Two Crimean Wars (Dà Chogadh a' Chrimea)

There's an interesting story on the BBC Alba news page, entitled "Two Crimean Wars" ("Dà Chogadh a' Chrimea") outlining some possible similiarities between the Crimean War 150 years ago and the current conflict in Ukraine. The article, in Gaelic, looks at the contemporary writings of a poet from the Isle of Mull, Dùghall MacPhàil, about the causes of the first Crimean War, and tries to compare with today's conflict.

To read the article, visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan/65816874 - you can run it through the Google Translate facility at https://translate.google.co.uk for a handy enough translation.

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.

How to access 20th century Glasgow newspapers online

For whatever reason, the British Newspaper Archive seems incapable or unwilling to add more content to its site for Glasgow in the 20th century, perhaps because of rights issues. Only three years of the Glasgow Evening Times are available (1966, 1967, 1973), and some early 20th C editions of the Glasgow Observer and Catholic Herald.

However, you can access 20th century content online from the Bulletin and Scots Pictorial, the Glasgow Herald and the Glasgow Evening Times via the Google News Archive at https://news.google.co.uk/newspapers, as well as the late 18th century Glasgow Advertiser, free of charge. The coverage is as follows:

• Bulletin and Scots Pictorial (1951–1960)
• Glasgow Herald (1806–1990)
• Evening Times (1953–1990, plus three earlier editions in 1914 and 1933)
• Glasgow Advertiser (1783–1801)

The Bulletin and Scots Pictorial is listed simply on Google's list as Bulletin, but notes that coverage is apparently only available from 2 Jan 1957–28 Feb 1957. This is incorrect – a run of the paper is in fact available online from 1951–1960. The easiest way to access the entire Bulletin collection is to simply click the following link: https://bit.ly/BulletinScotsPictorial.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the search facility of this Google site is truly appalling, and to be honest, in my opinion you're actually better off just browsing for content. But at least it is there, and that's better than no access! 

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.

Scottish Reseach Online course starts July 3rd

The next Scottish Research Online course from Pharos Tutors (www.pharostutors.com), taught by myself, starts on July 3rd. 

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: 3 July 2023
Cost: £58.00

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

To sign up for the course, please visit https://www.pharostutors.com/scottish-research-online

I hope to maybe see you there!

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.

First phase of the Ulster Settlers 1609-1641 database launched

From the Royal Irish Academy (www.ria.ie), news about the first phase of the Ulster Settlers Database:

The Ulster Settlers Database was developed by Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick as part of the R.J. Hunter Digital Fellowship.

As is the case for most early modern populations, biographical information on Ulster Settlers is partial, incomplete and, from a data viewpoint, unstructured. This complicates research and can limit the range and ambition of research questions. The Ulster Settlers Database is a digital humanities project that responds to the challenges involved in working with incomplete biographical data. It does this by modelling existing data into life events and then digitally linking all these related events to reconstruct a searchable prosopography or biographical map of the entire settler cohort.

The project uses historical data relating to the English and Scottish men and women who settled in the six escheated counties of Ulster in the period, c.1609-1641. In the first phase, we have drawn on some of the key sources for the study of the Ulster plantation: grants of forfeited land issued to grantees, military muster lists, surviving court records and the secondary literature on the plantation.

Future plans include the inclusion of information from other archival collections include the 1641 Depositions, additional court records, family papers and data relating to land transfers and sales in the course of the seventeenth century.

The initial phase of the project was funded by the Royal Irish Academy through a Hunter Foundation research grant. Beginning in early 2022, the project was co-hosted by the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University Belfast and Maynooth University’s Arts and Humanities Institute.

The Royal Irish Academy and the project team are very grateful to Bob’s daughter, Laura Houghton-Hunter for her continued interest in her father’s research and for her sponsorship of the database project.

The database is available at: https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie/ (link is external)

(Source: https://www.ria.ie/news/grants-and-awards/ulster-settlers-database)

COMMENT: Just brilliant, with the promise of more to come! 

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.

Irish Lives Remembered issue 59 now online

The latest Irish Lives Remembered issue is now available online from Eneclann:

Welcome to the Spring 2023 issue

We're delighted to announce the latest issue of Irish Lives Remembered is now available to enjoy!
As always, we offer you a wealth of articles on Irish lives, recent and distant, and a trove of genealogy tips to help you with your research.

Articles:

• Helen Moss & Fiona Fitzsimons – Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA, Roots in Ireland
• Brigit McCone – Gaels Who Sail: The Irish in the Caribbean, Pacific and Antarctic
• Brian Mitchell – The Shipwreck of the Faithful Steward: The Importance of Family Information
• Eamonn P. Kelly – Here Be Dragons: Áine's Fiery Form
• Donna Rutherford – Unlocking Secrets with DNA: My Unexpected Result
• Conor Curran – Outstanding Families of Dublin Soccer
• Elizabeth Cowan – Bride of MacBride: Catalina Bulfin
• The Four Courts Press Photo Feature – Launch of “The Irish Defence Forces 1922-2022” (2023) By Eoin Kinsella
• The Four Courts Press Book  Excerpt – Leitrim:The Irish Revolution 1912-23 (2020) by Patrick McGarty  

The Genealogical Publishing Company Book  Excerpt – A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. Second Edition (2002) by Brian Mitchell

Regular columns:

• Heritage Highlight – Michael Collins House Museum, Clonakilty, county Cork
• Dear Genie 1 – Questing for Quinns of Quebec! [Fiona Fitzsimons answers a reader’s genealogy query]
• Dear Genie 2 – Nun Braver: Tracing Heroic Sister Anthony's Tree! [Fiona Fitzsimons answers a reader’s genealogy query]
• Photodetective – Canadian Celtic Connections! [Jayne Shrimpton analyses a reader’s photograph]
• Emerald Roots Interview – Fiona O'Mahony, head of the Irish Family History Centre at EPIC Museum  
  

The magazine is available at https://www.irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/product/irish-lives-remembered-issue-59-spring-2023/

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.

Pharos Tutors launches brand new website and branding

From Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com):

Brand new Pharos Tutors branding, website and student experience

Pharos Tutors offers short online courses and certificate programmes in family history, local history and related topics. We are delighted to announce that we have today launched the brand new Pharos Tutors website and online course experience. 

The new system better serves the current Pharos Tutors business, which now has twenty tutors and over fifty courses, with more in development.  The key features are:

•    Updated look and feel
•    An easy to navigate website featuring the brand new Course Finder: The default view shows all courses and may be ordered by start date or course title. However, the course list can also be filtered by course type, e.g. just courses in the Intermediate Certificate programme, by level of difficulty, e.g. beginner’s courses, by Tutor or by start month. There is also an option to search by keyword, e.g. ‘parish registers’
•    Updated and modernised platform and technology
•    A single login for all Pharos Tutors systems - only one password to remember!
•    Technology used to run our courses brought ‘in house’ to run within the Pharos Tutors website
•    A totally redesigned Student interface, our Student Area, in keeping with a modern LMS (Learning Management System).

The Student Area is now organised by course, as we know many of our students take more than one course simultaneously and wanted things more easy to find. Lesson notes and other course documents are now located in the Course materials area. Messages from the tutor are in the Messages area and students can also contact their tutor directly from here. We also have a brand new forum and chat room system. Times for chat sessions and the links to them will appear in the Chat / Zoom area. Many of our tutors are now running some of their tutorials using the Zoom video system, and the links to those can also be found in the Chat / Zoom area.

The new Pharos Tutors website has been developed as an intuitive system with simple navigation, providing a much enhanced visitor experience for both current students and those considering taking a course with us. We look forward to seeing you on a Pharos Tutors course in the near future.

NB: If you'd ike to try out the new site, there's no better time than today with the launch of my my brand new course Researching Scottish Ancestral Crisis - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/researching-scottish-ancestral-crisis.

Chris 

(With thanks to Karen Cummings)

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.

Anderston weavers and Scottish freemasons included in latest TheGenealogist release

From TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk):

New Records for Guilds, Societies and People of Note released by TheGenealogist
Family history website TheGenealogist has just released a new collection of name rich records of interest to English, Scottish and Welsh family historians.

The Guilds, Societies and People of Note collection includes records that reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were Freemen, Liverymen, Aldermen, members of the Masons and Oddfellows, or people classed as Worthies.

The various records in this collection have been gathered together under TheGenealogist’s extensive Occupational Records and adds 65,000 names from fourteen new resources to this collection. Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search. The new additions include records from a variety of sources, including:

● Freemen Registers: These records list the names of people who were granted the freedom of a particular town or city. The freedom of a town or city gave its holder certain privileges, such as the right to trade within the town or city walls.
● Liverymen Lists: These records catalogue the names of people who were members of a particular guild. Guilds were organisations of craftsmen or merchants who banded together to protect their interests.
● Aldermen Rolls: These records list the names of citizens who served as aldermen in a particular town or city. Aldermen were elected officials who served on the town or city council.
● Masons and Oddfellows Records: These records list the names of people who were members of the Freemasons or the Oddfellows. The Freemasons and the Oddfellows are two fraternal organisations that have been around for centuries.
● Worthies Records: These records list the names of people who were considered to be “worthies” of their community. Worthies could be anyone from prominent politicians or successful businessmen to renowned military personalities.

Use these records to reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were Freemen of various towns and cities, Liverymen, Aldermen, members of the Masons and the Oddfellows, or who were Worthies in their circle. Gathered together under the Guilds, Societies and People of Note section of TheGenealogist’s Occupational Records, this diverse collection can reveal fascinating research clues to work with.

This release includes the following resources:

– A Calendar of the Freemen of Great Yarmouth 1429-1800
– The Aldermen of Cripplegate Ward 1276-1900
– Yorkshire, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, Volume I [1905]
– Yorkshire, History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, Volume II [1906]
– London Worthies by William Kent [1939]
– Freemen of Lynn 1292-1836
– Record Of Unitarian Worthies
– Rules and Regulations Office-Bearers and Members Weavers' Society of Anderston 1901
– Register of Freemen of the City of London
– Cornish Worthies, Vol. I, 1884
– Cornish Worthies, Vol. II, 1884
– A List of The Wardens Members of The Court of Assistants and Liverymen of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths since 1688
– The Masonic Directory and Cyclopedia of History 1885
– Directory of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, 1908-1909

To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of Captain Bligh read TheGenealogist’s article: A veritable Bounty of information found in the Occupational records.
https://thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/a-veritable-bounty-of-information-found-in-the-occupational-records-1866/

COMMENT: As well as the Anderston weavers records, there are Scottish freemasons included in the masonic collections here.

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

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.

Possible service disruption in Edinburgh on July 5th

Those wishing to access the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, and in particular Edinburgh City Archives, on July 5th, should take note that as Charles and Camilla are up on that day for a royal ceremony (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65854216), there is every possibility of disruption to services, for security reasons.  

I would advise keeping an eye out on the websites of the respective organisations for details of any possible closures - www.nrscotland.gov.uk, www.nls.uk, and www.edinburgh.gov.uk/managing-information/edinburgh-city-archives-1/3.

 

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.

Highland Memorial Inscriptions site is down

The massively useful Highland Memorial Inscriptions site at https://sites.google.com/site/highlandmemorialinscriptions/home is currently showing as a dead link. 

I've had a look on the Internet Archive, and have found that some of the material has been preserved - for example, the burials at Tomnahurich Cemetery in Inverness, whereas others are not fully available, e.g. the Invernessshire page is only show listings for burials with surnames beginning with the letters A-E.

The latest time the site was saved was March 30th this year, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20230330183615/https://sites.google.com/site/highlandmemorialinscriptions/home.

If anyone knows the fate of this site, and whether this is just a temporary glitch, I would be grateful to learn about 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 the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

1931 census of Canada now online

The 1931 Census of Canada is available at Ancestry at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62640/ and via Library and Archives Canada at https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931. 

At present the records are mainly browse only, with LAC working in partnership with Ancestry and FamilySearch to make indexes available in the immediate future. 

Some of the records are already name searchable on Ancestry, and once the index is complete it will also be made available on Family Search, with images (see https://www.familysearch.org/en/info/1931-census-of-canada)

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.