Irish Lives Remembered October issue now available

The October issue of the free to access Irish Lives Remembered magazine is now available to download in PDF format or read online.

This month Jayne Shrimpton makes an appearance, looking at how to date Irish portrait photography, and Eneclann's Fiona Fitzsimons previews Back to Our Past 2012. There are article on Australian connections, Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, Sligo and Cork are both well and truly under the spotlight, and all sorts going on from Cassier Mercer, Kevin McCormack, Shauna Hicks and more!

It's all the way from Louth and available for free at www.irishlivesremembered.com/magazines.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)

More Ancestry British additions

Just a few more additions from Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) in its latest update:

• Rental Book of The Cistercian Abbey of Cupar - Angus, Volume 2
• Schedule of the Title Deeds of the Sneaton Estate in North Riding 1748-1822
• Scholars of St. Peter's College Westminster 1561-1812
• Sedbergh School Register 1546-1895
• Severn Tunnel School 1883-1913 Log Book

Now I know they are from Archive CD Books! I purchased the first copy here a few years back from them, which managed to get me back the furthest yet with any client in Scotland - to the 15th century. As with the other titles announced yesterday, they are not keyword searchable, and must be browsed.

Also - for anyone with Canadian connections, the site has also added Canada Voters Rolls from 1935-1980 in its Worldwide offerings.

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)

FindmyPast UK adds international records

The UK based FindmyPast website at www.findmypast.co.uk has now added international records to its site from Ireland, Australasia and the United States - but wisely appears to have kept its own search interface for the UK records on the site. For the overseas records, the same filter based system as used on the other FindmyPast websites around the world is deferred to.

To use the international records you will need to go for the UK site's new World Subscription, normally at £99.95 for 6 months and £159.95 for a year, but there is an introductory loyalty discount in play just now - £10 off a 6 months subscription, and £20 off a year. Full details are available at www.findmypast.co.uk/account/pay/anoymous/step0

(With thanks to @sheenatait via Twitter)

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)

Irish 1916 First World War Diary online

A new project has seen the publication online of a diary from the First World War, recorded by Mary Martin, a widow and mother of 12 children, living in the Dublin suburb of Monkstown. She began the diary shortly after being told that her son Charlie, a soldier with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was missing in action on the Salonika front. It ends just days before she was officially informed that he has been killed.

To access the diary, which covers January - May 1916, visit http://dh.tcd.ie/martindiary/.

Might be worth mentioning that another historic event was happening somewhat closer to home at that point also!

(With thanks to Silicon Republic at www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/29478-digitised-diary-of-mother/)

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)

Back To Our Past 2012 preview

With thanks to Paul Gorry for the following:

Just days to go to BACK TO OUR PAST 2012

The organisers of the Back To Our Past Show (www.backtoourpast.com) are pleased to announce that Ancestry.com has become the event’s title sponsor. Ancestry.com recently moved its international operations to Dublin and its support for such an important feature within Irish genealogy is a welcome development.

BTOP 2012, an Irish heritage experience, takes place in the Industries Hall at the RDS, Dublin, on the weekend of 12-14 October 2012. This time it embraces the broader historical world, while genealogy remains at the core of the event. The programme of presentations to be given over the three days of BTOP may now be viewed on the event’s website www.backtoourpast.com The Friday morning starts appropriately with ‘In the Beginning … ’ and Sunday afternoon finishes with ‘Dead Money’. Sandwiched between are talks on diverse historical and genealogical topics given by highly regarded speakers.

There are two strands of presentations running concurrently. They are free to those attending BTOP and there is no booking facility, so the tip is to choose your favourite talks in advance and get to the relevant presentation area early. There’s a great choice. From care of documents and photographs to exploring your DNA, family historians have plenty to look forward to. In the run up to The Gathering in 2013, Helen Kelly talks about the deeply personal connection involved in ‘retracing ancestral footprints’. If looking overseas for emigrant great-granduncles and their descendants is part of your research, Else Churchill’s presentation on the Irish in Victorian London may be on your list, while there are other talks on researching British, American and Canadian records. Back home, John Tierney talks about exploring graveyards on-line.

Irish Lives Remembered

You can also learn about two new genealogical sources. One is TIARA’s Foresters Project, involving over 50,000 life insurance policies from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. The Foresters were founded in 1879 by Irish immigrants, and the records provide valuable genealogical information, often linking back to Ireland.

The other new source is the Morpeth Testimonial Roll, a document containing the names and addresses of almost 300,000 Irishmen. The roll was presented to the departing Chief Secretary, Lord Morpeth, in 1841. Currently it is held in NUI Maynooth and it is being indexed as part of Ancestry.com’s World Archives Project.

