Wednesday 31 August 2022

NRS to remove Historic Search Room restrictions at end of October

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) has issued another update in the last day, this time on the ongoing Historic Search Room restrictions that have caused so much damage to the relationship between itself and its regular user base over the last few years:

From Monday 24 October, we are removing the requirement to book seats in advance to visit our Historical Search Room.

We will also begin increasing the number of people who can use the search room at the same time.

The current seat booking request queue will close at the end of August and we will allocate seats to those who have already made bookings. If you have submitted an enquiry or seat booking request, there is no need to contact us again: we will contact you over the coming weeks to arrange your visit.

Records labelled “Off-site” in the online NRS catalogue will be available to order from Monday 24 October at least 48 hours in advance of your visit.

We are working on plans to resume our copying and printing services and will provide further information in due course.

Thank you for your continued patience while we work through this transition period.

We still strongly encourage the wearing of face coverings in communal spaces or when moving around our buildings and recommend continued hand-hygiene and distancing.

(Source: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/about-us/service-status)

Comment: This is still almost two months away still, which continues to be ridiculous (assuming that this doesn't change again - we are heading back to winter, and another likely Covid wave), but at least we now have some progress, many, many months after the two equivalent national archives in the UK - TNA and PRONI - returned to normal. 

There has been a lot of discontent in recent months expressed by genealogists, historians, academia, and others, not least through an open letter penned by Fergus Smith which was published in the press and signed by over 100 active users of the facility from various disciplines (including myself). Whether this has had any impact on the decision and timing is certainly debatable - the NRS has largely ignored any meaningful attempt to engage with its user base throughout this period. But what it did do was to place on record the strong levels of distrust by many within that user base towards the current management of the NRS, which is based in a building that appears to be not fit for purpose, as the last three years have shown. I'm still absolutely astonished that it ever came to the point where the user base felt that it had to bring the press in to flag up the NRS's service failings. But once again, an important caveat has to be noted - this is not about the archivists at the NRS, some of the best trained in the world. It's about the institutional set up and management of the facility, and the denial of our rights to access our own records.

Whatever your interest in the NRS, we need to remember one thing. The NRS is a public institution - those are our records in that building which we have been denied access to. It really is time that the NRS took its user base seriously. 

And it's equally time that the Scottish Government took its reponsibilities seriously with regard to its obligations to protect our cultural heritage. Scotland needs a modern building fit for purpose, not a trophy building, so that this type of situation never happens again. There were problems with on-site records access long before Covid.

I really do look forward to the day when we can stop being angry with the NRS. It was always more fun that way!

UPDATE: The NRS has finally issued a meaningful progress report on the 1921 census - see my post at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/08/nrs-confident-1921-scottish-census-will.html.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

NRS 'confident' 1921 Scottish census will be released this year

On Monday I asked, via this blog, the question that most of us want an answer to - when will the National Records of Scotland release the 1921 Scottish census? (http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/08/when-will-national-records-of-scotland.html).

I followed this on Twitter yesterday with the following comment addressed to the NRS directly: 

"Hi @NatRecordsScot. The public had a right to see Scotland's 1921 census last year, but the ongoing delay in making it available in any form is blocking access, not facilitating it. Can you please provide update to your user base? Do you have a release date, even a month? Thanks."

Brace yourself, because this morning the NRS has given a response, via its ScotlandsPeople Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/ScotlandsPeople):

Work is well advanced for the release of the 1921 census records later this year.

We are confident we will publish the census before the end of the year but it is a large and complex project and we can’t yet give a specific date.

We know customers are eagerly waiting this exciting release and we will provide a date as soon as we can.

As mentioned, they have given a response - but there is virtually nothing new in this, it is seemingly just a holding statement with a variation of "the latter half of 2022" announcement previously issued. If there is anything new to be gleaned from it at all, it is the potential 'but' caveat at the end - "but it is a large and complex project...".

It will either be released this year - or it won't. I suspect we won't know until it actually happens. 

Further update (12.50pm):

ScotlandsPeople has finally released something a bit more tangible by way of a progress report, via its email newsletter:

Preparations for the publication of the 1921 Scottish Census on the ScotlandsPeople website and in the ScotlandsPeople Centre towards the end of this year are well under way. In January, work began on the transcription of the index to publish the records and digital images on ScotlandsPeople. Once this is complete, a full transcription of the remaining information from approximately 4.8 million individual records will be created.

This is a large scale and complex project that involves the transcription of individual records followed by extensive quality assurance. To date we have transcribed over 3 million index entries and continue to work on the quality assurance of these while progressing with the technical preparations on the ScotlandsPeople website. As we continue to proceed with this project, we will announce its publication as far in advance as possible via our digital channels.

We appreciate how patient people have been waiting for this important release. This is a key priority for NRS and considerable resources are being devoted to ensure these records are released to the public as soon as possible.

I am assuming that this means that they are just over 60% of the way through on the indexing front.

(With thanks to ScotlandsPeople)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Monday 29 August 2022

Scottish Indexes conference line-up on September 3rd

The line up of speakers and talks has been announced for the next Scottish Indexes conference, this coming Saturday 3rd September:

  • ‘Scottish Research Resources Before 1800’ by Chris Paton
  • ‘Traquair's Tenants, Cottars and Workers’ by Margaret Fox
  • ‘The Society for One-Place Studies’ by Jane Harris
  • ‘A Better Class of Lunatic?’ by Catriona Haine
  • ‘Ich bin ein Berliner: (re)uniting 5 half-siblings from 4 different mothers’ by Michael Tobias
  • ‘Making Sense of the Scottish Census’ by Emma Maxwell
  • ‘Tracing a Building Through Time’ by Graham Maxwell

Keep an eye out on the Scottish Indexes website at www.scottishindexes.com for the timetables produced by Emma and Graham for their event (for different time zones around the world). 

I hope to see you there, it should be fun!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

An Ubhal as Àirde - back to school for a Gaelic Higher

My Mum always used to say to me that God loves a trier! 

Tonight I will be heading back to school for the next few months - or technically to an 'e-sgoil' - to study for the SQA's Higher Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) exam, as well as to follow their 10 week 'Gaelic Awareness' course. Taught via Comhairle nan Eilean's eSgoil initiative (https://www.e-sgoil.com and https://www.facebook.com/eSgoil/), it will involve study on Monday and Thursday evenings, and at some stage next year, I am going to have to sit down in a school hall somewhere and do an exam!

I've been dabbling with Gaelic on and off for the last 25 years, ever since I first started to learn it down in Bristol as part of the Cardiff Gaelic Circle, just over the Severn Bridge. I have many fond memories of attending ceilidhs at the Highlands and Islands Society in London, and at events in Cardiff and Bristol. After moving to Scotland in 1997 I worked in television, and occasionally in Gaelic television, as a researcher on Eòrpa, and an AP on the STV production 'Celtic America' (Na Stàitean Ceilteach). On one occasion, I even had the great pleasure of taking one of my former Gaelic tutors in Cardiff, John Angus McLeod (Iain Aonghais MacLeòid), back over to Harris to film a sequence for the BBC series 'Coast', having discovered by sheer coincidence that he had moved back to Scotland and was living in the same Ayrshire town as myself! 

Having left telly tubby land in 2006 I have of course been working flat out in genealogy, but during this time finding the time to keep up the study of the language was difficult. Thanks to the Covid lockdowns, I decided on a new five year plan, to try to gain a degree of fluency within 5 years, and I have spent the last two years on Duolingo (www.duolingo.com), and with other courses, to refreshen the basics and to start pushing beyond what I am already comfortable with. Having initially applied to do a National 5, I've been advised that I might be better to try push myself harder by going for the Higher - so this is sink or swim time! If successful, the next stop will then be Gaelic immersion courses in Skye, and a few other thoughts I have.

Invariably, this will take a bit of time up, but I will try to keep the blog going as frequently as I can. I'm very much looking forward to the courses, and to quote a great song, "thig an la is thig an t-àm,airson an ubhal as àirde, air a' chraobh a bhuain" - it's time now to make that final effort to reach the highest apple on the tree!


Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

When will National Records of Scotland release the 1921 Scottish census?

When will the 1921 Scottish census be released?

Short answer - I have absolutely no idea. The National Records of Scotland states the following on its site at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/census-records:

We will release indexed images of the 1921 Scottish Census on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and in the ScotlandsPeople Centre in the latter half of 2022. We’ll keep you updated on progress via our digital channels.

There have been no updates for many months, nothing on social media or on its own platform. In February we discovered that the tender to index the records was won by Queen's University Belfast (http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/02/qiueens-university-belfast-wins-1921.html), but there is absolutely nothing else coming out of the NRS on the subject - with the exception of a photograph of the GROS staff who were responsible for compiling the 1921 census, which is available at the link just quoted.

The records should have been released last year, with one hundred years having elapsed since the census was created. The latter part of 2022 obviously continues up to the end of December - so perhaps give them a few more months before considering the submission of a Freedom of Information request!

Bear in mind, the public has a right to see this census. The ongoing delay from the NRS is blocking our right to view this document series, not facilitating it. An explanation about where it is currently at wouldn't hurt...


Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Friday 26 August 2022

Genealogical Society of Ireland journals and Waterford grand jury records join FindmyPast

Added to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) this week:

Genealogical Society of Ireland: Journals

The Genealogical Society of Ireland, originally named the Dun Laoghaire Genealogical Society, was founded in 1990 and have been publishing these journals regularly since 1992. Within their pages, you can find articles covering a huge range of social history topics, including school lists, shipwrecks, military movements, murder cases, the genealogies of selected families and even the 1937 winners of the ever-important sultana cake and shortbread baking competition.

If you're searching for a particular ancestor, you'll be able to search by their full name, and you may just find a richly-detailed story about their life. On the other hand, it's the perfect collection to spend a few hours browsing. You can flip through it page by page, or head to 'Article title' on the advanced search page, which will allow you to scroll through the subjects of each article and pick the ones that catch your eye. You can also search by free text - for example, if you're looking for information regarding the Great Irish Famine, you can search 'Ireland famine' and find an array of relevant articles.

Though these journals were published throughout the 1990s onwards, the stories within them document events that occurred all the way through the 1800s to the mid 1900s, giving you a broad and bold scope of life in Ireland throughout multiple generations.


Waterford, Grand Jury Presentments 1808-1899 Image Browse

This Waterford collection contains Grand Jury query and account books, assize presentments and contract details throughout the 18th century.

The Grand Jury was the main arm of local government in the 18th century, with responsibility for:

  • roads and bridges
  • lunatic asylums
  • county infirmaries and fever hospitals
  • dispensaries
  • courthouses
  • gaols


The names found in these pages may have been maintenance workers, staff or suppliers, or may have paid a fee to the Grand Jury.

