It's good to keep up family traditions! Part 2

Last month (http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/08/its-good-to-keep-up-family-traditions.html) I posted an old but still very funny IRN BRU advert from YouTube, showing a father who, when asking his wife and mother-in-law what they should name their new baby, has to gulp down copious amounts of IRN BRU to deal with the suggestion of "Fanny", a name once popular in Scotland, but avoided by many today! 

(Also available at https://youtu.be/IcKlVojfMD4)

I've just had an email from reader Chris Schuetz pointing out an Australian run on the same gag, concerning a once popular name avoided by many today - Calum Murray. Enjoy...!

(Also available at https://youtu.be/I0oUVTJ5HzI)

Are there any other examples?! 

(With thanks to Chris - and apologies to any Calum Murrays out there!)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

Old Scottish updates Registers of Deeds indexes

Old Scottish Genealogy and Family History (www.oldscottish.com) has announced an update to its Register of Deeds records:

We've just updated our index to Registers of Deeds - now over 25,000 entries from over 170 registers.

The records are drawn from the following Sheriff and Commissary Courts:

• Cromarty Sheriff Court (1806-1931, NRS references SC24/15/1-2)
• Cupar Sheriff Court (1809-1900, NRS references SC20/34/1-54)
• Dingwall Sheriff Court (1794-1889, NRS references SC25/59/1-4)
• Dunblane Sheriff Court (1809-1902, NRS references SC44/59/5-10)
• Dunoon Sheriff Court (1809-1888, NRS references SC51/50/3-8)
• Haddington Sheriff Court (1809-1895, NRS references SC40/58/1-16)
• Linlithgow Sheriff Court (1809-1899, NRS references SC41/68/22-28)
• Moray Commissary Court (1785-1823, NRS references CC16/9/7-12)
• Paisley Sheriff Court (1809-1899, NRS references SC58/59/1-30)
• Stirling Sheriff Court (1809-1901, NRS references SC67/49/1-42)
• Tain Sheriff Court (1812-1884, NRS reference SC34/19/2/1)

You can access the indexes at https://www.oldscottish.com/register-deeds.html 

(With thanks to Fergus Smith @oldscotbooks)

Chris 

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

New conference date and further records from Scottish Indexes

From Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com):

We’ve added another 26,167 prison register entries to www.scottishindexes.com. This latest batch are from Edinburgh Bridewell, Edinburgh Lock-up House, Ayr, Dundee and Kirkcudbright prison registers.

The next Scottish Indexes conference date has also been announced for 23 OCT 2021. This will be the thirteenth free to attend conference since the pandemic started, and I'm happy to say that I'll be giving my talk on Tracing the Irish in Scotland at the event. 

Also announced as speaking at the event are:

• Eilir Daniels - ‘Tracing Welsh Ancestry’.
• Amelia Bennett - ‘Hidden in Plain Site’
• Dr Louise Williams, archivist, discusses Lothian Health Services Archive
• Lorna Steele from the Highland Archive Service discusses school records.
• Chris Fleet - ‘Using the NLS maps website for family history research’.
• Genealogy Q & A hosted by Graham and Emma Maxwell.
  

To register, please visit the conference link here.

(Thanks to Emma and Graham at Scottish indexes)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers course starts Nov 1st 2021

My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers course kicks off on November 1st 2021 for a further five week run. If you're looking for a way to learn a little bit more each week about your favourite subject, why not sign up?!  

Here's the description:

This is an intermediate level course in Scottish family history for those who are going back beyond 1850. You should have some experience with research in the Old Parochial Registers (OPRs) of the Church of Scotland and in using major websites for Scottish research. This course discusses sources that fill the gap when the OPRs are uninformative or missing; for example, records of parish and town administration, occupations, land transfer and taxation. Using these records involves several different locations. You will learn how to check online finding aids and how to find the most effective way to obtain records that may be available online or offline. This is the second course on Scottish research. If you have not taken Scottish Research Online please check its description.

Lesson Headings:

* Kirk Sessions records and parish poor
* Burgh records and town poor
* Occupations, taxation and early lists
* Land transfer and the value of sasines
* Land, inheritance and estates

Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. (See How the Courses Work at https://www.pharostutors.com/howcourseswork.php.)

