Highland and Island Emigration Society Records FREELY Available Online

Having been immersed in the big announcements made at RootsTech last week, I nearly missed the big announcement from ScotlandsPeople on their new record release. The records of the Highlands and Islands Emigration Society have been digitized and made freely available on the ScotlandsPeople website. 

These records pertain to some 5,000 people who left the destitution of the highlands and western isles for a better life in Australia and who received assisted passage from the Highland and Island Emigration Society.

In addition to the records of those receiving assistance is a listing of all of the ships who took passengers to Australia as part of this emigration scheme. The most common port of departure was Liverpool, England, but a few also left from Campbelltown.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/news-article-highland-and-island-emigration-society-records-released

Family History Month - New Records from ScotlandsPeople

News came yesterday that ScotlandsPeople have released the 1935 valuation rolls. Any new record set is of value, and should be applauded, however, when you consider the lead up to this point, the release was not only incredibly anti-climactic, but also incredibly disappointing.

Most of the diaspora have Scottish ancestors who left the country anywhere from 1650 - 1870. Records from the more modern period (20th century) are fairly useless when it comes to genealogical research. The memory is still fresh and there will most likely be family who can provide the information or who have passed the information along before they themselves passed on.

Of more benefit (and therefore more likely to draw people to the site) would be the long awaited Kirk Session records, High Court records for those whose ancestors were transported, Sheriff Court records to determine paternity. Much more genealogically useful to the diaspora than a modern tax record. 

It's disheartening that ScotlandsPeople was once a leader in providing online documentation for the purposes of genealogical research and now they are on the verge of going the way of the Dodo bird. While there was some incredible hopefulness that Scotland was going to be able to compete with larger online databases that is quickly waning and it is looking more like we are going to be wishing Scotland would partner up with the larger databases much the way the National Archives in London have. 

For those who want to have a gander regardless, here is the link: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Updates to the ScotlandsPeople Website

Since the launch of the new website, ScotlandsPeople has been fraught with challenges and outages that have caused a great deal of anxiety. Work behind the scenes continues to make changes that have been identified as challenging or ineffective. ScotlandsPeople keeps their consumers up to date with alerts and updates about what they have been working on. Here's the latest: 

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/what-we-are-working-on

We continue to be promised that the Kirk Session records will be coming online. Long overdue as many of us have been waiting in excess of five years for them to finally be launched. 

The website says "other court records" which will be a wonderful addition to family history researchers. Hopefully the wait for them will be far less than the wait for Kirk Session Records.

What would be really, really nice would be the launch of the 1939 Register so that those with Scottish ancestors can be as fortunate as those with ancestors in other parts of Great Britain and be able to access the Register online. 

They say "good things come to those who wait" Hopefully the wait will be in our lifetimes and won't be our descendants looking for us.

Short Delay in New BMD Releases on ScotlandsPeople

With all of the glitches and headaches that the launch of the new website has created, ScotlandsPeople has decided to delay the addition of the new statutory records for 2017. These are usually available on January 1st each year, but are being delayed until the 5th of January 2017 so that staff will be on hand to respond to any issues that might arise. 

On January 5th, you can look forward to accessing:

• Births for 1916
• Marriages for 1941
• Deaths for 1966

  

 

New ScotlandsPeople Website

The long anticipated website switch-over at ScotlandsPeople has finally launched!

Here are the added changes:

• The look and ease of use
• You now sign in with your email address rather than a username
• Credits, while still purchased in bundles of 30 are now £7.50 instead of £7. Given that there has not been an increase in several years, this increase is minimal
• You no longer need to spend credits to view the indexes. Index returns used to be 25 per page and each page was one credit to view. All returns are now simply in a list and the list is free to view. 
• Images now cost 6 credits instead of 5. But remember that there is no longer a charge to view the indexes so you are still paying the same, and in some cases, less since you might have needed more than one page of the index previously
• ALL church records are now included, not just the Established Church of Scotland, so those ancestors you might not have been able to find before may well be online now. 

