More on the legal proceedings by Ancestry against the National Records of Scotland

On Friday 26th September I blogged a piece about the legal challenge by Ancestry (www.ancestry.com) to try to force the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) to grant it access to many of the records available on ScotlandsPeople (see Ancestry and the NRS - When the Corporate Genealogy World Turns Ugly https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/09/ancestry-and-nrs-when-corporate.html). It's the most read blog post on this site in over a year, and indeed commented on, so thanks to all who have taken the time to do so.

I have now had a chance to read the legal arguments and judgment over the case from Judge Foss of the General Regulatory Chamber in London, published on September 10th 2025, which you can find at https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukftt/grc/2025/1088. It took me an hour and half to plough through, and there is a lot of legalese within it! But it is an interesting document for many reasons, not just with regards to the issues at point themselves, but with regards to some background information concerning the NRS in recent years, as well as Ancestry's extraordinary points made whilst contesting the case. I'll summarise some of these, and include the relevant paragraph numbers in the submission in brackets where relevant, should you wish to read more on them.

Ancestry is seeking to be granted access to NRS digital records and indexes on the basis of the Open Government Licence v3, as facilitated by the Re-use of Public Sector Information (RPSI) Regulations 2015, “to grant a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to: copy, publish, distribute and transmit the relevant information; adapt the information; and exploit the information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other information or by including it in the licensee’s own product or application” (para 14). The records sought are:

• Scottish Census Records 1841-1911
• Statutory (Civil Registers): Births (1855 – 1921), Marriages (1855 – 1946) and Deaths (1855 – 1971)
• Old Parochial Registers: Births and Baptisms (1538-1854), Banns and Marriages (1538-1854), Deaths and Burials (1538 to 1854)
• Low Churches/Dissenters Parish: Births and Baptisms (1746-1921), Banns and Marriages (1746-1946), Deaths and Burials (1746-1971)
• Valuation Rolls (1855-1940)
• Wills: Wills & Testaments (1513-1925), Soldiers’ Wills (1857-1965)
• Prison Registers (1867-1879)
• Photographs: images taken from medieval documents and photographs (18th and 19th century)
• Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland: Coats of Arms (1672-1921)
• Military Service Appeals Tribunal records (1916-1918).

Ancestry later added the 1921 Scottish census to this wish-list. It noted that all of the information requested is to be “re-used” to “carry out genealogical research as part of (its) genealogy technology offering” (para 16) I've put "re-use" in inverted commas for a reason, as it is fundamental to what is going on here.

The NRS refused Ancestry's approach on 2 December 2022. Ancestry lodged a complaint with the NRS on 4 May 2023, stating that it failed to comply with the RPSI (para 20). Amongst the complaints made was that the NRS was being discriminatory with regards to its interpretation of the RPSI, not least because it had already previously provided access to records for FamilySearch. NRS had also claimed some of the records had third party intellectual property rights, i.e. it didn't have the sole right to grant access to them; Ancestry asked for a clarification on this (the NRS and Ancestry later agreed a revised list on this basis for the ongoing proceedings).

The NRS rejected Ancestry's complaint on 21 June 2023, stating that any arrangements it had with other parties were not exclusive, and that even if there had been such arrangements, this didn't mean that it had to make information similarly available to other parties (it was also pointed out in later proceedings that the agreements with FamilySearch preceded the RPSI legislation, some of it from 64 years ago - see below).

NRS also said that Ancestry's attempts to justify a “re-use” of the info were not based on how that term has been defined in the relevant RPSI legislations from 2005 and 2015, which is defined as “for a purpose other than the initial purpose within that public sector body's public task for which the document was produced”. It noted that Ancestry's intent for the material was not for a purpose “other than the initial purpose within [NRS’s] public task [to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland's people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations], for which [it] was produced” (para 28). Bottom line, it was alleging that Ancestry wanted the info for the same reason that the NRS was using it, so it wasn't a “re-use”.

Ancestry appealed to the Information Commissioner on 2 August 2023. In 2024 submissions were made to the Commissioner by both Ancestry and the NRS (paras 29-32). The Commissioner found in favour of the NRS, although the Tribunal was later criticial that a lot of reasoning for this was not expanded upon in the decision notice.

On the back of this Ancestry appealed the Commissioner's findings on 28 May 2024 at a Tribunal of the General Regulatory Chamber (https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/first-tier-tribunal-general-regulatory-chamber) in London, a UK body which decides appeals from regulatory bodies across a diverse range of jurisdictions. Ancestry claimed that the NRS's refusal was unlawful, not least because it stated that the NRS had not interpreted RPSI correctly, that the NRS did not adhere to Guidance on the implementation of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015, published by The National Archives (i.e. TNA, based in England), and that it had entered previously into an exclusive arrangement with FamilySearch.

There is then a LENGTHY (it took me an hour to read!) analysis of the legal arguments involved from Ancestry, the NRS and the Information Commissioner, as well as the Tribunal's own team. Along the way, there was a discussion on the definition and validity of the use of the term “re-use” by the RPSI, the NRS's relationship in the past with FamilySearch, the NRS's reliance on finances from ScotlandsPeople, and much more.

