Grim excavation due to start on Monday in Tuam

An excavation is due to start on Monday at St Mary's, the Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Galway, where it is believed some 796 infant children may have been secretly buried in an old septic tank. 

For the background to the shocking story visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwqnwrkd1go?fbclid=IwY2xjawLgY11leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHj5xSybsXSgLGHATbCS_w5mXypHF1alDRD2Y6qfQ-EicIQO5gDy8vBysjv0y_aem_NFWjZq0E6trj8EOljzSfqA.

* My latest book, Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland, covers mother and baby homes, as well as other institutions where many young unmarried mothers were required to give birth to their children before giving them up for adoption. Details on where to buy the book are available below.

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.

TheGenealogist Releases International Bomber Command Centre death records

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

TheGenealogist Releases 67,000 Death Records from the International Bomber Command Centre

TheGenealogist is proud to announce the release of the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC): Losses Database on its website. This significant collection honours the men and women who served and died while supporting Bomber Command operations.

The IBCC Losses Database includes detailed records of over 67,000 Bomber Command casualties, capturing personal details, aircraft information, missions, and circumstances of death. This fully searchable resource allows family historians, researchers, and aviation enthusiasts to access an unparalleled level of detail about those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.

The records link on to the IBCC database, compiled from over 6.2 Million pieces of data, giving an incredible amount of information for each individual, often including a photo.

● 67,140 Records

● Covers 1936 to 1968

● Gives over 100,000 names of Parents, Spouses, Siblings and Children

● SmartSearch links to our AIR 27 Operations Record Books (ORBs), which can provide details of the fateful mission where the crew member lost their life

Among the notable entries in the database is Percy Charles Pickard, the legendary RAF officer known for leading the daring Amiens prison raid in 1944. His inclusion in the records offers a poignant reminder of the bravery and sacrifice that marked the RAF’s wartime efforts. You can read his remarkable story here: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2025/target-for-tonight-8696/

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

"This is a moving record collection that sheds light on those who served in one of the most dangerous roles of the Second World War. We’re making this release free to everyone as a tribute to the Bomber Command staff and crew who paid the ultimate price."

The IBCC Losses Database is now available for free for all registered users. Sign up for your free account at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/account/signup/

(With thanks to TheGenealogist)

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.

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh launches People's Dispensary website

From the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (https://www.rcpe.ac.uk): 

Edinburgh patient experiences from the 1700s revealed

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is delighted to announce the launch of a new website, The People’s Dispensary.

At its core, The People’s Dispensary features a digitised and transcribed collection of 18th century case notes of the Edinburgh Public Dispensary from its foundation in 1776. Located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, it provided free diagnosis and medicines to the city’s sick. Users of the website will be able to search these digitised and transcribed records which feature fascinating details about the diseases, treatments and experiences of poor patients in 1700s Edinburgh.

The digitised and transcribed 18th century patient case notes feature over 10,000 pages of patient records. It is a unique resource as the only surviving collection of 18th century dispensary patient case notes in Britain and contains 1,372 patients, 174 medical practitioners and 900 diseases and treatments. 

Daisy Cunynghame, Heritage Manager & Librarian, says: 

“We are excited to bring this collection to the public eye and very proud of the efforts of colleagues and volunteers that were involved in creating this web resource.

“These records contain amazing insight into the experiences of poor patients in 1700s Edinburgh. So often when stories are told of medicine and sickness in Georgian Britain, they focus on people who wrote letters and kept diaries – people who were middle and upper class. 

“Through this new website we can share details of the experiences of the less well-off who relied on charitable medicine.

“The case notes are really remarkable – we find out about a woman who swallowed two pistol bullets as a folk remedy for her constipation. 

“Our hope is that the website will encourage our audiences to learn about and reflect on what life was like for ordinary people in historic Scotland.”

Professor Mark Strachan, Heritage Trustee, says:

“Although modern medical treatments bear little relation to those prescribed in the Edinburgh Public Dispensary, we can still see many parallels between past and present practice. The need to balance potential side effects of the treatment against the consequences of not treating an illness, the adverse health consequences of certain occupations and the challenge for women in having symptoms of illness believed by doctors were as common in Georgian Britain as they are today.”

