FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org) has released two new mobile apps, FamilySearch Tree and FamilySearch Memories.
FamilySearch Tree makes it easy to add photos, stories, and audio recordings to your ancestral tree on the main website, whilst FamilySearch Memories is more of a tool to help you as a genealogical hunter-gatherer in recording interviews, taking photos and more.
For further details visit https://familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-introduces-moble-apps/.
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.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Europeana First World War roadshow to visit Yorkshire
Europeana's First World War roadshow returns to England in early August - the following is an abridged press release:
Yorkshire’s Forgotten WW1 Family Stories.
People across the region urged to contribute to unique online WW1 archive Europeana 1914-18
Europeana 1914-18 World War One Family History Roadshow
British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorks, LS23 7BQ
Saturday, August 2, 2014 11.00am – 5.00pm
Do you have a box hidden deep in the attic or under the bed that holds your great grandfather’s diaries from 1914-1918? His army medals? Or a photo with a special story behind it? If so, it could be part of a unique European WW1 project, shared worldwide to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the war.
The British Library’s northern site at Boston Spa has joined forces with Europeana - Europe’s digital museum, library and archive. We will be working together to gather and tell people’s family stories from 1914-1918. These valuable stories will then be shared via Europeana’s online archive - the most important pan European online resource of original WW1 source material. http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en
And we need your help!
We need people to bring photographs, letters, diaries, film or audio recordings, together with the stories of whom they belonged to and why they are important to their families to the Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow at the British Library, Boston Spa on Saturday, August 2.
Historians and experts from the York Museums Trust, Lancaster University and local history societies will be on hand to talk about the significance of finds, while staff from the British Library will professionally digitise the objects which will be uploaded to the dedicated Europeana 1914-1918 website.
Visitors on the day will also have a chance to discover the British Library’s newly refurbished Boston Spa Reading Room, where you can consult the Library’s vast collection of research journals, books and periodicals, along with free access to more than 8 million pages of digitised historic newspapers. There will also be a range of WW1 themed activities, including local curator talks from experts at The Castle Museum, York, film screenings from the Yorkshire Film Archive and a WW1 brass band.
Europeana have been holding Family History Roadshows in more than 20 countries across Europe in the lead up to the WW1 Centenary. Each individual story - that otherwise might never be told outside of the family - is essential to creating a unique global archive and perspective of WW1. Through this archive, stories from countries across Europe will be shared online, accessed by others worldwide and saved for future generations. And now it’s the time for the people of Yorkshire to come forward with their stories.
The British Library have led the UK’s contribution to Europeana 1914-1918, as part of the First World War Centenary programme. They have created a brand new British Library First World War website with over 500 items from across Europe and articles by leading experts and teachers’ notes. www.bl.uk/world-war-one
The British Library has digitised 10,000 items (more than 350,000 images) of a wide range of materials related to the First World War from its print collections. Personal diaries, trench maps, printed books, WW1 poetry, literary manuscripts, photographs and music scores are among the broad selection of the Library’s contribution, which can be found at www.europeana1914-1918.eu
(With thanks to Wendy Archer)
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.
Yorkshire’s Forgotten WW1 Family Stories.
People across the region urged to contribute to unique online WW1 archive Europeana 1914-18
Europeana 1914-18 World War One Family History Roadshow
British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorks, LS23 7BQ
Saturday, August 2, 2014 11.00am – 5.00pm
Do you have a box hidden deep in the attic or under the bed that holds your great grandfather’s diaries from 1914-1918? His army medals? Or a photo with a special story behind it? If so, it could be part of a unique European WW1 project, shared worldwide to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the war.
The British Library’s northern site at Boston Spa has joined forces with Europeana - Europe’s digital museum, library and archive. We will be working together to gather and tell people’s family stories from 1914-1918. These valuable stories will then be shared via Europeana’s online archive - the most important pan European online resource of original WW1 source material. http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en
And we need your help!
We need people to bring photographs, letters, diaries, film or audio recordings, together with the stories of whom they belonged to and why they are important to their families to the Europeana 1914-1918 Family History Roadshow at the British Library, Boston Spa on Saturday, August 2.
Historians and experts from the York Museums Trust, Lancaster University and local history societies will be on hand to talk about the significance of finds, while staff from the British Library will professionally digitise the objects which will be uploaded to the dedicated Europeana 1914-1918 website.
Visitors on the day will also have a chance to discover the British Library’s newly refurbished Boston Spa Reading Room, where you can consult the Library’s vast collection of research journals, books and periodicals, along with free access to more than 8 million pages of digitised historic newspapers. There will also be a range of WW1 themed activities, including local curator talks from experts at The Castle Museum, York, film screenings from the Yorkshire Film Archive and a WW1 brass band.
