Scottish Indexes conference timetable announced for Sunday 6th December

The next Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com) conference takes place this coming Sunday 6th December 2020, and the good folks running the event have just uploaded the timetable for the day. As per previous events the sessions will be run twice to allow as many people worldwide to drop in as possible. Here are the times for the events for Scotland:

07.00 Introduction
07.10 'The Highlands: Jacobites, Clearances and Emigration’, by Lorna Steele
08.15 'Orkney Family History Society', by Jackie Harrison
08.30 ‘Using Kirk Session Records’ by Emma Maxwell
09.30 ‘Your Burning DNA Questions’, by Michelle Leonard
10.30 'Using FindMyPast to go Beyond Basic Birth, Marriage & Death Records', by Myko Clelland.
11.30 Genealogy Q&A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell
12.30 'Borders Family History Society', an interview with Elma Fleming.
13.00 'Understanding Scottish Inheritance Records' by Chris Paton.
14.00 'Researching Scottish Ancestors from a Distance', by B.J. Jamieson.

And in round 2...

15.00 Introduction
15.10 'The Highlands: Jacobites, Clearances and Emigration’, by Lorna Steele.
16.15 'Orkney Family History Society', by Jackie Harrison.
16.30 ‘Using Kirk Session Records’ by Emma Maxwell.
17.30 ‘Your Burning DNA Questions’, by Michelle Leonard.
18.30 'Using FindMyPast to go Beyond Basic Birth, Marriage & Death Records', by Myko Clelland.
19.30 Genealogy Q&A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell
20.30 'Borders Family History Society', an interview with Elma Fleming.
21.00 'Understanding Scottish Inheritance Records' by Chris Paton.
22.00 'Researching Scottish Ancestors from a Distance', by B.J. Jamieson.

For the worldwide equivalent timetables, and to find out more about the speakers participating, please visit www.scottishindexes.com.

I've just recorded my talk on Scottish inheritance records, and am looking forward to getting stuck in again on Sunday - hopefully see you there!

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Dundalk Democrat joins Irish Newspaper Archives

From the Irish Newspaper Archives (www.irishnewsarchive.com):

The World's Largest & Oldest Irish Newspaper Archives continues to expand. We are delighted to announce an update on The Dundalk Democrat:

Title: Dundalk Democrat

Content Update: 1913 - 1939 & 2013 - 2015

Newspaper Origins:

The Dundalk Democrat was established in 1849 by Mr. Joseph A. Cartan. The paper was originally produced from a hotel owned by the Cartan family.  Cartan was a staunch nationalist and pro- O’Connell supporter.  Cartan used the newspaper to endorse nationalist and tenant rights. Many of the editorial pieces produced were vitriolic and condemned by many.  In fact, Lord Clermont won a judgment against him which he could not pay. Subsequently ending up in Dundalk jail.

Note:

The Dundalk Democrat 1940 - 1944 will start showing on the archives however the content will not be searchable on the site till the 03.December.2020. We will send out another update once the period is ready for searching. 

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

FindmyPast expands coverage of Scottish monumental inscriptions

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has extended its coverage of Scottish monumental inscriptions with a further 600,000 entries as sourced from the following societies:

    Aberdeen & North East Scotland FHS
    Caithness FHS
    Dumfries & Galloway FHS
    East Ayrshire FHS
    Highland FHS
    Lanarkshire FHS
    Moray Burial Ground Research Group
    Scottish Genealogy Society
    Tay Valley FHS
    Troon@Ayrshire FHS

Commenting on the release, FindmyPast states "This landmark release is the latest step in our drive to become the home of Scottish family history. Over the last year, we've added over 150 million new records from across the country, making Findmypast one of the best places online to research your Scottish family tree."

In addition to this, FindmyPast has also added Caribbean First World War Rolls of Honour, United States, World War II Casualty Lists, and service records for the British Army, Coldstream Guards 1800-1947, as well as additional newspaper content.

For further details visit the latest announcement at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/scottish-monumental-inscriptions 

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

NRS remains closed as TNA again re-opens

From the National Archives in England (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk):

We can confirm that our reading room services will resume from Tuesday 8 December, in line with the new local restriction tier system.

