The Scottish GENES Blog (GEnealogy News and EventS): Top news stories and features concerning ancestral research in Scotland, Ireland, the rest of the UK, and their diasporas, from genealogist and family historian Chris Paton. Feel free to quote from this blog, but please credit Scottish GENES if you do. Cuimhnich air na daoine o'n d'thà inig thu!
ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has announced that the late 19th century Napier Commission returns are to be added to ScotlandsPeople in November.
"Two fascinating new record sets are landing this autumn. The Napier Commission returns arrive in early November, offering a unique window into Highland crofting life in the 1880s. In December, we’ll add over 1,000 maps and plans, giving you new ways to explore the places your ancestors called home."
The Napier Commission from 1884, more formally known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands, and reporting to Lord Napier, was set up in response to demand for land reform in the predominantly Gaelic speaking Highland and Islands of Scotland. It led to the subsequent Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) of 1886, providing security of tenure for crofters, although this was only the first step.
It is unclear at present precisely what ScotlandsPeople is preparing to put online, but the published version of the records can be accessed at present in PDF format via the University of the Highland and Islands website at https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-history/research/resources/the-napier-commission/. The published version contains oral testimony from many witnesses, although these have been translated into English from Gaelic.
Chris
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
The October issue of the UK's Family Tree magazine is now out, and contains an article that I have put together looking at the responsibilities that we should all perhaps consider when researching our ancestral stories.
Features in the October issue:
Celebrating 200 years of the modern railway An interview with Dr Mike Esbester on why this is such significant news, what sorts of jobs our ancestors may have had, and the free database that can help you learn more about your ancestors employed by the railways
Explore the pre-1841 censuses – yes some do exist! David Annal examines the history of the early UK censuses, and discusses the information to be gleaned from the ones that survived
What are our responsibilities as family historians? Genealogist and writer Chris Paton discusses the responsibilities we should all bear in mind when embarking on our research journeys
TreeView – how can this software help you? Continuing the series of articles reviewing family tree programs, Jude Rhodes looks at TreeView
‘Other’ records created by the Crown Discover the record collections that will enable you to take your research into people and places up to 1,000 years ago with Richard Tolson
Getting started with British Army research (part 1) Graham Bandy provides a potted guide to tracing ancestors in the British Army
Spotlight on ... Railway philately Terry Davies gives us a beginners’ guide to the fascinating world of railway-related stamp collecting Thinking of taking a DNA test? DNA Detective Michelle Leonard shares advice and insights on getting started with DNA
Making the most of your DNA test Karen Evans gives us a handy guide to the reasons for taking a test, and how to get the best from your test
Plus various regular features.
For further details, and to obtain a copy, visit https://www.family-tree.co.uk/store/back-issues/family-tree-magazine/family-tree-magazine-october-2025-issue-239/
Chris
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
Scotland's historic not-proven court verdict is to be scrapped after MSPs have voted on a package of reforms in our parliament at Holyrood. The verdict has been one of three possible verdicts in Scottish legal cases since the 17th century, with the other two being guilty or not-guilty. In a technical sense not-proven also meant "not guilty", but had a subtle difference attached - not-proven was taken to mean that although there was a belief that a suspect was responsible, there was no evidence to confirm it, and thus the same net result emerged, with the person tried walking away without a conviction as a free individual. The removal of not proven as a verdict removes one of the major historic differences between Scots and English law (although plenty of others remain!).
In the Mount Stewart Murder of 1866, in which my three times great grandmother Janet Rogers (Henderson) was murdered at her brother's farm in Forgandenny, Perthshire, a suspect was tried a year later and the case against him found to be not-proven, although the stigma of the case stayed with him after the result. (You can read more about the case in my book, The Mount Stewart Murder, available from History Press at https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-mount-stewart-murder/).
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
Emma and Graham Maxwell, the duo behind the site, have also announced that their next Scottish Indexes conference will be on Saturday 22nd November 2025. This will be the 30th Scottish Indexes conference, a major anniversary for the series which first started during the Covid lockdown on April 9th 2020.
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
The National Library of Scotland will be hosting a free online webinar on 8 October 2025, from 3.00-4.00pm UK time, entitled Using Our Georeferenced Maps. The following is its description:
In this interactive workshop, we will show you tips and techniques to help you make best use of our georeferenced maps.
Georeferenced maps are those which have been aligned with the real-world, so they can be viewed as overlays on top of modern satellite imagery and mapping, or even in comparison to your own live location!
We now have over 600 georeferenced layers of mapping freely available on our website, along with tools to filter, measure, draw, compare and export them. Discover how to use these tools, as well as how you can easily bring these georeferenced maps into other web and desktop applications.
The workshop will last approximately one hour and includes a question-and-answer session at the end. This workshop will not be recorded but it is repeated regularly.
If you enjoy georeferenced maps but are not sure you are making full use of them, this workshop is for you!
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) will be holding a "Getting started" workshop at Strabane Library on Wednesday, 22 October 2025 from 12:30 to 13:30. The library's address is 1 Railway Street, Strabane, BT82 8EF.
There's a wee bit of blurb on the event from the Eventbrite site:
About this event
Are you thinking of starting your family history, or local history research?
