Scottish GENES

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

RootsIreland subscription discount offer

From RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie), via email:

Don't miss out on our special offer running now 20% off a twelve month subscription!

Why take out a subscription to Roots Ireland?

RootsIreland have the most complete and most accurate set of Roman Catholic church records online, as well as millions of Protestant records, civil records, census records, headstone inscriptions and census substitutes. Our index is easily searchable and has features such as standardised surname and forename searches which make your searches even more user-friendly.

We hold over 23 million records, and our database is being added to continually. Since 2020, we have added over 1 million records to our database from Limerick, Clare, Sligo, Kerry, Wicklow, Westmeath, Kilkenny, South Dublin, South Tipperary, Monaghan, Armagh, North Mayo, Cork, Laois, Offaly and East Galway. New records are continually being added to our database throughout the year, which are announced in as they take place.

Together, our 34 genealogy centres have an unparalleled amount of local knowledge which can be invaluable to those tracing their ancestors, a service which no other website or company can provide to such a high standard. By taking out a subscription with RootsIreland, you are helping these centres to continue to provide a world-class service and securing many Irish jobs.

If you have any questions please check our Help section and if this does not provide an answer, then you may contact us or one of the county centres. You can check what is available on our site for each countyÂ here.

*Offer applies from 1st July to 12 midnight Irish time on 14th July only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

Check the subscription page at https://rootsireland.ie/ifhf/subscribe.php

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.

AncestryHour suspended on Twitter

From AncestryHour (@ancestryhour) via Twitter:

"Due to technical issues beyond our control, it is necessary to temporarily suspend #ancestryhour until they are resolved. Thank you for your understanding."

This comes in the same week that Twitter's CEO Elon Musk has announced heavy restrictions for the number of tweets that users who don't pay for the service can view in a day, and with recent changes to TweetDeck. (I'm not actually sure how users can be prevented from using the AncestryHour hashtag should they wish, but it would clearly be against the wish of the event organisers for now).

Hopefully the situation will be resolved soon, and not become another of the latest unwelcome changes to have hit Twitter in recent months.

Chris

Sunday, 2 July 2023

Ancestry's Scotland and Northern Ireland Deaths Index

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has a useful collection on its site called the Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2021 (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60631/), which can help with recent deaths in both countries, carrying basic information on about half of all deaths in this period (I believe drawn from insurance claims data).

However, this week I noticed a problem with this collection. I searched for my father's death entry in 2021, and this was what I was presented with:

According to Ancestry's database, my father was born on 10 May 1945, and died 2 Jun 2021. In fact, he was born on 5 Oct 1945 and died 6 Feb 2021.

So what has happened? Ancestry has made a fairly ridiculous rookie mistake here with UK dates, which differ from how US dates are recorded. My father was born on 5/10/1945, not 10/5/1945 - and died on 6/2/2021 not 2/6/2021.

If you have used this databse, best to check that the same has not happened at your end - and if you have previously looked for someone and found a person with the same name but the wrong date, perhaps try again.

As with any data source, remember that just because something is in print does not necessarily make it accurate!

Chris

Saturday, 1 July 2023

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives collection link currently disabled on University of Glasgow website

The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives were made accessible at Glasgow City Archives in the Mitchell Library for many years, with archivist Alistair Tough available on appointment for those who wished to see records within the collection. Although accessible at the Mitchell, the records were actually the responsibility of The University of Glasgow Archives. Since Alistair's recent retirement, there has been no access to the collection for researchers, with no replacement as yet appointed.

It now seems that the link to the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on the University of Glasgow website has been disabled. However, those wishing to see if records might be available for consultation - albeit, not just now until a new archivist is appointed - can find the same page hosted at the Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20221126190801/https:/www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archivespecialcollections/nhsgreaterglasgowandclyde/collections/, with the Hospitals and Clinics link providing access to individual descriptions for each collection item.

The description for the archive remains accessible also via ArchiveHub at https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/9ec26c2d-96e4-3fcb-b8b5-3bee08ae6ec1.

Here's hoping access will be restored at some stage soon to these important records, and the link to the collection description on the live site repaired or reinstated.

