BBC News items on Ruhleben POW camp

I was on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme this morning with journalist David Miller discussing my project on the First World War prisoner of war camp at Ruhleben, on the outskirts of Berlin, within which some 5500 British civilians were interned for the duration of hostilities. The item was transmitted live in the last five minutes of the programme, and can be heard again for the next seven days on the BBC's online iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fn9k1 .

We also recorded a separate television piece on the story, which will include Scottish Screen footage of some of the prisoners returning to Leith, the 90th anniversary of their return being tomorrow. This is due to be shown on BBC1 Scotland's Reporting Scotland this evening between 6.30 and 7.00pm - do try to catch it if you can!

And if you had relatives at Ruhleben, I would love to hear from you in order to include their story on my commemorative website, The Ruhleben Story, at http://ruhleben.tripod.com . So far the site contains free to access information and images concerning over 1800 of the POWs, so still a fair few to identify! Amongst the internees was my own great uncle John Brownlie Paton - his story at Ruhleben is explored in further detail at http://chrispatonscotland.tripod.com/id63.html .

UPDATE: The Rep Scot story is now online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7752999.stm , and a written BBC news article can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7753237.stm .


Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

SAFHS website revamped

The website for the Scottish Association of Family History Societies has just undergone a very welcome facelift. Apart from the fact that the previously dreadful synthesised bagpipe music no longer hits you when you visit the page, it is now looks considerably brighter and has new added features, such as a surname search facilty which allows you to look for surnames across the websites of the organisations constituent members. Well worth a look at www.safhs.org.uk .

And as it's my blog, I'm also going to throw in a quick plug for my local FHS...! Largs and North Ayrshire FHS is a small but enthusiastic society that meets once a month at Largs Library on Allanpark Street, and is only too happy to welcome new members and to offer advice. Its website is located at www.largsnafhs.org.uk .

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

FamilySearch Indexing update - Norway 1875 census

This might be one for all you Shetland and Orkney folk! From Family Search:

1875 Norway Census

In the first week of December, we will start indexing the 1875 Norway Census. This will be a large segment of the census for rural areas of Norway, but not the entire census. FamilySearch’s Historical Family Reconstitution unit has joined forces with the University of Tromsø in Norway to complete this project. The university is indexing the census records for the urban areas of Norway.

Pass the word along that anyone interested in Norwegian genealogical research is encouraged to help by volunteering as a FamilySearch indexer.


Completed Projects

The following projects have been completed in the past two weeks. Patrons should be able to search them shortly online at FamilySearch Record Search:
Missouri – 1870 US Census
Tennessee – 1870 US Census
Morelos – 1930 Mexico Census
Alabama – 1920 US Federal Census
Arkansas Marriages II
Alabama – 1850 US Federal Census – General


Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

ScotFamTree forum

Another quick plug for the ScotFamTree discussion forum!

New subscribers can now view video content on the home page to help inform you how to join, by way of a guided walk through the site. There are several subscription levels available, including the basic free subscription, and various resources able to help, such as the thriving discussion forum, the site's shop, and much more.

Definitely a useful resource for those with Scots ancestors, and lots of volunteers willing to help crack your brick wall problems!

To join in the fun, visit http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com/ .

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

710 centenarians living in Scotland in 2007

The General Register Office for Scotland has published a report on the number of centenarians living in Scotland between 2002 and 2007. The number is on the rise, with 710 recorded in the country last year. With over 7000 years worth of social history waiting to be recorded, I hope somebody has had a chance to visit them with a tape recorder!

For more info, see Centenarians in Scotland 2002 - 2007 .

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

Mapping our Anzacs website

Simon Fowler's Ancestors magazine blog has details of an interesting new website for those researching Anzac ancestry from the First World War.

The site is called Mapping Our Anzacs, located at www.mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au, and uses Google Maps as a source to identify the birthplaces of those who fought in the war.

There's further info on Simon's blog.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

Statue to James Clerk Maxwell unveiled

A statue to 19th Century Scots physicist James Clerk Maxwell, a pioneer in the field of electromagnetism, has been unveiled on Edinburgh's George Street, the first statue to be raised there in over a century.

For more on the story, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7746365.stm .

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

Discover my Past Scotland - new online genealogy magazine launched

A new Scottish genealogy magazine has just been launched online by brightsolid, the parent company behind Findmypast.com and ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk. Entitled Discover My Past Scotland, each 40 page online issue costs £2.50, and can be purchased by subscription from www.discovermypast.co.uk.

The first issue is packed with special features and how-to guides to connect you with your Scottish Heritage:

Focus on St Andrew
Celebrate with Homecoming Scotland 2009
Find your lost-long relatives in Australia and New Zealand
Trace your Ancestors who worked in the Scottish textile trade
Learn more about heraldry
Track down your Aberdeen forebears
See how Edinburgh Edwardians enjoyed their leisure time
Plus Expert Family History Q&A, Dates for your Diary, as well as plenty of direct web links to facilitate your online research.


With Homecoming Scotland just around the corner, this is definitely one to check out!

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

Practical Family History magazine (Dec 08) now on sale

Woah! What happened to Practical Family History magazine?! A sexy new revamp, guv, that's what...! The December 2008 issue (133), is now on sale, with the whole magazine having had a major facelift. Brighter, funkier and now permanently longer at 100 pages, it still remains the same magazine however, with the usual mix of fascinating articles and stories.

In this month's packed issue, there are articles on World War II service records, adoption research, canal and river people, costume history, the latest chronicles from 1650-1700 by the FFHS's very own Maggie Loughran, Christmas traditions from the past, Irish ancestors, and much more. Yours truly also contributes an article on why social history should matter for your research, and the very latest genealogical news in the UK.

Ridiculously brilliant and available at all festive news vendors for the extraordinarily gorgeous price of just £3.75...!

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk

Scotland's Greatest Story

Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving

PRONI's eCATNI goes live in Belfast

Major news from Northern Ireland - the Public Register Office of Northern Ireland's electronic catalogue (eCATNI) has finally gone operational in Belfast, and is due to be launched online in January 2009. The following is the announcement from PRONI:

The Electronic Catalogue for Northern Ireland (eCATNI) went live in the PRONI Search Room on 10 November, 2008. This has been PRONI’s flagship project since 2002 and will enable users to perform searches and obtain instant results.

Over a million PRONI catalogue entries are now available electronically via eCATNI. This represents approximately sixty percent of PRONI’s catalogue entries. The remainder will be published in due course.

In January 2009, eCATNI will go live on the PRONI website. This will allow off-site visitors to consult our catalogues, bringing PRONI in line with other National and International archival institutions.

How this will affect you:

* Search the catalogues electronically by inputting a name, place or other keyword

* Search the catalogues electronically by date

* Order an item directly from the results screen (on-site only)

* On-screen messages reporting items that are off-site, closed or already ordered by another user (on-site only)

* Visitors will be issued with new passes and reader numbers


Three massive cheers for PRONI...!

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving