Scottish GENES

Saturday, 6 September 2025

Two Irish collections added to Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following Irish collections:

Mayo and Sligo, Ireland, School Registers, 1802-1928
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62903/
Source: Mayo and Sligo schools; collaborartion with Dr. Liam Alex Heffron

About Mayo and Sligo, Ireland, School Registers, 1802-1928

This collection covers school records from County Mayo and County Sligo in Ireland between 1802 and 1928. The records up to 1924 are in English, while those created afterwards may be in the Irish language, Gaeilge. The collection covers school registers, roll books, exam rolls, and supplementary rolls. In respect to privacy and data protection, school records beyond 1928 have not been included.

Using this collection

This collection offers a wealth of information for students in Mayo and Sligo, including the following:

Name
Age
Date of birth
Names of parents (including mother’s maiden name)
Occupation of parent
Place and date of residence
Religion
Entry date into school
Name of school
Parish
County

The school registers within this collection contain the most genealogical value about a pupil but this collection also includes roll books noting daily attendance and exam rolls that marked if a child passed various topics, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, agriculture, and needlework. Keep in mind that the starting class in the Irish school system is called “infants” (for ages 4-6), followed by classes 1-6 (called First Class, Second Class, etc.). Although school was free, you may not find your ancestor attending class if they were needed for work at home or on the farm, as was the case for many Irish families.

Ireland, Jury Lists Index, 1798-1898
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63090/
Source: not stated

About Ireland, Jury Lists Index, 1798-1898

This collection is an index of jury lists produced in Ireland between 1798 and 1898. The lists were printed in books, but images of the original documents aren’t included in this collection. This index includes information from the following locations and years:

Dublin: 1798, 1803 & 1844
Tipperary: 1845-1846
Westmeath: 1845
Mayo: 1851
All of Ireland: 1882-1883 & 1898

Using this collection

The index may include the following information:

Name
Occupation
Street address
Place of residence
Date of residence
Parish
Place of employment
Case number
Qualification for jury duty

While most of the records in this collection pertain to an individual's eligibility to serve on a jury, some records in this collection include information about court officials, such as sheriffs, court keepers, coroners, etc., who were appointed and likely worked for the court throughout multiple cases.

For further details, consult the collection links.

Chris

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.

FindmyPast 50% discount on access-all-areas 12-month Everything subscription

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) is offering a 50% discount on its access-all-areas 12-month Everything subscription. The discount is available until 15 September.

To subscribe, visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/subscribe

* Don't forget, if you live in Scotland you can access many records on FindmyPast for free if you register with the National Library of Scotland via https://www.nls.uk/join/, and access the site via its eResources section - some usage restrictions apply.

Chris

RootsIreland 25% discount offer

From RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

Special Offer Running Now - 25% Off Annual Subscriptions!

Don't miss out on our special offer running now - 25% off a twelve month subscription!

Why take out a subscription to Roots Ireland?

RootsIreland have the most complete and most accurate set of Roman Catholic church records online, as well as millions of Protestant records, civil records, census records, headstone inscriptions and census substitutes. 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 over 23 million records, and our database is being added to continually. In 2025 alone, we have added over 107,000 records from Antrim, Down, Kerry, Tipperary, Monaghan and Cork. In 2024, we added over 154,000 records from Monaghan, Kerry, Armagh, Mayo, Clare and Tipperary.
Together, our 32 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 countyÂ here.

*Offer applies until 12 midnight Irish time on 18 September 2025 only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

(With thanks to RootsIreland via email)

Chris

Scottish Indexes conference on 13 September 2025

The next Scottish Indexes conference (www.scottishindexes.com) takes place in a week's time on Saturday 13th September 2025. The following talks will be offered at the event:

'Tracing your Family History: Church Records' by Irene O'Brien
'Discovering Ancestors Through Royal Commission Reports and Published Sources' by Emma Maxwell
'Searching For Your Scottish Ancestors' by Hilary Hartigan
'I want to research my family history – how do I start?' by Lorraine Stewart
'Women of Glamis: Privilege and Privation' by Ingrid Thomson
'The Servants in Traquair House' by Margaret Fox

The speakers will also be involved in Q&A sessions on the day. For further details please visit https://www.scottishindexes.com/conference.aspx.

