Some forthcoming lectures and workshops of interest for family history at the National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk):
Madness in British India: Life in colonial lunatic asylums
10 October, 2012 6pm
How did the British manage and treat mentally ill Europeans and natives in India? What was life really like in a 'lunatic asylum'? Did conditions differ from those in Britain? Francine Millard, Digitisation Manager for the Medical History of British India Project, explores these issues. She will introduce fascinating 19th and 20th century asylum reports from the India Papers which recently went online for the first time.
Reader workshops
Getting started at NLS
2 October 2012, 2.30pm
Learn how to register as a reader, find your way around the Library, request material and find out about our other services. The workshop also includes a tour of the Reading Rooms.
If you are planning to register to use the Library after the workshop, please bring evidence of identity such as a current driving licence or a recent utility bill.
Discovering family history
9 October 2012, 10am
Ever been interested in researching your roots, but unsure of where to start? Find out what resources the Library holds to help you with your family history research. The workshop also includes some practical information on how to become a reader.
Read all about it!
15 October 2012, 6pm
This workshop provides an introduction to the online newspaper resources available at the Library. The session includes demonstrations of a selection of resources and tips on how to search and discover the information you need.
Introduction to maps at NLS
16 October 2012, 2pm
NLS is home to one of the largest map collections in the world. Our shelves hold everything from town plans to world atlases, railway maps to star charts. Learn about the range of maps available and view a selection of highlights from the collection. Includes an introduction to the Maps Reading Room.
This workshop will take place at the Map Reading Room at the Library's Causewayside building: 159 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PH.
The free workshops fill up quickly so please book your place online today, or call 0131 623 3918.
(With thanks to the NLS)
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Documents Online to die again!
The National Archives at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) has announced the demise of Documents Online once again, though it looks like it really means it this time (there's previously been a couple of false alarms!)! As of this weekend, Documents Online is to be switched off, as will the old Your Archives wiki site, the Equity Pleadings database and Person Search facilities, as Discovery rises into the ascendant.
Records will now be downloadable through Discovery, but an interesting new feature now announced is a preview screen offerings a low resolution image of the document of interest through an image viewer, which you can consult before purchase.
The full story is at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/767.htm
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Records will now be downloadable through Discovery, but an interesting new feature now announced is a preview screen offerings a low resolution image of the document of interest through an image viewer, which you can consult before purchase.
The full story is at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/767.htm
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Researching Irish police from 1922 onwards
I was writing up a section for the occupations chapter of my new Irish genealogy book, and came across a problem which the following might help with. I was discussing access to police service records in Ireland, and prior to 1922, the situation is fairly clear - the main force was the RIC, and its records are fairly accessible from a few places, including the National Archives in London and a few other repositories.
Grand stuff - but what if your ancestor was a 'Peeler' after 1921?!! Well here's the answer!
Northern Ireland - the RUC and the PSNI
The Police Service of Northern Ireland's museum in Belfast has a genealogy service website at www.psni.police.uk/index/about-us/police_museum/museum_genealogy.htm, but the site is slightly out of date. It states that it can perform searches through its copies of RIC records from 1822-1922, as well as through various RIC lists, but doesn't mention what it can do for those who served with the RUC (or even the PSNI, now in its 11th year). For the RUC the museum in fact holds service personnel cards which were kept up to 1977, after which service details were computerised (still the case with the PSNI which replaced it in 2001). There is a closure period of 75 years to access these records - so at present any Tom, Dick or Harry can access the cards prior to 1937, but not after. For more recent records you need to either have been the policeman who served, or a family relative, and to supply the proof of the connection. To have a search carried out costs £25 - contact details for the museum are on the page noted above.
Republic of Ireland - An Garda Síochána
This one's slightly more painful! The Garda Museum in Dublin has a series of extracts from service records which can only be consulted by ex-police personnel or their next-of-kin - nobody else can see them, and there is no closure period as in the north, so we are talking right back to 1922 here. Apparently the service records themselves - where they have survived - cannot be accessed, even by those they concern, only the extracts are publicly available. I was also told that some of the original records prior to the 1950s were also destroyed by keen civil servants. Whilst less is available, the good news is that at least the material that can be consulted is free to access. Contact details for the Garda Museum are at www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=72&Lang=1
Hope that helps - and keep an eye out for my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet early next year, which lists many more police resources accessible online and other useful Irish collections.