Irish Newspaper Archives

As all genealogists know, historical context is vitally important. Lorna Elms of the National Museum – Country Life – introduces her audience to the on-line Irish Community Archive Network, which is bringing local history to the world. Also championing that cause is Larry Breen of the Federation of Local History Societies. Learning about the Irish Landmark Trust or post office history are other options. Then there are three authors telling you about the Cistercian Order in medieval Ireland, Martello towers in Dublin and some of the greatest villains of Irish history.

Don’t forget that Eric Knowles of BBC’s Antiques Roadshow will be offering his expert opinion on treasured heirlooms, while other familiar faces from television, Nicola Morris, John Grenham and Steven Smyrl will be offering advice on genealogy when they’re not speaking in the presentation areas. You may be planning to visit BTOP on one of the days, but when you study the line-up of speakers you may just be tempted to spend the whole weekend at the RDS.

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 British and Indian material from Ancestry

Some further releases on Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk).

The original source for the content is listed below each work on the site, though not where Ancestry obtained it from - at a guess, I would say they might be from the old Archives CD Books collections sold up by Rod Neep a few years ago - when you look at The Law and Our Ancestors, for example, it says "2CD set" in brackets after, so these have obviously been sourced from CD presentations. But that's is just a guess...

The collections are:

Scotland
Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (2 vols)
A General Description of the East Coast of Scotland from Edinburgh to Cullen

General
Simm's Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist - 1856
Something for Everybody - Domestic Arts & Customs
Songs of Life
Surnames of the United Kingdom, 1912.
The Art of Heraldry
The Autocar. March 16 1923
The Genealogists Guide
The Great War 1914-18 Magazine
The Peerage of the British Empire
A Dictionary of Violin Makers
Burke's History of the Landed Gentry or Commoners of Great Britain & Ireland

India
The India Office List 1933
East India Register and Directory for 1830

Wales
Wales - Plans of the Principal Harbours, Bays & Roads - St Georges and Bristol Channel 1801
Wales Topographical Dictionary + Illustrated Wales
Black's Guide to Wales 1929

England
Slater's Chronicles of Lives & Religion in Cheshire 1891
Sudbrook School (Infants) 1900-1913 Admission Register
Sudbrook School (Mixed) 1881-1896 Admission Register
Sudbrook School (Mixed) 1900-1928 Admission Register
Sufferings of the Clergy 1714
Suffolk - Hearth Tax Returns 1674
Suffolk 1524 Subsidy Return
Suffolk 1568 Subsidy Return
Surrey - Little Guide (5th ed)
Sussex - Black's Guide (1905)
Testamenta Eboracensia A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, Part 2
Testamenta Vetusta
The Account Book of a Kentish Estate 1616-1704
The Book of Days (1888)
The Book of Manchester & Salford (BMA) 1929
The Book of Nottingham 1926 plus Lists of Nottingham Burgesses
The Burford Records
The City of Liverpool 1884, 1900 & 1923 Lists of Streets
The Clergy List 1858 – Cox
The Clergyman's Intelligencer - Alphabetical List of Patrons in England & Wales 1745
The Cornwall Register
The Corporation Records of St Albans
The County of Warwick
The Derby School Register 1570-1901
The Domesday of Inclosures for Nottinghamshire 1517
The Dutch Church Registers, Austin Friars London 1571-1874.
The English Herbal Physician
The Eton College Register 1698-1752
The Farmers' Almanac and Calendar for 1849
The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
The Heraldry of Worcestershire (2 vols)
The Ladies Elegant Pocket Souvenir 1823 + The Polite Repository 1832
The Law and Our Ancestors (2 CD set)
The Law Relating to Factories & Workshops (including Laundries & Docks) 1896
The London Diocese Book 1890
The London Perambulator
The Miner's Son (Cornwall)
The Peerage of England. 1741 and 1750
The Sheffield Local Register 1830-1908
The Stretton Manuscripts
The Visit of Queen Victoria to Sheffield - May 21st 1897
The Worthies of Devon
University College School, London, Register 1831-1891
Uppingham School Roll 1824-1921
Villare Anglicum 1678 (Towns & Villages in England)
Whittaker's Almanack 1879
Wood's Athenae - Writers of the University of Oxford (4 vols.) 1502-1693
Worthies of Buckinghamshire
Yorks - Ossett Burgess Roll 1905-1906 & 1913-1914 (W.Yorks.)
A Collection of Quaker Testimonies
A Guide to the English Tongue
A History of Bampton
A History of Banbury
A History of Henley
A History of Nottinghamshire
A History of St Ives, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor
A History of the College of Arms 1804
A History of Witney
A Perambulation of Kent Written in the Yeere 1570
A Picture of England 1791
A Topographical History of Surrey
A View of the Present State of Derbyshire
Ancient History of Shaftesbury (2 books) - 1861-1862
Ancient West Country Families Vol. 1
Antiquities of Westminster Abbey (1722)
Ashburton and its Neighbourhood
Baines History of Liverpool, 1852
Batley, from Village to Town
Bennett's History of Tewkesbury, 1830
Black's Guide to Surrey 1886