For further details and links visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/ireland-genealogical-journals

Chris 

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Thursday 25 August 2022

Pen and Sword book 30% discount offer this weekend

Pen and Sword (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk) is offering a discount of 30% from the RRP of its titles this weekend*, in advance of the English bank holiday on Monday 29th (*'does not apply to Key Publishing Titles or digital downloads'). Offer ends 29 August 2022.

 

I've noticed that the print titles of all of my books have been placed on offer just now with a 30% discount - I'm not sure if that is the bank holiday offer kicking in early, or if it is a separate offer on my titles, but it gives the same net effect! You can see the range at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Chris-Paton/a/1799. All are discounted to £10.49 +p&p, with the exception of Sharing Your Family History Online, which is at £9.09 +p&p.

My books include:

  • Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet
  • Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records
  • Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed)
  • Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records
  • Sharing Your Family History Online


I hope they help!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

British Newspaper Archive approaches 56 million pages

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) is approaching 56 million pages of conent, with 55,982,581 pages available at the time of writing.

The following Scottish and Irish content has been added over the last 30 days:

Scotland:

Ayr Advertiser
1892

Belfast Weekly News
1855

Border Advertiser
1890

Daily Record
1997

Dumfries and Galloway Standard
1893, 1993-1994

Edinburgh Evening News
1951, 1957

Fife News
1883

Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties' Advertiser
1950

Galloway News and Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser
1995

Glasgow Evening Times
1880

Hawick News and Border Chronicle
1890

Irvine Herald
1993-1994

Kelso Mail
1892

National Advertiser and Edinburgh and Glasgow Gazette
1848

Scottish Press
1855

Stirling Observer
1993

Strathearn Herald
1994

 

Ireland:

Bray and South Dublin Herald
1915

Carlow Post
1877

Dublin Shipping and Mercantile Gazette
1869-1870

Ireland's Saturday Night
1930

Londonderry Sentinel
1849-1850

Waterford Mirror and Tramore Visitor
1860

Witness (Belfast)
1901, 1930
 

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

GWSFHS uploads Glasgow High Kirk baptisms 1609-1625

From Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk), news of a new collection available in the members only area of the website:

Glasgow High Kirk baptisms - volume 1, 1609-1625 published online

Today, we published on-line, in our member only area, the first volume of an indexed full transcription of the Glasgow High Church Baptism registers for the period 1609 to 1777.  The transcription includes Godparents/Witnesses, and their Occupations where they occur.  It includes whether the child was ‘lawful’ or ‘natural’ born.

The dataset was captured and indexed from typescript transcripts of Glasgow High Church Baptism registers created by Dr Arthur Jamieson, founding Chairman of GWSFHS, in the 1960's and 70s.

See https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/data-sets/glasgow-high-kirk-baptisms/

(Dr Jamieson prepared his transcription independently of the LDS index and so it is valuable as another interpretation of the manuscript documents. Previously, Jamieson’s transcription was available only as typescript volumes held in the GWSFHS library and the Mitchell Library. There are 29 volumes, with more to follow in due course.)

(With thanks to Murray Archer)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Wednesday 24 August 2022

Forthcoming History Scotland magazine talks

History Scotland magazine (www.historyscotland.com) is runnng the following talks over the next few months:

Scotland: the global history
7 September

With more than 50 million people around the world today claiming Scottish descent, Scotland’s history and heritage are celebrated around the world. But how did a country with a comparatively small population achieve such global renown? Professor Murray Pittock looks at two case studies: Jacobite piracy and the Scottish universities in the last era of the 'democratic intellect'.


Banishment and transportation from Scotland
14 September

Until the development of the modern prison system, banishment and transportation were two of the possible sentences used by the authorities to punish those who had broken the law. In this talk, Ken Nisbet will explain the difference between the two and look at how and why transportation developed and replaced overseas banishment


Genealogy without borders
21 September

An ancestral story can be compiled from many different sources, each of which can fundamentally change the very sense of family that we have. In this talk, genealogist Chris Paton examines how a person’s whole family story may not be exclusively confined to the country within which he or she was raised. He will be using examples from Irish and Scottish sources to explain how he has been able to redefine his family narrative, by spreading the net further and wider.


Myth-busting Scotland’s early modern witch-hunts
5 October

Join Dr Sierra Dye as she breaks down the barrier between modern myth and historical record in examining the history of Scotland’s witch-hunts.  

Scotland is well-known for its high rates of witchcraft prosecution in the 16th and 17th centuries, during which thousands of people were accused and tried for this diabolical crime. Who were these alleged witches, what exactly were they accused of, and what powers were they suspected of possessing? More importantly, what can these beliefs and processes tell us about early modern Scottish society at the time?


Chivalry and warfare in medieval Scotland
15 November

Dr Callum Watson explores the contrast between the idealised portrayals of medieval Scottish knights and the brutal realities of being involved in long-running conflicts. The talk will examine the connections between the practicalities of Scottish warfare in the late medieval period and the ways in which Scottish writers presented idealised forms of knighthood during this period. 

For further details visit https://www.historyscotland.com/virtual-events/online-lectures/

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Friday 19 August 2022

FindmyPast adds TreeSearch facility

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has finally added the ability to search other people's family trees on its platform. For details on its new TreeSearch function, visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/help/articles/4426084676637-what-is-tree-search-.