(With a huge thanks to Neil in Belfast and Jerry in Dublin)
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Grand stuff - but what if your ancestor was a 'Peeler' after 1921?!! Well here's the answer!
Northern Ireland - the RUC and the PSNI
The Police Service of Northern Ireland's museum in Belfast has a genealogy service website at www.psni.police.uk/index/about-us/police_museum/museum_genealogy.htm, but the site is slightly out of date. It states that it can perform searches through its copies of RIC records from 1822-1922, as well as through various RIC lists, but doesn't mention what it can do for those who served with the RUC (or even the PSNI, now in its 11th year). For the RUC the museum in fact holds service personnel cards which were kept up to 1977, after which service details were computerised (still the case with the PSNI which replaced it in 2001). There is a closure period of 75 years to access these records - so at present any Tom, Dick or Harry can access the cards prior to 1937, but not after. For more recent records you need to either have been the policeman who served, or a family relative, and to supply the proof of the connection. To have a search carried out costs £25 - contact details for the museum are on the page noted above.
Republic of Ireland - An Garda Síochána
This one's slightly more painful! The Garda Museum in Dublin has a series of extracts from service records which can only be consulted by ex-police personnel or their next-of-kin - nobody else can see them, and there is no closure period as in the north, so we are talking right back to 1922 here. Apparently the service records themselves - where they have survived - cannot be accessed, even by those they concern, only the extracts are publicly available. I was also told that some of the original records prior to the 1950s were also destroyed by keen civil servants. Whilst less is available, the good news is that at least the material that can be consulted is free to access. Contact details for the Garda Museum are at www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=72&Lang=1
Hope that helps - and keep an eye out for my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet early next year, which lists many more police resources accessible online and other useful Irish collections.
(With a huge thanks to Neil in Belfast and Jerry in Dublin)
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
More Derbyshire records on FindmyPast
FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added 11,576 parish burial records for Clay Cross in North East Derbyshire.
For further details visit www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/derbyshire-sept12
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
For further details visit www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/derbyshire-sept12
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
More Irish material on British Newspaper Archive
The following is the latest update to the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) over the last month:
As well as the Belfast Morning News making it to the site, albeit for 1879 only at present, I noticed yesterday that the Cork Examiner, which covered only a handful of years from the 1840s a few months back, now has coverage from 1841-1926. Ireland is still woefully represented on the site, however, with only two other titles, the Freeman's Journal and the Belfast Newsletter, present. Both of these have already been made available on the British Library's predecessor site, the 19th Century Newspaper Collection, which can be accessed for free via many local libraries which have a subscription (those in Scotland can access it through signing up to the Licensed Digital Collections of the National Library of Scotland website).
Still, every little crumb helps - but if you want to see a bigger explosion of online newspaper activity, check out the Irish News Archive site at www.irishnewsarchive.com which has added a considerable number of new titles and editions over the last few months. The following titles are now available, with any change in status since last November in brackets:
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
- Belfast Morning News, 1879
- Coventry Evening Telegraph, 1916 - 1917
- Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 1857 - 1859, 1861, 1863 - 1864, 1867, 1871
- Dover Express, 1862
- Dundee Advertiser, 1866 - 1867
- Dundee Courier, 1902 - 1903, 1906 - 1908, 1910, 1919 - 1920
- Gloucestershire Echo, 1934 - 1940
- Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 1867, 1888
- Liverpool Daily Post, 1858, 1864, 1866, 1868
- Newcastle Journal, 1914 - 1915
- Police Gazette, 1776
- Shields Daily Gazette, 1855 - 1856, 1862
- Staffordshire Advertiser, 1795 - 1800, 1802, 1805
- Staffordshire Gazette and County Standard, 1842
- Stamford Mercury, 1714, 1717 - 1720, 1722, 1729, 1733, 1740, 1744, 1747, 1754, 1765, 1889
- Yorkshire Gazette, 1913
As well as the Belfast Morning News making it to the site, albeit for 1879 only at present, I noticed yesterday that the Cork Examiner, which covered only a handful of years from the 1840s a few months back, now has coverage from 1841-1926. Ireland is still woefully represented on the site, however, with only two other titles, the Freeman's Journal and the Belfast Newsletter, present. Both of these have already been made available on the British Library's predecessor site, the 19th Century Newspaper Collection, which can be accessed for free via many local libraries which have a subscription (those in Scotland can access it through signing up to the Licensed Digital Collections of the National Library of Scotland website).