Appearing as witnesses for the NRS were Dr. Janet Egdell, who at the time of her appearance was Interim Chief Executive of NRS (Registrar General and Keeper of the Records of Scotland) and Linda Sinclair, Director of Corporate Services and Accountable Officer at NRS. For Ancestry, Quinton Atkinson, Senior Director of Global Content Acquisition, made an appearance as a witness. Ancestry detailed its case in paras 77-85, the NRS from paras 86-101.

There were some interesting points discussed.

• NRS, for example, pointed out that Ancestry has had access to TNA and GRO records from England and Wales, but with the GRO records it only has the indexes, whilst its access to census records was partly as a result of Ancestry investing in their digitisation in partnership with TNA; this contrasts with Ancestry's demands for the statutory BMD records and censuses from Scotland.

• Ancestry did say that it could compensate NRS for access to the records, but did not quantify by how much, nor how this could be calculated.

• NRS also noted that it could lose £3.7 million a year in revenue (based on the average income over the last six years), although it did admit that it had not calculated how this might be offset by any income from Ancestry if  access was granted. However, NRS did also note that there would be significant additional costs to it if Ancestry was successful, not just in staffing costs for the initial transfer of the records, but also on an ongoing basis, for example with annual updates of records releases.

 

Paragraphs 89-91 provide some interesting details on recent ScotlandsPeople activity:

89. We were shown NRS’s audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024... The statements indicate that in 2023-2024, NRS had 993,000 users on ScotlandsPeople (1,484,852 in 2022-2023), resulting in a total of 7,094,000 sessions and 85,000,000 page views, and that NRS had added around 300,000 new images to the records available on ScotlandsPeople (385,000 in 2022-2023).

90. Ms Sinclair explained that NRS is funded by the Scottish Government and by the income generated from ScotlandsPeople, the latter intended to be reinvested in the delivery of public services. She demonstrated by reference to NRS’s 31 March 2024 financial statements that in that financial period, NRS had suffered a shortfall of £0.6 million; the difference between income of £4.361 million deriving from charges set by secondary legislation for accessing the information on ScotlandsPeople, and the operational cost of ScotlandsPeople in the sum of £4.994 million.

91. The comparable figures for the year ended 31 March 2023 were income received of £5.129 million and operational cost of £4.782 million, delivering a surplus of £347,000.

This in part helps to explain why NRS believes Ancestry's bid is hostile to its future public sector purpose and revenue raising (although the Tribunal responded that NRS's claims that it could lose £3.7 million a year were hypothetical, as no real modelling had been carried out into this number, or any impact if Ancestry was successful in its bid). NRS also noted that its recent move of its material from its own domestic servers to cloud based storage (which caused all sorts of grief for users when it first occurred) cost the archive £560,000 to implement, and took 11 months to do so.

Paragraph 99 also noted NRS concerns on this being set as a form of precedent:

99. Ms Sinclair’s evidence was that the scope for future requests for re-use could be vast, noting that there are 1800 organisations registered with the Community Archive and Heritage Group of the Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland), 32 local authorities and trusts in Scotland and 10-15 large commercial genealogy website providers. Compliance with other requests would entail: the initial transfer of the information; ensuring, where necessary, the ongoing application of any relevant security and information governance standards to the information; the potential for enquiries back to NRS in relation to correction or amendment of the information; and establishing appropriate charges under RPSI to cover a reasonable return on investment, direct, indirect and overhead costs.

 

Ultimately the Tribunal made two findings in this appeal:

278. The Tribunal finds that the Request was a request for re-use within the meaning of RPSI. To that extent, the Decision Notice is not in accordance with the law, and to that extent the Appeal must be allowed.

This basically means that Ancestry was right to claim that its intended re-use of the NRS material was indeed within the definition of the RPSI.

279. The Tribunal finds that NRS’s exercise of its discretion to refuse the Request was not in breach of any requirement of RPSI. To that extent the Decision Notice is in accordance with the law, and the Appeal must be dismissed. To the extent that the Appellant relies on alleged infringements of public law in support of its Grounds of Appeal, those parts of the proceedings are struck out under Rule 8(2) of the Tribunal Rules.

In other words, the NRS did have a right to refuse Ancestry's request, because “Regulation 7(2) provides that a library, museum or archive holding intellectual property rights in a document may (my emphasis) permit re-use of that document”. 'May' also implies 'may not', and the NRS indeed had a lawful right to exercise its own discretion under RPSI to refuse the request, as provided for currently within statute.

With regards to future actions, the Tribunal noted that it had no powers to rule on what it termed a “public law challenge”, in this case whether the NRS should actually have a right in the first place to exercise discretion to refuse the request made by Ancestry. "We do not consider that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to determine the lawfulness in public law terms of NRS’s refusal of the Request" (para 271). Hence why there is likely to be a new action by Ancestry.

So that's the background to it all, but you can read the whole thing for yourself - just have a flask of coffee handy when you do, it is very long! And on the basis of what you read, you can come to a judgement about whether Ancestry is right to pursue the actions that it has so far taken.

I can't say that I have changed my mind on it.