Note that "You can use Tree Search for free when logged into your Findmypast account via the site menu or directly from your family tree builder. To view search results in more detail, you will need an active, valid subscription or a 14-day free trial."

To find the search function, from your family tree page click on an individual so that his or her details pop up on the left hand side panel - you'll see a new box there inviting you to 'Search trees'. If you find a connection, you can message the individual who hosted it. 

There is a also a dedicated search page at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-family-tree.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

FindmyPast promises better newspaper download quality

An interesting Twitter exchange occurred this week. 

Family historian Dave Annal (@Dave_Lifelines) asked FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) if there was any news following a statement from the company in June that it would look into the lack of quality in the downloaded images from its newspaper collections, which are sourced from the British Newspaper Archive project (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk), but hosted also on the FindmyPast platform. In short, whilst perfectly legible when viewed on the two websites, when downloading the images the compressed images available are so horrendous that many of the pages become utterly illegible. The workaround for most of us has been to simply screengrab what we need, which preserves the resolution of what is seen initially. 

This was FindmyPast's response:

I jumped in with a follow up, and asked if this would also mean a similar quality update on the British Newspaper Archive?


As FindmyPast states, it is expected that this will be sorted within the next month. 

Here's hoping that the quality of what we can soon download will match what we can see online!

(With thanks to Dave Annal and Findmypast)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.


North of Ireland FHS DNA Summer School

From the North of Ireland Family History Society (www.nifhs.org):

DNA Summer School 2022 - PAY NOW, PLAY LATER!
Monday 22nd to Friday 26th August

The DNA Summer School will again be held over 5 days, with 2 classes a day, all via Zoom. As all talks are being recorded, we are leaving open the option to book any talks in our schedule until the event ends on Friday 26th August. We are hoping this will enable even more people to participate in DNA Summer School and benefit from our talks.

We will be covering Y-DNA, MT-DNA and autosomal DNA, with classes for beginners to the more experienced.

This year we are providing some practical case study classes as well as theory classes so you can see working examples that will show you how to apply what you have learned.

You will have an opportunity to hear some well known guest speakers (Maurice Gleeson, Mags Gaulden and EJ Blom) and you might even win one of our great give-away prizes.

Each class will be stand alone so you can come to as many or as few as you like.

There will be a discount if you wish to immerse yourself in DNA for the whole week and book all 10 classes and you will be invited to a free question and answer session after the event.

Anyone who has attended previously will know how popular our classes are - they are friendly, easy to understand and provide practical information to help you further your DNA research.

We look forward to seeing you there.

You can see the whole programme and book on our website at https://www.nifhs.org/courses/  

Please note that if you book more than two hours before the time of any class then you will have the option to attend live and you will also receive a link to the recording of the talk.

If you book within two hours of an advertised time for any session then you will not be able to attend live. Instead you will receive a link to the recording of the talk which you will be able to access for 28 days.

Similarily if the session you wish to book has already taken place you will receive a link to watch the talk at any point within the next 28 days.

(With thanks to Martin McDowell)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Thursday 18 August 2022

Heredis to start charging for next generation mobile app

From Heredis (www.heredis.com)

Starting this September, the next version of Heredis for mobile devices will no longer be free.
    
Since 2012, Heredis has chosen to offer its users a free mobile application on iOS (and then on Android). More than 35,000 of you are using these apps on a daily basis and we thank you for that.

However, these applications require a heavy maintenance and a lot of extra work to update them so that they keep working with each new version of Heredis but also so that they remain compatible with your phones and tablets’ latest operating systems.

This is why, from September onwards, we will have to charge you for our next mobile applications.

If you have an older version already installed or if you want to download this older version, it will remain completely free. But you will need to pay for our next application, which will be compatible with the new version of Heredis. And it will be so with each new version in the future.

The new Heredis apps will be available on the Apple and Android stores for $9.99 (tax incl.). Which means that for each new version, Mac or Windows, the user of this version will also have to purchase the corresponding mobile application.

We invite you to visit our website right now and to download the mobile applications so you can keep your genealogy at hand everywhere you go!

(With thanks to Heredis via email) 

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Tuesday 16 August 2022

Perth and Kinross Archives search room closure

From Perth and Kinross Archives (https://www.culturepk.org.uk/archive-local-family-history/) in Perth:

SERVICE UPDATE
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Archive Search Room at the AK Bell Library will be closed until further notice. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

(With thanks to Kate Keter via the Scottish Genealogy Network)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Thursday 11 August 2022

TheGenealogist expands access to its Map Explorer

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

TheGenealogist cuts the cost of pinpointing your ancestors

TheGenealogist has been praised for its innovative tools that allow you to discover exactly where your ancestors lived, using Map Explorer™. This innovative feature has now been added to Gold and Starter level subscriptions.

From today, a significant number of databases including the 1891, 1901 and 1911 census, plus TheGenealogist’s Image Archive pictures and along with the Domesday Book 1086, are now available with pins on georeferenced maps in Map Explorer™. This makes Starter & Gold Subscriptions powerful resources for researchers to see where their forebears lived, as well as to investigate the neighbourhood and surrounding area. Accessing Map Explorer™ on a mobile allows researchers to walk in the footsteps of ancestors and discover where homes, schools, places of work and other buildings may once have stood but have now disappeared.

