Family Tree's genealogical Battlefields Tour

The UK's Family Tree magazine has organised a genealogically themed Battlefield Tour of Ypres, Belgium, from 13-15 October 2017, and is putting out a final call for anyone who might be interested in participating. Here's the itinerary:

Join us on the Family Tree Battlefield Tour. This is your chance to learn about your ancestor's time in WW1 and visit Plugstreet (Ploegsteert), Hill 60, Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, the Menin Gate and other important locations at the Front in the First World War, 13th to 15th October 2017

There’s something very special about visiting the places relevant to your ancestors’ lives, and none more so than the battlefields on which they lived, fought and died in the First World War.

Now, working in association with Battlefield Partnerships, Family Tree is running a battlefield tour this October led by Andy Robertshaw (Trench Detectives) and Mark Smith (Militaria Expert – The Antiques Roadshow), and we would like to invite you to come with us to Belgium.

With military experts, Q&A sessions & guided tours, we have put together this bespoke battlefield tour with the needs of family historians first and foremost in mind. It’s going to be a packed itinerary, and a small group, to make sure that everyone booked on the tour gets the most possible out of their valuable time at the battlefields.

Day 1, 13th October, Battlefield Orientation Day

Pick up Ebbsfleet International 8 am, then travel to Belgium by coach via Eurotunnel (the journey from Ebbsfleet to Ypres takes about 3 hrs 30 mins) Starting with Plugstreet and the battles of 1915, Messines and the Spanbroekmolen Crater, mine warfare and the very successful attack of 1917. We then move on to Hill 60, and after lunch, the cemetery of Tyne Cot and Passchendaele Village. Then on to the northern end of the Ypres Salient to see the village of St Julien and the first gas attack of April 1915, before an emotive stop at Langemarck, the German cemetery, before moving our evening meal.

After supper: A Q&A session on military genealogical matters and object identification.

Day 2, 14th October: Visits Day

Devoted to your research and visit to the cemeteries and battlefields of your ancestors.

Menin Gate Ceremony at 8pm.

Day 3, 15th October: Case Study

A study of one man and his involvement in the Great War – a research tour conducted by Andy Robertshaw and Mark Smith.

Drop off Ebbsfleet International 8pm.

Price, including travel, accommodation at Skindles in Poperinghe, evening meals (one at Skindles, one at a restaurant in Poperinge, and breakfast) per person £475 (£449 per subscriber to Family Tree). All travellers must provide evidence of travel insurance before travel.

On booking, please include details of your First World War ancestors, so that we can fine-tune our itinerary where possible to help you get the most from the tour.

This genealogical-based bespoke tour offers you the unique opportunity to travel to the battlefields with two well-known military historians who will help you to bring to life your military ancestors’ involvement in the Great War.

This is your opportunity to bring along your artefacts and stories and over the three days you will be given an understanding of the Ypres environs during WW1 and spend time with your fellow travellers visiting the actual areas your ancestor fought over.

For further details visit https://www.family-tree.co.uk

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.

National Library of Scotland updates Curious Travellers map

The National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk) has updated its Curious Travellers map at http://curioustravellers.ac.uk/map/, to allow users a chance to follow in the footsteps of Johnson and Boswell as they toured around the country in 1773.

The four-year project was launched in September 2014 by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) and the University of Glasgow, with its priorty being the writings of Flintshire naturalist and antiquarian Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), who travelled across both Scotland and wales and recorded his observations along the way.

For more on the Curious Travellers project, visit http://curioustravellers.ac.uk/en/.

(With thanks to @natlibscotmaps)

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 adds Niagara Falls honeymoon records

Here's a fun new collection on Ancestry - did your ancestors go to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, on their honeymoon?! Here's the blurb:

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Honeymoon and Visitor Registers, 1949-2011
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60714

Niagara Falls, formed by the forces of nature more than 12,000 years ago, was discovered by French explorer Father Louis Hennepin in 1678. Tourism to the falls began in the early 1800s. Initially, visitors traveled to the falls by boat. As railroads expanded across North America in the 1800s, eventually the Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge was built in 1855, but boats remained the main route for tourists to visit the falls until their use was gradually superseded in the early 1900s by automobiles, buses, and trains.

Niagara Falls received its reputation as the “Honeymoon Capital of the World” in 1801, when Theodosia Burr Alston (daughter of the 3rd Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr) chose to honeymoon at the falls. Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Jerome Bonaparte, did the same in 1804, starting a popular tradition that continues to this day. Today, approximately 50,000 newly-wed couples visit Niagara Falls each year. Many choose to sign their names in register books that are kept by the Niagara Falls Tourism Office, which have been digitized and indexed for this collection.


The source for the collection is given as Niagara Falls Honeymoon Registries. Niagara Falls Tourism Office, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, with the records indexed as part of the World Archives Project.

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.

Come and visit Scotland!

I've just been away for three days with my family to have a break up at Glencoe. Whilst away we managed to make a few trips to see some places that have been on my "to-do" list for a while, not least of which the one that many of you probably have never heard of, despite it being one of the most important sites in Scottish history - Dundadd, the ancient capital of Dalriada.

So, no genealogy in this post, just a few images and comments, and a warm welcome to come and visit the country I am proud to call my home - Alba gu bràth!

Buachaille Etive Mòr, Glencoe

St. Munda's Glencoe Church of Scotland (in Ballachulish)

Loch Leven, from the Isles of Glencoe Hotel

Arisaig

The Jacobite steam train, travelling from Fortwilliam to Mallaig, which has also appeared in various Harry Potter movies

A wee rest on the Road to the Isles - pictured behind me are the islands of Rùm and Eigg

Mallaig

The Glenfinnan viaduct - again, featured in the Harry Potter movies

First visit to the Glenfinnan monument - the site where the clans were rallied in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Looking down Loch Shiel from the Glenfinnan monument

Castle Stalker, once home to the Stewarts of Appin

Loch nan Uamh, where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in mainland Scotland in 1745, and from where he later departed in 1746 after his failure at Culloden

View of the Isle of Easdale from the Isle of Seil (the Slate Islands)

Dunadd (Dùn Ad), once capital to the ancient kingdom of Dalriada (Dál Riata), which in the 6th to 7th century AD straddled the Irish Sea to cover Antrim in the north of Ireland, and Argyll and Lochaber in Scotland. The Dalriadic inhabitants were known to the Romans in Latin as the Scoti, for whom Scotland was later named.

My son Jamie sets his foot in the footprint basin on the stone at Dunadd on which the ancient Scottish kings were crowned. Setting a foot in the stone basin was part of the coronation ritual, and was practised at many historic sites in Ireland also. 

Clan Paton, with the Isle of Skye in the background.

For more on visiting Scotland see www.visitscotland.com. Have fun!

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/.