Chris

Friday, 30 June 2023

Further occupational records added to TheGenealogist

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

New Occupational Records reveal biographical details of those in The Arts - Find out more about ancestors who were writers, artists, actors and more

A new release of records by family history website TheGenealogist allows English, Scottish and Welsh family historians to discover useful information on a myriad of people. From ancestors who were writers, artists, actors and many other professions, this collection opens up the lives of these people for the researcher.

Using entries recorded in a number of biographical resources Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can fill in gaps with tantalising facts about the person. Facts which can lead on to all sorts of other records and avenues for investigation.

The name rich resources that make up this release augment TheGenealogist’s already extensive Occupational Records. Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search, the new records come from a variety of publications, including:

●    Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century, Volume I
●    Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century Volume II
●    The Green Room Book 1907
●    The Dramatic List 1879
●    The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 1908
●    The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography 1863

Researchers can use these records to fill in gaps in the lives of individuals, discover stories and anecdotes about the person, read facts which may lead you on to research other records and point you towards more avenues for investigation.

To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of A Child Actress who Managed The Prince of Wales’s Royal Theatre read our article here: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/a-child-actress-who-managed-the-prince-of-waless-royal-theatre-2051/

(With thanks to Nick Thorne)

Chris

The Bible has been translated into Doric

If you're from the north-east of Scotland, and in need of a little religious instruction, help is at hand in the form of a new edition of the entire Bible translated into the Scots dialect of Doric for the very first time!

The translation has taken retired Aberdeenshire solicitor and church elder Gordon Hay some 17 years to complete, with the New Testament initially published in Doric in 2012 (http://www.doricbible.com), and the Aul' Testament to be published imminently.

For more about the new translation, including its formal launch this evening at Longside Parish Church at 7.30pm, visit https://doricboard.com/news/launch-of-the-doric-aul-testament-by-gordon-m-hay/ and https://www.northern-scot.co.uk/news/aul-and-new-testaments-translated-into-doric-317885/.

Chris

Free access to Canadian records on MyHeritage for Canada Day

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

As Canada Day approaches, I’m thrilled to share that MyHeritage is offering free access to all our Canadian records from June 29 to July 2, 2023! Our vast range of Canadian records includes 176 featuring 103,662,055 records, including immigration documents, military records, census data, and more.

This limited-time free access provides an unparalleled opportunity for those with Canadian heritage to explore their roots and learn more about their ancestors.

To access the collection, visit https://www.myheritage.com/research/category-Canada/canada-genealogy-vital-records

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

Chris

RIP to my uncle Michael Graham (1955-2023) in Carrickfergus

Today sees the funeral of my uncle and godfather Ernest Michael Graham, who passed away in hospital back home in Northern Ireland earlier this week on Monday 26th June 2023.

A resident of Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, Michael was my mum's wee brother, born on July 12th 1955 to Martha Jane Bill Elisabeth Watton Smyth and Ernest Graham. My Protestant grandfather named his new son after his father and a Catholic friend of his in the shipyards, quite possibly to make a point, as he despised sectarianism! The earliest documented story I have concerning Michael in fact comes from a letter written by my grandfather in 1955, a few weeks after Michael was born, who was despondent that he had to sell his beloved camera, brought back from Saudi Arabia, in order to buy a pram for his new son - and commenting that his son had to have been born "on July 12th, of all days"! He was one of seven children born to Martha, with siblings Ernest (1943-1943, died in infancy), Edna, Bill, Charlotte (1950-2013), Mark (1962-1976), and Nicolle.

Michael was educated at Sunnylands Primary School and then Carrickfergus Intermediate Secondary Modern School, although spent much of his time mitching off classes! This was Michael as a teenager at Salia Avenue, in Sunnylands, Carrickfergus:

At the age of 16, in January 1971, he made his way to Helensburgh, Scotland, for my christening, where he became my godfather, alongside my aunt Sheila as godmother from my father's side:

Upon leaving school, Michael worked at the local Crazy Prices superstore, before taking up work at Standard Telephones in Whiteabbey. From the 1980s he was based in the Castlemara estate of Carrickfergus, living with my grandmother, and looking after her until her death in July 2001.

Michael spent most of his life in Carrick, where he worked as a painter and decorator. When I lived in Scotland as a child he visited on a couple of occasions, and I would regularly bump into him on my visits back home to Carrick in later years, and occasionally have a drink with him in the town, as on this occasion (below) in 1999 at Dobbin's Inn, with my mum in tow also. My youngest brother also fondly remembers Michael buying him his first pint, when he turned 18.

The most extraordinary bumping into Michael story, however, was not in Northern Ireland, but here in Scotland. About 18 years ago, when living in Largs, I walked out of a shop one day and saw him getting off a tour bus. It turned out he had decided to go on a tour of Scotland for the weekend, and the first stop was Largs, with the first person he bumped into on the street being me! He had no idea I was based in Largs (we had only moved there a year or two before), and the tour of the town he thought he would be doing rapidly changed into a visit by him to see my eldest son, who was at our childminder's, followed by me taking him to a local pub for a quick catch up, before he then had to jump on the bus again a couple of hours later to resume the tour.

It's been a few years since I last saw Michael, at my mum's funeral in 2013. He was a nice auld lad, never the "big I am", and he will be sorely missed.

RIP Uncle Michael, from all the Patons, and don't let my mother and Martha chew the ears aff ye when ye get upstairs!

Chris

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Ancestry adds NLS Scottish Post Office Directories collection

Ancestry has added a new searchable version of the National Library of Scotland's Post Office Directories collection, or at least, some of it. From the site:

Scotland, Postal Directories, 1825-1910
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62491/
Source: Scottish Post Office Directories https://digital.nls.uk/91047488. Edinburgh, Scotland: National Library of Scotland.

General collection information

This collection contains postal directories from Scotland between the years 1825 and 1910. Many types of directories are available, including:

Street directories
Trade directories
County directories
Outlying district directories

Directories are most often organised alphabetically, although some may be organised by street name and house number. All records are typed in English.

Using this collection

Records in the collection may include the following information:

Name
Occupation
Street Address
Town
Year

Records in the collection may also occasionally include the following:

Employer Name
Employer Address
Occupation Title
Names of Coworkers

Comment: This collection is also available for free at the NLS website, at https://digital.nls.uk/directories/, with more volumes available here covering publications from 1774-1911, about 700 in total. However, the volumes were originally digitised in partnership with the Internet Archive, with the exercise going well beyond 1911, and thus at the Internet Archive NLS site at https://archive.org/details/scottishdirectories you will find over 1000 volumes going up to the 1940s for many Scottish cities.

It is regrettable that Ancestry has stopped at 1910 for now, but a third party index is certainly very useful for the volumes presented here, as searching on the NLS can be a little awkward. I actually find it easier to browse through directories, rather than rely on keyword searches, and Ancestry does also provide this as an option.

Chris

Live streaming from Scotland's Court of Session commences

The Court of Session in Scotland, the country's highest civil court, has commenced a new live streaming service of cases. At this stage, appeals to civil cases heard in the Inner House are being streamed only.

Civil cases could be heard from 1532 in the Court of Session, after it was established by James V, with cases presided over by the Lord Chancellor of Scotland. In 1810 the court was divided into two, with an Outer House (a court of first instance) and Inner House (a court both of first instance and appeal). In 1815 a Jury Court was also created to allow trial by jury for civil matters for the first time, though this was absorbed into the Court of Session in 1830.

The Court of Session oversees many civil actions, including issues such as debt recovery, divorce actions from 1830, sequestrations (bankruptcies), the appointment of guardians to oversee the estates of the sick or insane, and cases of defamation. It also has the most prominent series of registers of deeds, and could hear services of heirs cases.

If your ancestors were tried in the Court of Session, had cases prosecuted on their behalf, or acted as witnesses, the live stream can give you a flavour of the sort of experience they may have gone through. For more on the announcement of the streaming service, visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66020408, whilst the stream itself is available at https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/the-courts/supreme-courts/about-the-court-of-session/court-of-session-livestream-hearings.

You can find more about the role of the Court of Session, as well as other courts in Scotland, and their relevance for genealogical research, in my book Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records, details below!

Entrance to the Law Courts, Parliament Square, (c) Kim Traynor, Creative Commons

Chris

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Friday, 30 June 2023

Wednesday, 28 June 2023