Incidentally, with regards to FamilySearch's relationship in the past with the NRS, there was a detailed list of past agreements which may be of interest, summarised as follows:

• 1951: agreement to microfilm old parochial registers and early Census records of Scotland
• 1989: agreement to microfilm the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland, 1553-1854, producing a set of fully indexed data on computer output microfiche of the registers of baptisms, births and marriages for 1553 – 1854
• 1989: 2nd agreement to microfilm the old parochial registers of the Church of Scotland, 1553-1854, the Scottish statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages, 1855-75, 1991 and 1891, the Annual Indexes to the statutory registers, 1855 – 1959, miscellaneous minor records, to 19th century and Scottish Census returns, 1841-1891, information from which could be added to its International Genealogical Index (the IGI).
• 1993: agreement to microfilm the 1881 Scottish Census Returns
• 1999: agreement to provide GSU personnel to a third party provider to digitise and index certain testamentary papers and wills of Scotland from 1500 – 1875 (I assume this was the Scottish Documents project)
• 2003: agreement to digitise the Kirk Sessions Records.
• 2006: agreement for the digitisation of the registers of Sasines, 1573-1901.

An interesting comment in paragraph 211 is that the NRS claims it is investigating the appearance of certain Scottish census records on the FamilySearch platform (the terms of the agreements note the microfilmed records are for use by LDS members only).

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.

Historic Environment Scotland encourages applications to its grants programme

Historic Environment Scotland is encouraging individuals and organisations to apply to its grants programme, with grants of up to £500,000 available for projects dealing with Scotland's historic environment. You can find more about the initiative at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/grants-and-funding/our-grants/historic-environment-grants-programme/. The priority will be for not-for-profit initiatives, so predatory multinational corporations should probably look away now.

From the website:

We will be running an online information session on Wednesday 12 November, from 11am to 12.15pm, to talk about the HEG programme and the application process and there will also be the opportunity to ask questions.

If you would like to come along, please email us at grants@hes.scot and provide us with your name, organisation (if applicable) and contact email so we can add you to the invitation list.

Good luck if you or your organisation is planning to make an application!

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.

Scottish GENES Webinar: Gaelic Scotland for Family Historians, 25 October 2025

Thanks to all who attended my first Scottish GENES Webinar last Saturday on DNA for beginners, from the many comments I have received from folk it seems to have gone down a treat!

My next Scottish GENES Webinar will be entitled Gaelic Scotland for Family Historians, and will take place on Saturday 25th October at 7pm (UK time). 

Most of mainland Scotland and the Western Isles will have been Gaelic speaking at some point (the exceptions are a small part of Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, and a small part of the south-east Borders), indeed there is even some place name evidence to suggest that Gaelic was also spoken just over the border in parts of England centuries ago! This means that at some point, most Scots will most likely have Gaelic ancestry in their trees somewhere back in time, whilst indeed many Gaelic communities still exist in the country, predominantly in the Westerns Isles, with as many speakers on the mainland also (over 4000 in Glasgow alone).

The Gaels were the original Scots - indeed, the word 'Scot' was how the Romans used to describe them, and indeed the first Scottish census, created centuries ago, was carried out to enumerate them for military purposes. The language is the oldest continuously used language in Scotland (beating English and Scots by several centuries), and the story of Gaelic Scotland is the story of much of Scotland itself. 

In this session I will look at the Gaelic history of the country, including the events that led to the language's decline, who the Gaels were, the language they spoke, the culture and folklore of the Gaels, and more. For the family historians there are many unique resources that might help with researching your Highlands and islands based Gaelic speaking ancestors, things to be aware of when carrying out your research, and indeed, many resources to help you should you wish to pick up their language!

To register for the event, which will cost £10 to attend, please visit https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ynCiTOHbSuyvkwhCkEScdQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawNDj8JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFNczJDemNuaHlnb0xLYkJVAR5wZ8XYjtGx1MdXFgvvk1nVLrOwwpPChpfMH6U8wn8N6i1R3ocPqhpkHGTjLg_aem_JZ9lm91r9NN43CykTrHIIw#/registration

Tha mi 'n dòchas gun tig thu dhan seisean agam, bidh fàilte romhat - I hope you'll come to my session, you'll be welcome!

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 updates Scottish Roman Catholic records collections

I missed this from last week - FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has updated two Scottish Roman Catholic records collections, and added a third, as follows:

• Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Marriages - 12,718 more records
• Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms - 1,568 new records from 1881-1934.
• Scotland Roman Catholic Directories - 63,901 directory records from 1829 to 2016. 

For further details visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/tv-times-scottish-parish-records

*NB: FindmyPast has twice the available number of Catholic records available for Scotland than can be found on ScotlandsPeople. The records are sourced from the Scottish Catholic Archives.

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.

Ancestry and the NRS - when the corporate genealogy world turns ugly

In almost twenty years working as a genealogist, I don't think I have ever been as angry as I was yesterday when I read about Ancestry's latest endeavour.

In a quite frankly appalling development, Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) is taking the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) to court in a bid to try to gain access to many of the records available on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk). The story is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy50gn5353zo.

