Various search tool improvements on ScotlandsPeople currently being worked on

Some welcome news from ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk)...

In February 2022, ScotlandsPeople suddenly removed the 'fuzzy search' and 'name variant' capabilities on its platform, two of several ways that could be used to manipulate search terms when a result was not popping up as expected (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/02/why-has-scotlandspeople-changed-its.html). I knew that fuzzy searching was particularly useful for records searched in historic groups such as the Scottish Jewish community, and as a consequence, I dropped a note to the then head of ScotlandsPeople, Dee Williams, to flag up that this was potentially an issue for some folk. I also contacted Michael Tobias, an absolute legend in the Jewish genealogy world, with a wealth of experience in constructing databases, who also contacted the centre to give more specific and informed feedback on issues such as fuzzy searching and phonetic searching.

After an initial response flagging up the decision to remove the tools (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/02/scotlandspeople-explains-recent-search.html), I received a further response from the centre stating that it was the intention of ScotlandsPeople, upon reflection, to reinstate the fuzzy search capability at the next major upgrade of the site (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/02/scotlandspeople-to-reinstate-fuzzy.html). More importantly, Michael was able to initiate a fruitful conversation with the centre to identify some specific issues relating to the database, with a view to implementing some potential improvements. 

In October, ScotlandsPeople announced that it intended to reinstate the fuzzy searching tool by the end of 2022 (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/10/scotlandspeople-to-reinstate-fuzzy.html), although to date this has not yet happened. A huge update to the system just prior to the introduction of the 1921 census in December 2022 also caused some major issues with the platform, which the site has been steadfastly rectifying. One of the more frustrating issues has been with the use of wildcards, which used to be automatic when you applied a * to help search for various combination of missing letters (e.g. using 'Sm*th' can return searches for 'Smith' and 'Smyth'), but which now has to be enabled in a drop down menu for every single search.

Thankfully, a lot of work is currently ongoing to bring back and enhance the search tools on ScotlandsPeople, and Michael has very kindly just shared with me an update from the centre on where all of this is now at. As a result of the feedback that he and others have given, ScotlandsPeople's technical suppliers have identified various improvements to phonetics that they're now in the process of applying and testing. At this time the centre does not know when these improvements will be available on the website, as some re-indexing work has to be carried out as a result of them, but it is expected to be within the next few weeks (possibly towards the end of March), and all depending on how the reintroduction of fuzzy matching and wildcards progresses.

Prior to the updated phonetics being applied, fuzzy matching will be reintroduced, but this also requires some testing, which is currently being carried out, and which it is hoped will be made available shortly, once the automatic wildcards are brought back. The automatic function with wildcards is currently in the final stages of deployment, and if all goes well, should be available within the next couple of weeks.

Finally, the centre has confirmed that there are no plans at all to reintroduce user groups, and it encourages feedback to be sent through the ScotlandsPeople website, or in person in the search rooms, which can be noted for future developments.

A good news story from ScotlandsPeople, which will hopefully significantly improve the capabilities of Scotland's most important genealogy resource by far.

(With thanks to Michael Tobias and the ScotlandsPeople team)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Interim CEO appointed at National Records of Scotland

On Monday I asked the question, just who is the current acting Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General?, it having been unofficially confirmed by the previous incumbent himself that he had left the post (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2023/02/who-is-current-acting-keeper-of-records.html). 

Announced by the National Records of Scotland today:

Janet Egdell will take up the post of Interim Chief Executive from 20th February.

Janet is currently accountable officer at Registers of Scotland and will bring a wealth of experience to the role.

Interim Chief Executive for National Records of Scotland, Janet Egdell said:

“I am delighted to be joining National Records of Scotland as Interim CEO, the Registrar General for Scotland, and the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.

“It will be really exciting to work with the team in the coming months to deliver important services across NRS.”

(Source: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2023/interim-chief-executive-appointed) 

The deadline to apply to be the new Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General is tomorrow, Thursday, February 16th - for details at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2023/01/national-records-of-scotland-seeks-new.html. The new appointee should be in post week beginning March 20th.

UPDATE: The NRS has updated its website at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/about-us to reflect this new temporary appointment.

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

MyHeritage offers free access to marriage records

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

Explore Marriage Records for Free This Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, and what better time could there be to explore the love stories of your ancestors? For a limited time only, we’re offering free access to all marriage records on MyHeritage! The records will be free to search and view from February 13–19, 2023.

To view the marriage records, visit https://www.myheritage.com/research/category-2020/marriage-divorce - a full list of the collections included is at https://www.myheritage.com/research/catalog/category-2020/marriage-divorce.

