Ancestry offers three DNA 'traits' for free

Whilst DNA testing companies started in the family history world by offering tests, the results of which could be compared against hosted family trees, they are now increasingly trying to push medical style information based on analysis of genes within your DNA results. 

In line with this, Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) is now offering access to three 'traits' per DNA customer, in the hope that they will purchase the full package.

So what are my three traits? Well, my heart rate has an average rate of recovery; I am a night person, rather than a morning person; and I am apparently less likely to take naps.

My world has not changed with these revelations, anymore than it has been by the sale of Ancestry's doggy DNA kits, but there may well be a use out there for someone! Users can upgrade to find more than 40 of these traits by paying £15.

This is a full list of the traits reported on:

Fitness

Endurance Fitness
Heart Rate Recovery
Muscle Fatigue
VO2 Max
Sprinter Gene

Nutrients

Beta-Carotene
Vitamin B12
Omega-3
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E

Appearance

Facial Hair Thickness
Birth Weight
Cleft Chin
Finger Length
Earlobe Type
Earwax Type
Eye Colour
Freckles
Hair Colour
Hair Type
Hair Strand Thickness
Iris Patterns
Male Hair Loss
Skin Pigmentation
Unibrow
Wisdom Teeth

This one personally does not float my boat, but further details are available at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/c/offers/traitsadd. And note Ancestry's caveat: "Traits is not intended to diagnose health conditions and is not a substitute for medical advice."

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Sgeulaiche Gàidhlig air ainmeachadh / Gàidhlig Storymaker announced

Bhon Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba /From the National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk): 

Tha sinn toilichte ainmeachadh gun deach an dreuchd chliùiteach mar a’ chiad Sgeulaiche Ghàidhlig a bhuileachadh air an sgrìobhadair agus craoladair Curstaidh NicDhòmhnaill. Chaidh an dreuchd a bhrosnachadh le taisbeanadh dà-chànanach làithreach an Leabharlainn ‘Sgeul | Story: Sgeulachdan bho Ghaidhealtachd na h-Alba’. A’ tarraing air dualchas beul-aithris a tha a’ dol air ais fad linntean mòra, tha an dreuchd ag amas air a’ Ghàidhlig a bhrosnachadh tro sgeulachdan cruthachail.

We’re pleased to announce that writer and broadcaster Kirsty MacDonald has been selected as the Library’s first Gàidhlig Storymaker. The post was inspired by the Library’s current dual-language exhibition, ‘Sgeul | Story: Folktales from the Scottish Highlands’. Drawing from a centuries-old oral storytelling tradition, the role aims to promote Gaelic language through creative storytelling practice. The 12-month Gàidhlig Storymaker position is funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

Barrachd fiosrachaidh / Further information - https://www.nls.uk/news/archive/gaidhlig-storymaker-announced/

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

FindmyPast adds the Ulster Covenant

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added a searchable index and images for the 1912 Ulster Covenant.

This province in the north of Ireland has seen considerable strife throughout its history. Bolstering our existing collection of Irish records, this new set sheds light on the lives of those involved in the bitter conflict over Irish independence.

On 28 September 1912, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to voice their opposition to Irish Home Rule. Many of these self-declared unionists hailed from what we now refer to as Northern Ireland, while some were from the South of the country, and others travelled from Britain and further afield. Men signed what was known as a 'Solemn Covenant', while women signed a 'Declaration'.

Within this brand-new set, you'll find the names of 223,543 men and 221,058 women who signed the Ulster Covenant. Although the records are index-only, you can view an image of each signature by following the link attached to each transcript.

Note that Covenant is freely searchable at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/search-archives-online/ulster-covenant

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Scottish land tax records in October's WDYTYA? magazine

The latest edition of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine includes an article by yours truly on Scottish land tax records, many of which can be found on ScotlandsPlaces.gov.uk. 

I also have a Q&A answer, questioning a football event depicted in a photograph, and how to identify it. A useful site you might not have come across before is the Glasgow Schools Football Asoociation platform at https://www.gsfa.net, which listed all past schools divisions and cup winners, although I have just noticed that this site appears to have gone down sicne I answered this, showing as 'temporarily unavailable' - you can see it most recently cached by the Internet at https://web.archive.org/web/20230216071537/https://www.gsfa.net/, but only the home page appears to have been preserved. Hopefully this site will be restored soon!

Also in the latest WDYTYA issue:

• Melanie Backe-Hansen looks at English and Welsh house history
• Rosemary Collins sdiscusses joining a family history society
• James Hoare looks at wartime rationing
• Phil Tomaselli looks at researching Boer War ancestors online
• Jonathan Scott looks at researching medals and ribbons

And much more! For further details visit https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry adds Cassini Old Series OS maps for Scotland, UK and Isle of Man

Added to Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk):

England, Wales, Scotland and Isle of Man, Old Series Maps, 1805-1874
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62510/
Source: Cassini Maps Old Series and Scottish First Edition. Dorset, England: Cassini Publishing.

General collection information

This collection contains indexes of topographic maps of England, Wales, Scotland, and the Isle of Man published between 1805 and 1874. Indexes in the collection were taken from a series of Ordnance Survey maps referred to as the "First Series" or the "Old Series." Old Series maps were the result of the first national survey of Britain.

