The latest podcast from The National Archives in England deals with the most common problems faced by family historians when using the 19th century census returns. David Annal examines the problems encountered with the English and Welsh census returns from 1841 to 1901, though the podcast is equally vaild for those with similar problems in Scotland.
To hear the podcast (a recording of a talk on the subject) please visit the following link:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcast/solving-census-problems.mp3?pod=rss
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Deceased Online website goes live
The Deceased Online website, mentioned on this blog on June 26th (see Deceased Online website) , has officially gone live as of today, and for a short time will be free to use, whilst final tests are performed on the site by its creators.
The site has burial and cremation register records from Tunbridge Wells at present, but many other authorities records are currently being digitised. It is anticipated that the record count will soon be in the millions.
For users in Scotland, the good news is that there are plans afoot to include Scottish cemetery and crematoria records. More on this in the next few months!
For the website, visit www.deceasedonline.com.
Chris
UPDATE: Having attempted to look at this site in some detail last night, a minor glitch did appear, preventing me from being able to register with the site. The team were incredibly responsive, and have now resolved the problem, which involved access via Internet Explorer 6. As stated, the site is still in test mode...!
However, now that I have had proper access, I have to say, this is one very impressive endeavour. Search results vary in what is returned from cemetery to cemetery, but I have already seen a fantastic range of digitised lair books, maps showing the location of plots, photographs of individual headstones, and much more. If the team behind this can expand their coverage as promised, this will become an extremely useful addition to the ancestral research toolkit.
Verdict - extremely impressed...!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The site has burial and cremation register records from Tunbridge Wells at present, but many other authorities records are currently being digitised. It is anticipated that the record count will soon be in the millions.
For users in Scotland, the good news is that there are plans afoot to include Scottish cemetery and crematoria records. More on this in the next few months!
For the website, visit www.deceasedonline.com.
Chris
UPDATE: Having attempted to look at this site in some detail last night, a minor glitch did appear, preventing me from being able to register with the site. The team were incredibly responsive, and have now resolved the problem, which involved access via Internet Explorer 6. As stated, the site is still in test mode...!
However, now that I have had proper access, I have to say, this is one very impressive endeavour. Search results vary in what is returned from cemetery to cemetery, but I have already seen a fantastic range of digitised lair books, maps showing the location of plots, photographs of individual headstones, and much more. If the team behind this can expand their coverage as promised, this will become an extremely useful addition to the ancestral research toolkit.
Verdict - extremely impressed...!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
ScotlandsPeople Centre website update
The ScotlandsPeople Centre website at www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk has a brief update today announcing the recent visit by the Queen. It reveals that she toured the search rooms, viewed some original and digitised records, met staff and contractors, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the event, and signed the visitors book.
There will be apparently be a further update on the site in a few days time with some pictures of the event. In the meantime, seven images from the visit are available to view at the following link:
Queen's visit to ScotlandsPeople
There will be apparently be a further update on the site in a few days time with some pictures of the event. In the meantime, seven images from the visit are available to view at the following link:
Queen's visit to ScotlandsPeople
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
MOD public consultation over historic military service records
In the light of all of the recent disasters by the government with regard to data protection, the Ministry of Defence has initiated a public consultation regarding the transfer of historic Armed Forces Service Personnel records to The National Archives. The records in question are those of soldiers, sailors and airmen who served in the Armed Forces between the two World Wars and for those who were members of the Home Guard during the Second World War.The consultation will close on September 30th.
The collections being considered for early transfer to TNA include:
a. Approximately 170,000 records for soldiers with dates of birth of 1895 or earlier who served beyond the end of the First World War.
b. Approximately 45,000 records of airmen who enlisted in the Royal Air Force up to 1928.
c. Approximately 4.5 million records of those that enlisted in the Home Guard during the Second World War.
d. Approximately 60,000 cards detailing ratings who enlisted in the Royal Navy from 1924 up to the outbreak of the Second World War.
It is TNA's wish to acquire all records of service personnel up to 1963. Although there are no legal obstacles to the transferring of such articles, it is the access to them thereafter that may pose problems with regards to Data Protection legislation and the Human Rights Act, namely the right for respect of private and family life.
For more information, and to have your say, please visit the following link: MOD Public Consultation.
Needless to say, this could potentially unlock a wealth of information for family historians, so please do take the time to have a look!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The collections being considered for early transfer to TNA include:
a. Approximately 170,000 records for soldiers with dates of birth of 1895 or earlier who served beyond the end of the First World War.
b. Approximately 45,000 records of airmen who enlisted in the Royal Air Force up to 1928.
c. Approximately 4.5 million records of those that enlisted in the Home Guard during the Second World War.
d. Approximately 60,000 cards detailing ratings who enlisted in the Royal Navy from 1924 up to the outbreak of the Second World War.
