Important news from ScotFamTree forum

An important announcement from the ScotFamTree Forum, which I consider to be the foremost family history discussion forum in Scotland, with many passionate, dedicated, often irreverent and above all, fun members! The site has recently had major problems in relocating to a new online portal, but all is now apparently resolved - here's the announcement:

Our previous forum address of http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com will no longer be used, it will be closed and only used as an archive.

We are now using our reserve forum http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com as our main forum. This forum is now our home. If you have not already registered at the new forum, please do so.

In the coming days,it will be well worth while registering at the new forum as we are ,in way of a thank you, about to offer a great deal for those interested in subscribing to tier2.

We look forward to seeing you, on the new forum,once you have REGISTERED.

Comment - do visit and have a look, I've often described SFT as an online family history society, rather than a forum, a great resource, and I look forward to its members' next meeting in February!

Chris

The right kind of history - and family history

Here's an interesting piece from the BBC website last week, written by historian Lisa Jardine, who has recently become converted to the benefits of researching family history. The story is at www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16000134.

Family historians of course know the benefits of why they do what they do. It amuses me how often academic historians try to belittle family history as some kind of wild fancy firmly located within hobby territory. But the truth is (at least as I see it!) that family history research can be a direct challenge to some academic historians, who wish to portray an 'official history' and wallow in the glory of being the gatekeeper to that history (particularly if your surname begins with an S!).

To me the best historians are those with open minds, so it's nice to read a piece showing someone firmly on the path of conversion. Academic history has its place, most definitely, particularly in providing context or a backdrop to our ancestral stories. But our individual family histories are a canvas they can never touch - the fact that this is the case makes our efforts no less important or respectable.

Happy hunting!

Chris

National Library of Scotland annual review

The latest annual review of the National Library of Scotland's activities has been published online at www.nls.uk/about-us/publications/annual-review.

Amongst the developments reported is the fact that the NLS website's new online registration process has seen 9500 new subscribers sign up prior to March 2011. Remember that registration allows you to view many free resources online, including the Scotsman, the Times and the British 19th Century Newspaper Collections - but you need to register with a Scottish address!

Meanwhile, the NLS has also added 7000 new Scottish maps online:

The Ordnance Survey six-inch to the mile series (1892-1960) illustrates a very wide range of natural and man-made features, and are excellent resources for local and family history. You can zoom into the detail of the OS six-inch maps using an interactive index map, and also search them by counties, parishes and a gazetteer of place names.

Maps are available at http://maps.nls.uk/

Chris

Post Office radio series

Apologies for the late post on this one - if you have ancestors who worked in the Post Office, there's a new series which started on Radio 4 last week which might be of interest. From Philippa McCray of the Federation of Family History Societies (www.ffhs.org.uk):

Monday 5 December sees the launch of an exciting new series on BBC Radio 4. The Peoples Post is a 15 part series exploring the history of the postal service through the people that use and work for it. The series begins in the 16th century in the reign of Henry VIII and explores some of the key moments in the nearly 500 years since then. Each weekday there will be a new 15 minute episode touching on a different part of this fascinating and evolving story. The programmes are being broadcast at 1.45pm until 23 December.

The series is supported throughout by The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA). With each episode there will be new content loaded onto their website at
http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/peoplespost

NB: The first episode should still be available on the BBC iPlayer to UK residents.

(With thanks to Philippa)

Chris

Ancestry teams up with Spielberg

Ancestry and Spielberg, together at last! :)

ANCESTRY.CO.UK TO PARTNER WITH DREAMWORKS PICTURES FILM, WAR HORSE

Ancestry.co.uk announces promotional partnership with Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the hit novel and theatrical production

Ancestry.co.uk, the UK’s favourite family history website, announces its promotional partnership with DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, the much-anticipated film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, which is scheduled for its UK theatrical release on 13th January 2012.

Produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures, UK through the Touchstone Pictures banner, it is directed by Stephen Spielberg.

DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway and in the West End. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

Reality was equally tragic. When the war began in 1914, the British army had just 25,000 horses and the War Office was tasked to recruit more, which were needed to pull heavy guns, transport weapons and supplies, carry the wounded to hospital and to mount cavalry charges.

