Less than a week to go!

 

In less than a week I will be heading to Scotland for my last genealogy tour. The emotions are bittersweet. I have been so incredibly blessed by the trust of my tour participants. I have been so humbled by their joy, their tears, their surprising discoveries. Many tour participants became repeat offenders and still others became friends. Friends to me but more importantly friends to each other. Some really amazing, lasting friendships have occurred on these tours, and I am so thrilled to have had some small part in bringing those kindred spirits together.

 

Knowing I am not likely to get back to Scotland for a while is also bittersweet and I fear that the next visit may be for a funeral rather than for a catchup with family. Out of the original 21 living children of my grandfather, only 7 remain. They lived the memories I grew up surrounded by. I know that those memories will live on through my family history but seeing the joy in their faces as they recount them will be forever vanished. And that saddens me more than words can describe.

 

I will be in Edinburgh for four days then over to Glasgow for a week. Then I will be spending four days in Dublin before I head back to Canada. I was supposed to go to Dublin back in 2020 before the world changed. As always, I will be blogging while I am traveling. You can follow along if you would like.

 

And if you are enjoying the virtual journey, you might consider buying me a coffee. See the widget on the right hand side of the page.

Four Part Webinar Series on Scottish Research

Join me Thursday evenings in January for a four part webinar series:

January 6 - Getting Started with Scottish Research

January 13 - Navigating the ScotlandsPeople Website

January 20 - Brick Wall Busters for Scottish Research

January 27 - Preparing for a Genealogy Trip to Scotland

All webinars begin at 7 pm eastern. 

Scottish Genealogy Research January 25, 2020

Scotland is where my story begins

Scotland is the home of my ancestors. I have a deep and abiding connection to them. There is a never-ending yearning to learn more of their story so that I can better understand my own.

To learn more about your Scottish ancestors, join us on Saturday, January 25th, 2020 for a day of virtual learning. Learn about record sets that contain information about the lives of your ancestors:

Death and burial, Wills and Testaments, Prison, Asylum, Emigration, Newspapers. For more details: https://www.genealogyvic.com/PRESENTERS

One low fee, seven presentations by six presenters. Access until February 25th to allow for time zone challenges. All from the comfort of home. No travel expense. No time away from family, friends, work or home. No accommodation expense. No meal expenses. Stay warm, stay in your jammies. Engage with others and learn from the best.

To register: https://www.genealogyvic.com/

Scottish ViC Schedule is Now Confirmed

SATURDAY JANUARY 26th 2019

The schedule of the presentations for the Scottish ViC is now confirmed.

The day will begin at 8:30 am and end at 5:30 pm. Times are eastern time.

8:30 am - Opening Keynote

                 Kevin James

The Highlander and the Lad O' Pairts: Patterns of Scottish Migration to Canada

9:40 am - Irene O'Brien, Sr Archivist, Glasgow City Archives will share the incredibly detailed information available within the Poor Law records. These records really help you to build the social story of the lives of your ancestors.

10:50 am - Margaret Fox, retired archivist, NRS, will show us the various records available within the High Court of Justiciary. The High Court records are also incredibly detailed in the information that they provide not only about your ancestor and their circumstances but also from witnesses.

Following the live Q&A with Margaret, there will be a break for you to get lunch and refresh for the afternoon sessions.

1:15 pm - Genealogist Emma Maxwell will share the amazing finds within the Sheriff Court Records, focusing on three specific subsets of these records. This presentation will make you feel as though you are privy to a personal WDYTYA episode when you see what is contained within these records.

2:10 pm - LivingDNA CoFounder David Nicholson will give a comprehensive overview of LivingDNA and how the test can not only show your ethnicity to Scotland but to specific regions of Scotland, helping you narrow down which McDonalds might actually be yours.

3:00 pm - NLS Enquiries Assistant Elaine Brown will show us how to make the skeleton of your ancestors' lives dance by supplementing the civil records with the vast Family History Resources within the NLS holdings. Again, the details contained within the records can be astounding.

4:15 pm - Genealogy Educator Christine Woodcock will share some Online Resources for Scottish Research including some of the less well known websites where you can learn more about your Scottish ancestors. We will look at websites for specific locations, occupations, social history and more.

The day will wrap up by 5:30 pm

Registration allows access to the presentations as they become available on Saturday January 26th. This access will continue until midnight (eastern) on Thursday January 31st, 2019.

Handouts are downloadable. They will be made available a week before the conference.

The Marketplace will open on the 26th and remain open until midnight on the 31st. Look for some amazing specials.

Click here to register

Lots Happening In UK Research

New at RootsIreland (www.rootsireland.ie):

 Recently uploaded 32,000 baptism records for County Monaghan in Ulster, meaning that all of the Ulster counties now have some representation on the database Irish Ship Passenger Lists. The Centre for Migration Studies, Co. Tyrone, has provided over 227,000 names of Ship Passengers. The records are of passengers, mostly of Irish origin, on ships travelling from Irish and British ports to ports in North America (United States and Canada) from 1791 to 1897.

New Research Facility for Irish Research

PRONI opened a new research facility in Belfast on March 30, 2011. Similar to the Scotland’sPeople Centre in Edinburgh, the new PRONI Centre provides on-site research and assistance. Here’s just a peek at what is available in Belfast:

•New copying facilities including a self-service digital camera

•Interactive, touch-screens with visual and audio content

•Free WiFi

•Enlarged Search Room with internet access and laptop capability

•Reading Room with 80 desks

Merging of Services in Scotland

The NAS & GRO have merged in Edinburgh. From the NAS website: “From 1 April 2011, the National Archives of Scotland merged with the General Register Office for Scotland to become the National Records of Scotland (NRS). This website will remain active until it is replaced in due course by a new website for NRS”

And in Glasgow, the Genealogy Centre has moved into it’s new home on the third floor of the Mitchell Library. Like Scotland’s People Centre in Edinburgh, the new Genealogy Centre facility has 20 computer terminals where research can be done. What this means of course is that whether you live in the west or the east, there is a research centre where you can go and access the records as well as some assistance. It also means less time travelling when in Scotland to do on site research. I am looking forward to visiting both the Scotland’sPeople Centre in Edinburgh and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, complete with the new Genealogy Centre, when I take a group of other researchers “home” to do research this fall.

Scottish Genealogy Resources

I had the great good fortune to attend a workshop on Scottish Genealogy at the University of Guelph on Friday. The event was hosted by the Scottish Studies Foundation and the workshop leader was Dr Bruce Durie from Starthclyde University in Glasgow. Dr Durie runs a post graduate program of studies in genealogy at the university. His workshop was brilliant and there was so much to learn.
First off, there are so many new and exciting things coming soon to Scotland's People. While we are all eagerly awaiting the release of the 1911 census this coming Tuesday at 11 am, many more resources have been digitised and will be made available on the Scotland's People website in the next 12 - 18 months. These include:  Valuation Rolls and Kirk Session records.

I also learned of a website belonging to Scotland's People called Scotlandsplaces. This is a free resource and includes old maps, gazetteers. The trick here is to search by PLACE, not by person.
http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/

Other great sites to assist in our quest to hunt down our Scottish Ancestors are:

http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/

http://www.nls.uk/ (National Library of Scotland)

Happy Hunting!!

Using Obituaries for Research

When you are researching for your ancestors, don’t overlook the obituary. In the obituary you not only find the date of death, but you may also find an address, siblings or parents who died prior to the ancestor, spouse or offspring who were still living at the time of your ancestor’s death, and maybe even a cause of death. Obituaries are often the key to adding the missing twigs on your family tree. As well, the obituary provides the name of the funeral home and if they are still in existence, you can contact them to see if they have a funeral card, their certificate of death, and they may be able to tell you who they dealt with in making the arrangements for the funeral.

Getting Photos Out of Magnetic Albums

Having trouble getting your old photos out of those sticky magnetic albums? Don’t despair. You can use a micro-spatula (a small science tool about the size of a large crochet hook, but with a soft rounded edge) and gently ease this under the photo to separate the photo from the sticky page. These can be expensive, so a “multi-purpose tool” can be ordered from Creative Memories for $9 and will work wonders and last years. Other scrapbooking companies and stores likely have similar items for getting those embellishments off the pages. Drop by a store or check online for a dealer nearby and start getting those precious photos OUT of those sticky albums and into archival safe ones that will keep them preserved for decades.

Preserving your family history

Most genealogy researchers will tell you that they are searching not only to find out about their history but also to keep their family’s history alive for future generations. So, now that we have those research documents, bits of scrap paper, newspaper clippings, photos, e-mails and other assorted bits of “research”, how do we preserve them for future generations? There are a number of options. Here are a few:

1.) Scrapbook - take those precious old photographs and preserve them in an archival, acid free book. Remember to tell the story as you add the photos. While embellishments are aesthetically appealing, they are not necessary in a family history album. The history is what is important.

2.) Family History Book -  This really isn’t as complicated as it sounds. My first family book was a record of my grandfather’s descendants. Harry fathered 21 children. My grandmother and my mother were fantastic story tellers. Once they passed away, I knew in my heart that I needed to get their stories onto paper. I needed a way to let my children know my granny and my mum. And I needed to give them a way to feel like a Crawford. A sense of belonging. To a very large, very open family system. All encompassing and all embracing. Don’t get me wrong, like all families, we have our moments and our members. But in such a large family there is usually always someone you can connect with. Your book can be whatever you want it to be - the story of a single ancestor, the story of one branch of your tree, your own story. Any subject you choose. As we all know, it is important to document, and a family book is a great way to do just that.

3.) Family Newsletter - if your family is large enough, you may want to consider sending out a newsletter. I promise you that you won’t regret it. Especially if your family live apart from each other. The newsletter content can be whatever you want it to be. I started our family newsletter in December 2005—nearly 2 years after I put together our first family book. When I finished the family book, Harry had 394 descendants. I wanted a way to record and to share new babies that were added to our tree, a way to announce marriages, a way of acknowledging and honoring those who have passed away. I have also included facts and trivia about the area where the family grew up, Scottish traditions, recipes, new research that I have uncovered about past generations. The newsletter started out being mailed to 20 of my aunts, uncles and cousins. It is now e-mail and snail-mailed to over 50 people. And everyone who gets a copy passes it along to someone else. The distribution has branched out. It is no longer just for Harry’s descendants, but for the descendants of his three brothers as well. Others now contribute stories, poems, recollections, old photographs and even funeral cards for our ancestors. They share their pride in their children’s accomplishments. The one thing EVERYone looks for in each edition are the physical similarities that run through our family. I have cousins in Timmins who are the double of cousins in Edinburgh. The two have never met and yet anyone seeing the two of them would know they belong to the same family. These realizations provide a remarkable sense of belonging. I even do a section once in a while where I run two photographs together to show the rest of the family how much of a resemblance there is. The family are thrilled with the resemblances. As my uncle once said, “Joey looks more like Alex than Alex does!” We have dedicated some issues to family occupations and are able to show the family that we are not just coal miners anymore, but also firemen, teachers, bus driver, nurses and social workers. The newsletter has been a remarkable journey and one that I am so very glad I undertook. Know your intended audience (mine is always my older aunts and uncles). Be sure to add more than just birthdays and reunion news and you will be amazed at the gratitude you receive.

4.) Blogging - if you use your computer to communicate with other family members, you may want to consider blogging your family research. Again, this is a great way to tell the story, to link to pictures or websites that might be of interest and to share what you have learned in your research. Others can always print the information and save it for future generations.

5.) Family Website - again, this is for the computer savvy researchers. And again, this is a great way to keep the information alive and to share with others. My cousin in Australia is the webmaster for our family website. I visit it often, not only for dates and events, but for pictures, information about family homesteads, old family occupations, stories and so much more. I rarely come away from the website without having learned something new. And again, this is a great way to keep in touch with other family members and to get them to contribute information and pictures as well.

There are a number of ways to preserve your history for future generations. Try tackling one of them. You will be amazed at how easy it really is and you will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment as well.

April 6 Recognized as Tartan Day in Canada

    On Oct. 21, 2010, the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, announced that Canada will now officially recognize April 6 as Tartan Day.

    "
    Tartan Day originated in the late 1980s in Nova Scotia, where it was declared an official day by the provincial
    "By officially recognizing this Day, we encourage Canadians all across the country to celebrate the contributions that over four million Canadians of Scottish heritage continue to make to the foundation of our country," said Senator John Wallace, who recently introduced a bill in the Senate in support of nationally declaring Tartan Day. In Canada, Tartan Day is celebrated on April 6, the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, the Scottish declaration of independence. Tartan Day celebrations typically include parades of pipe bands, Highland dancing and sports, and other Scottish-themed events.government. It then spread across the country, with many provinces joining in. This marks the first time the Day has been recognized by the federal government.A tartan represents a clan, a family, and a community, and is an enduring symbol of Scotland that is cherished by Canadians of Scottish ancestry," said Minister Moore. "Many Canadian provinces and other countries already celebrate Tartan Day. As well, through Tartan Day, Canadians will have an opportunity to learn more about the various cultures that comprise Canadian society."

We're Gearing Up for Fall

It is still 7 months until the tour, but the anticipation is building. There is so much happening in the area of Scottish Genealogy Research that I, for one, can't wait to get there and get started!

First, there are the changes to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow - it is almost a "one stop shop" for the researcher. The Genealogy Centre at Park Circus, is transferring to the Mitchell Library's Family History Centre on Level 3. This means that within the one building you can access the GROS system in Edinburgh (for a daily fee) for national BMDs, censuses, OPRs etc complete with links to digitised original documents, the Poor Law records for Glasgow and some surrounding counties, access to Ancestry Library Edition for UK and US records, and a host of additional records, some of which you'll be unlikely to find under the one roof anywhere else on earth.

For example, Poor Law Records are computer indexed up to about 1920, so you can narrow the field to individuals likely to be of interest. and get the appropriate references. Thereafter, you're looking at the original inspector's report and getting info that is generally unavailable anywhere else. These records shed light on living conditions, family relationships etc and, while they often tell a harrowing tale, you will learn about the lives of the people you research and often identify family relationships which you hadn't been aware of before. It's a genealogist's treasure trove. The Poor Law records are held in the City Archives on Level 2 of the Mitchell, which connects by internal staircase directly with the Family History Department on Level 3. I believe some of the surrounding counties have taken their Poor Relief Records back into their own care (parts of Dumbartonshire are involved I think), but the Mitchell can certainly clarify this for you. The staff in the Mitchell are very knowledgeable, helpful, friendly and obliging, so I can tell you you'll enjoy your time there.

And, of course, there are the changes to Scotland's People as well. Now, instead of purchasing 30 credits for £6, you will pay £7 BUT you now get a full year to use your credits, rather than being on a 90 day ticker. Credits can be purchased more cheaply in the Scottish Libraries, something we can take advantage of once we are there.

And of course, the National Archives are now being amalgamated into the Scotland's People Centre which means access to more records while only visiting one site.

Lastly, the 1911 Scottish Census will be released on April 5th, so you can get closer to your ancestors who are just beyond your living memory.