All visitors must continue to book their visit and order their documents in advance. We will be offering greater capacity in our reading rooms, with more documents per visitor and a greater choice of bookable dates, including Saturdays.

We will open reading room bookings on Tuesday 1 December at 12:00 (midday). As our services have been suspended for a four-week period we are expecting increased demand, and so we will be making bookings available for the period of Tuesday 8 December to Saturday 2 January (inclusive), excluding Christmas and New Year closure dates.

We want to give as many people the chance to access records as possible, and in consideration of this we will initially be asking visitors to book no more than two visits in this period. Bookings for subsequent dates will be released on a more regular basis soon.

We were forced to cancel the bookings of a number of visitors earlier this month, when national restrictions came into effect. We will be contacting these visitors directly to ensure that they are able to re-book their visit before we make bookings more widely available, and will be re-opening our reading rooms for some of these visitors on 3 and 4 December.

Before planning a visit, we would encourage visitors to refer to government guidance relating to local COVID alert levels and how travel restrictions might affect your visit – this applies to any areas you might need to travel through, as well as the areas you are travelling to and from. From 2 December, The National Archives is located within a High alert area (tier 2).

All of these arrangements are subject to change at short notice, due to factors outside our control. Please check our website or social media for further updates.

(Original story at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/coronavirus-update/)

Comment: Meanwhile, in Scotland... 

As announced earlier (https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2020/11/national-records-of-scotland-issues.html), the National Records of Scotland, the only UK based national archive to have remained closed throughout the pandemic, has stated that it hopes to trial some limited re-opening early next year. This is a welcome move, but it does once again flag up how behind we are the rest of the UK in terms of a functioning national archive provision.

I have long stated that whilst the staff at the NRS do a great job - and they are currently working like troopers in the pandemic - the building itself is not fit for purpose, something the archive itself conceded with its estates review some six years ago now (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2014/07/comparing-uks-three-national-archives.html). It's a pretty building, well located, but its sheer impracticability is its greatness weakness - too much is stored offsite, that which is onsite is not secure (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/shock-as-national-records-of-scotland.html), and in the current pandemic, its very design is proving to be a blockage to access, with inadequate ventilation and ability to control the flow of people to minimise the risks from coranavirus. And as can be seen with the recent move by the Edinburgh based NLS to open a facility in Glasgow also, the idea that our national archive should even be completely Edinburgh based in an increasingly digital era is something I personally think should also be thrown into the mix for consideration.

Rome was not built in a day, but the idea of Rome was a first step. Once the pandemic is over - and absolutely the pandemic must remain the current priority - we may not be in a position to secure a new purpose built facility in the immediate term, but as an aspiration it must come back onto the agenda.

Chris  

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

National Records of Scotland issues service update

From the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk):

NRS Updates: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information

NRS on site services are currently closed to the public. However, we are continuing to deliver business critical services, including providing urgent legal documents to support the property market, the probate sector and court services, and official birth, death and marriage certificates to enable citizens to obtain passports, employment and register with GPs, as well as the processing of Adoption Orders.

Full building re-opening including public access to NRS buildings is not expected to take place until Phase 4 of the Scottish Government route map. However, we are considering whether it may be possible to offer some limited access to digital and physical records onsite in early 2021. Due to difficulties with ventilation and entry and exit routes, it is not possible to effectively mitigate COVID-19 risks to allow public access to the Historical Search Room.

We have therefore carried out feasibility planning on alternative available spaces to identify where it may be possible to open to provide access to both our digital and physical records, on a very limited basis. Following appropriate preparatory work we anticipate that access will be available in early 2021 on a limited and appointment only basis. This will allow us to continue to prepare public access space in buildings and to ensure that all the relevant protocols are in place to protect the health of our staff and customers. 

We appreciate your understanding whilst we take time to plan limited re-opening carefully and look forward to welcoming you back to our buildings when it is safe to do so.

For further details visit https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/about-us/service-status

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

FamilyTree DNA sale

FamilyTree DNA currently has a sale on. And as the North of Ireland Family History Society (www.nifhs.org) flagged it up for me, here's how they can help you order up a test!