During the first year of conflict the countryside was emptied of shire horses and riding ponies, which was agonising for farming families who often had already said goodbye to a family member. In total one million horses were sent to the Western Front during the war, but only around 67,000 returned home.

War Horse will shine light on the story of the million brave horses that served in the War, which is highlighted further through the partnership with Ancestry.co.uk. It includes TV and print advertising, a dedicated competition webpage on www.ancestry.co.uk/warhorse with exclusive content and a co-branded Facebook presence with various to-be-revealed promotional elements.

Ancestry.co.uk International Commerce and Business Development Director Angela Crouch comments: “Our members will absolutely love this film and the war-related theme fits perfectly with our unrivalled historical collections, which document the human heroes of so many historic conflicts. They will also have the chance to win prizes and get access to film footage through our dedicated competition webpage.”

For those researching any war hero ancestor, Ancestry.co.uk has the most comprehensive collection of WWI military records available online, including British Army WWI Service and Pension Records and WWI Medal Index cards.

(With thanks to Adrian at Ancestry)

Chris

RCAHMS seeks opinions on web redesign

From the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland:

We'd like your feedback on how our online services should develop.

'Taking forward a participative 21st Century Inventory' is a Beyond Text funded project to create and trial new social media developments.

There are three proposals:

Image tagging - to enable users to add their own keywords to Canmore images and to search for these tags, turning Canmore into a browsable image bank

Scottish Thesaurus of Monument Types - to develop the existing Thesaurus to enable users to nominate Canmore images to represent each site type definition

RCAHMS Data Service or API - to enable members of the public to search for data and export the results to develop new interactive resources, for example Apps

Visit our website at www.rcahms.gov.uk/news/beyond-text and www.rcahms.gov.uk/news/beyond-text to view mock-ups of each of the proposals and please give us your opinions by completing the questionnaire (closing date Friday 16 December). Your feedback will influence which proposals are taken forward and how they are developed.

If you require any further information about the Beyond Text project please contact the Project Manager philip.graham@rcahms.gov.uk

(With thanks to the RCAHMS)

Chris

Perth and Kinross Archives catalogue now online

Perth and Kinross Archives has placed a searchable catalogue online for the first time at http://193.63.61.15/CalmView/default.aspx. The catalogue is not complete, but very much a work in progress.

Lots of fun ahead, as my Paton lot mainly came from Perthshire!

(With thanks to Jan Merchant)

Chris

The last convict ship down under

I stepped off a plane yesterday, having flown in stages from Sydney to Bangkok, Bangkok to Dubai, and then onwards to Glasgow. The journey took just over a day, though ironically the longest part of the trip was the two hours seated on board the plane at Glasgow Airport, with permission for passengers to disembark and cross the final twenty metres into the terminal building denied due to high winds!

I'll write about the Unlock the Past genealogy cruise soon on which I participated in the next few days, but here's a wee treat from my visit to Picton, New Zealand. The cruise vessel on which we were travelling, the Volendam, was the height of luxury, and a perfect venue for a two week genealogy cruise, but it was in marked contrast to the vessel I encountered in Picton, the ninth oldest in the world, and the only remaining original convict ship in either Australia or New Zealand - the Edwin Fox. Built in 1853 in Calcutta, the remains of her once proud hulk were recently recovered and preserved, and can now be visited in the town.

The following is a video diary I recorded on board her on Saturday, 26th November 2011.

And a few pics of the Edwin Fox (and the more modern Volendam!)

Chris

Electric Scotland additions

There's a few interesting additions to the Electric Scotland website named in the latest newsletter at http://www.electricscotland.org/showthread.php/2462-Newsletter-9th-December-2011 - Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland, and a new book, Chronicles of Gretna Green. All are free to access.

(With thanks to Alastair McIntyre)

Chris

Scottish 1861 census joins FindmyPast

Transcriptions of the Scottish 1861 census have been added to the FindmyPast website (www.findmypast.co.uk), joining the previously released 1841 and 1851 records on the site. The full story is at www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/scotland1861.html.

Chris