Scottish genealogy workshop in Toronto June 18th 2011

The Toronto branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is planning a Scottish genealogy workshop on June 18th 2011 at North York Central Library, with the library co-sponsoring the event.

Yours truly has been very kindly invited to attend as a speaker for the day, and I am provisionally planning to give talks on the nature of the Scottish church, house and land history, and the Scottish weaving industry (focussing on the trade in Perth). There will also be other speakers, with plenty of other topics to focus on, so should be a great and packed day for anyone researching their Scottish ancestry!

The last time I was in Canada was in 1999, when filming the Celtic America TV series for Scottish Television. On that occasion, although predominantly working in the US, I managed to make it to Nova Scotia on three separate occasions (including a very nice wrap party at the Lower Deck pub in Halifax after three months filming!), and Quebec on another occasion, staying at the Chateau Frontenac, but was only able to visit Toronto en route, seeing nothing more than the airport - so very much looking forward to remedying that!

There will be more information on this in due course, but as it is being announced today at the society's annual conference, I thought I would give you the heads up from this end also - I look forward to seeing you in Toronto next year!

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Scottish records on FamilySearch Record Search Pilot

Family Search has placed two limited Scottish collections online at its Records Search Pilot site. These are Scotlands Births and Baptisms 1564-1950 and Scotland Marriages 1561-1910. Both were previously available on the British Isles Vital Records Index.

As with the IGI, not much is available after 1875, but still worth a look.

NB: as with the IGI, this is also an index, so no images are available.

(With thanks to Alan Stewart's blog)

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

How Inverness helped to create the Irish Free State

Inverness had a role to play in the formation of the Irish Free State - for more on the story visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8680840.stm.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

More Donegal and Derry records online

From the Irish Family History Foundation

The Irish Family History Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of circa 60,000 baptism, marriage and death records from north east Co. Donegal covering the parishes of the Inishowen peninsula along with the parishes of Doneyloop, Killygordon, Lifford and St Johnston.

Also:

Derry Genealogy Centre has computerised 66,000 headstone inscriptions from 117 graveyards plus the pre-1930 registers of Derry City Cemetery. This database will normally return the name of the graveyard, date of death, name of deceased, age and townland together with a comment recording relationships, where provided, to other people recorded on the same headstone.

All records can be accessed via www.irish-roots.ie at 5 Euros each.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Stobo Kirk monumental inscriptions recorded

A small team from Borders FHS has been transcribing gravestone information at Stobo Kirkyard.

For more on their work, see http://blog.bordersfhs.org.uk/2010/05/recording-gravestone-inscriptions-at.html.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Scottish Family History on the Web

A new third edition of Stuart Raymond's Scottish Family History on the Web has just been released by Family History Partnership, price £7.95. The book is a straightforward directory of more than 1700 websites that may help with your Scottish based research. Full review coming soon in Discover my Past Scotland!

For more on this, and my own book, Researching Scottish Family History, visit www.familyhistorypartnership.com.

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Tayroots fair on Saturday

Quick reminder for this coming Saturday...

Tayroots Local History & Genealogy Fair

Saturday, May 15, 2010
10.15am
Town Hall, Kirriemuir

As Kirriemuir’s celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the town’s most famous son, JM Barrie, continue, the Tayroots Local History & Genealogy Fair on May 15 will be providing local people and visitors with opportunities to find out more about the many other aspects of the history of the local area, as well as their own family’s links to the county of Angus.

Among stall holders at the Tayroots Local History & Genealogy Fair will be family and local history societies from across Angus, including Tay Valley Family History Society, Abertay Historical Society and Aberdeen and North East Family History Society, as well as experts from Deceased On Line, Aberdeenshire Council Registrars Service and the Angus Archives.

Tayroots is a major initiative established by Angus Council and Dundee City Council to help people find out more about their Angus and Dundee ancestors. One of the highlights of the Fair will be the launch of the new Tayroots Pass. This pass will provide local and visiting family history researchers with special offers and discount admission to local historical visitor attractions, as well as providing information about ancestral history resources in the area.

(Thanks to Wendy at Tayroots)

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Life of a World War Two Land Girl

Mona McLeod, a former member of the Women's Land Army, or 'Land Girls' was one of many in the Second World War who helped to grow food to feed Britain.

Now resident in Edinburgh, Mona has shared her story with the BBC - for more, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8677177.stm

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

MyHeritage top 100 blogs

Thanks to MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) for including Scottish Genealogy News and Events in their list of the top 100 blogs worth tuning into. Aww, shucks guys! :)

If you've not dropped into MyHeritage, two great reasons to do so - a great social networking based site, and the best free downloadable family tree programme online, Family Tree Builder.

For the complete list visit http://blog.myheritage.com/myheritage-coms-top-100-genealogy-sites-2010/

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)

Geni.com creates family tree posters

Geni.com has announced a new service - customisable five generation family tree posters from the information contained on your tree hosted on the site. More information at http://forum.geni.com/topic.php?id=62731.

(Thanks to Dick Eastman's blog)

Chris

www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)