Family Tree magazine launches new website

Fom the UK's FamilyTree magazine:

New website aims to transform how people learn family history

For millions of people, family history starts with a simple question: Who were the people who came before me?

But knowing where to begin, and how to make real progress, can often feel overwhelming. That’s why Family Tree has launched an ambitious new website designed to make learning family history easier, more inspiring and more rewarding than ever before.

Moving beyond the traditional website model, the site is a dedicated online destination for genealogy education and discovery, featuring learning journeys, in-depth guides, and an online membership.

Publisher Matt Hill said: “We’re so excited to launch the new website, which has a real focus on learning and support. Our mission is simple, to help you discover your family story, and the site reflects this aim with an impressive library of guides to read or watch.

“We wanted to create a place where people could genuinely grow as family historians and discover more about their ancestors. Family history is about far more than names and dates. It’s about uncovering stories, understanding where we come from, and preserving those discoveries for future generations. That sense of discovery sits at the heart of the new platform.”

The site’s searchable Content Library is packed with expert-led guides, videos, webinars and practical resources. Visitors can follow curated learning paths tailored to different interests and experience levels, helping them build confidence, understand DNA, break through research brick walls and get more from the major genealogy websites.

The launch also marks a major step forward for Family Tree Plus, the rapidly growing membership community that gives family historians access to a wide range of exclusive learning resources.

“FT Plus is becoming a real home for family historians around the world,” Matt added. “What’s especially exciting is that this is only the beginning. We’ll continue expanding the learning library, introducing new features and creating even more ways for members to learn, connect and make discoveries.”

Visitors can explore selected content for free, sign up to the Family Tree weekly newsletter for additional access, or unlock the full experience through a Family Tree Plus membership.

For further details visit: www.family-tree.co.uk 

(With thanks to Matt Hill)

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.

New Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) website to go live on April 30th

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland announced a while back that they were developing a new front of house website, but today they have confirmed on their Fwcebook page when it will go live:

PRONI is delighted to announce that our new website will be launched on Thursday the 30th of April. The redesigned website will offer clearer navigation that makes it easier to explore our collections, plan a visit, and access a wide range of resources! 

This was first raised several months ago at the PRONI Stakeholder forum, where it was confirmed that the new site will mean several new URL addresses for web pages. 

I look forward to seeing the new site!

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.

National Library of Scotland maps department guide to website changes

The National Library of Scotland maps department has published a page detailing the recent design changes to its part of the revamped NLS website, which can be read at https://maps.nls.uk/website/. 

Most of the changes are cosmetic, but it is a useful overview, and worth a quick read!

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.

Special 2012 edition of Peter Christian's "The Genealogist's Internet" now available on the Internet Archive

Peter Christian has very kindly made available through a Creative Commons license a version of the last edition of his book The Genealogist's Internet, published in 2012, on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/the-genealogists-internet/.

In this version, Peter has not updated the main text, other than to replace any links that can still be updated - in other words, this is very much a book that describes the online world twelve years ago, rescuing as many of the links as can be that have since changed for sites that still work, but also identifying those that no longer work as being broken. In his email to me he explains the new version as follows:

Please bear in mind that this is not a new edition -- it is the text of the 2012 edition, largely unchanged. Inevitably, a number of sites — mainly the smaller ones — have disappeared, and for major sites the detailed descriptions are now sometimes out-of-date. Usually, though, that is simply because the original material has been moved or reorganized.

In fact, over one third of the links in the original 2012 edition are now broken. But for this version all the links have been newly checked, and several hundred broken links have been updated to the current location of the material. The remaining broken links are marked as such but will still give readers an idea of the sort of material it is worth looking for online.

To give just two examples where the book stands out as being of its time, for Scottish Catholic research, this edition points to ScotlandsPeople for access to the parish registers, which in 2012 was absolutely the place to look, and which still hosts some records. However, today, FindmyPast hosts over twice as many of the available records for Scotland. Similarly, in 2012, the Fianna website is the site referred to for Irish Catholic records, whereas today most surviving pre-1880 records have been made available by the National Library of Ireland at https://registers.nli.ie, with many third party derivatives and indexes also now available. Nevertheless, as Peter suggests, the book will still provide a workable access to some records, and to give an idea of just what might be out there if searched for by other means. 

Despite being dated to 2012, there is still a great deal of additional value in Peter's work, including background information on many of the collections as recorded, with some for Scotland and Ireland, but of course, in particular for English and Welsh sources. One slight issue when looking up chapters is that in the browser based version I have seen at https://archive.org/details/the-genealogists-internet/ there is no internal pagination, and the chapter headings in the contents are not hyperlinked to the relevant page, so there may be a little trial and error if seeking to go to a particular chapter straight away - not an issue, of course, if you simply start at the beginning and work your way through!

Peter has written a new introduction to this online edition, and has very kindly recommended my Scottish and Irish internet themed books within this as being much more recent for those areas, as well as my Sharing Your Family History Online book, which he notes as "particularly recommended as a supplement to the present work because of the major changes affecting social media covered in Chapter 18." You can find my books in the UK via https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Chris-Paton/a/1799 and in the US via https://www.penandswordbooks.com/search-grid/?keyword=Paton. 

With regards to Peter's book, he further suggests that "probably the best format for reading is the ePub version, while the Microsoft Word file is intended mainly for those wanting to reuse or adapt the text. There is also a web version on my own web site at www.spub.co.uk/tgi/."

(With thanks to Peter)  

Update: Peter has contacted me to say that if you download the ePub, all the internal links to chapters and individual pages should work.

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.

Historic Environment Scotland websites currently down

I noticed earlier that the ScotlandsPlaces site at www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk and SCRAN site at www.scran.ac.uk were both currently down, and mentioned it on Twitter. 

Historic Environment Scotland has since responded to say that "We apologise for any inconvenience. A number of our websites are down for essential maintenance until 16 December. Our teams will still be able to help you."

Further information is available at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/essential-website-maintenance/.

(With thanks to HES via @HistEnvScot)

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.

Irish Genealogical Research Society website problems resolved

The Irish Genealogical Research Society (www.irishancestors.ie) has announced that its website, which has been experiencing some technical issues over the last few weeks and offering limited access, is now back online. 

Thankfully in time for the Irish track of the ISBGFH's British Institute, which I will be teaching next week (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/10/still-time-to-sign-up-for-isbgfh.html) - popping off now to quickly change the screengrab!

(With thanks to the IGRS at @IGRS_1936)

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.