This interface will place a pin on the house using historical data to identify its location where possible or if not, the street or parish on an appropriate map of the area connected to the record. As this resource makes use of a number of historical and modern maps matching the same precise coordinates, Starter & Gold subscribers are in a much better position to see where their ancestors had once lived even if the area has now changed.

To find out what’s included in the discounted Starter and Gold subscriptions go to www.thegenealogist.co.uk/PRTGAUG22

I recenty wrote about the Map Explorer facility and its use for Scotland at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2022/07/thegenealogist-links-1891-censuses-from.html.

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

The Scottish Cemetery in Kolkata

Things seem a wee bit quiet on the Scottish front just now, so here is another blast from the past, this time an article I wrote for the former magazine, Discover My Past Scotland (Issue 5, April 2009), looking at a recce made in 2008 of the Scots Cemetery in Kolkata by what was then the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. (I have updated links and terminology):

The Scottish Cemetery in Kolkata

Chris Paton take a look at efforts to preserve a fascinating Scottish colonial legacy in the heart of India.

In November 2008, a team of experts from Scotland travelled to Kolkata, in the Indian province of West Bengal, at the invitation of the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust and the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage. Their purpose was to survey a unique cemetery which has been in existence for almost two hundred years in order to help design a project to help rescue it from ruin. With over 1600 graves, the site has a special connection to Scotland, for the majority of those buried within its grounds are Scots who lived and worked in India during British imperial rule.

The team, comprised of architects James Simpson and Laura Bishop, Clare Sorenson and Steve Wallace from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and archaeologists Tom Addyman, Kenny McFadden and Amanda Gow, set out to assess the damage to the cemetery, which has been overgrown and virtually abandoned for decades, with a view to developing a plan for its restoration. Joining them on location was local architectural practice, Manish Chakroborti.

Kolkata
Known as Calcutta until 2001, the West Bengal city of Kolkata was founded on the banks of the River Hooghly in 1690 as a trading post for the English East India Company. Soon after its foundation, thousands of British migrants were making there way to the settlement to partake of the economic opportunities that soon followed, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the city was the centre of the Company’s opium trade, with the locally grown opium crop shipped to China after auction. Kolkata remained the capital of the British Raj until 1911.

The Scottish Cemetery was established in Kolkata about a mile and half from the original British cemetery site at North Park Street, and was opened shortly after the construction of St. Andrew’s Church at Dalhousie Square in 1818. The kirk, now part of the Church of India, was the first adhering to the Church of Scotland to be built in India, and was raised to cater for an ever growing Scottish contingent within the Kolkata population. Amongst its worshippers were migrants from Dundee who came to develop and work within the city’s fledgling jute industry, building new jute mills and facilitating the export of raw materials from India back to the Highland city for processing. Other settlers from Scotland included industrialists, soldiers, and missionaries. Between eighty and ninety per cent of the burials are believed to be of Scots, with the remainder comprising of Christian Bengalis, and adherents to non-Anglican faiths, such as members of the English and Welsh dissenting churches.

The survey
Prior to the survey team’s arrival, a concerted effort was organised locally to clear away much of the overgrown site of its dense foliage, such as the thick branches of bunyan trees, which can grow some twenty feet in just a year. When the Scottish delegation arrived, it concentrated on the study of one particular quadrant believed to contain the oldest burials, and examined approximately four hundred graves within it, careful to avoid the dangers of rats and snakes resident on the site. An old cemetery plan from the 1930s showing the lay out was used as a guide to the work, and in addition to work on the graves, a full survey was also carried out of the cemetery’s lodge.

The trip represented the first ever overseas trip for the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (now Historic Scotland), and an interesting project for the body within its centenary year. For architectural historian Claire Sorenson, the work asked of her was similar to that carried out many times before on similar sites across Scotland. “It was astonishing how Scottish much of the place felt. Many of the monuments were constructed from Aberdeen granite, with others from brick and lime mortar, and many were in good condition, despite the deterioration of the site. On several stones, however, the lead inscriptions had since been picked out, and the iron railings removed.”  

Whilst many graves from mill workers, missionaries and soldiers were identified, the recce also provided Claire with a glimpse into some of other professionals who once made a living in the former Indian capital. “Of particular interest to me was to find the names of so many Scottish masons recorded on the stones, but also the names of the many doctors from Scotland who were laid to rest in the grounds”.

With photographer colleague Steve Wallace, the monuments were extensively photographed, with most of the images recorded now available to view on the Historic Scotland's Canmore database at https://canmore.org.uk. From a genealogical point of view, the images provide a great deal of information for those who may have ancestors buried there. A good example is that of James Miller, who died in Calcutta on November 2nd 1918, with his stone recording that he was ‘aged 27 years, dearly loved and only son of Alexander & Jeanne Miller, Inverkeithing, Scotland’.

Whilst the cemetery was believed to have commenced its burials in the early 1820s, it is thought that the last bodies to be interred there were done so during the 1960s. The monumental styles discovered by the survey team ranged from very ornate classical monuments and urns to the most simplistic inscribed headstones. Amongst some of the more interesting discoveries on the site were the graves of a Glasgow iron master named Boyle, a director of Calcutta’s zoological gardens, and the Reverend John Adam, noted as a ‘late Missionary to the heathen…’. Within the site, James Wilson of Hawick is also believed to lie, who in addition to introducing a paper currency and income tax into India was also the founder of the Economist magazine in Britain.