Europeana have been holding Family History Roadshows in more than 20 countries across Europe in the lead up to the WW1 Centenary. Each individual story - that otherwise might never be told outside of the family - is essential to creating a unique global archive and perspective of WW1. Through this archive, stories from countries across Europe will be shared online, accessed by others worldwide and saved for future generations. And now it’s the time for the people of Yorkshire to come forward with their stories.
The British Library have led the UK’s contribution to Europeana 1914-1918, as part of the First World War Centenary programme. They have created a brand new British Library First World War website with over 500 items from across Europe and articles by leading experts and teachers’ notes. www.bl.uk/world-war-one
The British Library has digitised 10,000 items (more than 350,000 images) of a wide range of materials related to the First World War from its print collections. Personal diaries, trench maps, printed books, WW1 poetry, literary manuscripts, photographs and music scores are among the broad selection of the Library’s contribution, which can be found at www.europeana1914-1918.eu
(With thanks to Wendy Archer)
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.
Who Do You Think You Are magazine web chat
This coming Friday July 18th 2014 I will be answering questions on any Scottish genealogy problems you may have on the Who Do You Think You Are Magazine web chat page at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/forum/topic10934.html, from 1pm-2pm (UK time). If you have a question or need a bit of advice, pop along and register your question and I will try to answer as best as I can in the time there.
I may not be able to solve everything, but hopefully I'll be able to provide a few useful steers!
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.
I may not be able to solve everything, but hopefully I'll be able to provide a few useful steers!
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.
Monday, 14 July 2014
Happy 10th birthday to Coflein
Welsh heritage body the National Monuments Record of Wales launched its online catalogue Coflein (www.coflein.gov.uk) 10 years ago today. So happy birthday Coflein!
For the full story, visit http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/happy-birthday-coflein-is-ten-years-old.html.
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.
For the full story, visit http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/happy-birthday-coflein-is-ten-years-old.html.
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.
Dúchas website adds Irish schools folklore collection
The National Folklore Collection of Ireland's Dúchas website (www.duchas.ie) has added about 80% of its school records holdings from counties Dublin, Donegal, Mayo and Waterford, about 64,000 items in total, and comprising of a collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s.
It's a real gem, with some interesting holdings - one school child from Raphoe in County Donegal, for example, recalls how his granny used to describe the "stiffy lifting" or theft of corpses from graves in the local cemetery for medical students to experiment on.
To access the records, indexed by school and location, visit http://duchas.ie/en/cbes.
Don't forget to come up for air!
(NB: Note that some of the material presented is written in Irish)
(With thanks to Audrey Wyper)
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.
It's a real gem, with some interesting holdings - one school child from Raphoe in County Donegal, for example, recalls how his granny used to describe the "stiffy lifting" or theft of corpses from graves in the local cemetery for medical students to experiment on.
To access the records, indexed by school and location, visit http://duchas.ie/en/cbes.
Don't forget to come up for air!
(NB: Note that some of the material presented is written in Irish)
(With thanks to Audrey Wyper)
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.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Lost Cousins newsletter: Genealogy in the Sunshine 2015
Peter Calver's latest Lost Cousins newsletter has some interesting discussion about whether English and Welsh BMD certificates are about to go up in price again - as well as news about a follow up to the Genealogy in the Sunshine conference event that took place earlier this year at Rocha Brave, Portugal (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/genealogy-in-sunshine-day-1.html http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/genealogy-in-sunshine-days-2-and-3.html and http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/genealogy-in-sunshine-days-4-and-5.html for reports from this year's event). He has two potential dates in mind in 2015 (in March and April), and is seeking feedback and interest from readers before committing to one or the other.
The newsletter is accessible at www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/jul14news.htm
(With thanks to Peter)
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.
The newsletter is accessible at www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/jul14news.htm
(With thanks to Peter)
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.
National Archives at Kew - annual report
The National Archives based at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) has released its annual report for 2013-2014. Within the 104 page document are some interesting developments and facts for those of us interested in genealogy.
Some interesting data issues have also been reported - for example, on p.51 there's a report on how TNA discovered that around 10% of the records of BT 377/7 (Royal Naval Ratings’ Records of Service (1908-1958), available through Documents Online, concerned people less than 100 years old. This potentially affects some 3000 people who may well still be alive, and as such has been reported to the Information Commissioner - a response is still awaited. The inference here is that these records being online may be a breach of the Data Protection Act. As a precaution, however, TNA has now closed off access to the microform version of the records until 2039, and the affected online records falling into this category have been removed from Documents Online. 288 other records from other collections on Documents Online have also been removed (no further details on these have been given in the report).
