TNA continues free access to digital documents during lockdown

The National Archives in England has provided an updated, confirming that its reading room services are suspended until further notice - the full announcement is at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/coronavirus-update/.

The notice also mentions that its policy to provide free access to digital records will continue - you can find more about this at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/. Access will continue to be provided to 100 free documents over a 30 day period. 

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.

GEDMatch updates terms of service and privacy policy

GEDMatch (www.gedmatch.com) is updating its terms of service and privacy policy. The following was received earlier by email:

Here at GEDmatch, we are focused on improving our services and your experience as a user.  We are updating our GEDmatch.com Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to include required disclosures in accordance with applicable privacy laws, to update our payment terms, and to make our policies more transparent and understandable for you. Please be sure to read the full set of updated terms.

The updated terms will go into effect on January 11, 2021. If you continue to use our services on or after January 11, 2021 you are agreeing to the updated terms.  If you don’t agree, you can choose to discontinue using our services and close your account before the updated terms become effective.

The link supplied to the new terms is not working for me, but the site's last update on December 9th 2019 is available at https://www.gedmatch.com/tos.htm, where I am guessing they will appear shortly.

COMMENT: I thought I had deleted my GEDMatch account following its serious data breach in July 2020 (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2020/07/gedmatch-site-now-back-up-again.html) so I was surprised to receive this message. It appears that I deleted my DNA information and Gedcom from the site, but that the account is still active. I have now emailed Gedcom to ask them to remove me from their system.  

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.

Scottish Indexes seeks volunteers for prison records indexing project

From Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com):

Volunteer’s Weekend 9/10 January 2020

 

Stuck at home this weekend and love family history?

 

If you are looking for something rewarding and interesting to do this weekend you may be interested in our weekend volunteer project.

 

We want to index more prison registers and we are working on Edinburgh prison records from the 1840s and 1850s right now.

 

The index that is created will be put online for everyone to access for free.

 

This is a perfect project if you’ve not done indexing before or have limited time. It’s a collaborative project and there will be support all weekend from experienced volunteers.

 

In November 2020 the team of volunteers managed to index over 12,000 entries in just one weekend! A highlight of the weekend was when a volunteer found her own ancestor in the records! Who could you discover?

 

Send us a message if you can volunteer this weekend.

 

For contact details visit www.scottishindexes.com.

 

 

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.

Lockdown: Everything is closed again

So here we go again!

As of midnight last night, mainland Scotland has effectively gone back into a full coronavirus lockdown, in a similar manner to that which we experienced last March. We're not alone, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland doing likewise, and also the Republic of Ireland. A nephew of mine in Ireland was fortunate to be able to get married on January 1st, with 25 folk in attendance - a day later and he would only have been able to have six folk there. 

I'm seeing too many notices from archives and libraries stating that they are closed now in line with the new restrictions to identify them all, so this is just a note to say that if you were planning to visit any Scottish archives in January, it's best to check directly with their websites for an update - and I would not be at all surprised if their re-opening gets pushed back further into February at least, with the prevalence of this new coronavirus strain likely to cause some real problems for the foreseeable future. 

A possible difference with this new lockdown for genealogists is that we have been through this all before, and are perhaps a little better prepared, with not quite the last minute panic in working out how to use Zoom, etc! There are plenty of online courses taking place and soon to take place (I am currently writing a new Irish themed course for Pharos Tutors), and plenty of online events happening. Here in Scotland, for example, the next Scottish Indexes online conference is taking place on January 30th (see www.scottishindexes.com).

If you are self-employed and working in the genealogical world in the UK, the Self-Employment Support Scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme may be able to assist, and for anyone experiencing any problems and in need of a little help, the Crisis Lines page on this blog at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/p/crisis-lines.html has numbers of many societies that can assist (and don't forget your local MSP or MP may also be able to assist).

The 2021 Scottish census has been postponed until 2022, but the English, Welsh and Northern Irish censuses, at least as things stand now, are still planned to go ahead in March. It will be interesting to see if that continues - you can find out about these censuses at https://census.gov.uk and https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/census/2021-census (and for Scotland at www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2021).

Stay safe folks.

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.

