what timescale, with no further announcements from the FCO having yet been made.

The full story is at www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/13/foreign-office-secret-files-national-archive-historians-legal-action

(With thanks to @CILIPinfo)

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/.

Foreign Office hoarding historic files in secret archive

There was an interesting article in the Guardian newspaper last Friday, accusing the Foreign Office of hoarding more than a million historic files at a facility in Buckinghamshire. Many of the documents apparently date back to the 19th century. According to the article they "document in fine detail British foreign relations throughout two world wars, the cold war, withdrawal from empire and entry into the common market". The article states that under the Public Records Acts, they should have been transferred to the National Archives at Kew and made public after 30 years. The full article is at www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/18/foreign-office-historic-files-secret-archive.

The Guardian has previously disclosed that over 66,000 Ministry of Defence files are also being held at a warehouse in Derbyshire, some from Northern Ireland - that article is at www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/06/ministry-of-defence-files-archive.

Amongst the Foreign Office files believed to be held in Buckinghamshire are:

Files on Rhodesia
Files about KGB spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean
Files on Hong Kong
Nazi persecution case files
The United States
Cold war files
Papers on The treaty of Paris, which concluded the Crimean War (1856)

The full inventory of Foreign Office files held in Buckinghamshire is listed at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36037/archive-inventory.pdf.

Of specific interest to the family history community will be a vaguely described collection in Bay 22 of the facility: "Birth, death and marriage registers" - a collection taking up 20.88 metres of shelf space.

From where?

Someone at the Foreign Office not only has some explaining to do, but it looks like some kind of plan is in place to get these documents to the National Archives asap, which now has a mammoth task ahead to work out what to do with it all.

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Who Do You Think You Are Live talks 2014

I'm delighted to announce that I will be returning to speak at the Who Do You Think You Are Live event in from February 20th-22nd 2014, as part of the Society of Genealogists' programme of talks, with the following topics:

Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records
Thursday Feb 20 2014
WDYTYA?Theatre/SoG 1
14.45-15.30

Scottish civil registration commenced in 1855 following the creation of the General Record Office for Scotland, some seventeen and half years after England and Wales. But since its creation Scottish statutory records have been compiled under the authority of Scots Law, with many major differences between how things were done north of the border compared to the south – not least within the area of marriage. In this talk genealogist Chris Paton examines the history of Scottish civil registration, and the differences between Scots records and those of the rest of the United Kingdom.


British Civilian Prisoners of War in First World War Germany
Friday Feb 21 2014
SoG 4 / First World War Ancestors
16.15-17.00

In 2014 Britain commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the First World War, and the sacrifices of those who served and ultimately gave their lives in the war to end all wars. But the war did not just have military victims, with 2014 also the centenary anniversary of the internment of over 5500 British and British Empire civilians at the Ruhleben Prisoner of War camp near Berlin. As bloody hell erupted around them, their only crime was to be in the wrong place in Europe at the wrong time when war was declared against Germany. Chris Paton tells their story.

Look forward to hopefully seeing a few of you there!

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Early 17th century Ulster Roll of Gaol Delivery

Eddie Connolly has commenced a transcription of names from the Ulster Roll of Gaol Delivery 1613-1618 on his Extracts of Reflection blog at http://anextractofreflection.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/ulster-roll-of-gaol-delivery-1613-1618.html.

The names were recorded in the Records of the Court of Exchequer, held at the Four Courts in Dublin, and names criminals who were tried and confined in various gaols in Ulster in the first few years of the Plantation of the early 17th century. The details have been extracted from the first edition of The Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1853.

Great find!

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

TNA podcast - seventh tranche of colonial records release

The latest podcast from the National Archives at Kew is entitled An introduction to the seventh tranche of colonial administration records released at The National Archives, a talk by Daniel Gilfoyle at just under 8 minutes (making this possibly a podcastette!)

It can be listened to at http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/an-introduction-to-the-seventh-tranche-of-colonial-administration-records-released-at-the-national-archives/ or downloaded for free from iTunes.

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects records on Ancestry

Ancestry has released a new collection, UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1627-1965. These are records that have previously only been available on The Genealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) and BMD Registers (www.bmdregisters.co.uk), and comprise of the following collections as sourced from the National Archives at Kew:

Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. The National Archives, Kew, England.

• General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Returns. Registrar General (RG) 32.
• General Register Office: Foreign Registers and Returns. Registrar General (RG) 33.
• General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Marriage Returns. Registrar General (RG) 34.
• General Register Office: Miscellaneous Foreign Death Returns. Registrar General (RG) 35.
• General Register Office: Registers and Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Protectorates etc of Africa and Asia. Registrar General (RG) 36.

The site further describes them as follows:

This is a diverse collection of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial records. Most document events in the lives of British subjects, but the records were created, recorded, or held for safekeeping outside of the UK. You’ll find records from more than 30 countries and territories around the world, including Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, among others.
Information in the records varies by both record type and source, but you may find details such as these:

• name
• date and place of event
• race
• occupation
• religion
• names of parents
• residence

Records from countries outside the UK will most likely be in their native languages.

(NB: BMD Registers has a better description of each collection on its site)

To access the records visit http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1993

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.