Scottish Handwriting site integrated into ScotlandsPeople

The Scottish Handwriting website at www.scottishhandwriting.com is sadly no more - its contents have just been integrated into the ScotlandsPeople website at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/scottish-handwriting.

The learning tools on the new version appear to be the same as those previously available on the Scottish Handwriting platform. These can be used to learn how to read old forms of Scottish Handwriting, most notoriously the form known as Secretary Hand, which I often tell folk was invented by the Klingons!

ScotlandsPeople has a news announcement about the integration of the site at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/news-article-scottish-handwriting-resource. 

I've not yet found quite how to locate the link directly on the site yet from the home page, but it can be found via the Researching Older Handwriting (Palaeography) guide on the Topics A-Z list at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/research-guides/topics-alphabetical - the guide is at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/research-guides/reading-older-handwriting.

A free guide on how to read documents from 1500-1700 is also available from the National Records of Scotland at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/research/publications/NRS-Scottish_handwriting_self-help_kit-Web_ready_version.pdf.

** For those wishing to use the original Scottish Handwriting site, it has been cached at the Internet Archive on many occasions - this link appears to lead to a fully functioning version of the site, with most pages crawled and saved - https://web.archive.org/web/20210617072923/https://scottishhandwriting.com/.

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.

Edinburgh event for researching nurses and midwives in your family tree

Edinburgh Napier University, in partnership with the National Library of Scotland and Royal College of Nursing, is running the following free event in central Edinburgh (with free lunch) on Wednesday 5th June for members of the public who are interested in finding out about nurses or midwives in their family but are not sure how to do so.

Do you have a nurse or midwife in your family history?

• Want to find out more about them?
• Not sure where to start?

Edinburgh Napier University, the Royal College of Nursing, and the National Library of Scotland are offering a 1-day event for people who want to find out about nurses or midwives connected to their family but who are not sure where to start.

You may be looking for a nurse or midwife of any era who worked in any setting (e.g., hospital, community, industry, prisons, military). They may have worked in the NHS or privately, or have spent time working outside the UK. All are welcome!

What will the day involve?

There will be short presentations and introductions to family history research from librarians, researchers, and archivists, and opportunities to learn about online searching. There will also be the chance to ask questions and get guidance on how to find out more about the nurse or midwife in your family.

No previous experience or knowledge is needed.

If you have a photo or other small memento of the person or people in your family you are interested in finding out more about, and would be happy to show it, please bring this on the day.

If you cannot attend for the whole day, please do still join us!

Notebooks, pens and lunch will be provided free of charge.

The event is open to all and free. The online registration link is: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/edinburghnapieruniversitycentreformentalhealthpracticepolicyandlawresearch/1222685

(With thanks to Ken Nisbet via the Scottish Genealogy Network) 

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.

MyHeritage releases New York City birth, marriage and death records

MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) has released 37.4 million birth, marriage and death records from New York City, USA, both indexed and digitised, which will be of immense help to those with emigrant ancestors, particularly from Ireland. The collections not only index the primary individuals, but also the parents of individuals where listed. 

The datasets have the following titles:

• New York City Births, 1866–1909
• New York City Marriages, 1866–1949
• New York City Deaths, 1866–1948

The company has released a blog post with further information on the records, available at https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/05/myheritage-releases-new-york-city-birth-marriage-and-death-record-collections/. 

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

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.

FindmyPast adds India Office records and 18th century Limerick freeholders records

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has added birth, marriage and death records for British India from the year 1872.

In addition, it has added a database that it calls "Ireland, Limerick City & County Electoral Registers 1760-1776", which actually carries records of named freeholders with a vote qualification from the years 1761, 1768 and 1776, as sourced from the National Library of Ireland. The records are in transcription form.

For more on this week's release visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/british-india-new-zealand-bmds.

 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.

Aberdeenshire memorial inscriptions records removed from Ancestry

Well, it's happened again. At the end of March I announced that Ancestry had been forced to remove a database of Isle of Man civil registration indexes which it had crawled from another user's wesbite and added to their platform without any given consent, a move which was labelled as "apparent data theft" by the data creator (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/03/ancestry-pulls-isle-of-man-civil.html). 

Now Ancestry has removed its Aberdeen and North-East Scotland, Index to Memorial Inscription Booklets, 1500-2021 database (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/03/ancestry-adds-aberdeenshire-memorial.html), appropriated from content created by the Aberdeen and North-East Scotland Family History Society, again without any given consent.

It seems that Ancestry is adding these collections to its site as part of an initiative called Ancestry Web Records. On its guide at https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Finding-Records-Online-with-Ancestry-Web-Records it notes the following:

Libraries, governments, genealogical societies, universities, and genealogists have made a wealth of information available online. Ancestry® web records makes it easy to find records from many of these places. We summarize information from free web records and provide links to the original sites.
 
Guiding principles of web records

• Access to web records is free. No one needs to subscribe or register with Ancestry to view these records.
• Web records are attributed to the content publishers.
• They're easily available. Prominent links make it easy to access the source website.

The site also adds the following for content creators:

We follow web standards for restricting crawling (robots.txt files). If a website has a robots.txt file that prohibits crawling the genealogical records, we don't search those records. If records from your website are included and you'd like them removed, please send a request to websearch@an​cestry​​.com.

In essence, Ancestry is sweeping the web for data that it can add to its site. It's not charging for such data, and it is linking back to the original content creators, but one has to ask whether this is being done for charitable reasons, or for other purposes. There can be many positive reasons for hosting such material - and indeed, in the past, Ancestry has created third party indexes to records available on other platforms, with their agreement, which you can often see with Web: written as a prefix to the collection title. But to just arbitrarily take content that others have created without seeking permission first does seem to me to be something that may potentially break trust with many people and organisations, and potentially earn itself a few Darwin Awards along the way. 

Records from the Isle of Man and Aberdeenshire collected on such a basis have already been removed over the last month as soon as the collection creators have learned about their appropriation. What else has been appropriated in the same way? Maybe Ancestry should think again about such a practice?

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.

Join me May 8th for my Scottish Research Resources Before 1800 talk for Ontario Genealogical Society

On May 8th 2024 I will be giving an online talk via Zoom to the Onatrio Genealogical Society's Scottish SIG (Special Interest Group), entitled Scottish Research Resources Before 1800. The session will be held from 10.00-11.00 a.m. Ontario time, so from 3.00 p.m. in Scotland - registration is free.

For further details, and to register, please visit https://scottishsig.ogs.on.ca/events/scottish-sig-scottish-research-resources-before-1800-chris-paton/.

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 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.

British Newspaper Archive approaches 77 million pages, with Shetland and Lewis content recently added

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) is now fast approaching 77 million pages of content, with 76,977,219 pages available at the time of writing. 

Most of the Scottish and Irish additions of the last 30 days are from recent years, but of interest to readers with Western Isles connections will the fact the Stornoway Gazette is now available for much of the period from 1967-1988, whilst Shetlanders will be happy to see much of the Shetland Times from 1912-1979. 

The following are the recent additions for Scotland and Northern Ireland (there's nothing added for the Republic):

Scotland:

Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser
1985, 1987

Banffshire Herald
1918

Shetland Times
1912-1931, 1933-1947, 1951-1979

St. Andrews Citizen
1872-1874, 1969-1984, 1986-1988

Falkirk Herald
1986

Motherwell Times
1983-1985, 1989

Mearns Leader
1975, 1993

Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser
1981, 1983-1986

Fife Herald
1986-1988

Forfar Dispatch
1953-1984, 1986

Brechin Advertiser
1984-1985

Montrose Review
1818, 1839, 1844-1845, 1960-1986

Edinburgh Evening News
1993, 1995

Fife Free Press
1958-1970, 1983-1986

Arbroath Herald
1964-1980, 1983-1984, 1986

Kirriemuir Herald
1971-1974, 1977-1979

Glenrothes Gazette
1986-1993

Deeside Piper
1986, 1988-1994

Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties' Advertiser
1993-1994

Stornoway Gazette and West Coast Advertiser
1967-1971, 1975-1985, 1988


Northern Ireland:

Ballymena Observer
1994

Banbridge Chronicle
1980-1984, 1986-1991, 1996-1998

Belfast News-Letter
2002

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.

Thanks to all who sponsored my Glasgow Kiltwalk effort

So my Kiltwalk effort (https://www.justgiving.com/page/chris-paton-stewarton) on Sunday 28th April 2024 to raise funds for the An Lòchran Scottish Gaelic arts and cultural centre (https://www.anlochran.com) in Partick has raised an incredible £2205 – over four times my original target of £500 – whilst our Gaelforce team has managed to reach its goal of £5000, raising a whopping £5155 in total!

A huge thanks from me to all of those who have shown their support for the work of An Lòchran to help encourage the continuing use of Scotland's oldest language, Gaelic, in Glasgow, it's truly appreciated – particularly to my sponsors, to Coinneach Clements, Gayle Ross, Nan Marshall, Vivienne Dunstan, Rosemary Morgan, Lauren Neary, Michelle Leonard, Marina, Majella, Maggie, Karen Hunter, Misty Denson, Scott Dinwiddie, Paul, Diana McGirr, Dougie Anderson, Eilidh Nic Mhidhachain, Sylvia Tracy Doolos, Sarah Williams, Stephanie Jane, Pamela B, Pam, Kathryn Anne Henry, Stephen Daglish, Seamus Burgon, Craig Taylor, Mrs Shopping, Dawn Carey Henry, Shona Kyle, Pat Stanistreet, Allan, Angela, Mandy Geary, Chris, Emma Jolly, Michael McGinty, Susanna Paradis, Gordon, Celia Lewis, Lynn Watt, Evelyn, Ian Barker, Kiwi Support, James Carcary, Elaine Sim, Mary Larson, Susan Best, Anita, Audrey McKeown, a Glaswegian, Ailidh, Nany A., K. McMahon, Shannon Musfelt, Duncan MacCallum, Sharon Guthrie, Kevin McLauchlin, Brian, Dai, Coco, Keith and Lorraine Stewart, Dot, Margaret Murchie, Margaret, Julie-Anne, Sue Craig, Lynn Pateman, Caitlyn, Roise McArthur, Donna, Seonaidh Dòmhnallach, M. Cohen, Allison Beard, John Gavin, Amy & Mick Murray, Shane Giles, Nancy, Steffi, Sìleas Preston, Donna Jones, Alison Spring, Graham-Slater Clan, Joy Murdoch, David Ryan, Zoe Stevenson-Cooke, Val Shearer, Ger Giles, Kirsty Wilkinson, Claire, Jamie, Jill W, Yvonne, Amy Devlin, Gary, Emma and Graham, Peterea, Rob Paton, Adam, to my twenty-two anonymous donors, also to my amazing wife Claire who did the Mighty Stride from Glasgow to Loch Lomond along with myself and the Gaelforce team, and to Ilse Alim from An Lòchran for organising the team!

Mòran taing / many thanks! And remember, if you have an interest in learning Gaelic, An Lòchran is located next door to the Glasgow and West of Scotland FHS library in Partick, with regular events for learners to get together to practice the language.  

Some pics from the big day:

And the video of our crossing the line!

Suas leis a' Ghàidhlig!

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.

Glasgow and West of Scotland FHS adds Tollcross Cemetery records to website

From Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society (www.gwsfhs.org.uk), news that may be of interest to members with family buried at Tollcross Cemetery:

Photographs and transcriptions of inscriptions on monuments in the Tollcross Cemetery, Shettleston are now available to view on our website www.gwsfhs.org.uk.

According to the Glasgow City Council, the first burial at Tollcross Cemetery 114 Corbett Street was 1897. There are some earlier dates on a few of the grave stones but they may just be recording information of folks buried elsewhere.

In 2013, we photographed over 2,081 grave stones that were face up and recordable. There were quite a few that were face down and far too heavy for us to get upright.   Many were illegible due to vandalism and severe weather.   The Old Churchyard is also within these grounds in the walled area where the Old Church also stood. We have also recorded that section.

We have name indexed all 7,890 persons mentioned in the inscriptions (married women are indexed by both their maiden and married surnames).

Previously we sold a CD of these photographs and transcriptions (since withdrawn from sale).

Access to this data is a benefit of membership of our society.

(With thanks to Murray Archer)

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.

PRONI launches updated Ulster and Slavery guide

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni) has released a newly updated publication online, entitled Ulster and Slavery. From their site:

This updated PRONI guide to archival sources is an essential resource for reflecting on slavery in the past and its influence on the present day. The original guide was published in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United Kingdom. It was published as part of the wider Hidden Connections programme which also featured workshops exploring archival sources, performances and lectures.

To mark #DouglassWeek in Belfast in April 2024, PRONI has produced a much expanded second edition of this guide with additional documents including one  written by American abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. The revised guide also includes a foreword by Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass, co-founder and President of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives.

Ulster & Slavery: The Story from the Archives helps us to locate and understand the place of slavery, the slave trade and its abolition in the UK’s public history, commemorative traditions and popular memory.

The guide is freely available to read at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/ulster-slavery-story-archives - a direct link to the 61 page PDF is at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-04/Ulster%20and%20Slavery%20-%20The%20Story%20from%20the%20Archives.PDF

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.