Scottish GENES

Monday, 13 February 2023

New Pharos course - Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis

So, something I have been working on over the last few weeks - a new Scottish themed course to be taught through Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), which will well and truly delve into the depths of Scotland's records!

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, within 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: 12 Jun 2023
Cost: £58.00

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

COMMENT: It is recommended that the previous two Scottish courses from Pharos, outlined above, are first completed, as the level of knowledge imparted by these will be assumed to be in your grasp (there will be no explaining how to access various catalogues, various points of law already discussed, etc). The next Scottish Research Online course will start on Feb 27th (see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=260). However, if you are well down the road with your research, and very comfortable with a lot of key elements of the Scottish genealogical world, feel free to sign up also!

Pharos is also announcing two other new courses - Critical Thinking Approaches for Genealogy, with Sophie Kay, and Elusive Ancestors: Migration Within the British Isles, with Janet Few - for further details on each visit https://www.pharostutors.com/blog/2023/02/13/new-courses-scottish-ancestral-crisis-and-critical-thinking-methods/.

There is a LOT to discuss in my new course, both with resources available online and those found only within the archives - I look forward to hopefully seeing you there!

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors 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. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Sunday, 12 February 2023

Scottish Genealogy Network meets in Glasgow

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to meet up with fellow members of the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com) for the first time in almost four years, with thirteen hardy souls meeting up for the first of two meetings over the next two months in which members hope to get back into the swing of things in terms of our in-person genealogical networking. It was an immense success, with five of us still there talking eight hours after we started - there was a certainly lot of catching up to be done that was well and truly caught up on!

The SGN members come from various places in Scotland's professional genealogy community, including members from the Association of Professional Genealogists and ASGRA, and others not in any organisation, as well as those who may have recently retired from the profession. In addition we have members from associated disicplines such as university tutors, ancestral tourism operators, librarians/archivists, and more. Its success over the last ten years has come from its sheer informality - there are no membership fees, no certification programmes, it's simply a talking shop for like-minded folk to get together from time to time to discuss recent developments that may impact on our work as professional genealogists. In the past we have organised occasional visits to archives and libraries, and even the occasional CPD event.

The SGN also has a private members group on Facebook, allowing us to continue to network between meetings - about the only rules we have are that the network is open to people based in Scotland, and that access to the Facebook group page is only permitted after attendance at a meeting.

The next SGN meeting will be on Saturday, March 4th 2023 in Edinburgh, venue TBC. If you work in the professional genealogy world in Scotland, and are based here, we'd love to see you - pencil the date in for now!

The only down side was the complete failure of my Type 40 time capsule at the end of the evening (I should never have parked it on Buchanan Street!), but the trains were running, so all was well... :)

Chris

Glasgow and West of Scotland FHS centre becomes FamilySearch Affiliate Library

Some great news from the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk):

On 1st November 2022, our Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society research centre and library at 32 Mansfield St, Glasgow, G11 5QP became a FamilySearch Affiliate Library.

FamilySearch is a non-profit organisation and website affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Department. The Family History Department was founded in 1894 as the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). The GSU began microfilming records of genealogical importance in 1938. FamilySearch is free of charge to everyone, regardless of tradition, culture or religious affiliation.

The FamilySearch website offers free access to a huge database of digital images and indexes of genealogical records. Access to these records is subject to copyright and an agreement with the owner or custodian of each record set. In many cases, the images are not available for you to view at home, but may be viewed on-site at a Family History Centre, an Affiliate Library, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

If you visit our premises you may view most of the images, using our PCs or your own device connected to our network via wifi. Once you leave our premises, you will be unable to view the restricted images on-line and so please download your selected images to your device before you leave. If you use our PCs, we can print your images or forward them to you via email.

We don’t have an institutional login to FamilySearch; you must login to FamilySearch using your own credentials. If you don’t have a FamilySearch account, you can easily create one using the Create Account button at the top righthand side of the FamilySearch home screen. There is no charge or subscription for a FamilySearch account. You must login to FamilySearch to view the images.

FamilySearch has many records relevant for research in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. For example, they have unindexed and untranscribed images of many Cemetery records. Please refer to the FamilySearch Catalog or their Research Wiki for more details.

(Original story at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/2023/02/12/familysearch-affiliate-library/)

I've heard from Murray Archer, the society's minutes secretary, that the centre became a FamilySearch affiliate in November, but that they did not wish to publicise the fact straightaway in order to allow time for training of volunteer assistants. This is now the second family history society in Scotland to become a FamilySeach affiliate, with Aberdeen and North-East Scotland FHS having that status also.

The Family History Centre in Julian Avenue closed more than four years ago - if you are a former patron of that centre, a member of the GWSFHS, or simply someone wishing to find out more about membership, visit the society's website at https://www.gwsfhs.org.uk/about/research-centre/ for further details, including opening hours.

Now that I am a member of the society, I'll need to pop up to take a look! In the meantime, you can read about the Scottish Genealogy Network's visit to the centre in 2015 at http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com/2015/03/sgn-visit-to-glasgow.html.

(With thanks to Murray)

Chris

Friday, 10 February 2023

TheGenealogist adds over 342,500 names to its 1939 Register database

If your ancestors were down south in 1939, this may be of interest from TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.gov.uk):

TheGenealogist adds more than 342,500 to their 1939 Register, opening previously closed records

TheGenealogist.co.uk has just added over 342,500 new records to the 1939 Register for England and Wales. Researchers can now see all people born in 1922 opened under the 100 year rule along with those who have passed away since the last release.

TheGenealogist’s version of the 1939 Register is matched to its powerful mapping tool, Map Explorer™ so that researchers can see more accurately where their ancestor’s house was situated on maps down to house, street or parish level, giving more detail than ever before. With its SmartSearch family historians can discover even more from the records in the 1939 Register not just where their ancestors were living as the Second World War began in Britain, but potential birth and death records.

TheGenealogist’s unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at this time. Searching the 1939 Register on TheGenealogist also allows researchers to take advantage of some powerful search tools to break down brick walls. For example there is the ability to find ancestors in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual’s occupation or their date of birth. Researchers may also search for an address and then jump straight to the household or, if you are struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

Having discovered a record in the 1939 Register, TheGenealogist then gives its subscribers the ability to click on the street name and so view all the residents in the road. This feature can be used to potentially discover relatives living in the area and can therefore boost your research with just a click.

The 342,543 newly opened records from the 1939 Register, linked to the detailed mapping tool on TheGenealogist, is a tremendous way for family historians to discover where their forebears lived in September 1939.

See TheGenealogist’s article: The “Count” and the Contessa found in the 1939 Register
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-count-and-the-contessa-found-in-the-1939-register-1661/

COMMENT: Don't forget that you can order up extracts from the Scottish 1939 National Identity Register via https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/nhs-central-register/about-the-register/1939-national-identity-register-and-how-to-order-an-official-extract. For Northern Ireland, I believe there may be a problem once again in ordering similar extracts from PRONI, thanks to the current political situation, with no minister sitting in post (a requirement of its FOI legislation), but you can still order an extract (at no cost) via https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/proni-enquiry-service - you just might have to wait a while for Stormont to get its act together again, before PRONI can send it to you!

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

Monday, 6 February 2023

Pharos launches two-part foundation course in English and Welsh genealogy

Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com) has launched a new two part foundation course in English and Welsh genealogy, which may be of interest to those needing to learn how records were recorded outside of Scotland and Ireland (although some of the first part of the course may also be relevant for research in those countries). Here's the blurb:

Pharos Tutors releases new two-part beginners’ course

Pharos Tutors are delighted to announce the launch of our two-part Foundations of Family History course. This is an Anytime course, so there is no fixed start date, students simply work through the material at their own pace.

When you embark on your family history journey there can be a lot to take in, with so many different records available, how do you know where to start? Developing an understanding of the records you work with increases your ability to get the most from them. Just as important as understanding records is methodology and technique, how to most effectively build a family tree in which you can be confident.

This two-part course will introduce you to the four fundamental genealogical sources in England and Wales: records of civil registration (birth marriage death certificates), census records, parish registers and wills and probate records, and start you off with some good methods and techniques that you can continue to apply as you progress your family tree further. The topics covered in the two parts of this course are as follows:

Foundations of Family History Part 1 - Getting Started
Lesson 1 - Gathering information and interviewing relatives
Lesson 2 - Storing your family history research (including software options)
Lesson 3 - Civil Registration (birth, marriage and death certificates)
Lesson 4 - The census records
Lesson 5 - Building your tree with confidence

Foundations of Family History Part 2 - Next Steps
Lesson 1 - Introduction to parish registers
Lesson 2 - Deaths, burials and obituaries
Lesson 3 - Getting started with wills and probate records
Lesson 4 - Problem solving

Starting with an Anytime course gives students a feel for how Pharos course materials are presented, without the need to set aside fixed times for tutorials or complete work by particular date. Anytime courses are made up of a number of ‘lessons’, where one week is about equivalent to the amount of material we would teach on a tutor-led course in one week, but you can set your own pace. Each ‘lesson’ includes exercises for students to work through, websites to visit and search techniques to try out, so there is plenty of ‘doing’ as well as reading.