Ancestry is doing this because the NRS has refused to enter into a financial agreement with the records platform, stating that it would cost the archive £3.7 million a year in lost revenue, I imagine because the need for the ScotlandsPeople platform would collapse. The Information Commissioner's Office actually sided with the NRS, but Ancestry has challenged this with a body I have never heard of based in London, called the General Regulatory Chamber. It's reported that the Tribunal has ruled that the NRS should be able to make the records available, but has also noted that it hasn't got the legal authority to compel it to do so**. So there will now be a separate hearing.

In the past, Ancestry has entered into many agreements with the National Archives (TNA) in England to digitise and host records, often with exclusivity periods, for example with past census releases. But those were entered into as the result of a decision by that archive to seek commercial involvement (TNA also regularly partners with TheGenealogist and FindmyPast).

The NRS holds its records in trust for me and the people of Scotland. If I was to challenge the NRS that it was not providing access to Crown copyright records that I felt it should open up, there would perhaps be a moral case to support the challenge, with my being a Scottish based taxpayer. And indeed, there is a mechanism to attempt to do so, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, which I know various colleagues have attempted to use from time to time. 

But Ancestry, by contrast, is a multinational for-profit genealogy company. Its main interest is its shareholders, no matter how fluffy the language on its platform may be for hungry genealogists. The idea that it may feel that it has a right to demand access to records so that it can make them available on a for-profit basis is quite frankly shocking. 

If Ancestry succeeds here, which archive and country is next for its lawyers? 

I have many issues with the NRS, which in many ways I find to be opaque and antiquated when compared to other UK based national archives. I have often discussed them on this platform, and continue to stand by the various criticisms that I have levelled at the platform in the past. The lack of a subscription based model for access to its records is just one of these criticisms. On that basis alone, I can imagine many people around the world will be supporting Ancestry's demands. 

But this is a slippery slope. And as things stand just now, it is my sincere belief that Ancestry should back off (not the words I specifically want to use at this juncture, I have a few more that would be more appropriate!). From the reaction to this story on my Facebook page yesterday, Ancestry will certainly win few friends in Scotland with this action.

I'm absolutely disgusted. Good luck to the NRS in the legal proceedings.

UPDATE: ** In fact, that's not quite the case. Having now read through the judgment itself, the judge has found NRS was within its rights to refuse access, but that its description of what Ancestry wishes to do with the records is wrong. It has, however, noted that Ancestry can pursue as a point of law whether the NRS should have the right to allow exemptions to access in the first place. You can read more about the legal proceedings in my follow-up post at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/09/more-on-legal-proceedings-by-ancestry.html.  

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 GRO search room to move in Dublin

From the Irish General Register Office, news about the forthcoming move of its search room in Dublin:

The office on Werburgh Street will close on Tuesday 30 September at 4.30pm. The office will relocate to the General Registrars Office (GRO) Research Rooms, Guild Building, Cork Street, Dublin 8 and will re-open on Tuesday 21 October at 9.30am.

The Research Rooms offer an email service Monday – Friday where you can request searches or photocopies, emails will be monitored during the move.

Our searches access all civil registration records up to present day.

Please email your request to GROResearchRoom@welfare.ie and a member of staff will reply as soon as possible.

For further details on the GRO service visit https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/organisation-information/search-room-at-the-general-register-office-gro/.

(With thanks to Claire Bradley via BlueSky) 

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.

RootsTech 2026 registration now open

From FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org):

RootsTech by FamilySearch announced today that registration for RootsTech 2026, the world’s largest family discovery event, is now open. The event will be held 5–7 March 2026, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online at RootsTech.org. Select content will be available in multiple languages. Register now for the in-person or online experience and plan to enjoy this one-of-a-kind global family connection and discovery event. 

For the full announcement, visit https://www.familysearch.org/en/newsroom/rootstech-2026-registration-now-open. 

To register for the event, visit https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/.

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.

Major relaunch of PRONI website later this year, and other news from the archive

Yesterday (Friday 19th September) I attended the latest stakeholder forum of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, aka PRONI (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni). The following are some of the latest developments and news items.

Stephen Scarth kicked off proceedings with an update on the recent 5-year independent review carried out by Deloitte into PRONI's set-up. As a consequence of this, PRONI is and will be advertising for several new positions, including a new director, deputy director, head of marketing, and head of outreach. An interesting piece of news was that PRONI now has 88 members of staff, an increase from 64 a few years ago, reflecting the growing workload of Northern Ireland's national archive. In the next year PRONI will be implementing a new communciations plan with further advertising about its services, following successful efforts on that front over the last year in delivering key objectives for the archive, and with a specific budget allocation to do so.

The BIG headline item however is that PRONI's public facing website will be changing very soon. The site is currently available at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni (or the shorter https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni), but PRONI and NI Direct will be going their separate ways shortly. The archive is taking the opportunity to not only change the landing page URL (I have an idea what this might be, but will hold off on mentioning it until it is confirmed), but also to revamp and streamline the core content. There will still be access to research guides, records, and the catalogue, but a lot of dead wood will be stripped out, some content updated, and in all cases, the URLs that you may have bookmarked will be changing. So this is going to be quite a major evolution, although considering the site has not been updated in many years, it is quite understandable. As with previous PRONI content, the old site will be archived in PRONI's Web Archive (currently at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/search-archives-online/proni-web-archive, but this URL will also change!). I look forward to seeing the new site as PRONI confidently pushes ahead.

Sean Hayes updated us on the Now We're Talking Project (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/now-were-talking-project), in partnership with the Nerve Centre (https://nervecentre.org/culture/now-were-talking). PRONI is currently cataloguing the papers of Michael J. Murphy (some 3000 items), and will soon turn to work on the Sam Hanna Bell Archive in the New Year. The Micheal J. Murphy collection (D4642) includes a great deal of folklore collated around much of the west of Ulster and some southern counties (Louth, Sliogo, Leitrim), covering a range of material from witchcraft to the atomic bomb! A small number of files will be digitised for access through the main catalogue as part of the project.

Grace Gordon updated us on many recent events with which PRONI has been involved, as part of the archive's currently year theme of creativity and innovation. PRONI attended the Belfast Mela festival for the first time, engaging with chikdren through a variety of resources such as images to be coloured in, stickers, archive based word-searches, and more. On Saturday 4th October there will be an Autumn in the Archives event at PRONI, with details on this available at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/autumn-archives.

In the main PRONI building, the new Axiell-based catalogue system has now been successfully launched in the search rooms, as of July, replacing the previous Calm-based software. Previous problems such as slow response times have now all been resolved. Stephen also advised that the PRONI maps viewer will be moved to a new platform. I asked at this point if this will affect the PRONI Suffrage Map available at https://dfcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=58d83b0ec9ce4c60be299bfa12780c77, which Stephen will look into.

Next year sees the US 250 celebrations, as the United States celebrates its independence, with many Presbyterian Ulster Scots at the fore of the movement to break away from British rule (several were signatories of the Declaration of Independence). Both PRONI and its parents department will be organising events to tie in with this. PRONI will be producing a coffee table book highlighting 60 key documents highlighting the relationship between Ulster and the USA from the 17th to the 20th centuries. There will also be an on-site exhibition, featuring a letter delivered by Ulster Scot Charles Thomson to George Washington at Mount Vernon in April 1789, advising him that he was now the president of the newly created USA. This will be the first ever international loan on display at PRONI. There will also be a loan of a copy of the Declaration of Independence held at TNA in England, and a great deal more. PRONI is also preparing a travelling exhibition for display around Northern Ireland, and in the USA.

On November 7th there will be an Irish Studies Conference event at PRONI marking the 100th anniversary of the Irish Boundary Commission, more specifically the date when its findings were leaked to the press! The commission's political failure led to the modern border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State (now the Republic) being fixed along current lines. You can read more on this at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/1925-irish-boundary-commission-centenary-conference.

Finally, the last week of November (24th-28th) once again sees Preservation Week at PRONI, when archival productions will not be available for consultation, only the self-access materials in the public search room. Something to be aware of if planning a visit to the archive!

(With thanks to Stephen and the PRONI team)

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.

Association of Professional Genealogists heads to Scotland in 2026

For members of the Association of Professional Genealogists (https://www.apgen.org) based in Scotland, or for members who can get to Scotland (!), the following may be of interest: 

Save the Date! APG is heading to Scotland! 

Join us in Glasgow, 24 June 2026, for the APG Professional Genealogy Symposium, presented in partnership with the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Genealogical Studies (SIGS). 

What to expect:

• Sessions led by industry experts
• Topics on business growth, client deliverables, financials, productivity, cross-border marketing, ethics & more
• Two ways to attend: in person in vibrant Glasgow or online from anywhere in the world

Extend your experience by staying for SIGS’ two-day conference, Beyond the Family Tree: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on AI, DNA, Education and Community in Genealogy (25–26 June 2026).

Members can register interest for further updates on pricing, sessions, and speakers here. 

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.

British Newspaper Archive adds TV Times (1956-1980) - but will the Scottish and Ulster editions be made available?

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has added the TV Times to its holdings, as follows:

    1955–56 TV times (London, England : 1955)
    1956–77 TV times (London)
    1967–67 TV times (Northern)
    1977–80 TV times (Thames/LWT) 

Regional editions of the TV Times were introduced from 1968, and as can be seen from this release, the titles available are mainly for London, with a year's holdings from a northern English edition in 1967. This means that the programming from Scottish Television, Grampian Television, Borders TV, and Ulster Television, will not be found in the release as available at present. It is unclear whether these editions will be forthcoming - but it is encouraging to see the northern English edition, which perhaps bodes well. 

I remember reading this each week as a young lad delivering newspapers in Carrickfergus in the 1980s (along with customer copies of the Radio Times and RTÉ Guide!), back in the days when we only had four channels in Northern Ireland, and two in the Republic - fingers crossed we get our versions of these titles added soon!

The BNA's description of the title is available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/BL/tv-times. The same editions have been made available on FindmyPast, which has an article about them at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/tv-times. 

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 uploads early maps of Great Britain and Scotland

The National Library of Scotland's maps platform (https://maps.nls.uk) has added just under 200 early maps of Great Britain and Scotland to its site:

We have added online 190 early printed maps of Great Britain, Scotland and more detailed places within these countries. This includes 78 maps of Scotland as a whole, 45 maps of Great Britain and Ireland, 38 town plans and 11 county maps. These maps are often very attractively coloured, variant states of these important early maps, many of which published within Dutch atlases of the 16th and 17th centuries. These maps are all from our Charlotte Smith collection, acquired by the Library in 2017.  

A spreadsheet of the new additions is available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRXbMQ8JoGby995LB-8XLn138p0Ky4m7SesAi5p15MfINCfiWhTWpoz4bbKPA_oDIeBhAZWH-8m9bfw/pubhtml

(Source: 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.

Doors Open Day at the National Records of Scotland

From ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) via email:

Visit us for Doors Open Day

Join us at National Records of Scotland for Doors Open Day on Saturday 27 September, 10:00-16:00. 

We have planned a fun day packed with exciting activities. 

Book a free ticket for one of our ‘Behind the scenes’ tours of General Register House. Walk in spaces will also be available on the day.

Drop-in for a free family history taster sessions with our expert team.

This will be the last day to visit our summer exhibition ‘Scots on the Move: Railways and Tourism in Victorian Scotland’.

For further details visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/doors-open-day-general-register-house-public-tours-tickets-1620249733569?aff=oddtdtcreator

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.

Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis course starts October 27th

My next 5-week course for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), entitled Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis, starts on Monday 27th October 2025.

For some ten years or so, Pharos offered two Scottish themed courses, Scottish Research Online and Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers. In the first course, we've shown how to access certain records for Scottish research online, whilst the second course has taken things further by showing how to access records not just online, but in archives. At the same time it has also shown how various aspects of Scotland worked, as a means to locate records offline and online that might help when the OPRs don't. 

In this third course, we now turn things seriously up to eleven...! In the past, records were often kept documenting various crises on a range of fronts, and in this course, I not only explore those scenarios, but also explain how the country worked, the types of records generated, and how to access them. 

If you have done the previous two courses - or feel yourself to be somewhat further along with your research experience and at the relevant level - I hope you can sign up to this course, which I hope, as ever, will be both fulfilling and fun!  

The following is the course description:

Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis

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

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

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

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

Lesson Headings:

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

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

See How the Courses Work.

Relevant Countries: Scotland
Course Length: 5 weeks
Start Date: 27 October 2024
Cost: £70.00

Reviews from former students:

"Wonderful topics to research and presentation and ideas of where to go to look for answers regarding these topics. Have learnt so much over the 3 courses and now have lots to do in updating and following through on the course materials and what I have learnt. Already looking at different ways of research and finding out heaps more. The 3 courses are so great and full of information and Chris is excellent in the Chat section with not only giving questions for us to reply to but also the answers."

"It was an excellent continuation of the previous course and really made me look at genealogy in a much broader way. Chris is a very encouraging tutor and willing to answer all questions. He has such an extensive knowledge of genealogy."

"The course content...amazing"

"All course materials were professional and thorough. Chris did a lot of prep work to make sure that we received the best information needed to be successful."

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

The following introductory video may also be of some help:

(Also available via https://youtu.be/OMJlLMPGc9s?si=hV0B_URoQ2ENqumJ)

I hope to see you there!

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.

Napier Commission returns to be added to ScotlandsPeople in November

ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has announced that the late 19th century Napier Commission returns are to be added to ScotlandsPeople in November.  

"Two fascinating new record sets are landing this autumn. The Napier Commission returns arrive in early November, offering a unique window into Highland crofting life in the 1880s. In December, we’ll add over 1,000 maps and plans, giving you new ways to explore the places your ancestors called home." 

The Napier Commission from 1884, more formally known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands, and reporting to Lord Napier, was set up in response to demand for land reform in the predominantly Gaelic speaking Highland and Islands of Scotland. It led to the subsequent Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) of 1886, providing security of tenure for crofters, although this was only the first step.

It is unclear at present precisely what ScotlandsPeople is preparing to put online, but the published version of the records can be accessed at present in PDF format via the University of the Highland and Islands website at https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-history/research/resources/the-napier-commission/. The published version contains oral testimony from many witnesses, although these have been translated into English from Gaelic.

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.

Family Tree October 2025 issue now on sale

The October issue of the UK's Family Tree magazine is now out, and contains an article that I have put together looking at the responsibilities that we should all perhaps consider when researching our ancestral stories. 