Some interesting points:

• One of the recommended treatments was sea bathing. But there was a risk attached. In the case of Margaret Gray, a patient admitted to the Edinburgh dispensary in the winter of 1781 with a diagnosis of hysteria, it was recommend that she bathe in a tub or ‘form of shower bath’ rather than sea bathing, because ‘in deep water fatal consequences in the way of drowning have sometimes happened’

• Dispensary physicians recorded the home remedies that patients had already tried, including a remedy provided by a ‘benevolent lady, the widow of a Clergyman’. Sometimes the physicians did not approve, including in one case where an individual applied burnt butter to their child’s head, as a treatment for a fungal infection, ‘by the advice of some officious neighbours’

• The case notes record the occupations of many of the patients, and the impact that their diagnosis had on their health. This included street hawkers, labourers and servants. Two very Edinburgh-specific occupations were water carrier and chairman. The water carriers’ job was to collect water from the well and then deliver it to individual homes across the city. Chairmen – the carriers of sedan chairs – were also much more common in Edinburgh than other cities. Because of the Old Town’s narrow and winding streets, it wasn’t possible to travel around much of the city in a horse and cart, so chairmen were employed instead to carry their employers throughout the city. And a lot of the medical problems of both carriers and chairmen were admitted into the dispensary for were clearly related to their line of work – particularly chronic back pain and rheumatism.

• Dispensary physicians would regularly record their concern that female patients were faking their medical conditions in order to be prescribed medicines which would bring about an abortion.

Web link
https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary 

(With thanks to Emma Maxwell at ScottishIndexes.com and the RCPE)

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.

National Library of Scotland adds Signet Library maps and Finding Placenames guides

The following are recent additions to the National Library of Scotland's digital mapping platform at https://maps.nls.uk:

Finding placenames research guide
Ten searchable lists of placenames (or gazetteers) dating from the 1580s through to the present day, including national surveys and mapping initiatives by Timothy Pont, William Roy, John Thomson, and the Ordnance Survey. The guide is available in the Research Guides section at https://maps.nls.uk/guides/placenames/.

Signet Library maps of Great Britain and the World, 1640s-1930s
This set of 137 maps relating to Great Britain and the World, comes from the library of the Society of Writers to HM Signet (www.wssociety.co.uk) in Parliament Square, Edinburgh. Additions include 402 Signet Library maps of Scotland, as well as maps of England, Wales, Ireland, and overseas. There are also 20 Ordnance Survey One-Inch to the mile Old Series maps of England and Wales included. The collection is available at https://maps.nls.uk/collections/signet/.

The latest news and developments from the mapping department can be found at https://maps.nls.uk/additions/.

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.

Christchurch and Auckland Family History Expos

Kia Ora New Zealand! 

In just under three weeks time I will be boarding a plane from Edinburgh to make my way to New Zealand, where I will be speaking at the Family History Expos in both Christchurch and Auckland. 

I am very much looking forward to returning to New Zealand for the first time since 2017. Auckland is a fave city of mine in the world (this will be my third trip there!), and I have never had the pleasure before of visiting Christchurch, which I am very much looking forward to - the Unlock the Past cruise that I spoken on in 2011 was intending to visit, but the devasating earthquake there forced us to re-route to another port, due to the damage at the quay.

The following are the two events I will be speaking at next month:

Christchurch Family History Expo
Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 August 2025, 
Tūranga, Cathedral Square, Christchurch
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/family-history-expo/ 

Other speakers will include Ian James, Sophie Kay, Andrew Redfern, Jason Reeve, Duff Wilson, Annabel Ahuiriri-Driscoll, Valerie Anderson, Fiona Brooker, Lyndon Fraser, Sonia Gray, Seonaid Harvey, Sarah Hewitt, Fiona Lees, Arapata Reuben, Sian Smith, Natasha Wells, Whakapapa Ngāi Tahu, Amy Ryan and Amy Duff, Ngapiu Tainui-Maclure and Julia Keogh-Cope, and Annette Williams. See the above link for the programme.