For further details visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/02/explore-marriage-records-for-free-this-valentines-day/.

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Who is the current acting Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General?

In what I am sure will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has been following the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) in recent months, there has still been no official announcement about the resignation of Paul Lowe as Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General. 

Indeed, the NRS website still states at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/about-us that "We are headed by Paul Lowe, our Chief Executive, who fulfils the roles of two non-ministerial office holders – the Registrar General for Scotland and the Keeper of the Records of Scotland". However, Mr Lowe's own LinkedIn account publicly shows that his occupancy of those posts ended in January 2023, and that he has since taken up new employment in the civil service.    

Which begs the question - who is currently acting in a caretaker capacity in those roles until the posts advertised by the NRS are filled?

If you are interested in the posts (they are now a job lot!) you have until this Thursday, February 16th, to apply - details at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2023/01/national-records-of-scotland-seeks-new.html. And we'll know if you are lucky towards the end of March!

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

New spring opening hours for Borders Family History Society

Borders Family History Society (http://www.bordersfhs.org.uk) is resuming its normal spring opening hours at its archive and search room at 52 Overhaugh Street, Galashiels, TD1 1DP, being open from 10am to 4pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For further details visit its website or read https://www.bordertelegraph.com/news/23312926.borders-family-history-society-welcomes-new-spring-opening-hours/.

Chris  

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

New Pharos course - Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis

So, something I have been working on over the last few weeks - a new Scottish themed course to be taught through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), which will well and truly delve into the depths of Scotland's records!

Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis

As in our own lives, many of our Scottish ancestors had to overcome great adversity on occasions to simply make it through the day. Illness, death, bigamy, abandonment, accidents, eviction, victimhood, ethnic cleansing, and so much more, within a dramatic range of experiences across a series of lifetimes. And whenever such crises emerged, somebody was usually close to hand with a quill and ink to bear witness. In so doing, a great documentary legacy was created that can greatly help us to understand the true lives of our forebears, and the struggles that led to who we became today.

Many challenges and hardships were faced across time. There were the laws of the local parish church and the punishments awaiting those who breached kirk discipline, diligently recorded in the kirk session and presbytery papers, but additional courts existed elsewhere in society, from the Crown and the burghs to the local justices of the peace and trade incorporations. Records of the churches and heritors, as well as the post-1845 poor law records, can detail the struggles of those who struggled to avoid poverty, whilst documents such as letters of horning and warrants of poinding, as well as sequestration and cessio bonorum, can detail the persecution and stigma of being a debtor or a bankrupt. In other areas, the court records can also reveal some of the ingenious methods by which people could avoid inheriting the debts of their predecessors.

The darkest moments of the soul, from mental health issues and illness, are revealed in historic asylum and hospital records held in archives across Scotland, whilst cases of murder and suicide can be uncovered in court processes, newspapers and broadsheets. Dramatic moments of rebellion, when our forebears drew a line in the sand against a perceived tyranny or democratic deficit, can be found in contemporary records of the Covenanters, the Jacobites, the Chartists, the Suffragettes, crofters, and those cleared from the land to make way for more profitable sheep, from the forfeiture of lands and prosecutions to the folk songs of many who were forced to emigrate.

This course will reveal the many areas of Scottish ancestral hardship that have been documented over the last few centuries, and explore how to access the relevant records. It follows on from two previous Pharos courses, Scottish Research Online, which explores websites offering some of the more basic records for Scottish research, and Scotland 1750: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, which takes students to more advanced records found offline and online, and which flags up the importance of using catalogues. Although not compulsory, it is recommended that both courses are completed prior to studying Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis.

Lesson Headings:

• * Law and Order
• * Family Events and Relationships
• * Poverty and Debt
• * Medical Issues
• * The State and the People

Each lesson includes lesson notes, activities and forum exercises for students to complete during the week and a one-hour live tutorial (text chat or Zoom) with the tutor and the rest of the class. Times for the tutorials are set at the beginning of each course by the tutor.

See How the Courses Work.

Relevant Countries: Scotland

Course Length: 5 weeks
Start Date: 12 Jun 2023
Cost: £58.00

To sign up, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=303.

COMMENT: It is recommended that the previous two Scottish courses from Pharos, outlined above, are first completed, as the level of knowledge imparted by these will be assumed to be in your grasp (there will be no explaining how to access various catalogues, various points of law already discussed, etc). The next Scottish Research Online course will start on Feb 27th (see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=260). However, if you are well down the road with your research, and very comfortable with a lot of key elements of the Scottish genealogical world, feel free to sign up also! 

Pharos is also announcing two other new courses - Critical Thinking Approaches for Genealogy, with Sophie Kay, and Elusive Ancestors: Migration Within the British Isles, with Janet Few - for further details on each visit https://www.pharostutors.com/blog/2023/02/13/new-courses-scottish-ancestral-crisis-and-critical-thinking-methods/.

There is a LOT to discuss in my new course, both with resources available online and those found only within the archives - I look forward to hopefully seeing you there!

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Scottish Genealogy Network meets in Glasgow

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to meet up with fellow members of the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com) for the first time in almost four years, with thirteen hardy souls meeting up for the first of two meetings over the next two months in which members hope to get back into the swing of things in terms of our in-person genealogical networking. It was an immense success, with five of us still there talking eight hours after we started - there was a certainly lot of catching up to be done that was well and truly caught up on! 

The SGN members come from various places in Scotland's professional genealogy community, including members from the Association of Professional Genealogists and ASGRA, and others not in any organisation, as well as those who may have recently retired from the profession. In addition we have members from associated disicplines such as university tutors, ancestral tourism operators, librarians/archivists, and more. Its success over the last ten years has come from its sheer informality - there are no membership fees, no certification programmes, it's simply a talking shop for like-minded folk to get together from time to time to discuss recent developments that may impact on our work as professional genealogists. In the past we have organised occasional visits to archives and libraries, and even the occasional CPD event. 

The SGN also has a private members group on Facebook, allowing us to continue to network between meetings - about the only rules we have are that the network is open to people based in Scotland, and that access to the Facebook group page is only permitted after attendance at a meeting.

The next SGN meeting will be on Saturday, March 4th 2023 in Edinburgh, venue TBC. If you work in the professional genealogy world in Scotland, and are based here, we'd love to see you - pencil the date in for now!

The only down side was the complete failure of my Type 40 time capsule at the end of the evening (I should never have parked it on Buchanan Street!), but the trains were running, so all was well... :)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Glasgow and West of Scotland FHS centre becomes FamilySearch Affiliate Library

Some great news from the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk):

On 1st November 2022, our Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society research centre and library at 32 Mansfield St, Glasgow, G11 5QP became a FamilySearch Affiliate Library.

FamilySearch is a non-profit organisation and website affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Department. The Family History Department was founded in 1894 as the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). The GSU began microfilming records of genealogical importance in 1938. FamilySearch is free of charge to everyone, regardless of tradition, culture or religious affiliation.

The FamilySearch website offers free access to a huge database of digital images and indexes of genealogical records. Access to these records is subject to copyright and an agreement with the owner or custodian of each record set. In many cases, the images are not available for you to view at home, but may be viewed on-site at a Family History Centre, an Affiliate Library, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

If you visit our premises you may view most of the images, using our PCs or your own device connected to our network via wifi. Once you leave our premises, you will be unable to view the restricted images on-line and so please download your selected images to your device before you leave. If you use our PCs, we can print your images or forward them to you via email.

We don’t have an institutional login to FamilySearch; you must login to FamilySearch using your own credentials. If you don’t have a FamilySearch account, you can easily create one using the Create Account button at the top righthand side of the FamilySearch home screen.  There is no charge or subscription for a FamilySearch account.  You must login to FamilySearch to view the images.

FamilySearch has many records relevant for research in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. For example, they have unindexed and untranscribed images of many Cemetery records. Please refer to the FamilySearch Catalog or their Research Wiki for more details.

(Original story at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/2023/02/12/familysearch-affiliate-library/)

I've heard from Murray Archer, the society's minutes secretary, that the centre became a FamilySearch affiliate in November, but that they did not wish to publicise the fact straightaway in order to allow time for training of volunteer assistants. This is now the second family history society in Scotland to become a FamilySeach affiliate, with Aberdeen and North-East Scotland FHS having that status also. 

The Family History Centre in Julian Avenue closed more than four years ago - if you are a former patron of that centre, a member of the GWSFHS, or simply someone wishing to find out more about membership, visit the society's website at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/about/research-centre/ for further details, including opening hours.

Now that I am a member of the society, I'll need to pop up to take a look! In the meantime, you can read about the Scottish Genealogy Network's visit to the centre in 2015 at http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com/2015/03/sgn-visit-to-glasgow.html.