You can read more about how Pharos Tutors courses work here:
How Courses Work https://www.pharostutors.com/howcourseswork.php

You can read more about the new courses here:
Foundations of Family History Part 1 - Getting Started
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=030

Foundations of Family History Part 2 - Next Steps
https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=031

LAUNCH OFFER: We are offering students who buy Part 1 and Part 2 of this course as a single purchase a £10 voucher off their next Pharos Tutors course.

(With thanks to Karen Cummings)

Chris

RIP Audrey Collins, who has sadly passed away

Today was never going to be a good day, it being the second anniversary of my father's death, but I've just heard the truly tragic news that Audrey Collins, for many years Family History Specialist from the National Archives at Kew, has passed away over the weekend.

Audrey was an absolute giant of the UK genealogy world, thanks to her role at TNA, and was key in explaining many of the records sets being released online from Kew, including the censuses down south and the 1939 National Identity Register. Most recently she helped contribute a surviving schedule from the 1921 Scottish census to the National Records of Scotland's coverage for its own launch - although schedules in Scotland have not survived, Audrey had located one at TNA in England, taken by a holidaymaker south from Scotland (see https://blog.nrscotland.gov.uk/2022/12/11/a-chance-survival/). A read of Audrey's blog, The Family Recorder (http://thefamilyrecorder.blogspot.com), will keep you enthralled and enlightened for hours, and she also co-authored Birth, Marriage & Death Records - A Guide for Family Historians with Dave Annal, a superb account of the systems of church records and civil registration records kept in Britain, Ireland, The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Audrey was originally from Glasgow's Govan area, but moved many years ago down south. I had the pleasure to meet her a few times at Who Do You Think You Are? Live conferences and at other events, as well as at TNA - she was always so good natured, humorous, and an absolute encyclopaedia of knowledge. One of my fave recordings that she made many years ago, which we often talked about, was a lecture she gave for FamilySearch trying to explain to exactly what the UK, the British Isles, Great Britain etc meant as terms, as we shared a common exasperation at how often folk overseas use them to mean the same thing, i.e. England! (The lecture is at https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/lessons/what-is-britain). Although she lost her native Govan brogue, she was very proud of her Scottish roots, constantly citing her flame red hair as proof of her Scottish credentials!

The following is a ten minute interview I did with Audrey at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London's Kensington Olympia eleven years ago in 2011, which will give a flavour of the legend that she was (also available at https://youtu.be/1620ec4BlIg).

RIP Audrey - you will be sorely missed. My sincere condolences to all of Audrey's family and friends.

(With thanks to Dave Annal via Twitter)

UPDATE: From Audrey's family via Twitter @AudreyCollins23:

This is a message from Audrey’s family. Audrey sadly died on 4 February after a short illness. Details of services will be posted here when available. Thank you to all her friends and colleagues who made her life so happy.

Chris

Saturday, 4 February 2023

Ulster Historical Foundation's North American lecture tour

From the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com):

The Ulster Historical Foundation will be back on tour this Spring!

Beginning with two online programmes, one on 11 February and another on 18 February, our 2023 Lecture Tour will see the Foundation participate in a number of family history workshops across the United States plus one date in Canada.

To find out how to register for the different workshops/seminars visit https://www.ancestryireland.com/usa-lecture-tour-2023/.

Chris

Scottish Research Online course starts Feb 27th

A reminder that the next 5 week long Scottish Research Online course from Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com), taught by yours truly, starts on February 27th 2023, and there is still plenty of availability!

The following is the course description:

Scottish Research Online (102)
Tutor: Chris Paton

Scotland was one of the first countries to digitise its major family history records collections for accessibility online, and continues to this day to use such resources to promote a worldwide interest in family history for those with Caledonian connections.

This course describes the major sites and record types that you will encounter in your research, and how to analyse the results. It compares and contrasts many of the key websites available for Scottish research, drilling down to key features within each to help improve a users knowledge of what is contained within the presented records, and equally important, what is not. It explores the key resources for vital records such as births, marriages and deaths, as recorded by the state from 1855 onwards, and the usefulness of the decennial censuses from 1841-1911 in connecting family members and branches together.

Prior to civil registration there are the records created by the Church of Scotland as the state church, with the course exploring access to its Old Parish Registers (OPRs) on ScotlandsPeople and through FamilySearchs various finding aids. In the final lesson, wills and inventories generated by Scotlands confirmation process are explored, with some of the many differences flagged up between the records of Scotland and the rest of the UK, thanks to the distinctly different legal system north of the border.