Future plans
The initiative of architect James Simpson, a former member of the RCAHMS, the work of the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC344642) is designed to further cement the historic links between Scotland and the famous Indian city. With the survey now complete, the results are being analysed with a view to turning what is currently a derelict abandoned site into a useful green space environment in India which also respects the locale’s uniquely Scottish heritage.

Simpson’s aim is not just to restore the site, but to create work for the current generation of residents in the area. “It is hoped that we can establish a centre for training locals in the traditional skills needed for such delicate repairs at the cemetery, but we are in urgent need of funds to help put these projects into practice”.

To find out more about how the survey team got on during their recce, a fascinating daily blog outlining their activities in Kolkata is available online at https://scottishcemeterykolkata.wordpress.com.  

* For further information on Scots in India visit the Families in British India Society at www.fibis.org; various vital record register sets from the British Library concerning India are also available on FindmyPast. 

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

RootsIreland adds further records for County Armagh

The following records from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, have been added to RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

Census Substitutes
1615-1746, Archbishops of Armagh Rentals
1696, Lurgan Quaker Subscribers
1714, Manor Court Rolls
1752, Rent Rolls
1817-1827, Middletown Church of Ireland Poor Lists
1824, Eglish Church of Ireland Church Subscribers
1839, Armagh City Government Valuations
1845, Armagh City Rates & Assessments
1849-1924, Vinecash Presbyterian Church Notes
1855-1870, Land Court Records

Church Records
1821-1865, Seagoe Church of Ireland Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths
1824-1860, St Aidans Kilmore Church of Ireland Deaths
1804-1827, Mountnorris Presbyterian Baptisms & Marriages
1845-1882, Killylea Church of Ireland Burials

Headstone Inscriptions
1731-1986, Derrynoose, St John's COI Madden, Church of Ireland
1826-1987, Derrynoose, St Joseph's RC Madden, Roman Catholic
1839-1992, Derrynoose, St Mochuas RC, Roman Catholic
1795-1957, Keady, Ballymacnab Old RC, Roman Catholic
1762-1986, Killevy, Killevy Old RC, Roman Catholic
1833-1990, Killevy, Lissummon RC, Roman Catholic
1980-1990, Killevy, St Peter's & St Paul's RC Bessbrook, Roman Catholic
1707-1990, Kilmore, St Aidan's Kilmore, Interdenominational
1877-1989, Lisnadill, Redbarns Presbyterian, Presbyterian
1788-1989, Lisnadill, St Johns Lisnadill, Church of Ireland
1852-1993, Mullaghbrack, St James RC Mullabrack, Roman Catholic
1807-1990, Mullaghbrack, St John's COI Markethill, Church of Ireland

Further details at https://www.rootsireland.ie/2022/08/new-armagh-records-added-2/.

(With thanks to RootsIreland via email)


Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Tuesday 9 August 2022

Library and Archives Canada to launch new web platform

The main Canadian national archival repository, Library and Archives Canada, will be launching a new website later this summer at library-archives.canada.ca, to replace its current platform at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx.

For a sense of the forthcoming changes and features, you can read the facility's blog post at https://thediscoverblog.com/2022/08/05/improving-your-online-experience-what-to-expect-at-lacs-new-online-home/.

I look forward to seeing the new platform when it launches!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Progressing Your Irish Research Online course starts August 19th

My 5 week long course Progressing Your Irish Research Online, taught through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), kicks off again on August 19th 2022, and I am very much looking forward to getting started with it! To book one a place please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=260.

Here is some further information about the course:

There is a common belief that if you have Irish ancestors then you should give up hope of finding out about them, because 'nothing survived the fire', referring to the destruction of Ireland's Public Record Office during the Civil War in 1922. The overall aim of this course is to point out that this is a nonsense, and that the glass is half full and not empty. Whilst there are certainly challenges to be overcome, a great deal can still be accomplished with the many resources now rapidly finding their way online.

This course will describe the many state created records and church records that can be used to research your Irish ancestry. It will provide a context to understand why they were created, and by whom and point out exactly where to find them online, and how to use them effectively.

Lesson Headings:
  • Understanding Ireland's boundaries, key repositories and platforms
  • The vital records of Church and State
  • Documenting the people: Irish censuses and substitutes
  • Valuation records and inheritance
  • The Decade of Centenaries
Each lesson includes exercises and activities and a minimum of 1 one-hour chat per week.

Some reviews from students:

  • 'I enjoyed all of the course, the lessons, exercises and chat sessions were all very helpful. I found Chris Paton ran the course and chat sessions brilliantly. I now feel enthused to carry out more research.'
  • 'The astonishing range of information presented, the subsequent results within my own research and the fun, friendly and knowledgeable way it was all delivered. Excellent course and a tutor I would definitely want to study with again.'
  • 'It really opened my eyes to what Chris calls the half FULL glass of Irish records, plus a glimpse of history and geography. Excellent.'
  • 'It was beneficial from the standpoints of both improving general knowledge of Irish history, and illuminating the numerous and often unique potential sources of genealogical/family history information against that background.' 
  • Depth of knowledge. Expertise of tutor. Excellent Handouts.
  • Fantastic tutor. First class lesson materials. Top-notch quality learning programme.
  • The realization that there are more resources and information available than I first thought!

And if it helps, a brief introductory video explaining what it will hopefully achieve!


(Also available at https://youtu.be/aonRMQEnIFw)

I hope to perhaps see you there! 