There are also details on the archive's environmental performance, remuneration, and a few references to sustainability issues - that phrase now makes me laugh every time I read it, as I keep imagining that there must be a Head of Sustainability constantly arguing with a Head of Legacy, as in the comedy series Twenty Twelve (sorry, I'm easily amused!).
It's been a busy year, with many great developments, particularly with the First World War and cataloguing projects currently under way, for which the archive is to be commended. I would counter that there are also some developments that I would suggest have not been so great - sorry, but I am NOT a fan of what the archive has done with the Gazettes on the new website at www.thegazette.co.uk (you can read how to use this, as well as my criticisms of the new site, in my book British and Irish Newspapers, released earlier this year). Also, if 20% of visits to the TNA website are made by tablet and smartphone, that presumably leaves 80% accessing it by PC, which is not so much fun with the recent redesign that has been heavily weighted towards tablet use. Obviously that will change as we are forced via technological advancements to continue to go down the tablet route, whether we want to or not!
One observation I will make though in praise of TNA. I regularly attend PRONI's user forum in Belfast, and know what is happening through its lively social media interactions with its user base; similarly I have a fair idea of what is going on at TNA through this report and other regular announcements and platforms, as well as its Friends group, which regularly raises money for archive projects. But the National Records of Scotland continues to remain opaque, and could do with engaging more with its users, and in being equally transparent. The UK's other national archives provide great role models in this regard, in shiny new wifi enabled buildings with 21st century mentalities, whilst here in Scotland NRS still needs to catch up, with its wooden walled reading rooms and wooden walled 20th century practices.
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.
- 670,000 documents were produced for visitors in 2013-2014
- 202 million documents were downloaded
- 1.2 million catalogue descriptions were added to Discovery
- 10 million new descriptions are being added to Discovery from materials catalogued on other platforms such as the National Register of Archives, Access to Archives and ARCHON (the final migration will be completed by July 31st).
- 20 per cent of visits to the archive's main website were made from a smartphone or tablet
- There have been 2 million podcast downloads
- 1100 enquiries were answered by TNA staff at Who Do You Think You Are? Live
- The digitisation of 1.5 million pages of First World War diaries continues, the archive's largest ever in-house digitisation project
- A contract for digitisation of the English and Welsh 1939 National Identity register was awarded to FindmyPast on 14 FEB 2014
There are also details on the archive's environmental performance, remuneration, and a few references to sustainability issues - that phrase now makes me laugh every time I read it, as I keep imagining that there must be a Head of Sustainability constantly arguing with a Head of Legacy, as in the comedy series Twenty Twelve (sorry, I'm easily amused!).
It's been a busy year, with many great developments, particularly with the First World War and cataloguing projects currently under way, for which the archive is to be commended. I would counter that there are also some developments that I would suggest have not been so great - sorry, but I am NOT a fan of what the archive has done with the Gazettes on the new website at www.thegazette.co.uk (you can read how to use this, as well as my criticisms of the new site, in my book British and Irish Newspapers, released earlier this year). Also, if 20% of visits to the TNA website are made by tablet and smartphone, that presumably leaves 80% accessing it by PC, which is not so much fun with the recent redesign that has been heavily weighted towards tablet use. Obviously that will change as we are forced via technological advancements to continue to go down the tablet route, whether we want to or not!
One observation I will make though in praise of TNA. I regularly attend PRONI's user forum in Belfast, and know what is happening through its lively social media interactions with its user base; similarly I have a fair idea of what is going on at TNA through this report and other regular announcements and platforms, as well as its Friends group, which regularly raises money for archive projects. But the National Records of Scotland continues to remain opaque, and could do with engaging more with its users, and in being equally transparent. The UK's other national archives provide great role models in this regard, in shiny new wifi enabled buildings with 21st century mentalities, whilst here in Scotland NRS still needs to catch up, with its wooden walled reading rooms and wooden walled 20th century practices.
 |
| Census conference at TNA |
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.
Limerick's Life website
Thanks to James McLaren of the Channel Islands FHS for flagging up Sharon Slater's Limerick's Life website by email. Located at http://limerickslife.com it has some interesting record sets, for example a list of those who died in the Irish Civil War in Limerick in July 1922 - see http://limerickslife.com/civil-war-july-1922/. There's a few other collections such as headstone inscription and passenger lists. Well worth a look if you have Limerick connections.
(With thanks to James)
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.
(With thanks to James)
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.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
How many Scottish church denominations were there?
Another wee blast from the past, with an article I wrote on another of my blogs in Feb 2011, which might provide a bit of an eye opener if you are stuck before 1855 on ScotlandsPeople...
