The Scottish GENES blog deliberately confines itself to matters that may be of interest to those researching Scottish ancestors, whether within Scotland or elsewhere, but many of you will also have an interest in non-Scottish related materials.
As many of you know, I have a Twitter presence at #chrismpaton. One of the advantages of communicating with other gene genies on Twitter is that many of them, like myself, will post messages containing links to new websites, blog posts or interesting genealogical stories of the day. As a new service, I have now created The British GENES Daily, an e-newspaper that essentially draws its material from these links automatically each evening, with daily stories from many professional genealogists with a lot of experience, top genealogical records vendors and magazine providers, and other keen enthusiasts with never ending enthusiasm and lots to say! Launched last week, I had initially named the site The Scottish GENES Daily, but the scope of the content goes well beyond Scotland and encompasses much more from across the UK, and so the new title seems a fairer reflection of what it carries.
The British GENES Daily is available each evening at 8.00pm from http://paper.li/chrismpaton. You can subscribe to the site as you would with this blog, or just bookmark and dip in whenever is convenient. All part of my efforts to continue to spread the word, and as ever, free of charge!
Also, this blog has now been running for three years, with its three year 'blogiversary' on December 22nd. I am debating whether to expand the remit of the site to become a full British news blog, or to remain a dedicated full time resource for Scotland - or possibly to do both. There are pros and cons for each possibility - should this blog continue in its present form, or would you wish to see more content from across the UK? If you have any strong opinions either way, please do contact me or leave a comment below in the comments section. Whatever happens, rest assured that Scottish content will always remain the priority - Alba gu bragh!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
A major announcement from Deceased Online (www.deceasedonline.com) which may help those in Scotland with London based ancestors:
London's largest cemetery now on Deceased Online
* Over half a million burial and cremation records for north and central London
Burial and cremation records dating from 1854 for the boroughs of Islington and Camden in central north London are now on Deceased Online. Two conjoined cemeteries, St Pancras and Islington, form the largest single cemetery in London and, in burial numbers, the largest in the UK.
Of the 800,000 burial records, approximately 70% of these are available immediately with the remainder to be uploaded within the next 3 to 4 months. The 575,000 records currently available comprise nearly 362,000 for the Islington section between 1854 and 1945 and the remaining 213,000 for the St Pancras section are for 1854 to 1898, and 1905 to 1911. Also available now are 46,500 records from Islington Crematorium which date back to 1937. The 8,500 most recent cremation records will be added in the next few months, together with the remaining cemetery records.
The cemeteries and crematorium serve a large catchment area across Central and North London and will therefore be a major research resource. The burial records are in the form of scans of registers; grave details indicating all occupants are available immediately for St Pancras Cemetery, and for Islington Cemetery will follow in the near future. The cremation records include scans of registers.
Notable burials include Henry Croft, the original Pearly King; violinist and conductor Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens, John Hickey (survivor of the charge of the Light Brigade complete with a memorial erected by, among others, Jerome K Jerome); MP and industrialist Alfred Mond, interred in a stunning mausoleum; recipients of the Victoria Cross and hundreds of other war graves; Ford Maddox Brown, the Pre-Raphaelite painter; and Cora Crippen (aka Belle Elmore), alleged victim of Dr Harvey Crippen.
Over the next few months, maps of areas in the cemetery indicating grave locations will be uploaded together with photographs of many notable memorials and headstones.
NB: The Deceased Online database for London is now over 1.1 million including the Borough areas of Islington, Camden, Havering and Merton. Many more records for other areas in London will be added in the near future.
(With grateful thanks as always to Richard Gray of Deceased Online)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
East Ayrshire Family History Society has recently launched a new website at www.eastayrshirefhs.co.uk. It is still under construction, but resources on the site include some historic images of Kilmarnock and local area, a sales area and the possibility of a discussion forum in the future.
(With thanks to SAFHS)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
Thanks to Michael at Strathclyde University for information on further government inspired price rises that will hit the historian and family historian.
I've just spoken to Registers Of Scotland (www.ros.gov.uk) in Glasgow, to confirm that it too will be increasing its rates from January 10th 2011. Registers of Scotland is the body you turn to for information on house history, including information from the Land Register and pre 1978 sasines and search sheets.
Until now the searches performed by staff have been free, with the returned search sheets costing £1.80 each +VAT. This will now increase to £3 per sheet +VAT - but there will now also be a new search fee introduced of £12 per title sheet search if you attend their premises in either Glasgow or Edinburgh. However, if you make the request by letter or email, the search fee will be £8, rather than £12.
Still - ouch again!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
I thought the bad news from Edinburgh was all dealt with yesterday - sadly, more to come! The cost of birth, marriage and death certificates from Scotland is now to go up in price also.
