500 year old race to win a pair of red socks...

If you have a hole in one (or perhaps both) of your socks, you could always try to win a replacement pair by competing in the annual Carnwath Red Hose Race, due to take place on June 22nd. Instigated by James IV as a means to find the fastest runner capabale of bringing news of invasion, this year sees its 500th anniversary.

To enter, you need to be over 16 and resident in South Lanarkshire, and in desperate need of a new pair of red hose! The three mile long race is limited to just 150 runners this year.

For more information, visit http://www.redhoserace.co.uk/index.html .

Chris

Forthcoming Scottish Lectures and Events - May 2008

Who Do You Think You Are? Live – stand
Fri 2nd – Sun 4th May, London Olympia
Shetland Family History Society
E-mail: secretary@shetland-fhs.org.uk Web: www.shetland-fhs.org.uk

The Scottish National War Memorial by Lt. Col. Shepherd
West Lothian Family History Society
7.00pm Tues 6th May, Blackburn Community Centre
E-mail: honsec@wlfhs.org.uk Web: www.wlfhs.org.uk

Gravestone Symbolism by John G. Harrison
University of Strathclyde
6.30pm Tues 6th May, Ground Floor, Graham Hills Building, 40 George Street, G1 1QE (Entry £3)
Tel: 0141 5484147

The Great Families of Victorian Falkirk by Ian Scott (& AGM)
Central Scotland Family History Society
7.30pm Wed 7th May 2008, Smith Museum and Art Gallery, Dumbarton Road, Stirling. (NB: The society’s evening visit to NRH on May 14th has been cancelled.)
Web: www.csfhs.org.uk

Annual General Meeting, and speaker tbc
Orkney Family History Society
7.30pm Thurs 8th May, Supper Room, Town Hall, Kirkwall.
Email: secretary@orkneyfhs.co.uk Web: www.orkneyfhs.co.uk

Annual General Meeting
East Ayrshire FHS
7.30pm Thurs 8th May 2008, Gateway Centre, Foregate Square, Kilmarnock
E-mail: enquiries@eastayrshirefhs.org.uk Web: www.eastayrshirefhs.org.uk

Genetics in Family History by Kevin O’ Dell
Lanarkshire Family History Society
7.00pm Thurs 8th May, GLO Centre, Muir Street, Motherwell
Web: http://www.largsnafhs.org.uk/home.htm

Graveyarding Weekend
Tay Valley Family History Society
Sat 10th – Sun 11th May, Dunnichen Kirkyard, near Forfar, Angus (event at Balmerino Cemetery has been cancelled)
Tel: (01382) 461845. Web: www.tayvalleyfhs.org.uk

Visit to Anstruther Fisheries Museum
Fife Family History Society
Tues May 13th 2008
E-mail: webadmin@fifefhs.org Web: www.fifefhs.org

Committee Meeting
West Lothian Family History Society
7.00pm Tues 13th May, Blackburn Community Centre
E-mail: honsec@wlfhs.org.uk Web: www.wlfhs.org.uk

The Kennedys of Culzean by Lorna Cawood
Alloway and Southern Ayrshire Family History Society
7.30pm Thurs 15th May 2008, Alloway Parish Church Halls, Auld Nick's View, Alloway, KA7 4RT
E-mail: secretary@asafhs.co.uk Web: http://www.asafhs.co.uk

Coal Mining by Matthew Hume, and AGM
Renfrewshire Family History Society
7:30pm Thurs 15th May 2008, Paisley Museum
Web: http://www.renfrewshirefhs.co.uk

The Lighter Side of Gaelic Medicine by Mary Beith
Comann Eachdraidh Uig
7.30pm Fri 16th May, Uig Community Centre. Free entry.

Moray - its Lands and People by Bruce Bishop
Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society
2:30pm Sat 17th May, Queen Street Church Hall, 79 Queen Street, Aberdeen
Tel: 01224 646323, Fax: 01224 639096
E-mail: enquiries@anesfhs.org.uk Web: www.anesfhs.org.uk/

Midlothian History Fair
Sat 17th May 2008 10:00am to 4.00pm, The Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange* Stands hosted by Historic Scotland, Black Diamonds Radio, local history societies, genealogy consultants and more. Entry Free

Borders Family History Fair
Sat 17th May 2008, Innerleithen Church Hall, Leithen Road, Innerleithen. T
Stands hosted by Borders FHS; Dumfries and Galloway FHS; Lothian FHS; Hawick Heritage Hub; Robert Smails Printing Works; Scottish Genealogical Society; and Sam Godley, professional genealogist.

Sir John Alexander McDonald by Graham MacDonell
Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society
7.30pm Mon 19th May, Lecture Theatre No. 1, Boyd Orr Building, Glasgow University, University Avenue, Hillhead, Glasgow.
Web: www.gwsfhs.org.uk

Clans and the Highland Clearances by Rev. James Munro
Renfrewshire Family History Society
7.30pm Tues 20th May, Waterfront Leisure Complex, Greenock
Web: www.renfrewshirefhs.co.uk

Evening visit to New Register House
West Lothian Family History Society
Tues 20th May
E-mail: honsec@wlfhs.org.uk Web: www.wlfhs.org.uk

Annual General Meeting, and speaker Pat David.
North Perthshire Family History Group
7.30pm 22nd May 2008, The Tryst Hall, situated behind the Church, off West Moulin Road, Pitlochry
Web: www.npfhg.org

Taransay by Bill Lawson (plus boat trip to the island, weather permitting)
The Islands Book Trust
Sat 24 May 10.30am at Community Hall, Tarbert, Harris.
Web: http://www.theislandsbooktrust.com/events

Municipal Heraldry, and AGMThe Heraldry Society of Scotland
11.00am Sat 24th May, A. K. Bell Library, Perth
E-mail: c.napier@napier.aol.com.uk Web: http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk

Chris

English & Welsh BMD indexes from 2006 no longer to be available online

In a surprise move, the General Register Office for England and Wales has confirmed that it will no longer be releasing index information for births, marriages and deaths from beyond 2006 to commercial family history websites such as Findmypast and Ancestry, on the basis that they have no legal requirement to do so. Indexes will still still be made available on fiche at local registry offices and libraries throughout England and Wales, and at the National Archives. This is clearly a blow for many family historians in Scotland with ancestors down south.