Pharos Tutors genealogy courses for January 2021

The following Pharos Tutors courses for January, most of them starting this week, still have availability if you fancy something fun to distract you from the new lockdown:

Advanced Military Research - 20th Century Conflict (325)
4 Jan  
Course Length: 3 weeks
Tutor: Simon Fowler

Introduction to Medieval Genealogy (501)
5 Jan
Course Length: Equivalent to 5 weeks
Tutor: Gillian Waters

Researching Online for Advanced Genealogists (480)
6 Jan
Course Length: 4 weeks
Tutor: Peter Christian

Employment Records (380)
7 Jan
Course Length: 5 weeks
Tutor: Alec Tritton

Discovering Your British Family and Local Community in the early 20th Century (210)
26 Jan
Course Length: 5 weeks
Tutor: Janet Few

For further details, and to sign up, visit https://www.pharostutors.com/coursesmainsd.php

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.

NLS adds maps from OS, estates, and commercial mapmakers

The following updates have been made to the National Library of Scotland's online maps collections:

Ordnance Survey, Scotland, 25 inch to the mile, 1855-1882 (supplementary "Parish edition" sheets)

We have added a further 1,657 Ordnance Survey 25 inch Parish edition maps of Scotland online. These new maps are "Parish edition" sheets for areas which we also have a later reprinted "Combined edition" sheet for. Until now, for these areas, only the "Combined edition" sheet has been available online. Although based on the same survey, there are subtle differences of symbols, styles and the depiction of features between these two states of First Edition mapping. The 25 inch to the mile series (1855-1882), is the earliest detailed OS mapping for all the inhabited regions of Scotland. All towns, villages and cultivated rural areas were mapped, comprising over a third of the total land area of Scotland. With this addition, we now have comprehensively put online all of these 25 inch First Edition sheets covering Scotland.


Estate maps of Scotland, 1760s-1950s

We have added a further 224 estate maps online, excellent for showing detail of the rural landscape. These maps were made to support estate management by particular landed estates, including those of the Lockharts of Lee (1770s-1950s), primarily in Lanarkshire, and those of the Fletchers of Saltoun (1750s-1870s) in East Lothian. We are also grateful to the Dumfries Archival Mapping Project for scanning maps relating to Dalswinton Estate (1768) in Dumfries-shire and Earlstoun Estate (1769-1830) in Kirkcudbrightshire.


Commercial mapmaker series maps of Scotland, 1870s-1930s

We have added online 214 series maps by Bartholomew, Gall & Inglis and W. & A.K. Johnston to our website. Most of these medium-scale maps, primarily at the half-inch or quarter-inch to the mile scales, are useful for giving a regional overview of the landscape, and showing the latest travel routes by road, rail and steamer. These Edinburgh-based commercial cartographers used Ordnance Survey maps for their primary content, but usually redrew the maps at smaller scales, adding colour and related content to create different, distinctive styles of mapping. These maps are folded and have only recently been possible to scan.

For further details and links to the respective collections, visit https://maps.nls.uk/additions.html

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.

2020 - it's over and done with. Happy new year!

As I write this, we are just a few hours away from the end of the worst year of our lives, at least for a great many of us, with viruses and politicians having taken away a great many of our long cherished freedoms. But we have got this far, and all we can do is to keep on going the best that we can! 

Many of us will sadly know someone who has passed away, not just from the virus but from other circumstances, adding to the pain of the year. As family historians, we try to work out how people lived their lives as much as how they died, and to commemorate those who came before us. I hope that if you have lost someone that those memories of a life well lived will always surface first.

With a vaccine against coronavirus now being deployed, it is hoped that by the middle of next year we can get back to some form of normality. Coronavirus will never go away, it is now part of the biological establishment, but it will hopefully soon become 'just another bug', and just another jag every year. I'm looking forward to speaking to family history societies again in person, visiting archives and libraries, and so much more - those days are finally drawing near again as we head towards the light of a new year.

When I raise a glass tonight it will not only be to see in the New Year, but also to absent friends - and to good times returning again soon.  

Slàinte - agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!

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.

FamilySearch catalogue webinar

FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) is hosting a free webinar on Monday, January 4th 2021 at 10am Mountain Standard Time (5pm UK time) entitled Using the FamilySearch Catalog.