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)

Home Guard officer lists on Forces Reunited

From Forces Reunited (www.forcesreunited.org.uk):

Exclusive Home Guard ‘Dad’s Army’ service records now available.

Forces War records is the only website to have added a complete list of over 40,000 records of Officers of the Home Guard, also fondly known as Dad’s Army.

Most Home Guard records are kept in the form of enrolment forms, recommendations for awards and cabinet papers by the Ministry of Defence and other institutions. Forces War Records is the only site to hold these records in digitised transcribed format, making the entire list of Officers of the Home Guard easy to search.

The Home Guard was operational from 1940 to 1944, and was set up by the British Army during the Second World War. The nickname “Dad’s Army” was due to the average age of the local volunteers who signed up for The Home Guard, who were ineligible for military service, usually because of their age. Originally called “Local Defence Volunteers” or LDV, the Home Guard’s role was to defend British coastal areas, airfields, factories and explosives stores in the case of invasion by German forces and their allies.

Forces War Records holds the most complete online database of military service records, and offers a complete service for those involved in ancestry searches. The database includes records from WW2, WW1, the Boer War, the Crimean War and beyond. It is the only online database with over 4 million military records of British Armed Forces personnel exclusively cross matched with over 4000 Regiments, Bases and Ships of the British Armed Forces going back to before 1350.

(With thanks to Dominic Hayhoe)

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 Original Record slightly improves search options

The Original Record website, one of the more expensive and complicated data sites online, has introduced some new flexibility into its searches, if not its prices. From the company:

We have added a section entitled Sources, on our home page at www.theoriginalrecord.com; just scroll down. Here all the sources surname-indexed on the site are listed decade by decade. So it is now possible:

• To see at a glance descriptions of the records indexed year by year. Using control+F you can search through the descriptions for placenames and other words of interest.
• To search individual records for whatever surnames are of interest to you. This is a powerful additional tool, allowing you to search out possible variant spellings, by using wildcards, in any particular index.

Comment - In a lot of cases, I suspect a search is still going to be an expensive stab in the dark, unless you have a really unusual or rare surname. To give an example, I typed in Smith for the period 1880-1890. If I had an ancestor called Smith who lived in Macclesfield, I am presented with six different options for a 'Voters in Macclesfield' list from 1879-1880. If I know he lived in Hurdsfield Ward, there is only one result there, so possibly worth a punt at £6. If I don't know which ward, however, I will have to pay £36 to see all six returns - and there is no guarantee that he is even included. I can't in any way narrow down the search criteria further, other than by surname variants. On the other hand, if I know my man Smith went to Clifton College in 1880, there is only one result there at £4, so almost certainly him, and at least worth a shot. So likely success from the site will depend on how rare the name is and how specific the collection is.

One plus in the site's favour - it does have some wonderfully interesting collections, much of which I suspect you would never see on a site such as Ancestry. Those doing one-name studies will likely fare better, as you can buy entire datasets for a particular name, as 'surname source books'.

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)

Free MyHeritage webinar on new search system

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

Introducing Record Matches – A FREE Webinar from MyHeritage

Record Matches is a brand new technology from MyHeritage, designed to automatically find and match the records in your family tree to a growing collection of 4+ billion historical records including census, birth and death records, newspaper articles, books and other free-text documents.

The Webinar will cover:

• An introduction to Record Matches
• How to check your Record Matches
• How to use that information to discover more about your relatives.

This global Webinar will be at 5.00pm UK time (12 Noon EST, USA) on Wednesday 3 October, 2012, and will last about one hour. The Webinar is free but advance registration is required. To register go to http://bit.ly/NpAmAz

(With thanks to Laurence Harris)

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)

Privacy bill in Ireland rears its head again

The Irish Times has reported that the Privacy Bill in Ireland, which was parked in 2007, is rearing its head again, and potentially threatening to block the research efforts of genealogists using public registers (e.g. birth, marriage and death registers) which may fall within the act. An exemption is being sought by the Genealogical Society of Ireland, and no doubt many other interested parties.

The story is online at www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1001/1224324668622.html

(With thanks to Eddie Connolly @teddieC)

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)