It is TNA's wish to acquire all records of service personnel up to 1963. Although there are no legal obstacles to the transferring of such articles, it is the access to them thereafter that may pose problems with regards to Data Protection legislation and the Human Rights Act, namely the right for respect of private and family life.
For more information, and to have your say, please visit the following link: MOD Public Consultation.
Needless to say, this could potentially unlock a wealth of information for family historians, so please do take the time to have a look!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Antonine Wall Awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status
Scotland's Antonine Wall, once the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire, has been awarded World Heritage Status by UNESCO, an accolade already shared by iconic landmarks such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.
The BBC has the story at two sites: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7494680.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7487191.stm
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The BBC has the story at two sites: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7494680.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7487191.stm
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
DOVE and MAGPIE to fly no more?
The English and Welsh General Register Office, based in Southport, has announced that its three year contract with Siemens IT to deliver digital facsimiles of all birth, marriage and death records (back to 1837) is not to be extended beyond the end of this month, when it expires. The project, known as DOVE (Digitisation of Vital Events), was one of three named on a bird theme - MAGPIE (MultiAccess to GRO Public Index of Events), which was to provide an improved online index system to the general public, and EAGLE (Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events), the GRO's internal access point to these images. To date, only half of the images have been scanned (130 million), but there is now serious doubt as to whether the project will ever see completion.
The DOVE certificates were not to be made online, rather they were designed to speed up the despatch time for customers ordering them from the office in Southport, which was recently integrated into the Identity and Passport Service. MAGPIE was conditional on the completion of DOVE.
The London based Society of Genealogists has expressed its extreme disappointment at the announcement, having liaised with the GRO for the last three years over the project. The Federation of Family History Societies states on its website that with the three projects being named after certain birds "it is tempting to think of the whole planning exercise as having been bird brained".
An emergency internal strategic review is to report its findings by the end of September.
(With thanks to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, the SoG and the FFHS).
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The DOVE certificates were not to be made online, rather they were designed to speed up the despatch time for customers ordering them from the office in Southport, which was recently integrated into the Identity and Passport Service. MAGPIE was conditional on the completion of DOVE.
The London based Society of Genealogists has expressed its extreme disappointment at the announcement, having liaised with the GRO for the last three years over the project. The Federation of Family History Societies states on its website that with the three projects being named after certain birds "it is tempting to think of the whole planning exercise as having been bird brained".
An emergency internal strategic review is to report its findings by the end of September.
(With thanks to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, the SoG and the FFHS).
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Monday, 7 July 2008
The Diamond War Memorial Project
Here's a quick plug for a worthy project back in my native land. The Diamond War Memorial Project is a labour of love from Londonderry based historian Trevor Temple, who has spent years researching the names of those listed on the city's war memorial. The site states its aims as follows:
The aims of the Project are to investigate the stories of the lives and deaths of the many people, from the Derry/Londonderry area, who died as result of World War 1 (1914-1918) and also to pass on all this information to as many people as possible throughout the world.
Although 756 names, of Nationalists as well as Unionists, are on the plinths at the Diamond War Memorial in the city centre, Trevor has discovered approximately 400 more names which have been overlooked. In the project’s initial publication, The Diamond War Memorial Commemorative Diary (2008), which commemorates the 90th Anniversary of the ending of The Great War (11.11.1918), the names of almost 1200 soldiers are documented.
A few personal stories have been recounted in the Diary, but the volume of information gathered to date meant that it would not have been feasible to catalogue each personal story in a publication. Therefore, as the research is on-going and being updated daily, this website will enable people to access all the facts and also provide an opportunity for them to add more information which will then also be included on the website.
Well worth a look at www.diamondwarmemorial.com.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The aims of the Project are to investigate the stories of the lives and deaths of the many people, from the Derry/Londonderry area, who died as result of World War 1 (1914-1918) and also to pass on all this information to as many people as possible throughout the world.
Although 756 names, of Nationalists as well as Unionists, are on the plinths at the Diamond War Memorial in the city centre, Trevor has discovered approximately 400 more names which have been overlooked. In the project’s initial publication, The Diamond War Memorial Commemorative Diary (2008), which commemorates the 90th Anniversary of the ending of The Great War (11.11.1918), the names of almost 1200 soldiers are documented.
A few personal stories have been recounted in the Diary, but the volume of information gathered to date meant that it would not have been feasible to catalogue each personal story in a publication. Therefore, as the research is on-going and being updated daily, this website will enable people to access all the facts and also provide an opportunity for them to add more information which will then also be included on the website.
