Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year and a Happy Hogmanay.
May you finally break down that brick wall in 2013!
©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
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Here are my favourite blog posts this past week.
Dick Eastman had a post called “Tourtière Genealogy” which looks at the different way the people of Quebec make tourtières and how that can help you figure out what area of Quebec they were from originally.
FamilySearch Blog has a post called “What do I Need to Restore Damaged Photographs? Part Two.” This is the second in a series by James Tanner on restoring digital photographs.
John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections blog has a post called “LAC as lender of last resort” which tells us about LAC’s intention of making inter-library loans only if they are “lender of last resort.”
What were your favourite blog posts this past week?
Let me know in the comments below.
Other bloggers that write their own lists are:
Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs
Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Merry Christmas
Joyeux Noël
Nollaig Shona
Nollaig Chridheil
Congratulations to Christina who won a one year Premium Subscription to Saving Memories Forever.
Don’t forget when you are with family this holiday season to ask a few questions and see if you can get some new stories to add to your family history.
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Have you entered the contest to win a one year Premium Subscription to Saving Memories Forever?
All you have to do is leave a comment on the original post.
The contest closes on Friday December 21st.
Good luck everyone!
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserve
While at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in September I interviewed Harvey Baker of Saving Memories Forever. I asked him ten questions about his genealogy research. You can listen to his interview here.
Saving Memories Forever helps you record, save and share your family stories with others. They provide a how to video to help you get started. You can try it for free but must register to record and share your family stories. The App is free to download and you can save some stories to the website but the Premium subscription provides more services.
There is a page called “Free vs Fee: What’s the Difference?” where you can find out more about the extras you get with a subscription.
The apps leads you through the entire process even providing a list of questions you may want to ask and will automatically upload the finished story to the website. You can add pictures to your story and share your stories with others.
The website says that “in order to record and upload the stories directly from your computer the stories need to be in a MP3 format.” They provide you with a Quick Start Guide for the Website and there is a complete Users Guide in PDF format that is downloadable.
If you want to keep everything private that is not a problem.
There is an app for your iPhone or Android and you can record the stories onto your Android or iPhone and then save them to the Saving Memories Forever website. I used the app on my iPod and it worked great. It was so easy to record and upload the information.
There is a section called “Helpful Hints” where they provide tips on how to record and tag your family stories.
You can find out more at their website.
The Passionate Genealogist has a one year Premium Subscription to give away. This would be a great product to use over the holidays while the family are all gathered together. You can collect the stories and upload them to the website to preserve and share them with the family.
To win all you have to do is tell me who you would most like to interview this holiday season. Make sure you include your email address and I will randomly pick a winner using Random Number Generator on 21 December 2012.
Good Luck Everyone!
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserve
Here are my favourite blog posts from the past few weeks.
Dear Myrtle responded to the genealogy column entitled “Drive-by genealogists should learn a few rules” by Sharon Tate Moody. Dear Myrtle’s post was entitled “The Proof is in the Pudding.” Since I enjoy cooking, and baking in particular, this post resonated with me.
The Family Curator had a post called “Chasing Descendants and Finding Family History” where she describes her trip to England and France and the family history discoveries she found. Not all of them were from the past.
The Family Recorder had a post called “Goodbye Desperate Dan, happy birthday British Newspaper Archive” which looks at the first anniversary of the British Newspaper Archive and the sad demise of a long loved children’s comic called “Dandy.” My Grandmother used to mail this comic to me on a regular basis so it is part of my childhood despite the fact that I didn’t live in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Read the post to find out how Dandy and the British Newspaper Archive are connected.
The FamilySearch blog had a post called “What do I Need to Restore Damaged Photographs? Part One” where James Tanner begins a series of posts to help us with the equipment and software needed to digitize our photographs. Then he will look at a very important aspect of digitizing a collection which is how to manage the collection.
What were your favourite blog posts from the past few weeks?
Let me know in the comments below.
Other bloggers that write their own lists are:
Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs
British & Irish Genealogy
Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Once a day on the Blair Archival Research Facebook page a new post is shared. There is a theme for each month and November’s was Scotland. You will get bonus posts relating to the theme but only on the Blair Archival Research Facebook page these will not be posted on the monthly blog review.
November 1
The topic for November is Scotland. Scotland has a lot of information available online. The first place for anyone researching Scotland to check is ScotlandsPeople. You will need to register to search the indexes and purchase credits to view the images.
November 2
ScotlandsPeople not only have online databases they have helpful resources to aid you in your research.