Chris

 

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Friday 5 August 2022

FindmyPast adds records from Dungarvan and Kilmacthomas

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added the following collections from Co. Waterford, Ireland:

Dungarvan Town Commissioners Records

The Town Commission was established in 1854, and was responsible for government activity such as the maintenance of roads and waterworks, sanitation, providing housing, and regulating the markets. These records cover the years 1851-1922, and document everything from staff and suppliers, assistance requests, fee payments, or deserted and orphaned children. 


Waterford Poor Law Union Board Of Guardians Minute Books

Unearth your ancestor's connection to 19th and 20th century workhouses with 38,500 new records. These records are from the Kilmacthomas Union.

If you find your ancestor in this collection, it's possible that they owed money, asked for emigration assistance, or got married within the workhouse. These records also detail the staff and suppliers of the workhouses across the area, as well as noting fee payments, maintenance work, and general minutes on the day-to-day running of the institutions. 

For further details and links visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/waterford-queensland.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Thursday 4 August 2022

British Newspaper Archive passes 55 million pages

The British Newspaper Archives (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has just passed 55 million pages, with some 55,034,763 pages available at the time of writing:

Beyond the additions for England and Wales (listed at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/recently-added/30days) there has been very little additional content for Scotland and Ireland added over the last 30 days:

Scotland

Edinburgh Evening News
1951, 1954, 1956

Irvine Herald
1994

Strathearn Herald
1993

Galloway News and Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser
1993


Ireland

Munster Tribune
1958, 1960

East Galway Democrat
1920, 1937


It is interesting, however, to see the increase in overseas content becoming available:


Overseas

Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore)
1939-1940

Barbados Herald
1879-1896

St. Kitts Daily Express
1906, 1909-1915

Australian Spiritualist
1881

Antigua Standard
1883-1890

Colonial Standard and Jamaica Despatch
1865, 1867, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1879

Mirror (Trinidad & Tobago)
1899-1900, 1912-1913, 1916

Voice of St. Lucia
1889

Barbados Agricultural Reporter
1896, 1911-1922

Full details at the website!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Wednesday 3 August 2022

Ancestry adds Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Service Records 1903-1922

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following Royal Navy collection, containing 59,221 records:

UK, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Service Records, 1903-1922
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62403/
Source: ADM 337: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve: Records of Service, First World War. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives.

You can use these records to find details about your ancestor including:

  • First and last names
  • Rank
  • Birth date
  • Birthplace
  • Enlistment date
  • Discharge date
  • Occupation


The records for ratings are arranged by division and then division service number. Those who joined the volunteer reserves after the start of the First World War will have a "Z" in their service number.

Further details via the link.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

More Kerry records added to RootsIreland

From RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

We are delighted to announce the addition of 9,003 new Kerry Roman Catholic baptismal and marriage records to our database at Roots Ireland. They are as follows:

  • Firies RC baptisms, 1827-1894 (7963 records);
  • Firies RC marriages, 1830-1893 (1310 records).

For an up to date list of sources for Kerry and to search these records, go to kerry.rootsireland.ie and login or subscribe as required.

Yours Sincerelyrootsireland.ie

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Tuesday 2 August 2022

MyHeritage introduces Photo Tagger

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

We’re delighted to introduce Photo Tagger, a free new feature on the MyHeritage mobile app that lets you easily tag multiple photos of the same individual in one go. Previously, tagging photos meant reviewing and tagging them one by one, which was time consuming. Photo Tagger makes organizing your family photos easier and accelerates your productivity, enabling you to tag hundreds of photos in minutes. You can still tag your photos individually as before, but Photo Tagger adds convenient and accurate bulk tagging.

For more on the release visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/08/introducing-photo-tagger-tag-multiple-photos-instantly

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.

Monday 1 August 2022

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland - a useful resource

The following is an article previously published in the new defunct Your Family History magazine in 2013. I have slightly updated it in parts (links, etc!):

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland

Knowing when our forebears were born, married and died helps us to understand the parameters of their former existence, but knowing about their communities, occupations, religious beliefs and politics is what really helps us to bring their stories to life. For those with Caledonian-based ancestry an extraordinary collection of contemporary parish reports, known as the Statistical Accounts of Scotland, can help us to do just that. Between the 18th and 20th centuries there were three such accounts drawn up on a national basis, the first in the 1790s, the second in the 1830s, and the third over a considerably longer period in the late 20th century. A fourth account for East Lothian has also been published across seven volumes for the period from 1945–2000 (see https://el4.org.uk/).

The first of these accounts, known as the ‘First’ or ‘Old’ Statistical Account, was drawn up between 1791 and 1799 under the authority of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, a Member of Parliament for Caithness who was also known as ‘Agricultural Sir John’. Sinclair asked each of the 938 Church of Scotland parish ministers across the country to provide detailed descriptions of their patches based on a supplied list of 166 questions, with such varied information as the names of the principle landowners in a parish, the presbytery and synod to which each parish belonged, local antiquities of note, geological observations and more. In addition the ministers were asked to include a short history of the parish and a contemporary description of the population, noting everything from their religious habits to their principal occupations and manufactures. 

‘Statistical missionaries’ were sent around the country to cajole those who fell behind schedule. The entries were published as they were received, in no particular geographical order, meaning that the first volume, for example, starts with an account for Jedburgh in Roxburghshire, then Holywood in Dumfriesshire, Portpatrick in Wigtonshire, and so on.