Chris

FindmyPast updates British Armed Forces and Overseas BMD records

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added about 100,000 new birth, marriage and death records last week to two overseas British collections from the 19th and 20th centuries.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials
5,827 searchable records are from a non-Catholic cemetery in Rome.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Browse
95,472 images added to this browse-only set of birth, marriage and death records.

I assume the "non-Catholic cemetery" is Testaccio Cemetery, Rome, Italy, also known as the "Protestant Cemetery". The source list on FMP's page at https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/british-armed-forces-and-overseas-deaths-and-burials notes two Rome collections as sources from TNA (England), which I assume are for the same facility: FO 170/1222 - Testaccio Cemetery, Rome, Italy, and FO 45/731 - Protestant Cemetery at Rome, Italy.

Further recent releases are noted at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new, although there is very little for Scotland and Ireland released recently, beyond newspaper additions carried over from the British Newspaper Archive.

Chris

Scottish GENES Webinar - Using DNA for Family History Research: A Beginner's Guide

As I have an extensive library of genealogy talks, I've decided to create a series of monthly Scottish GENES webinars at an affordable rate, which I hope you might be interested to attend! Along the way I will also offer brand new talks, and won't just confine myself to Scottish and Irish themed topics, as there is a lot to discuss in the big, wide genealogy world. The first of these sessions is detailed below, I hope you can come along!

Using DNA for Family History Research: A Beginner's Guide
Saturday 20th September 2025 at 7.00pm UK time. Webinar fee: UK £10.

In this session, I will provide a jargon-free introduction for beginners on how DNA can be used for family history research to break down brick wall problems. As well as offering a brief overview of the history of DNA, and an introduction to how various DNA tests are used in certain situations, I will also highlight three case studies from my own ancestral research where DNA has offered answers to problems which the paper trail alone could not resolve.

So if DNA as a topic has previously terrified you, seemed too complex, or you didn't know that there was more you could with your results beyond checking your ethnicity (!), this session will give you a sense of why so many people today are turning to it as a research tool, and some of the ways that it can help to resolve those irritating brick wall issues!

(For those unable to attend on the night, a video recording will be made available of the session which will be viewable for one week after it takes place). After the session there will be an opportunity for Q&As.

I hope that you can join me on this first session, which I hope will be the first of many more if there is enough support!

To register for the talk, please visit https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6zmDVN02S16qflkpYCAFTg#/registration - and I hope to maybe see you there!

Chris

British Newspaper Archive passes 95 million pages of uploaded content

Apologies for being away so long, from this blog in addition to a two week trip to New Zealand, to speak at two genealogy conferences in Christchurch and Auckland, I subsequently had an operation on my right hand to correct a bent index finger caused by a herditary disease called Dupuytren's Contracture (also known as the 'Viking disease', or 'Celtic disease'). Being right-handed, this severely limited my abilities to work, so I've basically taken a bit of time off. Thankfully everything is now on the mend, so it is time to get stuck back in again!

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has passed the 95 million pages of content mark, as it moves ever closer to the 100 million pages mark, which I suspect will happen before the end of the year. At present, it hosts 95,286,038 pages. The following are the additions over the last 30 days:

Scotland

Banffshire Advertiser
1920-1923, 1925-1929, 1939-1949, 1960-1969, 1980

Banffshire Herald
1919-1969

Dundee Evening Telegraph
1993

Edinburgh Advertiser
1846-1847, 1854, 1857-1858

Edinburgh Evening Courant
1854, 1865

Edinburgh Evening Post and Scottish Standard
1845, 1850-1855, 1857

Fort-William News
1899

Glasgow Citizen
1846, 1849-1854, 1856-1857, 1859

Glasgow Constitutional
2880 pages , updated 11 days ago,1844, 1846-1848, 1850-1851, 1854