STUDENTS SAID: "well structured chats with opportunities for questions as well"

Relevant Countries: Scotland
Course Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: 1 NOV 2021
Cost: £49.99

The following video also gives a bit more of a flavour about what to expect:

(Available also at https://youtu.be/1vX6GZtwZJ0)

For further details, and to sign up, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302.

Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers has been designed as a follow on course from the Scottish Research Online course, although it can certainly be signed up for if you already have the same level of knowledge as given from the earlier course.

I'll hopefully see you there! 

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

Further Scottish census transcriptions added to MyHeritage

Thanks to John Reid at Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections for the news that MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) has added transcripts for the Scottish 1841-1901 censuses (see https://www.anglocelticconnections.ca/2021/09/05/myheritage-adds-scottish-census-collection/). 

This adds to the limited extracts previously only available from the 1841, 1851 and 1861 Scottish censuses, and follows on from a similar release in June to TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) for the same census years for Scotland (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/06/thegenealogist-adds-1841-1901-scottish.html).

Note that the providers of Scottish census transcripts do not usually provide the full information contained within the records, with questions such as linguistic ability with Gaelic, the number of rooms with one or more windows, and some medical details, missing. The only place where the information is provided in its entirety is on the original images which have been digitised and hosted by ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), which also exclusively holds the 1911 census, and at some point hopefuly in the next year, the 1921 census.

Remember that access to My Heritage's census collections is free until September 8th - further details at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/09/myheriatge-offers-free-access-to-census.html. 

Finally, kudos to MyHeritage - the census reference information for each entry on the Scottish entries looks fairly robust from an initial search.

(With thanks to John)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

Covenanters and Multiverses - a visit to Sanquhar

Yesterday my wife and I decided to take a bit of time out to visit the Crawick Multiverse (www.crawickmultiverse.co.uk) near Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire (not to be confused with the DC Multiverse or the Marvel Multiverse!). It's basically a beardy weirdy art installation carved into the landscape of a former mining district, all somewhat Celtic with standing stones everywhere, a lot of fun to walk around, and certainly a strenuous workout! (My wife, called Claire, touched one of the standing stones, but fortunately was not transported back to Jacobite times!)

Upon completing our tour of the facility we then popped into the town of Sanquhar itself, in order that I could take a picture of the Covenanter memorial commemorating the Sanquhar Declaration of 1680. This was when Covenanter Richard Cameron, his brother and many followers basically declared war on Charles II for his decision to force through episcopacy in Scotland (going against his promises to Presbyterian Scotland not to do so in order to gain their support prior to his eventual Restoration in England), leading to The Killing Time and eventually the 'Glorous Revolution' which ousted the Stuarts once and for all. A second declaration was also made in 1685 by James Renwick, following the accession of James VII to the throne.

We also popped into the local museum which we discovered was open at the Old Tolbooth (www.dgculture.co.uk/venue/sanquhar-tolbooth-museum/), and were able to gain an insight into the history of the royal burgh. The museum is free to access, and well worth a half hour visit - the town has a fascinating history! Here are a few more pics

(PS: A thanks to Jimmy, who popped over to talk about the history of the memorial as I was photographing it!)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

25% of annual RootsIreland subscriptions offer

From RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

Special 25% Discount on Annual Subscriptions

Discover your Irish roots by taking out a 12-month subscription for Roots Ireland with a 25% discount from 2nd September to 17th September 2021!*

To avail of this offer just go to the following link and login using your existing RootsIreland login details: https://www.rootsireland.ie. If you currently have a subscription, click My Account, My Subscription and Start a New Subscription. The special deal subscription will then begin once your current subscription runs out.

Why take out a subscription with RootsIreland?

RootsIreland have the most complete and most accurate set of Roman Catholic church records online. Our index is easily searchable and has features such as standardised surname and forename searches which make your searches even more user-friendly.

We hold almost 23 million records which is being added to continually. In 2021 so far, we have added over 74,000 records to our database from Kerry, Cork, Laois, Offaly and East Galway. New records are continually being added to our database throughout the year.

Together, our 34 genealogy centres have an unparalleled amount of local knowledge which can be invaluable to those tracing their ancestors, a service which no other website or company can provide to such a high standard. By taking out a subscription with RootsIreland, you are helping these centres to continue to provide a world-class service and securing many Irish jobs.

