"Freeeeedommmmm.....!!!!!"
The National Wallace Monument, the 220 foot tall tower built to commemorate the Scottish freedom fighter Sir William Wallace, is to receive a new visitor centre at the base of the Abbey Craig in Stirling, on which it is situated, alongside a new restaurant and ticket office. The plan is for the work to be completed before the start of the tourist season in 2009.
Hopefully they will take the opportunity to remove the really terrible statue of Mel Gibson in the car park!
"Alba gu bragh....!!!"
(OK, that's enough of all that....!)
For more on the monument, visit www.nationalwallacemonument.com/index.htm
Chris
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Saturday, 17 May 2008
FindmyPast provides new transcription of 1901 Census for England and Wales
Findmypast.com has unveiled its brand new version of the 1901 census. Records from the first two counties, Somersetshire and Gloucestershire, are now online, and the remaining counties will be added over the coming months. The company has completely retranscribed the 1901 census from scratch, with a variety of search fields now available, making it possible to search for an individual using, for example, their calculated year of birth, their age, occupation, or address. You can also choose in what order you want to view search results - by birth year, oldest first; by birth year, youngest first; alphabeticaly by name A to Z or alphabetically by name Z to A. In addition, the free search results include the name of the county of residence, helpful if you do not know the name of a registration district. All of these features have also been added to all the other censuses at findmypast. Search criteria are now also retained, making it easier to carry out the same search across all the censuses. It is findmypast's aim to offer a full set of English and Welsh censuses online by the end of 2008.
Findmypast.com was acquired in December 2007 by Scotland Online, the company which won The National Archives' tender to publish online the 1911 census, and the parent company of the ScotlandsPeople website.
For more information, visit www.findmypast.com
Chris
Findmypast.com was acquired in December 2007 by Scotland Online, the company which won The National Archives' tender to publish online the 1911 census, and the parent company of the ScotlandsPeople website.
For more information, visit www.findmypast.com
Chris
New beginners guide to Scottish research from Family Search
The family history arm of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, FamilySearch.org, has placed a beginners guide to Scottish ancestry online for the early statutory period, which commenced in 1855. Entitled Finding Records of your Ancestors Scotland 1855 - 1901, the site contains some basic tips, charts and information to getting your research underway. The 26 page document is a PDF file which can be downloaded to your computer, and is accessible at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/docs/Finding_Records_Scotland.pdf .
There is also an English equivalent at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/docs/Finding_Records_England.pdf - worth looking at if you are just starting out.
(With thanks to Talking Scot)
Chris
There is also an English equivalent at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/docs/Finding_Records_England.pdf - worth looking at if you are just starting out.
(With thanks to Talking Scot)
Chris
Thursday, 15 May 2008
New book on the Ruhleben British civilian POW camp in WW1 Germany from Manchester University Press.
It is with a great deal of pleasure that I have finally been able to read the just published book British Civilian Internees in Germany: The Ruhleben Camp 1914-1918 by Matthew Stibbe (Manchester University Press), the first serious study of the Ruhleben POW camp since J. Davidson Ketchum's great work "Ruhleben" (1965, Toronto Press).
During WW1, Ruhleben, a former racecourse on the outskirts of Berlin, housed some 5500 British civilian POWs (including hundreds of Scots, my great uncle John Paton included), in the first ever concentration camp on German soil. Unlike Ketchum's earlier study, drawn largely from questionnaires filled in by former prisoners at the camp, Matthew's book not only gives a chronology to the Ruhleben story itself, it also looks at the wider impact of the Ruhleben story in wartime diplomacy and propaganda, as well as the place of Ruhleben in the British memory of the war.
Thoroughly recommended, and available from www.amazon.co.uk and www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk .
Chris
NB: If you had a relative interned at Ruhleben, visit my free to view online Ruhleben Project at http://ruhleben.tripod.com where details of over 1700 of the POWS have been researched and made available online, along with photos and other memorabilia in many cases.
During WW1, Ruhleben, a former racecourse on the outskirts of Berlin, housed some 5500 British civilian POWs (including hundreds of Scots, my great uncle John Paton included), in the first ever concentration camp on German soil. Unlike Ketchum's earlier study, drawn largely from questionnaires filled in by former prisoners at the camp, Matthew's book not only gives a chronology to the Ruhleben story itself, it also looks at the wider impact of the Ruhleben story in wartime diplomacy and propaganda, as well as the place of Ruhleben in the British memory of the war.
Thoroughly recommended, and available from www.amazon.co.uk and www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk .
Chris
NB: If you had a relative interned at Ruhleben, visit my free to view online Ruhleben Project at http://ruhleben.tripod.com where details of over 1700 of the POWS have been researched and made available online, along with photos and other memorabilia in many cases.
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Largs and North Ayrshire FHS
Having joined the Largs and North Ayrshire FHS in January, I was finally able to attend one of their meetings last night, which was in fact the annual general meeting, held at the local library, at which various reports were given on the society's past year's successful series of talks and visits.
The organisation celebrates its twenty first anniversary next year, so there is no better time to join, with annual membership costing just £12, or £15 for family membership or overseas. The society's Spring Journal (no. 53) has also just been published, and contains articles on the Buchanites, tracing Merchant Navy ancestry, DNA and genealogy, and much more.
For more information on what the society has to offer and on how it can help with your research, visit the website at http://www.largsnafhs.org.uk/.
Chris
The organisation celebrates its twenty first anniversary next year, so there is no better time to join, with annual membership costing just £12, or £15 for family membership or overseas. The society's Spring Journal (no. 53) has also just been published, and contains articles on the Buchanites, tracing Merchant Navy ancestry, DNA and genealogy, and much more.
For more information on what the society has to offer and on how it can help with your research, visit the website at http://www.largsnafhs.org.uk/.
Chris
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Practical Family History No. 126 (June 2008) on sale
In this month's Practical Family History, read articles on how to date family photographs, death certificates, the story of Postman's Park, mariners records, and much more. Yours truly also contributes a case study, reflecting on how an American based client of mine got rather more than she bargained for when I researched her family tree for her.
PFH: discovering your ancestors!
Chris
PFH: discovering your ancestors!
Chris
Geni.com updates GEDCOM import facility
Geni.com has just updated its GEDCOM facility, allowing it now to take up to 5000 names on an import, as opposed to 2000 names through its previous incarnation. The site is completely free and allows you to not only chart your family history, but to interact with your family and friends through its social networking function. For me, its best function is its online charting facility - lots of fun!
For more information visit www.geni.com.
Chris
For more information visit www.geni.com.
Chris
Scottish Parliament records (1235 - 1707) go online
A major project by St. Andrews University comes to fruition today, with the records of the original Scottish parliament going online at www.rps.ac.uk
From the site's intro:
The culmination of over ten years’ work by researchers from the Scottish Parliament Project based in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, the new edition seeks to make this key historical source freely available to all in a technologically advanced and user-friendly format.
The inclusion of new parliaments and conventions of estates, committee records, parliamentary minutes and additional material makes the online edition the most comprehensive record of Scottish parliamentary proceedings ever available.
Chris
From the site's intro:
The culmination of over ten years’ work by researchers from the Scottish Parliament Project based in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, the new edition seeks to make this key historical source freely available to all in a technologically advanced and user-friendly format.
The inclusion of new parliaments and conventions of estates, committee records, parliamentary minutes and additional material makes the online edition the most comprehensive record of Scottish parliamentary proceedings ever available.
Chris
Spectator magazine attacks genealogy!
Attention subversives!!!
The Spectator has a classic article this issue (May 3rd 2008) entitled "Sorry, but family history really is bunk". In his opening paragraph, the ever wise Leo McKinstry outlines where he is going on this, saying that "the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history". He continues with the observation that "the belief that there is something intrinsically interesting about a family's origins is badly mistaken", then basically makes the case that the whole genealogy boom is a clever plot by the government and the BBC ("the chief propagandist for the political values of our age") to cover up the impact of modern immigration by encouraging the message that Britain has always been a land of immigrants etc.
Poor Leo...!
Chris
The Spectator has a classic article this issue (May 3rd 2008) entitled "Sorry, but family history really is bunk". In his opening paragraph, the ever wise Leo McKinstry outlines where he is going on this, saying that "the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history". He continues with the observation that "the belief that there is something intrinsically interesting about a family's origins is badly mistaken", then basically makes the case that the whole genealogy boom is a clever plot by the government and the BBC ("the chief propagandist for the political values of our age") to cover up the impact of modern immigration by encouraging the message that Britain has always been a land of immigrants etc.
Poor Leo...!
Chris
Friday, 9 May 2008
Slezer's Scotland - contemporary drawings of Scotland from the 17th Century
In 1693 the first ever pictorial survey of Scotland was published by military engineer John Slezer, in his Theatrum Scotiae, a volume of detailed engravings that show important Scottish towns and buildings from over 300 years ago. More than 70 drawings from this collection have now been digitised and made available to view by the National Library of Scotland at http://www.nls.uk/slezer/index.html.
Chris
Chris
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