Want a Christmas present without having to wait for the shops to reopen? The Black Friday sale is on now at Family Tree DNA!

 

Family Finder kits now only £36.70 ($49) if purchased by next Tuesday. Free delivery applies if purchased through the North of Ireland Family History Society. You can get a kit from your local branch or, if you aren't a member and have a UK address, you can still take advantage of this price if you send an email requesting a kit to dna@nifhs.org with your name and address. We will then set up the order and send you an email with payment instructions allowing you to pay FTDNA directly. Your kit will be posted to you (no delivery charge) once you pay for the kit.

You can also order the test direct from FamilyTree DNA via www.familytreedna.com

 

(With thanks to Martin McDowell)

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Need a Christmas prezzie? My Scottish and Irish genealogy books might help!

If you are looking for a book or two for Christmas, to give as presents to your genealogy obsessed relatives, or to hide away with yourself (if and) when the snow starts to fall, my recent titles from Pen and Sword Family History may help may help! 

Titles include:

Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet

Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (Second Edition)

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records

You can find full details on the titles, and how to obtain them, from Pen and Sword at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Chris-Paton/a/1799

I hope they help!

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist.  Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

ScotlandsPeople adds mothers' maiden names to 1 million death record indexes

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has added a million or so mother's maiden names to its online death record indexes, from between 1855 and 1880. Here's the announcement:

Update on mother’s maiden name for statutory death records

We are pleased to advise that updates are currently being made to the mother's maiden name search field in the statutory register of deaths index, as part of our ongoing improvements to our website and in response to your requests in our customer survey. Before 1974 the deceased's mother's maiden name was not routinely included. Where this information was included on the death records before this date we are retrospectively adding this to the index beginning with the years closest to the introduction of statutory registration in 1855. We have now updated most years up to 1880, adding mother’s maiden names to more than 1 million records, and plan to have completed records up to 1883 by the end of this year. You can populate the name search fields and also choose to 'include unrecorded mother's maiden surname'. You may find that if you enter a name in this search field and the information has not yet been added or it was unavailable at the time of registration then a result will not be found. 

In addition, ScotlandsPeople has also added a further 1,000 more maps and plans of areas of Scotland:

We have uploaded almost 1,000 more maps and plans of areas of Scotland, all with a link to the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020. We have published a new article which focuses on several of these plans and their connection with surveyors and engineers of Scotland's past, including the drafted plans of Thomas Telford the Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason. 

If you are interested in discovering more about Scotland's industrial history, the image library is a great place to visit.

The library holds diverse collections of photographs, and we have explored the images to learn more about the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders with a new feature article. The shipbuilding image collection consists of almost 1,200 photographs of various ships built in John Brown & Company's shipyard, Clydebank, including HMS Hood, SS Avila Star, RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. Find out about all of the ships featured in the image library in our new research guide.  

With thanks to ScotlandsPeople via email - the full newsletter is online at http://email.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/q/17FfLWsTOUcYaDMYnZesLg/wv

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Strathclyde genealogy student seeks help with resilience survey

A student from the University of Strathclyde's Masters genealogy students is seeking assistance with a survey looking at whether the act of doing genealogy and/or finding out about ancestors who coped with challenges has helped build greater levels of resiliency particularly over the last 8 months. 

The following is the request:

My name is Kathleen Norris. I am a Master’s student in the Genealogy, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies program at the University of Strathclyde and I am seeking individuals 18 years and older from the genealogy community to take a survey for me.  The anonymous survey is about 15-20 minutes in length depending on your answers. My purpose is to learn how much genealogy as a practice and the discovery of family stories each impact resilience.

I am grateful to you for your willingness to participate.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Norris

And the link for the survey itself is:

https://hass.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bKoFlK4wkfHtnrD

If readers can help, I am sure it will be much appreciated!

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

MyHeritage sale - DNA tests for £39

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) is currently offering autosomal DNA tests for sale in the UK at just £39 (€45), down from the usual £79, as part of a sale that expires on Friday 27th November. (The cost for delivery in the UK appears to be a further £9, although there is free shipping for two or more kits).

For further details, and to order, visit https://www.myheritage.com/dna/68768861

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.