If you have any questions please check our Help section and if this does not provide an answer, then you may contact us or one of the county centres. You can check what is available on our site for each county here.

*Offer applies from 2 September 2021 to 12 midnight Irish time on 17 September 2021 only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. 

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

More on Inverness Registrars' ScotlandsPeople access

I contacted the Inverness Registrars' service (www.highland.gov.uk/directory_record/765327/inverness_registration_office/) on Monday to enquire about the status of the ScotlandsPeople service provision there, and have received the following which may be of interest to those seeking access:

Good afternoon Chris,

Thank you for your enquiry and it does look like you have already been given a good steer on how we are currently operating.

We very much appreciate how keen our customer are to make use of the ScotlandsPeople terminals in Inverness.  You are quite correct that we are currently trialling 2 sessions a week with 2 terminals available.  We have been working through our waiting list of customers and offering spaces in order to allow everyone the opportunity for a 1st session back.

We don’t as yet have any immediate plans to extend the bookings to additional days or numbers of people.  Once we have worked through our list of customers, we will consider whether we open the diary for bookings on a first come first served basis.

Whilst we very much plan to return to our previous offering of 4 seats, 5 days per week in the future, I am unable to give an indication of a date for this.  Any enquiries for access should be emailed to inverness.registrars@highland.gov.uk

Kind Regards,

Lesley Gray, Chief Registrar
Highland Archive and Registration Centre,
Bught Road, Inverness IV3 5SS

COMMENT: The days being trialled are Tuesdays and Thursdays, with access from 10-4.30, although the room is closed for lunch from 12.45-2pm.

(With thanks to Lesley at Highland Archive and Registration Centre)

UPDATE: Just to add also, that having spent another morning at the Burns Monument Centre today, a wee handy bit of advice for you - take a jumper. When all the windows are open for ventilation, it gets a wee bit on the cool side!

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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 offers free access to census collections until September 8th

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) is offering free access to all census records from September 1–8, 2021. From the company:

The Census & Voter Lists category on MyHeritage encompasses a vast repository of over 1.3 billion records, including census records from the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Scandinavia, and Canada as well as electoral rolls and other records from Australia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Armenia, Greece, and much more. These records offer valuable snapshots of the lives of people living in these locations throughout history, especially from the 19th century onward.

To access the collections visit https://www.myheritage.com/research/catalog/category-1000/census-voter-lists

NB: Scottish census access provision is limited to extracts from the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses only, but there is acess to English and Welsh censuses (with images), as well as third party indexes to the Irish 1901 and 1911 censuses (in which you can search for two people at a time in a household, unlike the Irish National Archives platform provision).

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.

ScotlandsPeople Centre slightly extends available search hours

Thanks to genealogist Kirsty Wilkinson via the Facebook page of the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com) for news that the ScotlandsPeople Centre (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) seems to be slightly extending access to five hours on a visit, and not the previous four. The email confirming seat bookings now states the following:

"Our search room will open at 10:00 and close at 15:00. We have now removed the need for specific arrival times so please keep socially distanced when you arrive."

There is also information on a new online booking system for seats which will soon be implemented:

"We are actively working to launch a new online seat booking system during September. We are hoping that you will be able to trial the new system for bookings from Tuesday 21 September. Further details will follow in the next 2 weeks."

Whilst undoubtedly a positive development, there is no indication yet of when the elite practice of only allowing professional genealogists access to the centre will end. The Historical Search Room at the NRS next door will be opening up its resources to everyone once again from September 6th (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/08/national-records-of-scotland-to-re-open.html). Hopefully this will be addressed very soon.

Note that access to the centres in Hawick (full day opening) and Kilmarnock (4 hour bookings) is currently open to all. Details of both centres is available at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/local-family-history-centres. 

There is also currently some limited access to the ScotlandsPeople service at the Inverness Registrars service, anyone wishing to use the service there is asked to email them at
inverness.registrars@highland.gov.uk for further information. Access at the Family History Centre in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, remains unavailable at present.

(With thanks to Kirsty, and to the registrars services in Inverness and Alloa.)

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. 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.