Still, every little crumb helps - but if you want to see a bigger explosion of online newspaper activity, check out the Irish News Archive site at www.irishnewsarchive.com which has added a considerable number of new titles and editions over the last few months. The following titles are now available, with any change in status since last November in brackets:
- Irish Independent 1905-present
- Irish Press 1931-1995
- Irish Farmers Journal 1957-1998
- Sunday Independent 1906-present
- Anglo-Celt 1846-2011
- Butte Independent 1910-1930 (a Boston newspaper - new)
- City Tribune 1984-present
- Connacht Sentinel 1927-present
- Connacht Tribune 1909-present
- Connaught Telegraph 1900-present (previously from 1975 onwards)
- Donegal News 1980-present
- Fermanagh Herald 2011-present (new)
- Finns Leinster Journal 1763-1924
- Freeman’s Journal 1763-1950 (extended from 1924)
- Gaelic Life 2011-present (new)
- Galway City Tribune 1984-present (new)
- Kerryman 1904-present (previously from 1950 onwards)
- Kildare Observer 1880-1935 (new)
- Leitrim Observer 1904-2007
- Limerick Leader 1905-1948 (new)
- Meath Chronicle 1897-present
- Munster Express 1908-present
- The Nation 1842-1897
- Nenagh Guardian 1838-present
- Nenagh News 1895-1924 (new)
- Southern Star 1892-present
- Strabane Chronicle 2011-present (new)
- Tuam Herald 1837-2000
- Ulster Herald 1901-present (new)
- Westmeath Examiner 1882-present
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
National Archives museum changes
The National Archives in Kew has posted an update on plans to refurbish its museum, which will see the museum close on October 25th for at least five weeks.
The full story is at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/765.htm
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
The full story is at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/765.htm
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Eunuchs live longer
The BBC is running a story that apparently shows that eunuchs live longer, after a genealogical study in South Korea showed that eunuchs from 1556-1861 apparently lived up to 19 years longer there than on average.
The full story is at www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266
I'm not advocating we become eunuchs...
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
The full story is at www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266
I'm not advocating we become eunuchs...
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Monday, 24 September 2012
Oxfordshire FHS Open Day
Berkshire Family History Society has posted details of its forthcoming participation at Oxfordshire Family History Society's Open Day on October 6th at www.berksfhs.org.uk/cms/2012-10-06/Oxfordshire-FHS-Open-Day-Woodstock.html
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Family history courses at Birkdale Library
Sefton Council has placed details online for a series of introductory family history courses at Birkdale Library in October, to be taught by Hillary Ambrose of Southport Family History Society.
For more information visit www.sefton.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=12005
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
For more information visit www.sefton.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=12005
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Ancestry's redesigned Irish gateway page
I've only just twigged that Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has redesigned the interface to its Irish collections. You can still type in www.ancestry.co.uk/ireland to access them, but you will be diverted to a new page at www.ancestry.co.uk/cs/uk/ireland.
The new page no longer divides collections up into those for 'Northern Ireland' and 'Ireland' (i.e. the Republic), but simply lists them all under a new gateway entitled All Our Irish Collections with various drop-down tags to various collections. On the one hand this makes life a lot easier, because Ancestry was occasionally geographically challenged when it came to placing Irish records online, with some collections being listed under one jurisdiction when in fact they were all Ireland based, north and south - so I think this is a good thing. On the other hand, the page does look a bit more bland, but the key thing is functionality, and so far, so good when playing with it.
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
The new page no longer divides collections up into those for 'Northern Ireland' and 'Ireland' (i.e. the Republic), but simply lists them all under a new gateway entitled All Our Irish Collections with various drop-down tags to various collections. On the one hand this makes life a lot easier, because Ancestry was occasionally geographically challenged when it came to placing Irish records online, with some collections being listed under one jurisdiction when in fact they were all Ireland based, north and south - so I think this is a good thing. On the other hand, the page does look a bit more bland, but the key thing is functionality, and so far, so good when playing with it.
Chris
Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
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