Using this collection

Records in the collection may contain the following information:

• County name
• Town name
• Parish name
• Map scale
• Survey date
• Publication date
• Revision date
• Railway lines
• Topographic information

Further details via the link.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry adds Scottish WW1 Rolls of Honour

The following have been added to Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk):

Scotland, World War I Rolls of Honour, 1914-1918
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62490/
Soure: Rolls of Honour. https://digital.nls.uk/rolls-of-honour/archive/100261716: National Library of Scotland License: CC BY 4.0.

About Scotland, World War I Rolls of Honour, 1914-1918

This collection contains records of the original Scottish First World War rolls of honour that list war casualties and military personnel who died during active service between 1914 and 1918. One section of the collection focuses on rolls of honour related to schools, universities, clans, businesses, and churches. A second section has rolls of honour connected to places throughout Scotland. The rolls were often organised alphabetically by surname, but casualties were also grouped by regiment, branch of service, or military honours earned.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Alias
• Rank
• Service number
• Regiment
• Unit
• Branch of service
• Ship name
• Military award
• Military place
• Birth date and place
• Death date and place
• Age at death
• Enlistment date and place
• Next of kin and relationship
• Place of residence
• Street Address
• Place of employment

The records in this collection can be used to verify the date and place that your ancestor was killed in action or on active military duty during the First World War. The information about your ancestor's military service can lead you to histories of their units or regiments, which may explain what happened during the battle in which your ancestor was a casualty. The records also can be used to verify your ancestor's age, place of residence, and occupation at the time the record was created.

Further details via the link. 

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Preserving Memories: The annual review of the National Library of Scotland

I've just been reading Preserving Memories, the annual review from the National Library of Scotland (www.nls.uk), which came through the door yesterday. Some highlights...

• Plans from the Moncrieffe and Trinity Gask estates from Perthshire from 1826 and 1867 (two volumes of twenty maps) have been acquired.
• The papers of John 'Jock' Murray (1909-1993) have been acquired, the sixth Murray to run his family's publsihing house, also called John Murray.
• An archive of papers belonging to Robert Ramsay 'Bob' Smillie (1916-1937) are now at the library. Smillie was in the Independent Labou Party's international military brigade in the Spanish Civil War. 
• Letters between author George Mackay Brown (1921-1966) and Renee Sim, both of Orkney, have been deposited.
• Conservation work has been carried out on the Mackinnon Collection of daguerrotypes.
• Over £100,000 has been raised for the library's Save Scotland's Newspapers appeal (see https://www.nls.uk/news/archive/newspaper-appeal/).
• Over 13,000 Great Britain OS maps have been added to the site's mapping platfom, as well as Lidar coverage of Glasgow and Edinburgh. 
• The Roy Maps transcription project also successfully saw all 33,522 names transcribed, as found in the maps, and the 3D map viewer has been revamped.
• 240 rare manuscripts have been digitised from the 9th to 16th centuries, available to view at https://digital.nls.uk/early-manuscripts/.
• The National Bibliography of Scotland has been updated, which now has 400,000 records.
• Touring exhibitions from the library have included 'Lifting the Lid' on our food and drink story, and 'Going to the Pictures', on Scottish cinema.

The reports usually make it online, although I can't see it on the NLS platform yet. I'll update this if I get a link.

(With thanks to the NLS)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Irish Ordnance Survey maps join National Library of Scotland maps platform

A nice piece of news that I have just gleaned from Laragh Quinney from the National Library of Scotland's maps department - Irish OS maps are being added to the NLS maps viewer. Here's the announcement from the latest editions page at https://maps.nls.uk/additions/:

OS Six-Inch Ireland 1st edition maps (1820s-1840s)

We have added online 1,970 maps forming the Ordnance Survey of Ireland's Six-Inch 1st edition series (surveyed 1829-1842). This is the earliest comprehensive mapping of Ireland, showing good landscape detail. Ordnance Survey began work in Ireland in 1824, working initially on creating an accurate triangulation network. The surveying and publication of map sheets generally proceeded from north to south. Ordnance Survey mapped Ireland at the Six-Inch scale before Scotland, England and Wales, and the maps show emerging practices for this series in terms of features, placenames, heights, and engraving techniques. 

For more on the maps visit https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-ireland/index.html

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

British Newspaper Archive passes 71 million pages of content

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has passed 71 million pages of content, with at the time of writing some 71,140,389 pages available.

There's not a lot of new content for Scotland and Ireland in the last 30 days, but the following have been added:

Schoolmaster and Edinburgh Weekly Magazine
1832-1833

North British Advertiser & Ladies' Journal
1881

Dumfries and Galloway Standard
1986

Belfast News-Letter
1957-1958, 1962-1976, 1979-1981, 1984, 1986

Donegal Vindicator
1914

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

RootsIreland adds records to South Tipperary

From RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

We are delighted to announce the addition of 2227 marriage records in County Tipperary for the Roman Catholic parish of Boherlahan & Dualla, 1810-1900. For an up to date list of sources for South Tipperary and to search these records, go to tipperarysouth.rootsireland.ie and login or subscribe as required. 

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.