(With thanks to Murray)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

TheGenealogist adds over 342,500 names to its 1939 Register database

If your ancestors were down south in 1939, this may be of interest from TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.gov.uk):

TheGenealogist adds more than 342,500 to their 1939 Register, opening previously closed records

TheGenealogist.co.uk has just added over 342,500 new records to the 1939 Register for England and Wales. Researchers can now see all people born in 1922 opened under the 100 year rule along with those who have passed away since the last release.

TheGenealogist’s version of the 1939 Register is matched to its powerful mapping tool, Map Explorer™ so that researchers can see more accurately where their ancestor’s house was situated on maps down to house, street or parish level, giving more detail than ever before. With its SmartSearch family historians can discover even more from the records in the 1939 Register not just where their ancestors were living as the Second World War began in Britain, but potential birth and death records.

TheGenealogist’s unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at this time. Searching the 1939 Register on TheGenealogist also allows researchers to take advantage of some powerful search tools to break down brick walls. For example there is the ability to find ancestors in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual’s occupation or their date of birth. Researchers may also search for an address and then jump straight to the household or, if you are struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

Having discovered a record in the 1939 Register, TheGenealogist then gives its subscribers the ability to click on the street name and so view all the residents in the road. This feature can be used to potentially discover relatives living in the area and can therefore boost your research with just a click.

The 342,543 newly opened records from the 1939 Register, linked to the detailed mapping tool on TheGenealogist, is a tremendous way for family historians to discover where their forebears lived in September 1939.

See TheGenealogist’s article: The “Count” and the Contessa found in the 1939 Register
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-count-and-the-contessa-found-in-the-1939-register-1661/

COMMENT: Don't forget that you can order up extracts from the Scottish 1939 National Identity Register via https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/nhs-central-register/about-the-register/1939-national-identity-register-and-how-to-order-an-official-extract. For Northern Ireland, I believe there may be a problem once again in ordering similar extracts from PRONI, thanks to the current political situation, with no minister sitting in post (a requirement of its FOI legislation), but you can still order an extract (at no cost) via https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/proni-enquiry-service - you just might have to wait a while for Stormont to get its act together again, before PRONI can send it to you!

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Pharos launches two-part foundation course in English and Welsh genealogy

Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com) has launched a new two part foundation course in English and Welsh genealogy, which may be of interest to those needing to learn how records were recorded outside of Scotland and Ireland (although some of the first part of the course may also be relevant for research in those countries). Here's the blurb:

Pharos Tutors releases new two-part beginners’ course 

Pharos Tutors are delighted to announce the launch of our two-part Foundations of Family History course. This is an Anytime course, so there is no fixed start date, students simply work through the material at their own pace.

When you embark on your family history journey there can be a lot to take in, with so many different records available, how do you know where to start? Developing an understanding of the records you work with increases your ability to get the most from them. Just as important as understanding records is methodology and technique, how to most effectively build a family tree in which you can be confident. 

This two-part course will introduce you to the four fundamental genealogical sources in England and Wales: records of civil registration (birth marriage death certificates), census records, parish registers and wills and probate records, and start you off with some good methods and techniques that you can continue to apply as you progress your family tree further. The topics covered in the two parts of this course are as follows:

Foundations of Family History Part 1 - Getting Started
Lesson 1 - Gathering information and interviewing relatives
Lesson 2 - Storing your family history research (including software options)
Lesson 3 - Civil Registration (birth, marriage and death certificates)
Lesson 4 - The census records
Lesson 5 - Building your tree with confidence

Foundations of Family History Part 2 - Next Steps
Lesson 1 - Introduction to parish registers
Lesson 2 - Deaths, burials and obituaries
Lesson 3 - Getting started with wills and probate records
Lesson 4 - Problem solving

Starting with an Anytime course gives students a feel for how Pharos course materials are presented, without the need to set aside fixed times for tutorials or complete work by particular date. Anytime courses are made up of a number of ‘lessons’, where one week is about equivalent to the amount of material we would teach on a tutor-led course in one week, but you can set your own pace. Each ‘lesson’ includes exercises for students to work through, websites to visit and search techniques to try out, so there is plenty of ‘doing’ as well as reading.

You can read more about how Pharos Tutors courses work here:
How Courses Work https://www.pharostutors.com/howcourseswork.php

You can read more about the new courses here:
Foundations of Family History Part 1 - Getting Started
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=030

Foundations of Family History Part 2 - Next Steps
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=031

LAUNCH OFFER: We are offering students who buy Part 1 and Part 2 of this course as a single purchase a £10 voucher off their next Pharos Tutors course.

(With thanks to Karen Cummings)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.