Auckland Family History Expo
Friday 8 August to Sunday 10 August 2025
Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Road, Three Kings.
https://genealogy.org.nz/Auckland-Family-History-Expo/11491/ 

On the first day, Friday 8 August, there will be an AI for Family History workshop with Fiona Brooker, in the afternoon, followed by an Opening Event in the evening with keynote talks from Sarah Hewitt, chair of the New Zealand Society of Genealogist, and then myself. (I will update details in due course once the full programme is announced).  

I really hope that you can join us in Christchurch and/or Auckland, I am very much looking forward to both events, which promise to be epic, packed with fascinating talks, and above all, great fun! 

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.

The National Archives (Kew)'s oldest document featuring the Anglo-Saxon language

There's an interesting post about the langiuage of Old English on the English based National Archives website, concerning their oldest item containing the language, a charter from 974 AD for the Anglo-Saxon king Edward. Now the history of Edgar has nothing to do with Scotland, but it is interesting to see vestiges of Old English which later evolved into the English language that we use today in Britain, including Scotland, albeit our dialects here have been heavily influenced by Scots and Gaelic through the centuries!

Most of the document is actually in Latin, but a tiny part detailing lands in question are written in Old English. You can read the article at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/edgar-charter/ and see the document itself at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/whats-on/exhibitions/stories-unboxed/.

Incidentally, there is a Teach Yourself Old English (Anglo-Saxon) course available, as written by Mark Atherton - you can see further details via Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yourself-Complete-Anglo-Saxon-Aug-27-2010-Paperback/dp/B00C47KOOO/.

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.

Irish Lives Remembered 63 now available

The latest issue of Irish Lives Remembered is now available at https://www.irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/product/irish-lives-remembered-issue-63/.

The issue contains the following:

Articles: 

• Eamonn P. Kelly – St Brendan: The Seafaring Saint Who Found Paradise
• Brigit McCone – Irish on Ice: Arctic Explorers of Erin
• Fiona Fitzsimons – Shania Twain: the Celtic Pedigree of Canada's Queen of Pop
• Brian Mitchell – Alexander Ector Orr: “Father of the New York Subway”
• Fiona Fitzsimons – ILR Interview: Sandra Delamere and Maeve Foreman on Dublin's AIDS Crisis
• Helen Moss – The Diceman Cometh Home: Tracing Thom McGinty's Wicklow Ancestry
• Katharine Simms – Saints and Scholars: the O'Hickeys and Other Hereditary Medical Clans
• Deirdre Powell – Kathleen Mary O'Rourke – Health and Fitness Pioneer
• Donna Rutherford – Cousins bythe Dozens: Managing DNA Matches Without Losing Your Mind!
• Rob Flanagan Stieglitz – Chronology of a Chromosome 2: My Matrilineal Journey from Africa to Ireland!

Regular columns: 

• Heritage Highlight – Craggaunowen Castle & Crannóg
• Dear Genie – Can Grandfather Brownless' Birth Family Be Found? [Fiona Fitzsimons answers a reader’s genealogy query]
• Dear Genie – Finding a Family Member's Final Resting Place [Fiona Fitzsimons answers a reader’s genealogy query]
• Emerald Roots Interview – Helen Moss, Senior Researcher, Irish Family History Centre

Books and Films:

• Brigit McCone reviews Frontier (created by Rob and Peter Blackie, 2016-18)
• Four Courts Press Book Excerpt – Irish Nurses in the NHS: An oral history, by Louise Ryan, Grainne McPolin and Neha Doshi (2025)

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.

More Scottish content added as British Newspaper Archive passes 93 million pages

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has passed 93 million pages of added content, with the current count at the time of writing being 93,195,529 pages. 