To register for the event visit https://churchofjesuschrist.zoom.us/webinar/register/5016028542867/WN_lE65Zgw1QYCaiSraNKdCaA.

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.

Latest additions to British Newspaper Archive

There has not been a lot of Scottish or Irish content added to the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) in the last 30 days, although I see there has been a small addition of content for the Ayrshire town of Irvine where I now live. There has been quite a bit of Welsh and English content added, however, and some overseas materials, including from India, which may be of interest:

Bromsgrove & Droitwich Messenger
1860-1913

Madras Weekly Mail
1876, 1882, 1885, 1888, 1891-1892, 1894-1895, 1898, 1901-1906, 1908

Lancaster Standard and County Advertiser
1894-1896, 1899, 1904-1906

Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette
1881-1882, 1889, 1898-1899

Kenilworth Advertiser
1881-1885, 1890-1895, 1897-1900

Northern Weekly Gazette
1881-1895

Irvine Express
1882-1886

Colne Valley Guardian
1896-1897

Indian Daily News
1881-1885, 1894-1897, 1899

St. Helens Examiner
1883-1885, 1887-1888, 1890, 1892, 1894-1896, 1899-1908, 1910, 1912-1920

Swansea and Glamorgan Herald
1889

Herald of Wales
1883-1886

North Wales Weekly News
1896-1898, 1902, 1911, 1923, 1940, 1943-1952, 1954

Runcorn Examiner
1881, 1883-1888, 1893-1895, 1898, 1900-1909, 1911-1920

Liverpool Daily Post
1904

Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
1871, 1874-1892, 1894-1895, 1900-1902, 1904-1906, 1908-1909, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1919, 1921-1929

American Register
1873-1883, 1888, 1890-1893, 1897-1899, 1901, 1904-1907, 1909-1911, 1913-1914

East Kent Times and Mail
1866-1871, 1873, 1875-1891, 1893-1900, 1902, 1904-1932, 1935, 1937-1940, 1942-1943, 1946-1948, 1951-1952, 1956-1961, 1964-1977, 1979-1980

Western Evening Herald
1899

Newcastle Daily Chronicle
1910

North British Daily Mail
1853-1854, 1865, 1885

Liverpool Weekly Courier
1881, 1883-1890, 1892-1893, 1895, 1897

Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express
1908-1911, 1913-1917

Birkenhead News
1881-1890, 1892-1896, 1900-1907, 1909-1910, 1913, 1915-1920

Nantwich Chronicle
1980

Daily Review (Edinburgh)
1862, 1869

Marylebone Mercury
1980-1981

Leicester Chronicle
1916, 1919, 1921

Burton Observer and Chronicle
1898-1899, 1950

Chester Courant
1766, 1771-1775, 1777-1785

Stratford Times and South Essex Gazette
1862

Retford and Worksop Herald and North Notts Advertiser
1890

Stratford Express
1872

Reynolds's Newspaper
1912-1929, 1934-1938

Gloucester Mercury
1861

Leicester Evening Mail
1938-1943, 1946-1960, 1962-1963

Bridgend Chronicle, Cowbridge, Llantrisant, and Maesteg Advertiser
1888-1889

Bridlington and Quay Gazette
1881-1892, 1894-1895, 1897-1899, 1913-1914

Widnes Examiner
1881-1884, 1887, 1891, 1899, 1903, 1905, 1907, 1912-1916

Blackpool Gazette & Herald
1881-1886, 1888-1893

Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times
1882

Warrington Examiner
1881, 1899-1902, 1904, 1909

Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore)
1889-1890

Kinematograph Weekly
1945, 1950, 1952

Cotton Factory Times
1885-1888, 1891-1895, 1897-1899, 1902-1911, 1913-1920

Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette
1881-1886

Fulham Chronicle
1888-1904, 1907-1912, 1923-1933

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.

Deceased Online Buy One Get One Free offer

From Deceased Online (www.deceasedonline.com):

We're delighted to wish our customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with Buy One Get One Free on pay-per-view voucher purchases at www.deceasedonline.com. The offer runs from now until midday on Monday 4th January 2021.

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.