Well worth a look at www.diamondwarmemorial.com.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
GROS to end monopoly on its data?
An article in yesterday's Sunday Herald claims that the Scottish Government is about to advertise licenses for access to some of the GROS material that it makes available through the ScotlandsPeople website, currently owned by Brightsolid (formerly Scotland Online). The site currently offers access to births, marriages and deaths information, taken from the post-1855 statutory and pre-1855 OPR records, as well as the 1841 to 1901 Scottish censuses. If true, it would be a remarkable turnaround.
For some time, both the GROS and Ancestry have been at loggerheads over access to the images of the censuses, an index for which Ancestry has placed online at its www.ancestry.co.uk website. The index was created after Ancestry purchased microfilms containing the census images from the GROS. In response, such microfilms were withdrawn from sale, and the GROS has since had a complete monopoly over the images, for which it holds the copyright (as Ancestry's index is its own work, there was no breach of copyright involved here).
So what is going on? A few thoughts! The first, and perhaps most likely, is that this may simply be the GROS advertising the license for their images as part of the tender process for the renewal of the license granted to Scotland Online, which expires next year. The second may be that this is just a legal ploy to allow access to the material to FindmyPast, which was acquired by Brightsolid earlier this year, but which cannot use the Scottish material just now. If the two sites were on the same legal footing, it would perhaps make it easier to integrate them. The third is that the GROS may actually be about to follow the example of the National Archives in England, which licenses its material to many different competitors, which encourages competition and forces the price down for the consumer.
Personally I think the article is just a storm in a teacup by the current license holder over the first option, which will see Brightsolid lose a substantial part of its investment if it loses access to the GROS data, but it will be interesting to see what transpires! It should be noted that prior to the ScotlandsPeople website having access to the GROS data, it was formerly provided by Scots Origins. When this company lost access to the Scottish data, it initially offered a look up service but rebranded itself as the Origins network, and now makes its money from access to Irish and English material.
The Sunday Herald article can be read online at License Sale May Mean Money Doesn't Grow on Family Trees.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
For some time, both the GROS and Ancestry have been at loggerheads over access to the images of the censuses, an index for which Ancestry has placed online at its www.ancestry.co.uk website. The index was created after Ancestry purchased microfilms containing the census images from the GROS. In response, such microfilms were withdrawn from sale, and the GROS has since had a complete monopoly over the images, for which it holds the copyright (as Ancestry's index is its own work, there was no breach of copyright involved here).
So what is going on? A few thoughts! The first, and perhaps most likely, is that this may simply be the GROS advertising the license for their images as part of the tender process for the renewal of the license granted to Scotland Online, which expires next year. The second may be that this is just a legal ploy to allow access to the material to FindmyPast, which was acquired by Brightsolid earlier this year, but which cannot use the Scottish material just now. If the two sites were on the same legal footing, it would perhaps make it easier to integrate them. The third is that the GROS may actually be about to follow the example of the National Archives in England, which licenses its material to many different competitors, which encourages competition and forces the price down for the consumer.
Personally I think the article is just a storm in a teacup by the current license holder over the first option, which will see Brightsolid lose a substantial part of its investment if it loses access to the GROS data, but it will be interesting to see what transpires! It should be noted that prior to the ScotlandsPeople website having access to the GROS data, it was formerly provided by Scots Origins. When this company lost access to the Scottish data, it initially offered a look up service but rebranded itself as the Origins network, and now makes its money from access to Irish and English material.
The Sunday Herald article can be read online at License Sale May Mean Money Doesn't Grow on Family Trees.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Saturday, 5 July 2008
The search for Sergeant Watt
Two amateur historians, Alex Richendoller and Tom Bint, are trying to trace relatives of Sergeant Hance Watt from Coatbridge, a flight engineer in World War Two whose RAF Lancaster H539 was hit on a raid over Berlin in 1944, forcing it to crash, killing all on board.
The pair have set up a website on the history of 626 Squadron at http://bint-family.com/tom_bint_and%20626%20squadron.htm and are keen to trace anyone who may have further information on the sergeant, having already managed to trace relatives of the rest of the crew. If you can help, they would love to hear from you!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
The pair have set up a website on the history of 626 Squadron at http://bint-family.com/tom_bint_and%20626%20squadron.htm and are keen to trace anyone who may have further information on the sergeant, having already managed to trace relatives of the rest of the crew. If you can help, they would love to hear from you!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Friday, 4 July 2008
Happy Independence Day!
To all our American cousins and friends, have fun celebrating Independence Day!
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
Professional family history research & genealogical problem solving
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