Over the past 30 days there has been a fairly significant amount of Scottish material added, and some Irish content, as follows:

Scotland

St. Andrews Gazette 
1914-1915

Glasgow Evening Times 
1882-1883, 1885-1887, 1889-1893

Highland News 
1916-1977, 1979-1985, 1987-1990

Ayrshire Express 
1880-1881, 1887

Glasgow Property Circular and West of Scotland Weekly Advertiser 
1880

Border Standard 
1886-1887

St. Andrews Times 
1937-1940

Huntly Express 
1921-1985, 1987-1989, 1991-1992

Weekly Scotsman 
1891-1892

Lerwick Times 
1872-1873

Edinburgh Advertiser 
1850-1851, 1855

Fifeshire Advertiser 
1901-1904, 1920-1945, 1957-1965

Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express 
1988-1989, 1991-1992

Fraserburgh Advertiser 
1858-1869, 1875, 1884-1941

Glasgow Saturday Post 
1845-1859

Portobello Advertiser 
1879-1881, 1883, 1887

Kelso Chronicle 
1832-1843, 1873-1881

The Scots Magazine 
1924-2000

Largs & Millport Herald 
1883-1884

Shetland Times 
1980-1985

Banffshire Journal 
1872-1875, 1980-1989

Dundee Weekly News 
2003

Northern Chronicle and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland 
1930-1939, 1950-1952

Kilmarnock Herald and North Ayrshire Gazette 
1955

Forres Elgin and Nairn Gazette, Northern Review and Advertiser 
1917-1933, 1991-1992

Northern Times and Weekly Journal for Sutherland and the North 
1905-1906, 1913-1917, 1919-1921, 1930-1939, 1950-1952, 1986-1989

Linlithgowshire Gazette 
1952

Illustrated Berwick Journal 
1880-1889, 1900-1909, 1920-1927

Inverness Courier 
1928-1930


Ireland

Roscommon Herald 
1863, 1872-1878, 1881, 1883, 1900-1906, 1908-1909, 1920

Cork Examiner 
1856, 1877-1880, 1887-1893

Irish Church Advocate 
1876-1878

Newry Telegraph 
1923, 1926, 1929, 1945-1949

Louth and North Lincolnshire Advertiser 
1904-1909, 1911-1914, 1920-1925, 1939-1950 

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.

New additions to the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland project at https://virtualtreasury.ie has added further records to tie in with the 103rd anniversary of the destruction of thre Four Courts in Dublin. The following are amongst the new releases, as detailed on the site at https://virtualtreasury.ie/2025-new-releases :

• Explore new discoveries shared by more than 75 partner archives and libraries  across the island of Ireland and around the globe.
• View a total of 350,000  historical records telling Ireland’s story — from medieval rolls to the pre-Famine census.
• Start your research though three new Portals – doorways to periods in Ireland’s story:
• Age of Conquest Portal – five million words of Anglo-Norman (1170-1500) Irish history translated into English.
• Age of Revolution Portal – these documents illustrate the drama of the 1798 Rebellion and Ireland’s links to the American Revolution.
• Population Portal – these genealogical riches include 50,000 names from the 19th-century census destroyed in 1922. 
• Focus on the fascinating new Gold Seams.
• View ‘The Royal Revenue, 1270–1450’ — the culmination of five years’ work to fully digitise and translate the largest series of late-medieval Irish documents in The National Archives (UK).
• Discover our Knowledge Graph, a powerful new tool for identifying people and places, and the links between them, in the records.

The 50,000 census names made available through the Popularion Portal are from the destroyed 1821 census, with many surrogate copies made from the original records prior to their destruction. 

Have fun!

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 adds incoming UK passenger lists and naturalisation records

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added two new databases that may assist those with ancestors who came to Scotland and Ireland, as well as the wider UK.

Britain and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/britain-and-ireland-incoming-passenger-lists-1878-1960

These records were digitised from the original series held at The National Archives as BT 26, Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successor: Inwards Passenger Lists.
 

Britain & Ireland Naturalisations
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/britain-and-ireland-naturalisations-1603-1700

The blurb notes that this second dataset will cover the years 1844-1990, with 413,558 new records, although the dataset actually linked to still states the coverage to be 1603-1700, with no sign of the records from 1844-1990 - perhaps someone has still to press a button somewhere! 

For further details visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/incoming-passenger-lists

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.