Glasgow Gazette
1853, 1855-1857, 1860, 1862

Glasgow Mercantile Advertiser
1880, 1883-1884, 1887-1891

Glasgow Saturday Post
1840-1844, 1860, 1862-1863, 1865-1869

Kirriemuir Free Press and Angus Advertiser
1961-1965

Linlithgowshire Gazette
1967, 1990, 1994-2004

Perthshire Courier
1871, 1874-1876, 1879-1880, 1882-1883, 1886-1887, 1889-1890, 1892, 1929

Scottish Guardian (Glasgow)
1844, 1846-1852, 1857-1858

Scotland on Sunday
1997, 2000, 2002

Witness (Edinburgh)
1184 pages , updated 18 days ago,1849, 1863-1864

Ireland

Armagh Guardian
1880-1889, 1900-1916, 1918-1931, 1940-1949, 1954-1965

Belfast Linen Trade Circular
1857, 1885

Cashel Sentinel
1889-1896

Cork Constitution
1836-1837, 1839-1850

Enniscorthy News
1872-1880, 1882-1899

Kilkenny Journal and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser
1901-1907, 1909-1911, 1945

Leinster Leader
1895-1896, 1986-1989, 1991-1999

Londonderry Standard
1860, 1877, 1880, 1883-1884, 1886-1900, 1921-1922, 1926, 1963-1964

Longford Journal
1839-1849, 1875, 1881

Munster Express
1860-1868

Newry Examiner and Louth Advertiser
1832-1833, 1877

Nenagh Guardian
1846-1877, 1881-1884, 1900-1903, 1906-1915

Chris

Saturday, 26 July 2025

A special plea to buyers of Pen and Sword family history books

A special plea to anyone who has recently bought any of my Pen and Sword family history books – and indeed ANY recent Pen and Sword family history books, by any author - from https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, https://www.penandswordbooks.com, or other book selling platforms.

In the past, when a new title was published, the publisher would send out review copies to various interested individuals, and those reviews would then help to drive sales. Pen and Sword has seemingly now stopped doing this, and indeed when challenged about it recently, the response was "why don't you write an article about your book for us, and we'll plug it on social media" - which is not really the kind of support you want from your publisher after having already put together over 50,000 words on the topic! They can already promote it on social media without an article - and it's simply not the job of authors to write reviews of their own books.

To highlight the impact, after five months there is but one review on my latest book on the P&S website - and it isn't even the full review - with just one review also on Amazon. By contrast, my previous book had 11 reviews on the P&S website, and the one before that 29. “I didn't think the new one would be that bad Chris” I hear you say! But it's not just me that is being affected. To give another example, the latest edition of DNA: A Guide for Family Historians by Graham Holton, John Cleary, Michelle Leonard, Iain McDonald, and Alasdair MacDonald, published just a month after my book, has similarly only had one review featured (and just three on Amazon) - to put that into context, the previous edition of that same title, published Dec 2022, had THIRTY reviews on the P&S site. When a book on DNA is not even getting some reviews, the most popular subject in the genealogy world (and a bloody good book at that!), then it comes across that the publisher has seemingly decided to abandon its responsibilities on this front.

So the plea is this! If you have recently published a review on any of my books, or have had one published, please do let me know (I can pass it on to P&S and insist they add it to the relevant page) - but also, if you have bought ANY Pen and Sword genealogy books recently, particularly any new releases, PLEASE, if possible, please let the authors know so they can do likewise. Please also do leave a review on Amazon, or whichever platform you purchased it from, if not from the P&S site.

Reviews don't need to be an epic as long as the book, it can be as short as “It does what it says on the tin!” (or something more critical!), or just a star-based review (i.e. how many stars out of 5), but believe me when I say that every little helps, and that along with my fellow authors, I will love you all even more for doing so than I already do!!!

It has become harder in recent years for genealogy authors to make money from their publications, but at least in the past the publisher would try to support the work they were producing. I fear those days are fast disappearing, and we'll soon be entering an era where we will also be defending ourselves against AI droids replacing us all anyway (and probably trained on content that we have previously written) - so please do support genealogy authors, whilst they are still a thing, with a quick review.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy all our collective efforts. We're very proud of what we do, and we put a lot of love and work into what we do!