How many Scottish church denominations were there?
If you are having problems trying to find a pre-1855 birth in Scottish parish records, here's a wee eye opener as to why that might be. The ScotlandsPeople website only hosts the registers of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic churches. But there were plenty more!
The following is a list of church denominations, and the number of premises they had, as returned for the Religious Worship Census of 1851, taken alongside the main decennial census on March 30th-31st.
Established Church 904
Reformed Presbyterian Church 37
Original Secession Church 30
Relief Church 2
United Presbyterian Church 427
Free Church 824
Episcopal Church 112
Independents or Congregationalists 168
Baptists 100
Society of Friends 6
Unitarians 5
United Brethren, or Moravians 1
Wesleyan Methodists:
* Original Connexion 61
* Primitive Methodists 10
* Independent Methodists 1
* Wesleyan Reformers 1
Glassites, or Sandemanians 6
New Church 5
Campbellites 1
Evangelical Union 27
Isolated Congregations:
* Various 8
* Common 2
* Unsectarian 1
* City Mission 7
* Christians 7
* Christian Disciples 14
* Christian Reformation 1
* Reformed Christians 1
* Free Christian Brethren 1
* Primitive Christians 2
* Protestants 4
* Reformation 1
* Reformed Protestants 1
* Separatists 1
* Christian Chartists 1
* Denomination not stated 6
Roman Catholics 104
Catholic and Apostolic Church 3
Latter Day Saints, or Mormons 20
Jews 1
(Extracted from Table A: Summary of the Whole of Scotland, p.2-3, from Histpop at http://tinyurl.com/4aj2uw7)
So just a few more denominations to think about!
For more information on how to find the registers of those other denominations I have written a book entitled Discover Scottish Church Records (updated 2016 for a second edition) for Australian based genie venture Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au). For worldwide availability in paperback and ebook versions, please visit my books section at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
Chris
How many Scottish church denominations were there?
If you are having problems trying to find a pre-1855 birth in Scottish parish records, here's a wee eye opener as to why that might be. The ScotlandsPeople website only hosts the registers of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic churches. But there were plenty more!
The following is a list of church denominations, and the number of premises they had, as returned for the Religious Worship Census of 1851, taken alongside the main decennial census on March 30th-31st.
Established Church 904
Reformed Presbyterian Church 37
Original Secession Church 30
Relief Church 2
United Presbyterian Church 427
Free Church 824
Episcopal Church 112
Independents or Congregationalists 168
Baptists 100
Society of Friends 6
Unitarians 5
United Brethren, or Moravians 1
Wesleyan Methodists:
* Original Connexion 61
* Primitive Methodists 10
* Independent Methodists 1
* Wesleyan Reformers 1
Glassites, or Sandemanians 6
New Church 5
Campbellites 1
Evangelical Union 27
Isolated Congregations:
* Various 8
* Common 2
* Unsectarian 1
* City Mission 7
* Christians 7
* Christian Disciples 14
* Christian Reformation 1
* Reformed Christians 1
* Free Christian Brethren 1
* Primitive Christians 2
* Protestants 4
* Reformation 1
* Reformed Protestants 1
* Separatists 1
* Christian Chartists 1
* Denomination not stated 6
Roman Catholics 104
Catholic and Apostolic Church 3
Latter Day Saints, or Mormons 20
Jews 1
(Extracted from Table A: Summary of the Whole of Scotland, p.2-3, from Histpop at http://tinyurl.com/4aj2uw7)
So just a few more denominations to think about!For more information on how to find the registers of those other denominations I have written a book entitled Discover Scottish Church Records (updated 2016 for a second edition) for Australian based genie venture Unlock the Past (www.unlockthepast.com.au). For worldwide availability in paperback and ebook versions, please visit my books section at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
Chris
Friday, 11 July 2014
University of Glasgow's Clyde shipyards photo tour
The University of Glasgow Archive Service has created a virtual tour of the shipyards that once adorned the shores of the Clyde, from Glasgow to Troon, via an interactive map based HistoryPin presentation. It can be found at http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/55135/#!tours/view/id/3521/title/Shipbuilding%20on%20the%20Clyde%20A%20photo%20tour
If you have deep-rooted Glasgow connections, I suspect you may well find something here of interest! A blog post about the tour is also available at http://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/history-pin-clyde-shipyard-photo-tour/
(With thanks to the University of Glasgow Library blog)
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.
If you have deep-rooted Glasgow connections, I suspect you may well find something here of interest! A blog post about the tour is also available at http://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/history-pin-clyde-shipyard-photo-tour/
(With thanks to the University of Glasgow Library blog)
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)