The GRO is attempting to create its own online index system called MAGPIE, but this is still some time away in coming.

Chris

Your Family Tree issue 64

The next issue of YFT has just arrived on my desk and contains all sorts of goodies! On the free CD is a copy of Charles Fox-Davies' work The Complete Guide to Heraldry - if you are thinking of doing the Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde, it's well worth picking up, as it is on the reading list!

The magazine itself has a census guide, with contributions from John Grenham, Andrew Chapman and Scotland's Chris Duncan; fascinating articles on the tailoring industry, adoption records and the anniversary of the Penny Black stamp; and yours truly continues the series of getting started articles by an in depth look at statutory death certificates in the UK and Ireland.

In the magazine's news section, the debate on Irish records pricing which I explored in issue 62 heats up, this time with comments of regret from Ireland's Fine Gael spokeswoman for arts, sports and tourism on the new Irish Family History Federation pay per view system. A day after the IFHF website was launched, Olivia Mitchell is reported to have commented "It was regrettable that the new genealogy service was designed to be a commercial one... It was always envisaged that this kind of public information should be freely available to the public". Indeed.

YFT 64 is on sale at your nearest newsagent!

Chris

Old Bailey trials go online

Trial papers from the Old Bailey have been digitised and made available on a new website by researchers from the Open University, and the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sheffield. The site hosts the records of Old Bailey Session Papers from 1674 to 1913, consisting of some 200,000 different cases. At the time of writing, the URL at www.oldbaileyonline.org was slow to access and terribly unstable, but it is well worth a look!

Chris

Cheaper access to GROS from today

From today, the price of entry for a full day's research in the General Register Office for Scotland is reduced in price from £17 to £10. It should be noted that if you wish to do half a day in the building, the price will still remain at £10 as before.

The reduced entry cost is now in effect as part of the new pricing structure for the forthcoming ScotlandsPeople Centre, which was intended to open in April, but which has since suffered some delays. I recently announced on this site that the opening had been pushed back to June, though this may still be optimistic. When the centre is finally open, there will be additional pricing changes - for example, free two hour sessions, as well as an assisted search scheme at £20 per hour.

Chris

The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1853

New from Scotland's Greatest Story is an eBook presentation of an important dataset on the nobility and the titled classes. The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1853 is a fascinating book of over 720 pages in length, and contains the following:

Contents
Introductions and Illustrations
Precedence
Inferior Titles of Living Peers
The Royal Family
Peers, Baronets, Knights, Bishops and Privy Councillors (the major biographical directory section of the book)
Sons, Daughters etc of Peers Bearing Courtesy Titles
Courtesy Titles of Second Marriages
Second Titles of Peers with no Male Issue to Enjoy the Title
Brief View of Titular Distinctions and Terms Relating to Rank
Formal Modes of Addressing Letters to Persons of Title
Lists of the Orders of Knighthood
The Privy Council 1853
The Advertising Sheet (40 page advertising supplement)

This book is now available on CD in PDF format (requiring Adobe Reader) for the price of £12.99.

For more information, or to purchase a copy, please contact us at enquiry@scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk

Chris

Family History Fair at Perth

Advance notice for you Perthshire folk! There will be a local family history fair at Perth's A. K. Bell Library on August 23rd 2008. More news on this soon...

Chris

"A Short Life in the Sky" - new Scottish Archives for Schools resource

From the National Archives of Scotland website:

"The National Archives of Scotland's education website, Scottish Archives for Schools, is pleased to announce the launch of its latest resource, 'A short life in the sky, 1915-16', based on the letters of a young WW1 Scottish pilot.

"When war broke out in 1914, aeroplanes were still a relatively new invention. John Douglas Hume, known as Douglas by his family and friends, left his home in Fife at the age of 18 to join the Royal Naval Air Service. He trained in England and saw action in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and Turkey.

"He was a prolific letter writer. His correspondence displays a range of style and feeling that cannot fail to stir the interest and emotions of the reader. Thanks to his family who kept his letters and photographs, we can experience his life as a pilot from May 1915 until his untimely death in December 1916. The records are part of the Hume papers, which are held at the National Archives of Scotland, NAS ref. GD486."

To view the resource, visit the Scottish Archives for Schools website at http://www.scottisharchivesforschools.org/

Chris

Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE

It's coming up fast! The Who Do You Think You Are? Live weekend from 2- 4 May 2008 at the Grand Hall, Olympia, London, promises to be a spectacular event. As well as live talks and special guests Alistair McGowan, Natasha Kaplinsky, Nicky Campbell, Peter and Dan Snow, and Tony Robinson, this year there will be two other events running in parallel - Military History Live and Discover Archaeology Live. A feast of genealogical and historical activity for £20 a day (£18 if booked in advance). More information at www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk

This will be my first time at the event, and I will be helping out on the Family History Quests stall at stand 326 for part of Friday and Saturday, so for all your archive book and genealogical data CDs, please do come along and have a look - and if you read this blog, do say hi! For the new and updated Family History Quests catalogue, please visit www.familyhistoryquest.co.uk.

See you there!

Chris