Here's what has stayed the same:

• Any unused credits are still available
• All saved images are still on your account
• All previous searches are still on your account

Here's what's coming: 

No word as to when but hopefully by year's end or when the new year releases happen, the un-indexed Kirk Session Records will be available online. These can be searched by Kirk and you will need to scroll through to find the entry for your ancestors. Bear in mind, the surnames are in the left margin, so this will make the scrolling a bit easier - if you don't stop to read all of the Kirk "gossip" as you scroll. 

There will, over time, be more un-indexed records coming online, with Maps and Plans following the Kirk Session Records, then other records currently held by the NRS will be added over time. 

These NRS records will be under a subscription basis (the fees as yet to be determined) since they will be more difficult to find, being un-indexed.

Viewing Images on the ScotlandsPeople Website

I am always getting emails and FB messages about not being able to view the images on the ScotlandsPeople website. Here is how to make it work seamlessly:

• Log in to your account:
• At the top right.click on "My Details" 
• Scroll down the page to where you see a boxed in message
• Scroll past that and you will see the option to choose how you view the image. 
• Click the drop down arrow then choose "direct download" 
• This will download the image as a jpeg
• Click "update your details"

Thank You Uxbridge! Thank You Simcoe County!

Three weeks ago, I had pleasure of giving two talks to the Uxbridge Genealogy Group (http://www.uxgen.net/) Unfortunately I wound up in hospital after I got back, so haven't been able to post a public thank you. 

We had a great day. People were really enthusiastic and had lots of great stories to share. 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of giving two talks to the Simcoe County Branch of the OGS in Barrie (http://www.simcoebogs.com/). The talks were well attended and again, lots of great stories were shared. 

I am always so excited to share resources and information with people who are of Scots descent. They are always such a fun group. 

Perhaps the best part of each event were the free credits to practice what they learned about using the ScotlandsPeople website. 

So, thank you Marian and thank you Dave, Sandy and Nancy for two super Saturdays in the last month! 

ScotlandsPeople Adds 1855 Valuation Rolls

We are starting to see more and more records coming online on the ScotlandsPeople website.

Today's release is the 1855 Valuation Rolls. This reflects the first year that valuation rolls were created, the same year that statutory registration began in Scotland. The website has valuation rolls in 10 year increments from 1855-1925. These provide a nice snapshot of where you ancestors were in between census years. They clarify whether the person listed was owner, occupier or tenant. It lists the proprietor of the property and then gives the yearly rent paid. 

To read more about the newest release: 
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/Content/Help/index.aspx?r=2349


The 1855 valuation rolls are free to search. The images are 2 credits to view. 

Scottish SIG Symposium

Join Us For A Day of Learning

The mandate of the Scottish SIG (OGS) is to provide opportunities for learning about Scottish genealogy resources. In response to this, we have committed to sponsoring an annual Symposium. This year's Symposium is scheduled for Friday, August 21, 2015 at the Courtyard Marriott in Brampton.

Included in our fees for renting the room at the Marriott we get a continental breakfast and a lunch. This is not an additional charge in your fees. Your fees are for the room rental and the payment for the three guest speakers.

This year's agenda for the Symposium is:

8:00 - Continental Breakfast

9:00 - Piping in the Procession of Speakers

       -  Welcome

9:05 - Intro by D. Bruce McCowan, St Andrews Presbyterian Church

9:20 - 10:20  Dave Naylor, Halton-Peel branch OGS, Understanding  DNA testing

10:20 - 10:30  Q&A

10:30 - 10:45 Coffee & Tea Break

10:45 - 11:45  Melissa McAfee, Special Collections, University of Guelph

Scottish Special Collections & Digitization of the Scottish Chapbooks

11:45 - 11:55  Q&A

11:55 - 12:55 Lunch

1:00 - 2:00  James Fraser, Chair, Scottish Studies Program, University of Guelph,

"Family History and the Historian: a personal story".

2:00 - 2:10 -  Q&A

2:10 - 2: 40  afternoon tea (scones & jam)

2:40 - 3:40 Christine Woodcock, genealogy educator, Scottish records,

Dinnae Waste Yer Credits Then

3:40 - 3:50  Q&A

3:50   Wrap Up

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

D. Bruce McCowan is a trustee of the Robert McCowan Memorial Scholarship and Co-Author of The Scots Kirk -- An Oral History of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Scarborough. He has spoken at the Scottish Studies Conference on Lowland Emigration to Scarboroughand to genealogy groups about Scottish history and research. Bruce will be speaking to us about the early history of St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Scarborough, which was founded by some of the early Scots in the area.

Dave Naylor is the webmaster for Halton-Peel branch of the OGS and has spoken extensively on DNA for genealogy. He will be speaking to us about the different tests available and what we can learn from them.

James Fraser is the chair of the Scottish Studies Program. He will be speaking to us about his own journey in unraveling a family lore through genealogy research.

Melissa McAfee is the librarian at the Special Collections Department for the University of Guelph. She has been instrumental in digitizing and making the university's collection of Scottish Chapbooks available online. Melissa will be discussing this as well as some of the other resources of historical importance that are among the treasures of the Scottish Special Collections.

Christine Woodcock is a genealogy educator in the Scottish records. She will be speaking about the ScotlandsPeople website and will be walking you through some key points to assist you in not wasting your credits.

SPONSOR:

ScotlandsPeople are our sponsor for this event and they are supplying each attendee with 20 free credits for the ScotlandsPeople website. This is a $9 value.

In addition to the workshops, there will be ample time to browse the marketplace and to network with other attendees. Bring your brickwalls and let us see if we can assist you in chipping away at them over the lunch hour.

Here is the link to register:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/scottish-sig-symposium-tickets-15845340841

We have partnered with Whova and all registrants will receive notice a week ahead of the event with an opportunity to download the SIG2015 app from Google Play or Apple. This will provide you with the agenda for the day, handouts, map to the hotel, the chance to network with other attendees via private messages, and for us as the organizers to make announcements about the day.

20 Free Credits on ScotlandsPeople

Scotland Now has negotiated with ScotlandsPeople to give away 20 free credits. These are for new and existing customers alike.

Here is the link to the article: 

http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/trace-your-ancestry-free-credits-5466919

Happy Searching!

with thanks to Judy Webster & Chris Paton for the Twitter Tip!

Soldier's Wills Added to ScotlandsPeople Website

ScotlandsPeople has just released 31,000 digitized images of soldiers wills - generally written in the back of the paybook on the eve of dispatch to the front. These wills are not just from officers, but from front-line soldiers. While the majority of the wills are from the Great War, there are also wills from the Korean War, the Boer War and the Second World War.

The wills contain the battalion, regiment rank and service number for the soldier, as well as the person they named as their beneficiary. Of note is that these wills were in the soldier's own handwriting.

Each image is 10 credits to view. On average, there are four images to view including the envelope. You can get the entire four images for just over £12 ($22US/CDN)

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

1920 Valuation Rolls to be Released Monday

Monday October 28th will see the 1920 Valuation Rolls made available online at ScotlandsPeople Start saving your pennies for the credits!

1905 Valuation Rolls Now Available on ScotlandsPeople

As promised, ScotlandsPeople has released the digitized records for the 1905 Valuation Roll. These are now searchable at: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

To view the index is 1 credit per page and to view the image is an additional 2 credits per page. The 1905 Valuation Rolls will allow you to keep track of your ancestor between census years (1901 & 1911)

The Valuation Rolls will tell you:

•Name and designation of the owner of a property

•Name of Tenant of the property

•Name of Occupier of the property

•Annual rateable value of the property

Happy Searching!

A New Year Means New Records Available on ScotlandsPeople

With the statutory limits having expired on BMD records, the new year brings new record sets on Scotlandspeople. Images are now available for 1912 births, 1937 marriages and 1962 deaths.  

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk 

Happy Searching!

 

Wills and Testaments Now Available for 10 Credits on ScotlandsPeople

Formerly, if you wanted to get a will or testament from Scotlands People you had to "order" the dcoument and then pay according to the size of the document (usually upwards of £10). 7 years ago, the wills and testaments were all digitized and were made available on the ScotlandsPeople website for £5 ($8).

The Wills and Testaments will now be available through the usual credit system. Currently, the cost to view and download the images is 10 credits. About $4.

More on Wills and Testaments from the Scotlands People website:

"The wills & testaments index contains over 611,000 index entries to Scottish wills and testaments dating from 1513 to 1901. Each index entry lists the surname, forename, title, occupation and place of residence (where these are given) of the deceased person, the court in which the testament was recorded, with the date. Index entries do not include names of executors, trustees or heirs to the estate. They also do not include the deceased's date of death, or the value of the estate."

And here's the link if you want to search:

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

You will find Wills and Testaments on the menu bar on the left hand side of the page.

Good luck with your Scottish research!

A New Year Means New Records

Don't forget that a new year means new records are available online at Scotland's People. This means that the statutory limitations for release have changed and the following are now available online without the need for ordering the certificates from the GRO:

1911 Births (100 years)
1936 Marriages (75 years)
1961 Deaths (50 years)

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Credits can be purchased for £7. This will give you 30 credits or 5 document views (perhaps less if you need to view more than one index) and the credits last for a full year - not that mine ever do!

Happy Searching!

Record of Corrected Entries (RCE)

Sometimes when you download a document from Scotland's People, you will see a notation in the left margin:

William died July 16th 1935. This death record gives his cause of death as "burns 3 days; shock". My first question is what caused his burns (the three days tells me the burn occured three days prior to death.) In the margin - red circled area - it tells me that there was a corrected entry made to this document on October 14, 1935. Now I need to go looking for the corrected entry. So, I go back to the page that allows me to download and view the original image:

 At the top,  you will see a red button that says: "View RCE" This will cost you another 2 credits (mine shows I have already paid these credits). Click on that button, pay the two credits and you will get a new document:

This record tells me that his cause of death is "by verdict of Jury" I now need to go to the local parish and see if  I can get a copy of the coroner's report. I also want to check local newspapers to see if I can find any articles related to whatever accident Wm may have suffered. Lots more work to do, but this is where the sleuthing and the thrill of the hunt comes in!

Happy Hunting!

ps: William died of a steam burn. He went to check on a valve and someone had tampered with it, making it open full throttle, causing him a severe steam burn and causing his body to go into shock and with the pain, shock and dehydration, William died after suffering a slow, agonizing death.

From Stowe to Stewe in the Curve of a Pen

Old handwriting can be difficult to read (although studies show that those of us who spend hours pouring over old documents trying to decipher what has been written are better at memory retention than those who don't). Penmanship was only available to the educated - clergy or teachers, usually. And in those days, uniformity was more important than legibility. Don't despair. Here are a couple of websites to assist with "cracking the code" on Scottish Handwriting.

http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/

You can also find a wealth of information on the Scotland's People website under the tab "Help & Resources" In the drop down box on the right, you will find a link to getting help with deciphering Scottish Handwriting.

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Happy Searching!

Was Your Ancestor a Farmer?

A little known resource for information, and one to assist in finding your ancestors between census years, is the Farm Horse Tax. This was a tax that was paid for working horses owned by each  farmer.

A second resource to look at for farmers is the Land Ownership Commision records (1872-1873). This records parcels of land greater than one acre.


Both resources can be found at: http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/ This is a sister site to Scotland'sPeople. But it is free!


TIP: Search by place, not by name!

Beware the "Ear of the Hearer"

When researching Scottish Records, it is important to remember that the heavy Scottish brogue can add a twist to some words making your research a bit more challenging. When the census taker arrived at the door, he was likely the school master and, being literate, was given the task of asking questions of the locals in the village where he worked. It is also likely that the census taker was not raised in the local village, more likely having come from a larger city or burgh. So, his accent would be quite different to that of the locals. And his ear would be trained to hear things differently than the way the locals spoke. For example, I had a terrible time trying to find the marriage record of my great great grandfather, Henry Fowler. I tried every parish surrounding where I knew him to be. I tried a few years either side of the marriage year. Then I tried the "wildcard"  I used F*ler. This time I found him! He was listed as Henry FULLER. Once I saw the name, it made perfect sense. I could literally see him standing at the door and the census taker asking, "Surname?" and my great great grandpa answering "Foolur". The "oo" being the brogue when he was enunciating Fowler. And the census taker mistakenly thinking he had said that his surname was FULLER.

For more on using wildcards on Scotland's People, visit their website at:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=551&663