The full list of price increases is available at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files2/family-records/fees-schedule.pdf
To summarise:
From January 2011, local district registrar issued certificates will be £10 each, not £9. A pound dearer than an English equivalent from the same source. Searches at district registrars will now also cost £15 per hour, not £10 - a very steep rise.
From January 1st - a certificate extract from the GROS will cost £10 - up from £8. Priority handling will rise from £10 per cert to £15. Search rates by GROS staff will rise from £3 to £5 for each five year period if calling in at the centre, or remain at £5 if dealt with by post.
If obtained at the ScotlandsPeople Centre, and the index details etc are known, the price will be just £10 (up from £8). [Thanks to Dee Williams for clarifying that]
Cost of an extract issued following identification of a record from an internet search (i.e. ScotlandsPeople website) will be £12, up from £10, from April 1st.
Not a great week.
(With thanks to Sheena Tait)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
Following on from the announcement yesterday of price rises with both the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) and the website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), some additional information was presented in the follow up comments which some may have overlooked, and I've also been asked to further clarify a couple of points by the GROS - so here's a quick update on the updates and the comments on the comments...!
1) The facility for weekend and bank holiday opening is in fact likely to be trialled first before becoming a regular feature - it will only become a regular feature if the centre can pay for itself. The higher rates for those days are primarily due to staff overtime costs. What is actually happening just now is that the legislative provision is being put into place to allow the centre the flexibility to decide to open if it chooses. (ScotlandsPeople is slightly different to other genealogy providers in that everything it and its partners do has to be agreed by statue, being essentially run by the civil service in government buildings). So expect trials first, before anything is put into place on a permanent basis.
2) Also, evening visits for groups will continue to cost £200 for up to 20 people and £250 for 20-40 people. The new legislative provision will again allow for the possibility of customers to book evening visits directly with the centre for a charge of £10. Again this will be trialled first to ascertain demand.
So, bottom line - £15 day pass access from April (up from £10, but still cheaper than £17 two years ago), and website price rise to increase to £7, from £6, for 30 credits (and access to credits to extend to a year from 3 months - though to be honest, 30 credits usually last me about half an hour!). Beyond that, everything else is a possibility being provided for legislatively - once legislation is enacted, the idea of extending access to weekends and bank holidays can then be trialled, and perhaps developed further if the case can be made that such opening would be cost effective.
Comment - Personally speaking, I do think Saturday opening at least should be seriously thought about, simply because many people cannot get to the centre on Mondays to Fridays because of their work. This leads to the odd situation where some people can go in and access everything for the day pass, whilst their neighbours may be forced to shell out considerably more using a pay per view site to access the same records.
Some records can be accessed at weekends in local libraries or the Edinburgh based Scottish Genealogy Society, but not the civil records. The more access can be extended, the greater the benefit will be for everyone in the country. There is something fundamentally powerful about the phrase and concept of "ScotlandsPeople" - a resource for the people of Scotland, not just the people of Edinburgh, those who can physically get there, or those people who can go on Monday to Fridays! Plans to extend access to other centres across Scotland, such as the Mitchell Library, will soon greatly extend that access to the general public across the country, and also help to create employment by making it easier for genealogists to be based across the nation, rather than confining it to those who can only get to Edinburgh. But again, Saturday access would also greatly help at the local level.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
From the Scottish Genealogy Society website at www.scotsgenealogy.com:
Bad Weather - December 2010
Visitors to the Society Library and Family History Centre are advised to phone before making their visit, while the bad weather continues, to ensure that the premises are open. Travel difficulties may, on occasion, make it impossible for volunteers to get in and staff the library.
Closure of the Library and Family History Centre over the Festive Period.
The last day the library will be open in 2010 is Saturday 18 December. The first day the library will be open in 2011 is Wednesday 5 January at 10.30.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
From Year of the Light:
SHINING THE LIGHT ON ANCESTRAL LINKS TO THE BELL ROCK
Is your family connected to the Bell Rock? If one of your ancestors helped to build the Bell Rock Lighthouse two hundred years ago or was one of the lightkeepers on the Bell or maybe even lost his or her life in a shipwreck on the Bell Rock, the organisers of Arbroath’s Year of the Light celebrations would love to hear from you.
During the Year of the Light, a series of events and special occasions have been planned to take place in and around Arbroath throughout 2011 to mark the bicentenary of the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse and the organisers are keen to hear the stories of the families who are inexorably linked with either the Bell Rock or its lighthouse.