Most importantly this course will inspire you to actively pursue your interest in Scottish genealogy and take it to the next level.

Lesson Headings:

    * Understanding Scotlands People, FindmyPast, Family Search, Ancestry, and FreeCen
    * Essential Maps and Gazetteers
    * Civil Registration and Census Research
    * Searching in Church of Scotland Registers
    * Scottish Wills and Inventories

Note: it is recommended but not required that students in this course sign up for the basic search option, 30 units/seven days, at ScotlandsPeople (cost is £7.50 for 30 credits)

Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chats See How Courses Work.

STUDENTS SAID:

'I particularly liked the fact that the course didn't just focus on the well-known BMD resources available, but on a much wider range of websites, including many which give extremely useful background information on the geography and history of the localities where our ancestors lived.'

'Excellent tuition from Chris Paton; very good course materials; well-paced; excellent value for money. I very much liked the opportunity to work at my own pace.'

Relevant Countries: Scotland
Course Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: 27 Feb 2023
Cost: £58.00

For a wee video introduction to the course, see below or visit https://youtu.be/DtTKwjACAm8

To sign up to the course, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102.

I'll hopefully see you there!

Chris

My Pen and Sword books are now available to buy in the United States

Pen and Sword, the UK publisher that I have written several genealogy books for, has a launched a new website in the United States from which customers there can purchase titles. The new site is based at https://www.penandswordbooks.com, and is collaboration with Pen and Sword Books and Casemate Publishers, which is acting as its US distributor.

For anyone in the States who has been put off by the high delivery charges for international sales in recent months from the UK (£20 for up to 2 items, then £8 per item thereafter), this will offer a chance to purchase the books at a considerably cheaper rate, with shipping costs within the United States being US $6.00 for the first title and US $2.50 for each subsequent title. The default shipping method is Media Mail through the US Postal Service, which can be tracked. Sales can also be made to Canada and Mexico, although the postage rate is a hefty US $60.00 for the first title and US $5.00 for each subsequent title.

The following are the titles from yours truly with direct links to purchase within the United States:

Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians
by Chris Paton US $26.95
https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526768384/tracing-your-scottish-family-history-on-the-internet/

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry through Church and State Records: A Guide for Family Historians
by Chris Paton US $26.95
https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526768421/tracing-your-scottish-ancestry-through-church-and-state-records/

Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians - Second Edition
by Chris Paton US $24.95
https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526757814/tracing-your-irish-family-history-on-the-internet/

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records: A Guide for Family Historians
by Chris Paton US $26.95
https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526780218/tracing-your-irish-ancestors-through-land-records/
(Note the book cover on show here has been superceded by the image below)

Sharing Your Family History Online: A Guide for Family Historians
by Chris Paton US $22.95
https://www.penandswordbooks.com/9781526780294/sharing-your-family-history-online/

Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians
by Chris Paton US $24.95
(Dealing with UK family history)

My forthcoming title Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors is not yet available for pre-order through this site, but you will know when it is available as soon as I know!

I hope this new service will help those based in the US, and don't forget that Pen and Sword have plenty of other titles available also!

Chris

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

Scottish Genealogy Network meeting on February 11th in Glasgow

It's been three years since members of the Scottish Genealogy Network (http://scottishgenealogynetwork.blogspot.com) last met in person, but fingers crossed we are now on the other side of the pandemic. As such, now is as good a time as any to catch up with colleagues to discuss all things genealogy!

The Scottish Genealogy Network is, as it suggests, a network for those who work professionally within the family history world in Scotland, whether as a genealogist, archivist, librarian, tutor, or in ancestral tourism. There's no membership fee, it's a group of like-minded folk coming together to discuss the various issues and challenges that we encounter in our everyday lives in the industry, over a drink or a bite to eat. We have visited archives in the past to help in our professional development, and have also held our own conferences for members. We also have our own private Facebook group where we can share news, events and help each other out, with access to this group conditional on attendance at a meeting. You can find out more about us at the SGN website above, and read several past events reports there also.

We'll be meeting at The Counting House in Glasgow's George Square on Saturday 11th February 2023 from 1.00pm-2.30pm, for a chat, a drink, and perhaps a bite to eat, so if you want to see what it is all about, why not come along and join us? (A further visit is also provisionally penned in for Saturday March 4th in Edinburgh, details tbc)

If you are a working genealogist, work professionally in an associated discipline, or are a retired professional in the field, you'll be most welcome to attend - hopefully we'll see you there!

Some pics from past events and meet-ups...!

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.

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Monday, 13 February 2023

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Friday, 10 February 2023

Monday, 6 February 2023

Saturday, 4 February 2023

Wednesday, 1 February 2023