November 3
ScotlandsPeople is a pay per view website but you get the images of the records which is almost as good as seeing them in person. Sometimes there are mix ups but in my experience they have always been quick to fix them and offer assistance.
November 4
You find census records, civil registration, OPRs and Catholic baptism registers at ScotlandsPeople but you will also find Wills and Testaments from 1513-1925.
November 5
The National Library of Scotland has an online database of maps.
November 6
The NLS also has an online database of Post Office Directories.
November 7
The NLS have many choices in their digital gallery to help you learn something new about Scotland and your ancestors. It is a great place to fill in some of that background for your family history.
November 8
Did you know that there are settlements of Scots in Argentina? You can find out more at “The Scots in Argentina (including Argentine and Chilean Patagonia) 1800-1950.”
November 9
You can find more Scottish Directories at Internet Archive.
November 10
The National Library of Scotland has a page called “Scots Abroad: Stories of Scottish Emigration” where you can find out more about the experiences of Scottish emigration.
November 11
The Scottish National War Memorial honours nearly 150,000 Scottish casualties from the First and Second World Wars and other campaigns after 1945.
November 12
The University of Aberdeen has a Scottish Emigration Database which has records of 21,000 passengers from 1923 and 1890 to 1960. They left from Greenock and Glasgow to non-European ports.
November 13
The National Archives of Scotland have a list of guides to help you with very specific records.
November 14
A rather obscure database is “Historic Hospital Admission Records Project (HHARP)” which has a database of records for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow and it covers the period from 1883 to 1903. You can search admission records by name and year of birth.
November 15
Trying to find a place where a specific record might be held? The Scottish Archive Network is an online catalogue for 52 archives around Scotland.
November 16
The Scottish Archive Network has a great Research Tools section.
November 17
You can find digital images of the “Glasgow Herald” at Google News.
November 18
If you are looking for information on burials in Scotland then try Deceased Online. They cover most of the United Kingdom and the list of cemeteries in Scotland is growing daily. This is a pay per view website. You can click on Database Coverage to see what cemeteries are included.
November 19
Don’t forget to join the local family history society for the town or county where your ancestors came from in Scotland. They are a wealth of information and not everything is found online. The Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society is a good choice.
November 20
The National Museums of Scotland have the Scottish Life Archive. Their aim is to collect and preserve items relating to Scotland’s “material culture and social history.”
November 21
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791-1845) is a good resource for Scottish research.
November 22
Electric Scotland is a place to find some reference material. They have books, history, gazetteers and many other items. The site is rather full visually and sometimes you get pop ups but don’t let those put you off because you may find something really interesting.
November 23
If you have Orkney ancestors then check out Find Your Orkney Ancestors.
November 24
One gem I found in my research was “The Diary of Thomas Scott of Dalkeith his voyage to Australia on the ship “Skelton” from 13th June to 27th November 1820.” I have collateral lines that went to South Australia in 1825 and 1830. This gives me a small idea of the kinds of things they went thorugh on their way to Australia.
November 25
“Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry” Third Edition by Kathleen B. Cory Revised & Updated by Leslie Hodgson is a good book to help with your Scottish research.
November 26
Another good book is “In Search of Scottish Ancestry” by Gerald Hamilton-Edwards. Both yesterday’s book and today’s are older books but they are good resources to help you find out about the different Scottish records.
November 27
Chris Paton has a book called “Discover Scottish Church Records” which should be in everyone’s library.
November 28
Another of Chris’ books is “Researching Scottish Family History.”
November 29
I like Dave Moody’s “Scottish Local History An Introductory Guide” it helps with the background research to your Scottish family history.
November 30
As I have said with other countries you always need a good gazetteer. I use “The Gazetteer of Scotland 1882” by Rev. John Wilson.
To get a new tip each day all you have to do is “Like” Blair Archival Research.
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Once a day on the Blair Archival Research Facebook page a new post is shared. There is a theme for each month and October’s was church records. You will get bonus posts relating to the theme but only on the Blair Archival Research Facebook page these will not be posted on the monthly blog review.
October 1
This month we are going to look at tips that will help you with your church research. The first thing to remember is that your family may have practiced a particular religion but when it came to baptism, marriage and burial it may have been a case of the closest church available, particularly if they lived a fair distance from their church of choice.
October 2
When researching the parish of your ancestors remember to search the surrounding parishes in case they may have decided to frequent the churches in those parishes. You never know they may have had a falling out with their church and started worshiping in another.
October 3
Ancestry.ca has the Drouin Collection (1747-1967) an index of Catholic Church records in Quebec and Ontario.