We are delighted to be on tour at Strabane Library to hold an onsite workshop.
This workshop has been designed to help you get started using PRONI's own online services and other online resources.
It is also a chance for you to ask your questions directly to PRONI staff!
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
Angus Archives is pleased to announce the installation of new local history shelving in the search room, providing a flexible space for visitors and to accommodate future group visits.
Looking ahead, Angus Archives will relocate to this improved search room in early 2026. During the forthcoming renovation of Arbroath Library’s ground floor, the library will temporarily move to the upstairs galleries. Angus Archives will continue to operate from its current first floor search room until the work is completed.
Further updates on the renovation will be provided in due course.
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following two Irish collections to its site this week:
Ireland, Church of Ireland Land Tenure Index, 1878 https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63099/ Source: Irish Church Temporaliteis Commission. Report of the Commisioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, for the Year 1878. Dublin: Alexander Thom, 1879.
About Ireland, Church of Ireland Land Tenure Index, 1878
This collection is an index of information derived from a government report on the sale of land by a commission overseeing the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. The Report of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland for the Year 1878 was an accounting of sales of church land made to people who had previously been tenants of the church and sales to members of the general public. The collection doesn’t include images of the original report.
Using this collection
Records in this collection may include the following information:
Name
Parish
Diocese
Barony
County
Sale date
Property information
In addition to learning more about your ancestor’s financial status and their life experience, finding your ancestor in this collection can help your search for additional records. Knowing the date and place of your ancestor’s land purchase may give you a place to begin searching for other church or civic documents related to their life. It may also lead you to newspaper articles from that time and place that may provide information about your ancestor or the experience of others in that area.
NB: For further details on the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, check out my book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records (see books tab, top of page)
About Ireland, Midleton Distillery Barley Purchase Books, 1825-1834
This collection contains records from the firm James Murphy & Co produced between 1825 and 1834 at the Midleton Distillery in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. The collection has three volumes of ledgers that recorded purchases of barley from local farmers from the East Cork area. Barley is a primary ingredient in Irish whiskey. Using this collection
Records in this collection may include the following information:
Name
Residence date
These records are a great resource to help you learn more about your ancestor’s work as a barley farmer. The original documents contain information that has not been indexed, exploring the record images in this collection you may learn the number of barrels your ancestor sold to the distillery on a given day, the weight of the barley, and the amount your ancestor was paid for the crop.
The records were created by employees of the firm James Murphy & Co working at Midleton Distillery, Co. Cork and the original documents are now held in the Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard Archive at Midleton.
Further details via the links.
Chris
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
The following notes is displaying on the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), concerning orders for birth, marriage and death certificates from the National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk):
Please note certificate ordering will be unavailable from 1pm on
Friday 12th September 2025 and will resume again from 9am on Tuesday
16th September 2025
Chris
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
The next 5 week longScotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers family history course from Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd (www.pharostutors.com) commences in just over a week's time from September 15th 2025.
And the following is the course description, and how to sign up if interested!
Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers
This
is an intermediate level course in Scottish family history for those
who are going back beyond 1850. You should have some experience with
research in the Old Parish Registers (OPRs) of the Church of Scotland
and in using major websites for Scottish research.
This course
discusses sources that fill the gap when the OPRs are uninformative or
missing, such as the kirk session and presbytery courts records
generated by the Kirk (Church of Scotland), as well as the records of
dissenting and seceding Presbyterian congregations. From the forerunners
of Scotlands modern towns and cities are the administrative records of
the burghs, and the trades incorporations and merchant guilds, as well
as other professions, which can enhance our understanding of our
ancestors lives. And in the final two lessons the course turns up a
notch and tackles two areas where the Scottish records, as generated
through the feudal system, are truly unique, namely the various
registers of land records known as sasines, and the separate legal
processes in Scotland for the inheritance of both moveable and heritable
estate.
Whilst some of the records discussed in the course are
available online, many are available only in the archives, or in private
hands, and a strong focus of this course will be in how to successfully
employ the relevant catalogues and finding aids to locate such
treasures.
Whilst not compulsory, it is strongly recommended that
you complete the Pharos course Scottish Research Online before studying
Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers, as it will be
assumed that you are already familiar with the more basic resources
available online for Scottish ancestral research.
Lesson Headings:
* Kirk Sessions records and parish poor * Burgh records and town poor * Occupations, taxation and early lists * Land transfer and the value of sasines * Land, inheritance and estates
Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. (See How the Courses Work athttps://www.pharostutors.com/howcourseswork.php.) NB: Unlike previous courses, I am trialling using Zoom for these chat sessions, rather than the previously used text-based chat rooms - recordings of Zoom sessions will be made available after each lesson chat.
"The
exercises helped you to explore new lesson concepts right away.
Especially by directing students to apply new research aids to their own
work."
"Very clear explanations of terminology and legal
processes Really helpful exercises and comprenesive list of useful
catalogues and other references Chat sessions very helpful and
engaging."
"This being the second genealogy course I have taken,
and the second with Pharos, I found these were detailed foundation
courses which will permit me to search better and with less effort in my
future research work."
"Great subject-matter and excellent tutor/written materials. It could not have been better."
Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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.