Chris

TheGenealogist adds Scottish confirmation and English probate records

From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

TheGenealogist has just added a substantial new release to its growing collection of historical records, making over 330,000 names available from a variety of wills and probate sources across England and Scotland. These valuable records are great for historians trying to push their tree back, with records spanning 500 years from the 14th century up to the 19th century. They provide a remarkable glimpse into the lives, legacies, and legal affairs of past generations.

Among the notable figures in this collection is George Buchanan (1506–1582), the Scottish historian, humanist scholar, and tutor to King James VI. His testament appears in the Commissariot Record of Edinburgh (1514–1600), offering researchers a direct connection to one of the great minds of the Scottish Renaissance.

Read more about George Buchanan’s fascinating life in our latest article, “The Scholar Who Tutored a King and Defied a Queen”: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2025/george-buchanan-8698/

The new collections now available to search on TheGenealogist include:

Archdeaconry of Cornwall Wills and Administrations 1569-1699
A Calendar of Wills, Gloucestershire 1541-1650
Calendars of Lincoln Wills 1320-1600 (covering Lincoln, Leicester, Rutland, Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham, Hertford, and Oxford)
Wills and Administrations Preserved in the District Probate Court of Lewes 1541-1652 (covering East Sussex)
Dougal's Index Register to Next of Kin, Heirs at Law, and Cases of Unclaimed Money
Commissariot Record of Edinburgh, Register of Testaments, 1514-1600
Commissariot of Inverness, Hamilton & Campsie Testaments, 1630-1800

These records are fully searchable and form part of TheGenealogist’s ongoing effort to bring hard-to-access historical documents into the hands of family historians, academic researchers, and local history enthusiasts.

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist, said:

"These records span centuries of history, from the 1300s through to the early modern era. Whether you're uncovering humble tradespeople or historical figures like George Buchanan, this collection can help you push your tree back before the time of parish records."

Available now to all Standard and Diamond subscribers, these wills and probate collections are part of TheGenealogist’s commitment to preserving and sharing the stories of the past through original records, expertly indexed and easily searchable online.

(With thanks to Paul Bayley at TheGenealogist)

Chris

Friday, 25 July 2025

My Cert HE in Gaelic with Immersion from Glasgow University - and future plans

It's official - I have a Certificate in Higher Education, with Distinction, in Gaelic with Immersion from the University of Glasgow!

During the pandemic I set myself a five year plan to retrieve the Gaelic I had previously learned thirty years ago whilst living in Bristol a student, and to push myself further towards fluency. The culmination of this formal learning was to study a one year Cert HE course - the equivalent of the first year of a degree course - in Gaelic with Immersion at the University of Glasgow, culminating in three weeks immersion with the Gaelic speaking community on South Uist. I can now hold quite fluid conversations in Gaelic, and consider myself to be at a level of functional fluency, but I continue to study every day, because even after 54 years with English, I'm still learning there also!

So what will I do with the language? Scotland's oldest language, here long before the arrival of Scots and English, from at least the 5th century AD, is in trouble, with native speaker numbers declining, but at the same time, the recent census has shown us that that decline can be turned around. Right now I am involved as a committee member with the East Ayrshire Gaelic Forum in Kilmarnock, and will be stepping up on a few other fronts in the next few months. Last weekend I organised an event at Dean Castle Country Park where many learners came with their families to practice the language, which was great fun, whilst last night I was at An Lòchran in Glasgow, participating in a singing workshop with my friend Eilidh Cormack from the Gaelic band Sian.

I am also now seriously giving consideration to doing a teacher training course at Strathclyde University next year, with a view to becoming a teacher in Gaelic speaking schools in Scotland, where I think I might be able to do some positive work to help the next generation of speakers. I have quite a bit ahead of me before making a decision on that front, but it is the direction I am working towards, with some firm decisions to be made next spring.

Whatever the future brings, I am looking forward to it - but don't worry, this blog will continue, as will my current genealogy efforts on many fronts!

Thig crìoch air an t-saoghal, ach mairidh gaol is ceòl!

Chris

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