Features in the October issue:

Celebrating 200 years of the modern railway
An interview with Dr Mike Esbester on why this is such significant news, what sorts of jobs our ancestors may have had, and the free database that can help you learn more about your ancestors employed by the railways

Explore the pre-1841 censuses – yes some do exist!
David Annal examines the history of the early UK censuses, and discusses the information to be gleaned from the ones that survived

What are our responsibilities as family historians?
Genealogist and writer Chris Paton discusses the responsibilities we should all bear in mind when embarking on our research journeys

TreeView – how can this software help you?
Continuing the series of articles reviewing family tree programs, Jude Rhodes looks at TreeView

‘Other’ records created by the Crown
Discover the record collections that will enable you to take your research into people and places up to 1,000 years ago with Richard Tolson

Getting started with British Army research (part 1)
Graham Bandy provides a potted guide to tracing ancestors in the British Army

Spotlight on ... Railway philately
Terry Davies gives us a beginners’ guide to the fascinating world of railway-related stamp collecting

Thinking of taking a DNA test?
DNA Detective Michelle Leonard shares advice and insights on getting started with DNA

Making the most of your DNA test
Karen Evans gives us a handy guide to the reasons for taking a test, and how to get the best from your test 

Plus various regular features. 

For further details, and to obtain a copy, visit https://www.family-tree.co.uk/store/back-issues/family-tree-magazine/family-tree-magazine-october-2025-issue-239/

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.

Historic not-proven verdict to be removed from Scots Law

Scotland's historic not-proven court verdict is to be scrapped after MSPs have voted on a package of reforms in our parliament at Holyrood. The verdict has been one of three possible verdicts in Scottish legal cases since the 17th century, with the other two being guilty or not-guilty. In a technical sense not-proven also meant "not guilty", but had a subtle difference attached - not-proven was taken to mean that although there was a belief that a suspect was responsible, there was no evidence to confirm it, and thus the same net result emerged, with the person tried walking away without a conviction as a free individual. The removal of not proven as a verdict removes one of the major historic differences between Scots and English law (although plenty of others remain!).

In the Mount Stewart Murder of 1866, in which my three times great grandmother Janet Rogers (Henderson) was murdered at her brother's farm in Forgandenny, Perthshire, a suspect was tried a year later and the case against him found to be not-proven, although the stigma of the case stayed with him after the result. (You can read more about the case in my book, The Mount Stewart Murder, available from History Press at https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-mount-stewart-murder/).

For more on the planned abolition of the verdict visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8rndyyp7vo.

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.

Scottish Indexes adds new prison records and announces next conference date

Scottish Indexes (www.scottishindexes.com) has announced the addition of the following prison records to its site, searchable at https://www.scottishindexes.com/ScotlandsCriminalDatabase.aspx :

• Calton Jail (Edinburgh): 1858
• Edinburgh Police Prison: 1841
• Leith Police Prison: 1842-1848
• Helensburgh: 1855-1878
• Linlithgow: 1844-1851
• Musselburgh: 1852-1861
• Wick: 1848-1862
• Dumbarton: 1840-1847,1871-1883
• Inveraray: 1828-1841,1848-1873
• Paisley: 1864-1865,1875-1882
• Rothesay: 1877-1882
• Aberdeen: 1911,1916-1918 

(For the full coveage of prison records in the database, and other datasets contained within, see https://www.scottishindexes.com/coveragescd.aspx)

Emma and Graham Maxwell, the duo behind the site, have also announced that their next Scottish Indexes conference will be on Saturday 22nd November 2025. This will be the 30th Scottish Indexes conference, a major anniversary for the series which first started during the Covid lockdown on April 9th 2020. 

For further details on the event, keep an eye out at https://www.scottishindexes.com/conference.aspx.

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.

Forthcoming Georeferenced Maps Workshop from National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland will be hosting a free online webinar on 8 October 2025, from 3.00-4.00pm UK time, entitled Using Our Georeferenced Maps. The following is its description:

In this interactive workshop, we will show you tips and techniques to help you make best use of our georeferenced maps.

Georeferenced maps are those which have been aligned with the real-world, so they can be viewed as overlays on top of modern satellite imagery and mapping, or even in comparison to your own live location!

We now have over 600 georeferenced layers of mapping freely available on our website, along with tools to filter, measure, draw, compare and export them. Discover how to use these tools, as well as how you can easily bring these georeferenced maps into other web and desktop applications.

The workshop will last approximately one hour and includes a question-and-answer session at the end. This workshop will not be recorded but it is repeated regularly.

If you enjoy georeferenced maps but are not sure you are making full use of them, this workshop is for you!

To register visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-our-georeferenced-maps-tickets-1606563166679?aff=web

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.

PRONI Getting Started event at Strabane Library

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) will be holding a "Getting started" workshop at Strabane Library on Wednesday, 22 October 2025 from 12:30 to 13:30. The library's address is 1 Railway Street, Strabane, BT82 8EF. 

There's a wee bit of blurb on the event from the Eventbrite site:

About this event

Are you thinking of starting your family history, or local history research?

We are delighted to be on tour at Strabane Library to hold an onsite workshop.

This workshop has been designed to help you get started using PRONI's own online services and other online resources.

It is also a chance for you to ask your questions directly to PRONI staff!

To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/proni-getting-started-workshop-at-strabane-library-tickets-1678863017479.

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.

Angus Archives update on library renovations

A wee message from Angus Archives (https://angusalive.scot/local-family-history/) on its Facebook page:

Angus Archives is pleased to announce the installation of new local history shelving in the search room, providing a flexible space for visitors and to accommodate future group visits.

Looking ahead, Angus Archives will relocate to this improved search room in early 2026. During the forthcoming renovation of Arbroath Library’s ground floor, the library will temporarily move to the upstairs galleries. Angus Archives will continue to operate from its current first floor search room until the work is completed.

Further updates on the renovation will be provided in due course.

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/AngusArchives)

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 land tenure and distillery records added to Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following two Irish collections to its site this week:

Ireland, Church of Ireland Land Tenure Index, 1878
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63099/
Source: Irish Church Temporaliteis Commission. Report of the Commisioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, for the Year 1878. Dublin: Alexander Thom, 1879.

About Ireland, Church of Ireland Land Tenure Index, 1878

This collection is an index of information derived from a government report on the sale of land by a commission overseeing the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. The Report of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland for the Year 1878 was an accounting of sales of church land made to people who had previously been tenants of the church and sales to members of the general public. The collection doesn’t include images of the original report.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Parish
• Diocese
• Barony
• County
• Sale date
• Property information

In addition to learning more about your ancestor’s financial status and their life experience, finding your ancestor in this collection can help your search for additional records. Knowing the date and place of your ancestor’s land purchase may give you a place to begin searching for other church or civic documents related to their life. It may also lead you to newspaper articles from that time and place that may provide information about your ancestor or the experience of others in that area.

NB: For further details on the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, check out my book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records (see books tab, top of page)

Ireland, Midleton Distillery Barley Purchase Books, 1825-1834
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63101/
Source:  Barley Purchase Books. Midleton, County Cork, Ireland.

About Ireland, Midleton Distillery Barley Purchase Books, 1825-1834

This collection contains records from the firm James Murphy & Co produced between 1825 and 1834 at the Midleton Distillery in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. The collection has three volumes of ledgers that recorded purchases of barley from local farmers from the East Cork area. Barley is a primary ingredient in Irish whiskey.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Residence date

These records are a great resource to help you learn more about your ancestor’s work as a barley farmer. The original documents contain information that has not been indexed, exploring the record images in this collection you may learn the number of barrels your ancestor sold to the distillery on a given day, the weight of the barley, and the amount your ancestor was paid for the crop.

The records were created by employees of the firm James Murphy & Co working  at Midleton Distillery, Co. Cork  and the original documents are now held in the Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard Archive at Midleton.

Further details via the links.

Chris

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Certificates postage delay from National Records of Scotland

The following notes is displaying on the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), concerning orders for birth, marriage and death certificates from the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk):

Please note certificate ordering will be unavailable from 1pm on Friday 12th September 2025 and will resume again from 9am on Tuesday 16th September 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.

Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers Course starts September 15th

The next 5 week long Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers family history course from Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com) commences in just over a week's time from September 15th 2025.

The following short video introduces the course:

(Also available at https://youtu.be/1aGSA-mEiQY)

And the following is the course description, and how to sign up if interested!

Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers

This is an intermediate level course in Scottish family history for those who are going back beyond 1850. You should have some experience with research in the Old Parish Registers (OPRs) of the Church of Scotland and in using major websites for Scottish research.

This course discusses sources that fill the gap when the OPRs are uninformative or missing, such as the kirk session and presbytery courts records generated by the Kirk (Church of Scotland), as well as the records of dissenting and seceding Presbyterian congregations. From the forerunners of Scotlands modern towns and cities are the administrative records of the burghs, and the trades incorporations and merchant guilds, as well as other professions, which can enhance our understanding of our ancestors lives. And in the final two lessons the course turns up a notch and tackles two areas where the Scottish records, as generated through the feudal system, are truly unique, namely the various registers of land records known as sasines, and the separate legal processes in Scotland for the inheritance of both moveable and heritable estate.

Whilst some of the records discussed in the course are available online, many are available only in the archives, or in private hands, and a strong focus of this course will be in how to successfully employ the relevant catalogues and finding aids to locate such treasures.

Whilst not compulsory, it is strongly recommended that you complete the Pharos course Scottish Research Online before studying Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, as it will be assumed that you are already familiar with the more basic resources available online for Scottish ancestral research.

Lesson Headings:

    * Kirk Sessions records and parish poor
    * Burgh records and town poor
    * Occupations, taxation and early lists
    * Land transfer and the value of sasines
    * Land, inheritance and estates
 

Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. (See How the Courses Work at https://www.pharostutors.com/howcourseswork.php.) NB: Unlike previous courses, I am trialling using Zoom for these chat sessions, rather than the previously used text-based chat rooms - recordings of Zoom sessions will be made available after each lesson chat. 

Relevant Countries: Scotland
Course Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: 15 September 2025
Cost: £70

Student feedback:

"The exercises helped you to explore new lesson concepts right away. Especially by directing students to apply new research aids to their own work."

"Very clear explanations of terminology and legal processes Really helpful exercises and comprenesive list of useful catalogues and other references Chat sessions very helpful and engaging."

"This being the second genealogy course I have taken, and the second with Pharos, I found these were detailed foundation courses which will permit me to search better and with less effort in my future research work."

"Great subject-matter and excellent tutor/written materials. It could not have been better."

For further details, and to sign up, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/scotland-1750-1850-beyond-the-old-parish-registers.

I'll hopefully see you online there!

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.