Whilst very few of the accounts name individuals (other than key landowners, ministers and entrepreneurs) they nevertheless provide a great deal of detail on the ordinary lives and customs of the working folk of the parish, as well as information on recent parish changes. In the Midlothian parish of Lasswade, for example, the minister noted how it was ‘about 50 years since the first paper mill was built in this parish; and within these 30 years, the number of people employed in this manufacture has increased from about 30 or 40 to about 260’.

The habits of the parishioners’ day-to-day life are also recorded, and being observed from the minister’s perspective, can often be critical! When discussing marriage customs for the parish of Monquhitter in Aberdeenshire, for example, the writer noted his disgust at the festivities surrounding the ceremony:

When a pair were contracted they, for a stipulated consideration, bespoke the wedding dinner at a certain tavern, and then ranged the country in every direction to solicit guests. One, two, and even three hundred would convene on these occasions to make merry at their own expense for two or more days. This scene of feasting, drinking, dancing, wooing, fighting, was always enjoyed with the highest relish, and until obliterated by a similar scene, furnished ample materials for rural mirth and rural scandal.

The level of enthusiasm for the project experienced by each minister varied. In the Ayrshire parish of Largs, for example, the submitted account was so short that a second account was submitted by an anonymous ‘Friend to Statistical Enquiries’ to make up for the shortfall in detail.

Nevertheless, the initial exercise was deemed so successful that it was felt prudent in 1832 by the ‘Committee of the Society for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy’ to create a follow on exercise, in the form of a second or ‘New’ Statistical Account, which was drawn up between 1834 and 1845. In structure this was very similar in basis to the first account, though in the rapidly expanding cities many additional observations were added to the reports. Publication in this instance was made on a county-by-county basis, with the first volume dealing with Edinburghshire (Midlothian), the second with Linlithgowshire (West Lothian), Haddingtonshire (East Lothian) and Berwickshire, and so on, for 15 volumes.

One of the great advantages of the two accounts is the ability to compare the progress of a parish between the two reports, with much of the country being radically transformed between them thanks to both the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions. It is possible in some cases to see what attracted a family to a particular area, and in others to see what may have driven them away. A good example lies with Perth, with the two accounts recording a dramatic ‘boom-and-bust’ cycle across half a century. The original account from the 1790s describes the thriving handloom weaving industry, noting that: ‘the staple manufacture of Perth is linen, and of late, a considerable quantity of cotton cloth. There are above 1,500 looms employed in the town and suburbs; which manufacture of linen and cottons, annually, about L.100,000 sterling value.’

By 1837, a very different picture was painted, with the minister noting a dramatic change in fortunes for the town’s weavers: ‘Owing to adverse circumstances and events, some capitalists failed, and others were necessitated to restrict their operations. The numbers of operatives thereupon diminished. Wages fell very low, and no small distress ensued.’ Again the minister pulled no punches, stating that there was no doubt that ‘the temporary prosperity of this branch of trade was chiefly owing to the too adventurous spirit of speculating individuals’.

As well as providing contextual information about our parishioners’ daily lives, the accounts can also alert us to the existence of particular record sets that might further our research. If, for example, a baptism record cannot be found for a person in a parish on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) prior to 1855, the year when Scottish civil registration commenced, the relevant statistical account may alert us to the existence of additional religious denominations within the parish, the records for which are not included on the website.

The names of the relevant landowners can also be useful, in that by identifying who the laird was for a particular area, the relevant estate papers can then be targeted for further research. The accounts may even explain why in some cases if records do exist they may still be of little use. In the second account for the parish of Kinclaven, for example, the Reverend Henry Henderson noted that: ‘It is to be regretted that parents are not sufficiently sensible of the importance of registering the births and baptism of their children. Among the Dissenters, especially, great negligence in this respect still prevails.’

Occasionally the accounts can provide some rather unusual quirky tales that may need to be taken with a pinch of salt! In the first account for the Dumfriesshire parish of Kirkmichael, the minister recalled a story concerning one of his predecessors from some 50 years earlier: ‘One night as he was returning home, at a late hour, from a presbytery, he was seized by the fairies, and carried aloft into the air. Through fields of aether and fleecy clouds he journeyed many a mile.’

Fortunately for the minister there was a happy ending: ‘Being thus sufficiently convinced of the reality of their existence, they let him down at the door of his own house, where he afterward often recited to the wondering circle the marvellous tale of his adventure.’

The first two Statistical Accounts collections have been made available at https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/home. Through this you can search for the relevant account by parish name, county and account (i.e. first or second), which in most cases will be more than adequate for your needs. You can also do a keyword search across all accounts at one go and compare various anecdotes from parish to parish. The accounts are also linked to the later Ordnance Gazetteer of 1882–1885, and as well as the scanned page returns you get a transcript alongside that can be cut and pasted into any document you may be writing, which can be very useful. There are also several related resources, such as background documents to the records’ collation and more. 

The records can also be found online at Google Books (https://books.google.co.uk) and via the Electric Scotland website, with the first account available at www.electricscotland.com/HISTORY/statistical/oldndx.htm and the new account at www.electricscotland.com/HISTORY/statistical/index.htm. The records from these later sites can be downloaded and saved in PDF format. The third accounts from the 20th century are not digitised, but can be consulted at local libraries.

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - 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.