David Taylor, founder of www.bellrock.org.uk and a member of the Year of the Light Steering Committee, is the great-great-great-grandson of Captain David Taylor, who commanded the ship where the builders stayed while they were constructing Bell Rock. “Once the lighthouse was in operation, Captain Taylor, who was the son of a handloom weaver living near Arbroath, became master of the lighthouse’s supply vessel and was then appointed first Superintendent of the Bell Rock’s shore station at the Signal Tower in Arbroath,” reveals David.
“I was brought up surrounded by tales of my family’s connections to the Bell Rock and the lighthouse has always fascinated me. My ancestral link to the Bell Rock Lighthouse has shone down through the generations of my family like a beacon of light.”
Carolyn Siddalls from Arbroath describes herself as ‘a bit of a lighthouse enthusiast’, an enthusiasm which has increased following the discovery of several lightkeepers on her extended family tree. “On my dad’s side, there are seven lighthkeepers,” explains Carolyn. “Only one of them, David Charleson, actually served on the Bell Rock but the others will have spent time there, as a spell on the Bell Rock was an important part of lightkeeper training.”
If you have an ancestral link to the Bell Rock or its lighthouse, let the Year of the Light team know by emailing RussellJ@Angus.gov.uk.
For more information about the Year of the Light and the celebrations surrounding the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, visit www.angusahead.com/bellrocklighthouse.
(With thanks to Wendy Glass)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
In the current financial climate it was inevitable, but the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) has just announced forthcoming changes to its admission pricing policy:
The Registrar General announced today that, subject to the agreement of the Scottish Parliament, some of the statutory fees for the ScotlandsPeople Centre will be revised in 2011. The news bulletin can be viewed at:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/press/news2010/statutory-registration-fees.html
Subject to Parliamentary approval, the new fees from 1 April 2011 will be:
General full day search fee - £15 (Note that this is still lower than that charged in 1996).
General search per quarter - £490
General search per year - £1,450
Please note that increases to season tickets will only apply when new passes are purchased from 1 April 2011.
Customers will be pleased to hear that the cost of electronic saves made at the Centre are being reduced from £1 to 50p from 1 April 2011.
The cost of Extracts increases from 1 January 2011 and therefore Extracts purchased at the Centre from Wednesday 5 January will cost £10. [The Centre is closed on 27 and 28 December 2010 and 3 and 4 January 2011.]
In 1996, a full day search cost £17, the price at which it was miantained until the ScotlandsPeople Centre came into existence a couple of years ago. Personally speaking I am more than happy with a £5 increase in the current climate, though as with many genealogists I will have to pass that cost on - but better that, than to lose the centre.
UPDATE: The centre will also be opening at evenings and weekends from April 2011 - now that IS good news!
FURTHER UPDATE: There's always a catch! Thanks to Kirsty Wilkinson for flagging up the schedule at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files2/family-records/fees-schedule.pdf - some further detail - the weekend and bank holiday opening will be £30 per day, not £15 - ouch. An extra two hours after 4.30pm on weekdays is to be an extra £10 - bigger ouch. And from April 2011, the ScotlandsPeople website (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/) will be charging £7 per 30 credits, and not £6.
(With thanks to Dee Williams at the ScotlandsPeople Centre)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
It's endured a delay in publication, but Sir Iain Moncrieffe's The Law of Succession is finally available for sale as of today. I've been fortunate to have had a chance to read it earlier in the year - here's my review a few months back from Discover my Past Scotland's September issue:
The Law of Succession
Sir Iain Moncrieffe of that Ilk
Subtitled ‘Origins and Background of the Law and Succession to Arms and Dignities in Scotland’, this is the first publication of a thesis written in 1958 by the late Sir Iain Moncrieffe of Moncrieffe.
At almost 300 pages in length, the book is structured in two sections, the first dealing with succession in the time of the Picts, the Cymry, the Gaels and the Norse, and the latter dealing with inheritance of earldoms, baronies, peerages, the monarchy and the Heirs at Law to Arms once Scots Law had taken root.
Since it was first written, only two major statutes have concerned the area of law within which arms and dignities are legislated for (concerning succession in 1964 and feudalism in 2000) and both went largely out of their way to avoid dealing with arms and dignities. Moncrieffe’s thesis is therefore as relevant now as it was over 50 years ago, and even in an unpublished format has been cited as a definitive text on the subject in various court cases.
If you are new to the subject, a dictionary of Scottish legal terms will help, but this is one of the publishing events of the year.
Birlinn £60 (hb)
www.birlinn.co.uk
Amazon is selling it cheaper at £51 - see www.amazon.co.uk/Law-Succession-Background-Dignities-Scotland/dp/1904607861/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1291214513&sr=8-5 - if you are unsure of a Christmas pressie, ask Santa for this one - you won't be disappointed.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