October 4
Did you know that in the very early days of settlement in Ontario if a couple wanted to get married and there was no church within 20 miles of their home that they would put a notice up on a tree in the town to announce their intention to marry. If they got no objections they were married. This must have happened in other places as well.
October 5
Did you know that the United Church of Canada began in 1925 and was created from congregations that were Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregationalist? If you can’t find your people in the archives for those churches try the United Church.
October 6
The Public Archives and Record Office of Prince Edward Island have a Baptismal Index that spans roughly from 1777 to 1923.
October 7
There is an indexed called Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register for the Province of Ontario.
October 8
A great book for Irish church records is “Irish Church Records” By James G. Ryan published by Flyleaf Press.
October 9
There is a free searchable database at Ancestry.com’s ProGenealogists website called “Church of Ireland Parish Registers and Vestry Minutes at the RCBL in Dublin” RCBL is Representative Church Body Library.
October 10
Irish Genealogy which is part of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has a searchable database for church records. This is a work in progress and more are being added each month. These records refer to both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. You will find some Presbyterian records for Dublin.
October 11
Are you looking for Diocese and Parishes for the Church of Ireland? You can search their webpage to find current information. You will find the current minister and contact information. You may also find a website that could provide you with more information.
October 12
Want to get really confused about the history of the Scottish church? A copy of “Burleigh’s Chart of Scottish Churches” is a must in any genealogist’s library. You can find a reproduction in Kathleen B. Cory’s book “Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry.”
October 13
In Scotland sometimes a couple just had to announce their intentions to marry to people in their town and they were considered married. No record in a church or civil registration had to be made. This is one variation of an Irregular Marriage.
October 14
The ScotlandsPeople website has church registers for the Church of Scotland (Old Parish Registers OPRs) and the Roman Catholic births and baptisms.
October 15
Trying to find a parish in England? See if the Parish Locator can help. You can even find the distance between two parishes to see if your ancestors may have traveled to another parish to worship.
October 16
Another free resource is Online Parish Clerks (Genealogy) which is still a work in progress and covers only a few counties. They are looking for volunteers so if you can help I am sure they will appreciate it.
October 17
Ancestry.com has some location and date specific church records for England: London, West Yorkshire, Dorset, Warwickshire and Liverpool to name a few.
October 18
Ancestry.com also has some location and date specific church records for the United States. It appears to centre on the eastern states.
October 19
FamilySearch has a long list of christenings and burials in their catalogue for the United States.
October 20
FamilySearch has a database called “Canada Births and Baptisms, 1661-1959” and one called “Canada Deaths and Burials, 1664-1955” these are general databases but the births and baptisms is a much larger database. Some of the information may be from the old International Genealogical Index.
October 21
FamilySearch has a database called “New Brunswick Births and Baptisms, 1819-1899” with over 22,000 records. There are Catholic records for Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia on FamilySearch.
October 22
If you are looking for Irish Catholic registers that are available to the public then check the online catalogue listing at the National Library of Ireland. They are working on digitizing this collection and putting it online.
October 23
FamilySearch has a database called “Ireland Birth and Baptisms, 1620-1881” which contains nearly 5,300,000 records. This is based on the International Genealogical Index.
October 24
The FamilySearch Wiki has a section called “England Church Records.”
October 25
They also have one called “Ireland Church Records.” They also get specific with Irish church records with pages for Church of Ireland, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Church History and Quaker.
October 26
Don’t assume that because you found a couple in a marriage index for Ireland that they married there.
October 27
The FamilySearch Wiki has a page on “United States Church Records.”
October 28
You will find a page for “Scotland Church Records” on the FamilySearch Wiki.
October 29
They have one on “Australian Church Records.”
October 30
And they have one on “New Zealand Church Records.”
October 31
Remember that church records are subject to the whims of the people taking care of them. Sometimes you will find them in the attic or basement of the family of one of the ministers of the church. They took them with them when they left/retired. They are also subject to natural disasters and the ravages of time.
To get a new tip each day all you have to do is “Like” Blair Archival Research.
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.
The first is from Eneclann who have put online the slides and/or a synopsis of the 20×20 talks presented at the National Library of Ireland this summer.
A new blog called Brit-Ish Heritage Forum has a post entitled “Finally! Lancashire Ancestral Research Un-plugged!” which looks at the FamilySearch Wiki page for Lancashire and how they have made it easier to find records for church, chapel and parish registers online.
What were your favourite blog posts this past week?
Let me know in the comments below.
Other bloggers that write their own lists are:
Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs
British & Irish Genealogy
Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved