New Scottish records additions to Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added some new Scottish collections:

Midlothian, Scotland, Burials, 1834-2025
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63107/
Source: Midlothian Burials. Midlothian, Scotland: Midlothian Council Archives.

This collection contains records from cemeteries in the county of Midlothian, Scotland, dated between 1834 and 1997. Most of the records are registers and lair books with burial information for several people on one page. Lair is the Scottish word for a burial plot in a cemetery, and there are some records of lair purchases and lair-holders. The collection has a series of cemetery maps and plans that show the location of sections and lairs. There are also minute books that record the creation and maintenance of individual cemeteries. The collection is not comprehensive. Some local cemeteries and burial places are not covered.


Edinburgh, Scotland, WWI Roll of Honour, 1914-1919
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63263/
Source: not given

This collection contains a roll of honour for people associated with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland who served in the British armed forces during the First World War.

The roll of honour was published in a book that has three sections. The book begins with a “Roll of the Fallen” listing people who died while in the military between 1914 and 1919. The second section includes records of war service for university students and personnel who served in the armed forces and survived the war. The final section lists people who were awarded orders or decorations or were mentioned in dispatches. The rolls are organised alphabetically by surname.


Edinburgh, Scotland, Poor Law Records, 1817-1852
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63246/
Edinburgh Poor Law Records. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh City Archives.

This collection contains records from government poorhouses in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated between 1817 and 1852. The records include registers of poor house residents, lists of people receiving relief but not living in poorhouses, applications for relief, and questionnaires filled out by relief applicants.

 

Further details on all of the collections are available 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. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

FindmyPast's latest vague Scottish records additions

Some very vague Scottish additions this week to FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk): 

Scotland, People of the Black Isle, Ross and Cromarty

FindmyPast states this to be a new set comprised of 7,239 records, covering 1338 to 1850. They also note the areas covered include the parishes of Avoch, Cromarty, Killearnan, Knockbain, Rosemarkie, Urquhart & Wester Logie. What they don't do is tell you what the source for the records are, other than the note at the bottom of each entry stating them to be copyright Bruce Bishop. As the following summary shows, FindmyPast's entries alone are not enough to look for additional information on a particular event without further details:

Bruce is a well respected Scottish genealogist who has spent many years working through kirk session records, parish registers, estate papers, and other sources, to identify named indviduals, and has produced many books detailing his findings. In this collection, it looks like the source is kirk session records - these are freely savailable on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), but are not keyword searchable, so you will need to browse through to try to find any relevant entries. 


Scotland, Poor Law & Poor Lists

"We added 739 records to this existing collection, covering over 100 years of Scottish history." Unfortunately there are no further details about what has actually been added.

Come on FindmyPast, you need to up your game.

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry adds new Irish based paupers database

Ancestry has added the following dataset:

Ireland, Paupers in Workhouses Who Were Born in England, Wales, or Scotland, 1863
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62994/
Source: Paupers (Ireland). Return of Names and Ages of Paupers in Workhouses in Ireland, on the 25th day of March 1863, who were born in England, Wales or Scotland. Dublin, Ireland: Poor Law Commission Office, 1863.

General collection information

This collection is an index of information from a book titled: Return of Names and Ages of all Paupers in the Workhouses in Ireland, on the 25th day of March 1863, who were born in England, Wales or Scotland.

Records in this collection may include the following information:

• Name
• Age
• Birthplace
• Name of poor law union

The information in this collection can be used to learn more about your ancestor and their life in a pauper workhouse. Knowing your ancestor's birthplace and the union where they lived in a workhouse may lead to other documents from that geographic area, such as church records of births, marriages, and deaths. Although the index may feature multiple people with the same last name in a particular section, the records do not say whether they are related. Ireland parish records, birth and death certificates, and census records can help you determine relations.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry adds Scottish Indexes poor registers records indexes

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following third party web index:

Web: Scotland, Select Poor Register Indexes, 1845-1930
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63082/
Source: Scotland, Select Poor Register Indexes, 1845-1930. Scottish Indexes. https://www.scottishindexes.com/ Accessed: Mar 2024.

There is no description for the collection, but you can find this on the Scottish Indexes websites at https://www.scottishindexes.com/coveragepoor.aspx

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Inverness and Fermanagh records added to FindmyPast

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added two collections very relevant to my own personal research this week - parish records for Magheraculmoney in Fermanagh, Ireland, and poor law records indexes from Inverness:

Fermanagh Parish Records

This week, we added 15,629 parish register records from the parish of Magheraculmoney in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Fermanagh is a Northern Irish county located within the province of Ulster - it borders Tyrone, Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, and Donegal.

These records are updates to existing baptism, marriage, and burial sets, and the addition of an entirely new set of congregational records from Fermanagh.


Scotland, Poor Law & Poor Lists, Inverness

We've added 2,554 records from Inverness to the Scotland, Poor Law & Poor Lists collection this week.

These records are incredibly detailed, with all sorts of information about your ancestors included.

Alongside the usual name and birth year, you may be lucky enough to find details on their religious denomination, the names and ages of any spouses or children, their mother's maiden name, a brief history of the previous assistance they've received, and more.

COMMENT: I have ancestors both from Magheraculmoney (Morrow, Mitchell) and Inverness (Fraser, MacGillivray, MacFarlane), so look forward to exploring these later.

Further details, and links, at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/fermanagh-parish-poor-law-inverness.

Incidentally, in the Inverness record set, there's a note in FMP's description stating "They take the form of minutes taken by Guardians during poor law and relief hearings.". No, they don't. Scotland didn't have Boards of Guardians...! (We had parochial boards answerable to a Board of Supervision in Edinburgh, with Inspectors of the Poor doing the localised investigations in each parish or combination parish). I've raised this with FindmyPast and they are going to update it.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Kyle Combination poorhouse renovations in Ayr

On Monday I travelled down to nearby Ayr on behalf of a client to look at a gravestone. Whilst there, I took the opportunity to take some photos of the old Kyle Combination Poorhouse, located on Holmston Road. I spoke with the foreman of the renovations work there who advised me that the old poorhouse is being converted into accommodation, and that much of the interior had been destroyed by long term squatters. many of the outbuildings have already been fixed up, the main building is currently being worked on (there is more on the renovation work at https://www.ayradvertiser.com/news/18091888.hope-brand-new-homes-historic-holmston-house-ayr/). 

Some images of the old poorhouse, which was built between 1857-1860:

For more on the poorhouse, visit Peter Higginbotham's website at https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Kyle/. 

The poorhouse's surviving records are held at the new Ayrshire Archives (www.ayrshirearchives.org.uk) facility in Ayr, which I also visited and photographed:

 

Remember, if you need any look-ups, I am based just up the road in Ayrshire - details of my service are available at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk!

Chris

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