The Professional Descendant

Naming Baby

2012-01-21T17:16:00.002Z

When researching Scottish families it’s common to come across the same forenames repeated through the generations. Whilst this can sometimes lead to confusion (I’ve recently researched a family in which seven generations of men had the same name!) it can also be very useful for confirming that you have the right family, especially when a traditional naming pattern was used.

Kinkell Baptismal Font (now in St John's Episcopalian Church, Aberdeen)

Photo by Nick Thompson

Source: www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/2856803495/

It’s rare to find the relative after whom a child was named specifically stated, so I was interested to come across these entries in the register of Comrie Associate Congregation, concerning children of the minister, Samuel Gilfillan:

National Records of Scotland ref. CH3/608/1

13th May 1809
Same day in the afternoon my own Son
was baptized by Mr Wallace his name is
Samuel after myself Samuel Gilfillan died the
15 Febry 1810 - aged 7 months
and 15 days - of a croup

Comrie 8 May 1816
My own daughter was baptized to day
by Mr Scott, Crieff - Her name is Martha
Rankine, after my Mother and the Surname
of my Mother in law, Mrs Barlas - Martha Rankine
Died suddenly on the 30th Decr. 1816.-

If an unexpected name (particularly one including a surname) crops up in your family it can sometimes be because the child was named after the minister who baptised them. The Comrie Associate Congregation register also provides evidence of this:

Comrie 9th Feby 1817
Baptized a Son to day to Peter Millar
one of my Elders, his name is Samuel - after my
self - Deus benedicat

Glentarken 2d Decr 1817
Baptized a Son to Daniel Carmichael named
Samuel - after myself - Deus benedicat - Samuel
Carmichael died soon after he was baptized

The Reverend Samuel Gilfillan died in 1826 but his name seems to have lived on among Comrie families. A google search for his name brings up an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography for Samuel Gilfillan McLaren, born in Comrie in 1840, and information on the Reverend Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael, born in Comrie in 1871.

According to his entry in Fasti, the Reverend Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael was the son of another Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael and his wife Janet Miller, so he may well have been connected to the Millar and Carmichael families mentioned above.

I haven’t found a child named after a minister in my own family, but I have come across another reason for a child being given a particular name which is sometimes overlooked - that of being named after a relative through marriage (rather than a blood relative). One of my great-aunts was named after her step-grandmother (two older sisters being named after the actual grandmothers). I’ve also researched a family in which two brothers-in-law named a son after each other.

The reason that a child was given a particular name may not be immediately obvious but it can be worth investigating as it may provide evidence of a network of family connections, reveal the parents’ religious or political beliefs, or the allegiances felt to an employer or landowner.

The British Newspaper Archive: A Great New Genealogy Resource

2011-12-03T17:51:00.001Z

This week the genealogy world has been all atwitter with news of the official launch of the The British Newspaper Archive. This is a joint venture between The British Library and brightsolid (the company behind ScotlandsPeople and FindMyPast) to digitise and make available online up to 40 million newspaper pages from the collection of the British Library.

At the time of writing there were over 3.1 million pages on the website but this is added to daily. These include titles from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Available date ranges vary considerably but there are some titles from the early 1700s and others that go up to the 1940s. Some of the newspapers have been previously available through the ‘British Newspapers 1600-1900’ database (which is free to access through many libraries in the UK and elsewhere) but others are online for the first time.

An introduction to The British Newspaper Archive from BNArchive containing interviews with Ed King, Head of the British Library's Newspaper Collection, and Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive of brightsolid.

The archive is free to search but to view results it is necessary to purchase a subscription. You can search by keywords or exact phrase and can filter your results by place of publication, publication title, date and article type. You get quite a lot of information with a free search: title and date of the newspaper, article title & type, page number and a snippet of the text containing your search words (generated through OCR). Although the OCR is far from perfect, in many cases this gives enough information to determine whether an article to likely to be relevant to your search.

A rather handy feature is that it is possible for users to correct the OCR generated article text, making it easier for others to find the same article. I’ve added corrections to a few articles I’ve looked at, but it is a bit laborious. You can also add tags to articles and bookmark them in different folders (for example, you could create separate folders for each branch of your family) and the site keeps a list of viewed articles under ‘My Research’ so you can easily go back and look at something again without using up credits.

I’ve had a lot of fun over the past few days searching for articles mentioning my ancestors and a lot of success. I’m pretty lucky in that there are two titles covering the area where my Scottish mining ancestors lived and, as they have been digitised in colour (rather than in B&W from microfilm), the OCR is relatively accurate. I am also lucky (or should that be unlucky?) in that my ancestors seem to have had rather a lot of brushes with the law!

This is a fairly typical example:

The Falkirk Herald and Linlithgow Journal

Wednesday, October 17, 1894.

Page 4, Column 6

BREACHES OF THE PEACE. -Susan Gilmour or Miller, Isabella Wilson or Broadley, Elizabeth Gilmour or Keenan, Agnes Donaldson or Gray, Sarah Miller or Gray, and William Gray, all residing at Southfield, Slamannan, were accused of having created a disturbance there on the 12th inst. They, with the exception of William Gray, who pleaded not guilty, admitted the charge. The Fiscal said he was prepared to accept the plea of the man Gray, as the ladies seemed to have been the aggressors in the affair. (Laughter.)

I haven’t yet worked out the relationships between all of these people, although the several shared surnames suggest this may have been a disagreement between extended family.

One of the criticisms I’ve seen of The British Newspaper Archive is the amount of duplication between it and other existing databases. I’ve actually found this an advantage as the search options are much more user friendly and the fact you get a preview in your search results means it’s easier to spot relevant articles. I’ve also found that performing identical searches returns more results with The British Newspaper Archive than with British Newspapers 1600-1900, and I’ve found some new information on my Yorkshire ancestors, even though I’ve searched the same newspapers previously.

A bigger problem is that using the download feature results, in my experience, in an illegible image in the majority of cases. The only way to save a readable image that I’ve found is to go into ‘Full Screen View’, zoom in as much as possible (whilst keeping the entire article on screen) and then use your computer’s ‘print screen’ facility. You can then crop the resulting image to show just the relevant article. This works fine with a short article, but not with one in a long column or one that goes over several columns in a large broadsheet.

Another minor irritation is that when viewing an article your search terms aren’t highlighted, as in other newspaper databases. This means you may have to read through several articles to find the one you want. A way round this is to open the ‘Show Article Text’ box and then use your browser’s ‘Find’ command to locate your search term. When you click on a line of text in ‘Article Text’ the same line is highlighted on the image.

A greater criticism relates to the price of subscriptions. There are three options: a 12 Month Subscription costs £79.95 GBP and is described as Unlimited (but actually restricts you to 1000 pages a month); a 30 Day Package costs £29.95 GBP for 3000 credits; and a 2 Day Package costs £6.95 GBP for 500 credits. Somewhat confusingly, the amount of credits needed to view one page varies depending on which package you have, the date of the article and whether it’s in colour or B&W.

I’ve taken out a 2 Day Package. So far I’ve found 21 articles relating to my family (a few I looked at weren’t relevant) and I’ve still got over 200 credits left. I actually think that’s pretty good value when you consider that £6.95 is less than the cost of one BMD certificate and less than the cost of 30 credits on ScotlandsPeople. In many cases it’s information I couldn’t have easily found elsewhere and although I could have looked at some of the newspapers at the National Library of Scotland, I would have had to visit in person, wait 30 mins for the microfilm to be delivered, scroll through a possibly poor quality microfilm and then pay for every print I wanted (providing, of course, one of the few microfilm printers was available and working).

However, I can’t see many family historians being willing to pay nearly £80 to subscribe to a website that only offers newspapers and the fact that the credit packages only last 2 or 30 days is definitely not ideal. I’m not sure I will use all my credits in 2 days and it will be annoying to lose them. As more titles are added in the future I may well find additional articles of interest and could end up having to take out another 2 day package every time I want to view just one article.

I presumed that the subscription packages were aimed more at the academic researcher than the family historian but from reading others’ blogs and tweets it’s clear that researchers who are heavy users of online newspapers find the limit of 1000 pages a month far too restricted. For a more detailed review by an academic historian who specialises in newspaper research I recommend the digital victorianist’s Review: The British Newspaper Archive.

I hope you have as much success in locating your ancestors in The British Newspaper Archive as I did. It’s certainly worth trying out and you never know what you may find....

More Records of the Edinburgh Poor

2011-11-27T13:13:00.001Z

A few months ago I wrote about the Lists of the Edinburgh Poor held at Edinburgh City Archives, which cover the period 1869-1884. I’ve recently been researching an individual who was on the Edinburgh poor roll at a later date and once again found that, whilst it is true that the majority of Edinburgh poor relief records have been lost, it is possible to find some information about those in receipt of poor relief.

Edinburgh City Archives is housed within the City Chambers

The records I was examining were the minutes of Edinburgh Parish Council from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Edinburgh Parish Council existed from 1895-1930 and incorporated the former Edinburgh and St Cuthberts Combination Parochial Boards as well as parts of Liberton, Duddingston and Leith. Among the Council’s responsibilities were the Craiglockhart and Craigleith Poorhouses as well as other institutions within the Edinburgh area.

Despite having previously been told that the chances of finding any mention of a particular individual within the minutes was pretty slim, I found that they were full of names; and for some periods names are even indexed at the front of each printed volume of minutes.

The information on children, especially those who were boarded out, is particularly detailed as these examples show:

Edinburgh City Archives ref. SL14/1/7 - Edinburgh Parish Council: Minutes of Council and Committees From 17th June 1901 to 21st Oct 1901. Edinburgh: James Turner & Co., 1902.

Pages 92-93

Children’s Committee.

Wednesday, 9th October 1901.

786C

Joan Davidson, Prestonkirk, taken off roll by Grandmother on 3rd September, and working to Mr Smith, Factor, Whittinghame. Wages 8s. a week.

611C

James Weir, Lanark, ran away on 20th August. No trace of him can be got - supposed to be working. Police to be communicated with again, and if no word of the boy within a fortnight, the Clerk to advertise and offer a reward of 20s.

886, 892C

Edward Byrne, and David Brown, Gladsmuir. The Visiting Committee recommend a Topcoat for each. Grant.

877C

Mary Douglas, 12, with her Sister in London. Doctor reports her a confirmed Epileptic, and should be in an institution. Clerk to enquire and report as to any institution suitable for the treatment of this girl.

2906R

William, Henry, Roderick, and Winifred Young, in Craiglockhart Poorhouse with Mother. Deserted by Father. Advertise for Father.

2219R

James Sandilands, in Craiglockhart Poorhouse with Mother. Illegitimate. Delay for a month.

Note: The numbers against each child’s name seem to be case numbers, although any records to which these numbers refer do not survive.

In addition to children, the names of ‘lunatics’, paupers suffering from some illness and whose cases were considered by the Medical Committee and those whose place of settlement was debated are frequently mentioned, often with at least some brief details.

Whilst not everyone who received poor relief will be mentioned by name in the minutes of Edinburgh Parish Council, in the absence of other records they are certainly worth a look and may well provide some explanation of how an ancestor fell on hard times.

A Question of Religion

2011-11-07T20:22:00.000Z

Last week I made a research trip to Paisley Local Studies Library and among the sources I looked at were poor relief records.

Poor relief records are a fantastic resource often revealing not only why our ancestors had to resort to asking for help from the poor law authorities but also providing details of their births and families.

Paisley Museum & Library where the local studies collection is housed

When browsing a volume of poor relief applications I was particularly struck by the answers given in response to the question of ‘Religious Persuasion’. These represented a wide range of religious denominations including Secessionists, Methodists, Baptists and Relief Church as well as reflecting Paisley’s large Irish population which included both Roman Catholics and Protestants (some described as Church of England or Episcopalian).

It seems to have been relatively common for husbands and wives to belong to different churches and what was perhaps surprising was the irregularity with which many people appear to have attended any church. The following are a sample of answers found in volume B57/11/1 ‘Paisley Parochial Board: Statements of Cases’ which covers 1839-1842:

Mrs Archibald Gibson, aged 66

West Relief Church formerly, but never attended nor members for 30 years

Mrs Peter Docherty aged 31

Roman Catholic: self a member and husb[an]d is not

Walter Millar, aged 61

formerly in his younger days, he was a member of the Abbey Cl[ose] Independent

Widow William Cumming, 77

Church of Scotland: Once a Communicant but not so for some years

George Stewart, 40

Church of Scotland: but never has Communicated

Hellen Cavannah, 58

has a disposition towards the Roman Catholic faith; not a Member

Widow Thomas Campbell, 56

Protestant: Once attended but not so for many years

Widow Malcolm Turner, 76

neither herself nor husband were members of any church

It is worth noting that in Scotland, often only the fairly well-to-do were actually communicants or full members of a church (as opposed to simply attending) and it is not uncommon to find that a couple married in a particular church and had all their children baptised there without ever appearing on the communion roll.

However, given these answers, locating these people in any church records may well be a challenge and it is quite likely that many of them died prior to the start of statutory registration (1855).

I’ve often had the impression that my Scottish ancestors rarely darkened the door of any religious establishment. Given this evidence, I may well be right!

On the verge of a new life...

2011-10-26T19:28:00.001+01:00

I’ve just spent a busy but productive day at the ScotlandsPeople Centre and whilst researching a client’s family from Argyll came across this interesting entry in the Old Parish Register for Kilchrenan and Dalavich:

OPR 517: Parish of Kilchrenan and Dalavich, Argyll

Register of Marriages in the United Parishes of Kilchrenan and Dalavich

1821
June 5 Peter Macffarlane late at Airdchonnal &
Elizabeth Campbell at Kames. Were Married this day
at the Manse of Kilchrenan by
Mr William Fraser Min[iste]r
and were furnised [sic] with a certifi-
cate of their Marriage & Moral
Character as they with his Father
and family are preparing for Emigrating
to Upper Canada.

It’s one of those times when the clerk thought to note down at bit more than just the bare facts and it paints an evocative picture of a young couple on the verge of a new life. I think Elizabeth must have been brave to leave her own family behind and head off into the unknown, but perhaps she couldn’t bear the thought of Peter sailing off without her!

Getting Educated

2011-10-08T20:49:00.000+01:00

Genealogy education is a topic that’s been on my mind quite a lot lately. Firstly, I just heard that I’ve successfully completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde. Secondly, I’ve recently joined a ProGen Study Group and one of my first assignments was to draw up an education plan for the next few years. And finally, last month I attended an AGRA Associates Day in London where the main theme was Continuing Professional Development.

I think it’s fair to say that education is a pretty hot topic in the genealogy world right now. I’ve read two articles on the subject in the last few weeks: 'A Qualified Success' by Suzie Grogan in the October 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine (UK) and 'The Art of Teaching Genealogy' by Lisa A. Alzo in the September 2011 issue of Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly. Geneabloggers Radio had a 'Back to School Special' devoted to genealogy education in August and Angela McGhie, administrator of the ProGen Study Groups, writes a blog, Adventures in Genealogy Education, devoted to the subject.

It’s clear that there’s a great demand for education from genealogists, whether tracing their own families, researching professionally or aspiring to become professional. Not surprising perhaps as genealogists are typically people with a thirst for knowledge and, I suspect, generally optimists who believe that the answer to finding that elusive ancestor is out there somewhere, if only they knew where to look.

Last year when I completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies I wrote a post about my experience of the course. You can read that post here and much of what I said also holds true for the Diploma course. This year, whilst considering ideas for my continuing education, I thought I’d write a brief summary of available genealogy education options from a UK perspective.

Long-term Courses

For those seeking an in-depth programme of study lasting several years there are three main options in the UK. The University of Strathclyde Genealogical Studies Programme, The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) Correspondence Course in Genealogy and the University of Dundee Courses for Family and Local History (leading to a Postgraduate Certificate or Masters Degree).

All of these courses are available online for distance learning. I don’t have personal experience of them all, but one of the main differences seem to be that the Strathclyde course involves intense study with assignments submitted to meet regular deadlines, whilst the IHGS course can be completed at the student’s own pace and the Dundee course is modular with students having some choice over what modules to complete and how many modules to undertake at a particular time.

Short-term Online Courses

For those looking for a shorter course, Dundee University also runs two online distance learning courses entitled Beyond the Internet and modules from it’s main genealogy course can be taken individually (although a £95 registration fee applies).

The main provider of short-term online courses in the UK is Pharos Tutors who are currently offering about 40 individual courses on a variety of genealogical topics. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is based in Toronto, Canada but offers courses on English, Irish and Scottish research from basic to advanced levels. Some courses are non-credit but others are credited and can be used to gain a Certificate in English, Irish or Scottish Records. Celia Heritage of Heritage Family History has created a 4-module e-Course which can be purchased and downloaded from her website.

Short-term Local Courses

There are many genealogy courses available throughout the UK which can be attended in person. These are typically provided by university lifelong learning departments, adult education programmes, family history societies, libraries & record offices and private individuals and range from beginner’s workshops to advanced courses on particular record types.

Free & Low-cost Options

The above courses, especially the long-term ones, involve a serious investment of time and money, which not everyone is in a position to make. However, one of the things which was stressed in both my ProGen reading and at the AGRA Associates Day was that genealogy education doesn’t have to involve an organised programme of study. I hadn’t previously viewed many of my activities related to genealogy as educational or fully appreciated how much I was learning all the time. Below are are few of the other ways us genealogists can educate ourselves. If you’re the type of person who regularly reads genealogy blogs then chances are you already participate in quite a few of them.

Webinars are a topic I’ve heard a lot about lately, although they’ve yet to make much of an appearance in the UK. The Society of Genealogists held a webinar on Using Legacy Software a few months ago and hopefully there will be more to come. In the meantime, there are plenty of webinars available from the US which are relevant to genealogists worldwide. Legacy Family Tree is a major provider of webinars and if you are not able to attend live then many recorded ones are available from their website (in some cases they are available free for a limited time and can be purchased after that). GeneaWebinars provides details of upcoming genealogy webinars and a calendar to keep track of them all.

FamilySearch Learning Center offers a growing collection of videos and recorded lectures, described as free courses. There are currently 66 in the UK category (some of which are actually lectures from The National Archives available elsewhere) and others, for example in Instructions and Methodology, which are not location specific. These range from the ‘5 Minute Genealogy’ series for beginners, to advanced topics lasting about an hour. A recent addition is Scotland’s Old Parish Registers: How to Access, Use and Interpret. Nick Barratt, editor of Your Family History magazine, has an online video series on YouTube called The Family History Show. So far there have only been a few pilot episodes but hopefully more will follow.

Podcasts are a good way to keep up with the latest news in the genealogy world and to increase your knowledge. The Genealogy Guys Podcast and Genealogy Gems Podcast are both US-based but frequently cover UK news and sources. The BBC radio programmes Tracing Your Roots and Digging Up Your Roots can both be downloaded as podcasts (but only for a short time after they are broadcast) and Geneabloggers Radio can be listened to live online or downloaded as a podcast. The National Archives (UK) Podcasts are recordings of lectures held at TNA and cover family, military and social history. There are currently over 70 lectures in the family history section covering topics from 'Sources for Anglican Clergymen' to 'The Pub and the People'.

Genealogy books and magazines are another good low-cost education option and you don’t necessarily have to buy them. A simple keyword search for ‘genealogy’ on my local library catalogue returns over 900 titles and whilst some of these are transcriptions and indexes (as well as duplicates) this still provides plenty of educational reading. Membership of most genealogy societies includes a subscription to the society’s journal and allows you to attend talks given by the society. Talks, lectures and workshops are also hosted by local history societies, libraries, archives and educational organisations and whilst these may not always be specific to genealogy they can help to broaden our genealogy education.

At present, ProGen is the focus for my genealogy studies but my wider education plan involves most of these free and low-cost options. What about you? What other forms of genealogy education do you participate in?

The Scottish Genealogy Society's Black Book

2011-08-29T00:42:00.000+01:00

Although I'm a member of the Scottish Genealogy Society, I don't often look at their website. Today was one of the rare occasions when I did and I discovered a resource there of which I was previously unaware and which I thought was worth sharing.

One of the great resources of the Scottish Genealogy Society's library is the society's collection of monumental inscriptions. This is claimed to be the largest collection in Scotland and includes many unpublished transcripts as well as publications produced by family history societies all over Scotland.

The Society has now made details of all their holdings relating to Scottish deaths and burials available online through The Black Book. These are a series of pdf documents which can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer and which show what burial, death and monumental records and indexes are held at the library for each parish in Scotland.

A Monument to the Miller family in Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh.

Even if you are not able to visit the Society's library in person to view the records and indexes, this acts as a very handy list of the majority of surviving records of Scottish deaths and burials prior to 1855.

Although not so comprehensive, it's also worth looking at the National Library of Scotland's Index of Published Monumental Inscriptions. This includes details of some nineteenth-century publications containing monumental inscriptions as well as inscriptions published in journals such as Scottish Notes and Queries. This index is only updated occasionally, however, so it is also recommended that you search the main library catalogue as well.

Whilst on The Scottish Genealogy Society's website don't forget that you can also download an index to The Scottish Genealogist journal covering 1953-2005 which includes plenty of articles on monumental inscriptions.

Happy searching!

Using LibraryThing for Genealogy

2011-08-03T19:39:00.002+01:00

I have a confession. I buy books and never read them. I just can’t resist a second-hand bargain of some obscure history title that I may never see again or a new genealogy reference book that promises to help me break through that impenetrable brickwall.

I have the best of intentions, but too often I just read the introduction, flick through a couple of chapters, then stick the book on my groaning bookshelves for "when I have more time". I’ve now reached the point where not only do I need a new bookcase, but I’ve also several times found myself in a bookshop looking at some inviting title and wondering if I already have it.

Currently awaiting shelving.

I’ve recently seen a few of my Facebook friends discussing using LibraryThing as a way of cataloguing and sorting their book collection and decided to give it a try. I spent a few happy hours earlier this week going through my bookshelves and putting the majority of my history and genealogy titles online.

According to Wikipedia, LibraryThing is a social cataloguing web application for storing and sharing book catalogues and various types of book metadata. For me, it’s a way of figuring out what books I actually have and, hopefully, the first step in becoming more organised and doing a bit more reading.

LibraryThing is free to join, although if you want to enter more than 200 books you will need to upgrade your membership. A lifetime membership starts at as little as $19.00, depending upon your generosity. So far I’m at 193 books so may well be upgrading soon.

You can choose to make your account completely private and only need to enter personal details if you wish. There’s a short introductory guide on the website but I pretty much just leapt straight in and got started entering books and found it very intuitive.

I entered most of my books by ISBN number and then selected the matching edition from Amazon or one of the many available library catalogues, which include the National Library of Scotland.

It turns out I have more books than I realised, including a few I don’t remember buying (‘The Scottish hosiery and knitwear industry, 1680-1980’???). Despite it being rather an unexplored interest of mine, I apparently have 23 books on the history of the family (as opposed to family history), including four with sex in the title - well what Scottish genealogist could resist a book called ‘Scottish church attitudes to sex, marriage and the family, 1850-1914’!

For me, the most useful feature is ‘collections’ which allows you to put each book you enter into one of the predefined categories or any other you choose to make up (I’ve yet to discover if there is a limit to the number of collections you can create or the number of collection you can place a particular book into). This means you can arrange your titles in a way that’s meaningful to you.

For example, I’ve created an ‘Old Documents’ collection which includes my books on old handwriting, Latin and Scots dictionaries, glossaries of words useful for family and local historians, reference books such as ‘Dates and calendars for the genealogist’ and more general guides to particular records such as ‘Wills and Probate Records’. This means that when reading or transcribing an old document I now have a quick way of checking what books I have that may be of use. You could perhaps create a collection of books dealing with a particular country or region, or an area of research in which you specialise.

I’m not sure how involved I’ll get with the social aspects of LibraryThing, but for now have made my account public and joined the Genealogy@LT group (yes, of course there’s a genealogy group!). I also signed in with my Twitter account which meant I could immediately see some familiar faces who were already using LibraryThing, although I’m not sure how to find that information again. I have come across some people whose names I recognise from other social media sites through having books in common.

As all the books I’ve entered are genealogy or history related, the recommendations LibraryThing makes are fairly useful, although all the ones I’ve added to my ‘wishlist’ are books I’ve previously heard of but not got around to buying yet.

If you are interested, you can find my book list at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/KirstyF.Wilkinson

I’m currently looking at developing an educational plan (a ProGen assignment). It turns out that to improve my genealogical knowledge and skills I probably need look no further than my own bookshelf!

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Centenary Grandad

2011-07-13T22:10:00.000+01:00

I have just been reminded by my Dad that today is 100 years since the birth of my paternal grandfather, Douglas Sykes Wilkinson (1911-1985).

Happy Centenary Grandad!

Grandad & Me

Lists of the Edinburgh Poor

2011-07-12T18:37:00.000+01:00

I spent this afternoon at the Edinburgh City Archives which is hidden away in the City Chambers, three floors below the level of the Royal Mile.

The main reason for my visit was to examine some records I had identified through the SCAN catalogue, Edinburgh Parochial Board: Lists of Poor 1840-1884.

This record consists of two volumes and I looked at the second of these which covers 1869-1884 (SL8/7/2). This is a printed volume entitled ‘List of Poor in Receipt of Relief from the City Parish of Edinburgh’ and for each year the names of those receiving poor relief are divided up into the the following sections:

Out-Door Poor

Inmates in Poorhouse

Inmates in Lunatic Wards

Inmates in Morningside Asylum

Lunatics Boarded with Relatives

Lunatics Boarded Out

Paupers Boarded in Institutions

Invalids Boarded Out

Children Boarded Out

Apprentices

Edinburgh Poor in Country Parishes

Country Parish Poor in Edinburgh Parish

Children Receiving Education

In the cases of children boarded out and apprentices only a name and identifying number are listed, but in most other cases an address or name of institution is also given.

However, by far the most detailed section is for the out-door poor where the following information is provided:

Roll Number

Weekly Allowance

Name

Age

Residence

Number of dependants (Male and Female)

Religious Denomination

Whether Member or Adherent

Any Assistance provided by the Church

Remarks (generally how long each person has been a member of their church but also details of any illness or disability)

The vast majority of those who received outdoor poor relief were women. For example, in 1882 Alice C. Peacock was receiving 4s 0d a week. She was aged 31, living at 7 Stanley Place, and had one male and two female dependants. She was recorded as a member of St Mary’s Episcopal Church, which she had attended for 1 year nine months, but received no assistance from them.

The men who received outdoor relief were mostly elderly although there are a few exceptions. In 1882 Archibald Sandilands, who lived at 3 Greenside Row, top flat right, was in receipt of 6s 0d a week. He was aged 39 and had three male and two female dependants. He was a member of the Greenside Established Church which he had attended for 8 years but again received no assistance from them.

Archibald, his wife Elizabeth, and their six children were recorded living at 3 Greenside Row in the 1881 Census (RD:685/2 ED:3 Page:11). His older children may well have been considered old enough to work and therefore not dependants.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the person I was looking for today, but these lists are well worth a look if you think your Edinburgh ancestors may have received poor relief.

Further details of the holdings of Edinburgh City Archives and a list of those who claimed poor relief from St Cuthbert’s Parochial Board in the period 1850-1852 can be downloaded from http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/429/archives-access

Note: Edinburgh City Archives will be temporarily closed from 28 July until October 2011.

‘Be the rebellis of this Kingdome killed & slaine’: A Glasgow Apprentice’s Testament

2011-07-02T10:13:00.000+01:00

I’m currently doing some research into the Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow (a trade incorporation of leather workers) and spent yesterday looking at records of various Glasgow cordiners and their families, including a lot of testaments (the Scottish version of probate records).

One record that I found particularly intriguing was the testament dative and inventory of John Bryssone (Bryson), son of the deceased Patrike Bryssone, cordiner, Burgess of Glasgow, which was confirmed at Glasgow Commissary Court on 8th July 1647.

John had died in August 1645 and his sister, Margaret, was appointed as his executrix. However, the really interesting information about him comes under the heading of ‘Inventare’:

Glasgow Commissary Court: Register of Testaments 1646-1650

NAS ref. CC9/7/30, Page 124

Item the defunct being the tyme foirs[ai]d bund prenteis to W[illia]m Glen elder baxter burges of glasgow taine furt[h] as ane co[m]mone souldier being of the age of twe[n]tie yeiris or th[e]rby And be the rebellis of this Kingdome killed & slaine at the battell of kyllsyt[h]...

The Battle of Kilsyth took place on 15th August 1645 and was a conflict between Scottish Royalists, under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, and the Covenanters, under William Baillie. Information on the battle can be found on the UK Battlefields Resource Centre.

When I initially read the testament I presumed that the ‘rebellis’ were the Covenanters and that John Bryssone had fought on the side of the Royalists. However, a little reading indicates that Glasgow generally supported the Covenanting movement and that by 1647, when the testament was confirmed, it was Montrose and his army who were viewed as the rebels (according to the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland).

Photograph by Chris Wimbush

Source: Wikipedia

John Bryssone (or Bryssoun) was probably the son of Patrick Bryssone and Isobel Glen baptised in Glasgow in 1619. From the OPRs it appears that Margaret was his only sibling.

William Glen, elder, baxter, Burgess of Glasgow, to whom John was apprenticed, acted as cautioner for Margaret when the testament was confirmed, and may have been a relative of their mother, Isobel Glen.

I was not able to locate a record of John’s apprenticeship, although The Records of the Trades House of Glasgow A.D. 1605-1678 does record at least two other boys being apprenticed to William Glen, elder, baxter (in 1631 and 1649) both as “seivin yeirs prenteis and twa yeirs for meit and fie”.

According to a report in the Cumbernauld News, historians believe that many of those killed in the battle were buried nearby. Much of the battlefield is now under Banton Loch, although a memorial cairn (shown above) was erected in 2003.

Preserving Personal Papers: A Cautionary Tale (and a confession)

2011-06-26T17:39:00.000+01:00

I had a great time at the SAFHS conference yesterday and attended some interesting lectures. These included a talk by Richard Hunter of Edinburgh City Archives on “Edinburgh its Archives and Inhabitants” in which he emphasised that many records of the city’s schools and other organisations have been lost - in most cases simply thrown away.

Today, I’ve been clearing out some boxes in a cupboard and have discovered that some of my own papers have been lost and damaged - in this case due to poor storage.

I’m a bit of a hoarder and wasn’t too worried when it was discovered that one of the boxes was somewhat damp as I thought it just contained some old papers from uni that I would most likely throw away if I ever got around to sorting them out.

I was, however, more than a little upset to discover at the bottom of an increasingly wet box a cardboard folder containing a set of certificates and other papers that I’ve been collecting together since childhood so wet and covered with mould that it some cases half of each document has been eaten away and no longer exists.

These papers include my GCSE certificates, a series of dance and music examinations going back to the 80s (some with handwritten reports by the examiners) and a group photo of my school year as well as less official ‘certificates’ such as one confirming that I took a trip in a hot air balloon in 1991. Not the most important documents in the world perhaps (it could have been a lot worse) but I know I’d be pretty excited to discover something similar concerning an ancestor.

Of course as a genealogist I know that not only should these have been more carefully stored (I honestly believed that this folder was kept in another cupboard!) but also that I should have scanned them and kept multiple backed-up copies. As a human being, I hadn’t got around to it yet.

I confess that I don’t really have a proper system when in comes to storing genealogical documents. I’ve always figured that all the important stuff is still with my mum and dad and that most of the records I have are modern copies of documents held in public archives that would be relatively straightforward (if costly) to replace.

Yes, I’ve heard of Scanfest (apparently there’s one happening today!) but somehow I just never thought it was relevant to me and, probably like many genealogists, I’ve never given much thought to documenting my own life.

Thanks to some advice from Facebook friends I’ve now put what survives of my documents in the freezer. I am hoping this will dry them out sufficiently to be able to separate the pages so that I can then scan and/or photograph what remains in order to salvage some of the information, if not the documents themselves.

In the meantime I’m giving some serious thought to making sure I have scans of all my other personal and family papers and to (finally) implementing a proper system for backing up my data - honest!

Genealogy versus Family History

2011-03-06T17:17:00.000Z

I’ve recently been watching episodes of the second US series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ (WDYTYA) and following reactions to it through Twitter and on GeneaBloggers Radio. I was particularly struck by the response to the episode featuring Kim Cattrall which seemed to be (from some quarters at least) that, although very interesting, it didn’t include much genealogy and that therefore WDYTYA was not the best place to feature such a story.

The episode, in which Kim discovered what happened to her maternal grandfather after he left his wife and young family, was originally shown as part of Series 6 of the UK WDYTYA and this perhaps explains why it sits a little uncomfortably with the rest of the US series. In the UK, WDYTYA has gradually evolved from the early series, which did tend to be a straightforward tracing of family lines generation by generation, to the most recent ones which often follow a more biographical format, featuring perhaps just one or two ancestors of the featured celebrity.

Although I’m not without criticism of these episodes (which often seem to be chosen because of their ability to wring the maximum amount of emotion out of the participant), I do think that this shows one of the strengths of the programme, namely in demonstrating how wide-ranging the study of family history can be. WDYTYA shows that family history can be about recent generations, what your grandfather did in the war or why no one ever talked about great uncle so-and-so, as much as about tracing your surname as far back as possible or collecting as many names and dates as you can.

In my professional research I’m often fascinated by the range of what clients want to find out about their ancestors and, conversely, what they are not interested in. For example, one former client was very keen to trace all the brothers and sisters of their grandparents, including property records, wills, newspaper reports and passenger lists. However, when I suggested it would be possible to trace the family another generation or two back they were not interested. For them, tracing their family history meant discovering more about the people they had grown up hearing stories about; beyond this they felt the connection was too distant to be worth pursuing.

Then there are those clients for whom the goal is to trace the family line as far back as possible and when a record suggests a possible avenue for research (e.g. a census return may indicate an ancestor spent time in an institution for which records survive) they are not interested in pursuing it, but are instead content with locating births, marriages and deaths. In this case, the attitude seems to be that once you go back a few generations you have so many ancestors that you can’t possibly find out everything about them all and that therefore it is best to stick to the basics.

Of course there are plenty of people whose interests fall somewhere between these two, and in the case of paid research (or indeed any research) the cost involved is a factor in determining how much research can be done into any one individual. However, these varying attitudes can perhaps be summed us as the difference between genealogy and family history.

The terms genealogy and family history are often used interchangeably (a genealogy society and a family history society are pretty much the same thing, for example) but can also mean slightly different things. A family tree chart showing the names of all your ancestors going back four generations with their respective dates of birth and death records your genealogy, but tells you little about your family history.

Where did your ancestors live? What jobs did they do? Were they wealthy or in receipt of poor relief? What were their lives like? These are all questions the family historian seeks to answer. Whereas genealogy can sometimes seem a narrow field of study (only being interested in someone if you are descended from them), by contrast the family historian seeks to understand the past through the lives of their ancestors and so the range of what constitutes ‘family history’ is almost endless.

These days the trend seems to be increasingly towards family history and away from simple genealogy. Perhaps because, as more records become indexed and available online, finding births, marriage and deaths has become a lot easier than previously, meaning researchers have the luxury of concentrating on everything that went on in between.

So, was Kim Cattrall’s search for her grandfather a suitable subject for WDYTYA? Well I suppose that depends on whether you view WDYTYA as a programme about genealogy or one about family history. But, as a family historian, I would definitely say yes!

Living the Poor Life in Glasgow: Part Two

2010-12-12T14:02:00.000Z

Back in October I blogged about the Poor Law Archives in Glasgow and the fact that not everyone was happy with the poor relief they were offered, especially if that involved going to the poorhouse.

In contrast, whilst searching through some online newspaper archives this week I came across a report of a man who, according to the authorities at least, was a little too keen to spend time in the Glasgow poorhouse:

The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland) 26th March 1902, p.8, col. 7.

A LIKING FOR THE POORHOUSE.- Robert M’Ateer,

an Irishman, was charged at Glasgow Sheriff Sum-

mary Court yesterday with contravening the Poor-

law Acts by becoming chargeable to the parish of

Glasgow after the city authorities had, at this own

request, sent him to his parish of settlement in

Ireland. The evidence showed that accused, who

was forty-three years of age, had been in the poor-

house fifteen times. Sheriff Fyfe said that accused

appeared to be one of those people who came over

from Ireland and practically lived in the poorhouse.

That sort of thing would not do; Glasgow was not

going to keep all the vagrants who cared to come

into it. Sentence of two month’s imprisonment was
passed.

The Gazettes Online: A resource worth exploring

2010-11-27T12:09:00.000Z

I’ve just been listening to The National Archives Podcast by Audrey Collins ‘The London Gazette - not just the brave and the bankrupt’.

This really struck a chord with me as, after getting more seriously into Genealogy, I read several articles about The London Gazette and its sister publications The Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes. “Very interesting,” I thought, “must take a closer look, but not the sort of place to find my humble ancestors.”

Then, late one evening, I put my grandfather’s name into Google on a whim and was surprised to get a hit. I was even more surprised when I realised that I had found him in the London Gazette - twice! So, to underline the message of the podcast, I thought I would share a couple of examples from one branch of my family tree of ordinary individuals found in the London Gazette:

THE LONDON GAZETTE, 6 DECEMBER, 1927.

Page 7828

Civil Service Commission - November 9, 1927.

AFTER OPEN COMPETITION.

Male Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist,

Huddersfield, Douglas Sykes Wilkinson.

(This is my grandfather, Douglas, aged 16, being appointed to his first job.)

THE LONDON GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 20, 1903.

PAGE 7246

HUDDERSFIELD ELECTRIC LIGHTING

(EXTENSION TO GOLCAR).

Printed copies of the draft Provisional Order will be deposited at the said offices of the Board of Trade on or before the 21st day of December next, and printed copies of the draft Provisional Order, when deposited, and of the Provisional Order, when made, may be obtained at the offices of the undersigned, and at the office of the Clerk to the Urban District Council of Golcar aforesaid, and at the residence of Simeon Sykes, Surveyor to the Urban District Council of Golcar, in Swallow-street, Golcar, on payment of one shilling for each copy.

(When it was proposed that electric lighting should come to the Yorkshire village of Golcar, copies of the Provisional Order could be obtained at the home of Douglas’ uncle, Simeon Sykes - actually he lived in Swallow Lane not Swallow Street.)

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 29 AUGUST, 1918.

PAGE 10136

His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Military Medal for bravery in the Field to the under-mentioned. Non-commissioned Officers and Men:-

68393 Bomdr. S. Sykes, R.G.A. (Hudders-field).

(Simeon’s brother, Samuel Sykes, received an award for bravery whilst serving in the First World War.)

Some of the problems associated with the OCR technology which enable the gazettes to be searched (and how to get round this) are discussed in the podcast. Looking at the Gazettes Online website today I was pleased to discover that the original printed indexes to the London Gazette are now available online from the early 19th Century onwards and can be downloaded as PDFs (you need to select a particular year and each year is covered by several volumes of indexes) so that, with a bit of patience, it should now be possible to find ancestors in the Gazettes who have previously proved elusive. So far, there only appear to be indexes to the Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes for 2002 onwards.

I’ve recently been doing a little research into one of the ancestors of my partner and, inspired by the podcast, I decided to search for him in the London Gazette to see if I could identify his civil service appointment. No luck so far, but I did find him among the names of Insolvent Debtors, along with a list of seven previous addresses at which he was known. So, not just the brave and the bankrupt, but you may find someone among the bankrupt who you weren’t expecting!

I suppose the lesson here is, if something is available online, is free and is searchable by name, then it’s worth searching for the names of your ancestors, even if you think the chances of finding them are pretty slim.

19th Century 'Kirkings'

2010-11-21T13:22:00.000Z

These days in the UK, Sunday is often a day spent at the pub, a chance to meet up with friends and relax at the end of the working week. A far cry from the early 19th Century when Sunday was spent going to church, you might think? Or perhaps not, if this outburst from the Kirk Session of Kilcalmonell and Kilberry, Argyll is to be believed:

Kilcalmonell and Kilberry Kirk Session: Minutes 1821-33

NAS Ref. CH2/1423/1 - Pages 33-35

At Kilcalmonell the 17th of April 1825 years The Kirk Session of Kilcalmonell met. Present the Moderator and Elders.

Among other matters the consideration of a practice too common in Country Parishes and in this also, of people meeting together after Divine Service in a public house profaning the Lord’s day by drinking and engaging in carnal conversations especially when collected together under the vulgar name of Kirking Came before the session when after a full discussion of the same the Members agreed in the following as their judgment in this Matter.

That profanation of the Lord’s day is a sin of vast criminality to many awful prohibitions of the word of God condemned by several Acts of Parliament and acts of Assembly; and quite inconsistent with the profession of Christianity. And it appeared to the Session to be established beyond a doubt, that those meetings on the sabbath called Kirkings, are [a] most gross and heathenish violation of the sanctity of the Sabbath, by the indulgence which is given to the flesh in drinking and speaking; they unanimously resolved and do now resolve, by the blessing of God, to apply the discipline of the Church to the suppression of such unholy meetings.

And give this public intima[tion] of their determination to deal with those who assemble in Kirkings on Sabbath day as with other transgressors of the law of God. And moreover that those keeping houses should take care not incur the penalty of the Civil Law annexed to keeping their houses open During Divine Service or disorderly during the rest of the Sabbath. And finally that the parties which occasion the Kirking shall be held as the leaders in the sin.

The Kirk may not have been able to prevent these 'Kirkings' but they did succeed in getting some of the individuals who participated brought before the Session and there are descriptions of two such events on pages 60-68 of the minutes. At one of these 13 or 14 bottles of whisky were drunk by a group consisting of between 20 and 25 people - naturally, recollections were a little vague!

I looked at a few Scottish dictionaries and did a quick internet search but was unable to find any further reference to this particular type of Kirking so it is hard to know how widespread the practice was. Although there does seem to be some similarity with the 'Kirking Feasts' which sometimes accompanied ceremonial attendances at church.

Remembrance Day: The Diary of a WW1 Nurse

2010-11-13T13:47:00.000Z

As this week it was Remembrance Day, commemorating the official end of the First World War, I thought I would share a short extract from the diary of Lily Harris, sister of my great-grandmother Emily Harris.

Lily was a trained nurse who in 1915 joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.) and spent much of the war serving in Egypt.

Lily does not seem to have always had time to keep her diary regularly but this extract, dated 25th November 1918, describes how the news of the end of the war was celebrated where she was:

Nov 25th

This has been a very exciting day, hear definitely we are to take no more convoys & evacuate on alternate days, all cleared out by the 3rd of December. My ward has been emptied. Hand over equipment tomorrow.

Several sisters go to Jerusalem tomorrow, 2 days leave, so now we are all wondering where will be our next stop & how soon we shall be home.

On the 11th Germany signed the Armistice. We had a few little parties, two social evenings & a whist drive here in the mess & one evening “At Home” at the Club, they were all very enjoyable.

Last Sunday we “The Nursing Staff” thought we must make our patients realise the war was ended, so gave them a supper, “Fresh Mutton & Vegetables”. They did enjoy it.

Unfortunately, it was many months before Lily got to go home again. Her service record (held at The National Archives, Kew - Reference: WO399/3582) includes a letter she wrote from Suez in June 1919 requesting that she might be released from her contract and allowed to return to the United Kingdom as she had been serving abroad since May 1915. Although not absolutely clear, it appears she did not return to the UK until September or October 1919, after a medical board judged her to be suffering from Anaemia.

This photograph dates from Lily’s time in Egypt and shows a group of QAIMNS nurses in their distinct uniforms. One of them may be Lily herself.

There is a modern colour photograph of one of the capes worn by a QAIMNSR nurse on the Auckland Museum website.

Parentage Unknown: The Ultimate Brickwall?

2010-10-30T13:44:00.000+01:00

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post on Foundling Children in Glasgow after coming across some early 19th Century baptisms of foundling children in Glasgow's Town's Hospital. Whilst researching at the ScotlandsPeople Centre this week, I was once again struck by a record of a Glasgow foundling, this time in the Statutory Registers of Births.

It’s an unusual birth record as it shows not a date and place of birth but rather when and where the baby girl was found. In the column where parents’ names are usually recorded it simply states ‘Parentage unknown’.

An associated entry in the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) gives a slightly amended name, apparently following her baptism, and a note in the margin shows that she was later adopted.

What particularly interested me what that she was not a newborn when found but believed to be over a year old and chances are her birth was registered in the usual way when she was born.

This means that in just the first few years of her life this baby was probably known by three different names (her original name, the name given to her as a foundling and her later adopted name) and may in effect have three birth records (including her entry in the Adopted Children Register).

Yet, with nothing to connect her original birth entry to the later records, she is almost certainly impossible to trace. Anyone who comes across the original birth record and wants to find out what happened to her in later life will probably not be able to connect her with the foundling known by a different name. Whilst any descendants, even if aware of the circumstances of her adoption, will have little chance of identifying her birth parents without even a date of birth to go on.

So this leads me to a question: Is a foundling child the ultimate in genealogical brickwalls?

Living the Poor Life in Glasgow

2010-10-17T11:52:00.000+01:00

This week my research took me to the fantastic Mitchell Library in Glasgow where I was mainly searching the Poor Law Archives.

Whilst browsing through one of the 5000 volumes of Poor Law Records held there I came across a couple of entries that show that not everyone was satisfied with the help they were offered:

Glasgow City Archives - Reference: D-HEW 10/3/3

Page 7

2nd June 1852 Hector Mc Niel aged 66 born in North Knapdale wife Margt Mc Niel aged 49 born in same place. Residing in 79 McAlpine St. - back low door, applies on account of age and says his wife and his oldest son are in ill health he has 2 Children Hector aged 13 and Catherine 10 years come the 15th Instant _ they came to Glasgow 4 weeks ago, and he is now in proces of prefering a complaint against the Inspector of Islay for inadequate relief afforded before he left Islay _ they Resided in the Parish of Kildalton Islay 7 years ending May last - certified by the Revd. James Dewar Minister, Donald McDougal Session Clerk and two Elders of that Parish, he first applied to the Inspector of Kildalton 1 year ago and has had ocasional relief since till octr last when he was enrolled @ 12/ monthly which he has since regularly received. up to 24 Apl last when his pass book shows he received the last 12/_ I gave him an order for 1/6, with which he was dissatisfied and I took it back _ and requested then to come up at 6 o clock to be admitted into the House _ it is now 8 o clock and none of then have yet appeared _ came up today and I gave a line of admission to the new House for self & Family, 4th June 52

Page 68

29 June 1852, Catherine Gouchan or Gallacher wid Jackson, aged 29 born in Ireland. Residing in 2 Jafferies Close, top flat, applies for Onely Child Mary aged 2 years May last born in Ireland who she says is in bad health, Her Husband John Jackson an Irishman died in Ireland 2 years ago and she came first from Ireland 1 year ago _ I gave a line for the house for self and Child on 30th June 52.

Revisited 22 June 1853 at 15 Jafferies Close up 1, she now applies on account of being pregnant with an Illegitimate Child to a James Sullivan an Irishman of whom she pretends she knows nothing she says she remained in the House last year for 6 weeks, but complains that she was made to work hard &c while there which she thinks was very hard _ I requested her to come up again for a line to the Poorhouse at 5 o clock this evening - 29 June 53

A further entry reveals the fate of Catherine’s daughter, Mary:

Page 217

27 Oct, 1852 Mary Jackson aged about 2 years, born in Ireland Residing at 2 Jafferies Close up 2, where she was left by her Mother Catherine Gouchan aged about 30, born near Bangor County Mayo Ireland, she has worked during harvest at drawfitting(?) near Coalbrig _ but returned lately to Glasgow and left the Child on Friday last under pretence of going out to beg _ she had lodged in the house before and applied here before in Augt last, and was admitted into the House _ the women in the house say they do not believe she will come back for her Child as they have heard her say she wished to be quit of her _ House 28 Oct 52

Dr Irene O’Brien provides a great introduction to these records in a short video available here - one of a series of useful videos on the Family History resources held at the Mitchell Library.

Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know?

2010-10-09T20:51:00.000+01:00

This week I’ve been doing some research for a client in the records known as the ‘General Register of Lunatics in Asylum’. These are not records I consult often and I suspect this is because they are not particularly well known. It’s a shame because they are an excellent source for individuals who may appear in relatively few other records and may be especially useful where records of a particular hospital or asylum are deficient.

It’s probably worth beginning by commenting that these records include individuals suffering from a wide range of mental illnesses which resulted in them being committed to an asylum. In some cases their conditions were probably not well understood at the time and might be interpreted very differently today.

The General Register of Lunatics in Asylum is held at the National Archives of Scotland (in series MC7) and covers all ‘lunatics’ in Scottish asylums from 1858-1978, although access to records from the last 100 years is restricted. The register includes patients who were already in asylums when the register began and who were actually admitted prior to 1858. In fact (according to Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: The Official Guide) the very first patient listed, Jean Morris, was admitted in 1805, although curiously this volume is not included in the NAS online catalogue.

The register includes: admission number, name of patient, whether a private or pauper patient, sex, date of admission, name of asylum, date of discharge or death, whether recovered or relieved etc., and a column for observations or comments. A particularly useful feature is that each patient kept their original admission number, making it possible to trace multiple admissions to one or more asylums, and that later admissions are frequently noted on the same page.

There are two partial name indexes held in MC7/33 although access to these is also restricted so in practice it is only possible to view the index to surnames beginning O-Z.

The fact that an ancestor spent time in an asylum may be discovered from a census return, death record or perhaps a poor relief register. If you know the date of admission then you can identify the relevant volume from the NAS catalogue. Failing that, my method is to start from the date you know the individual was in an asylum (such as the date of the census) and work backwards until you find the admission. At worst you may have three or four fairly hefty volumes to search through which can take a couple of hours.

Once you have found the individual in the General Register of Lunatics and discovered the date of admission you can then find their ‘Notice of Admission’ in series MC2 (a separate volume for each month, arranged in order of admission number).

These Notices give personal details of each patient including name, sex, marital status, occupation, religion, place of abode, where examined, length of time insane, whether first attack, age at first attack, when and where previously examined and treated, duration of attack, supposed cause, whether the patient was subject to epilepsy, suicidal or dangerous to others, parish to which chargeable, name and abode of nearest relative, whether a member of the family was known to be insane and any special circumstances. Also included is a petition to the sheriff, two medical certificates by two separate doctors giving brief medical details and a copy of the order to be granted by the sheriff.

Based perhaps more on gothic literature than historical fact, my vision of C19th lunatic asylums was that of grim, forbidding institutions, where individuals were locked up (often without good reason) never to see the outside world again. So what really struck me browsing through the General Register of Lunatics was how little time most individuals spent in a particular institution and how many were released having apparently recovered.

Taking at random the five individuals who were admitted to various Scottish asylums on 5th July 1876 gives an example of this:

John F was a private patient admitted to Aberdeen Asylum on 5th July 1876 and who left on 10th October the same year. His condition apparently deteriorated though as he was readmitted just a week later, this time as a pauper, and in January 1878 was removed to the poorhouse. The supposed cause of his illness was “grief from death of his wife and a highly nervous constitution”.

Ann McK, a domestic servant, was admitted to Inverness Asylum on 5th July where she remained for nearly two years until 21st April 1878. She re-entered the asylum in June 1885.

Helen McG was admitted to Murthly Asylum on 5th July 1876 and left on 17th August 1876 - described as a ‘permanent escape’. Her notice of admission shows her previous place of abode to have been the County Prison in Perth and few personal details seem to have been known about her. She was apparently “wild and excited, threatening violence to all around her without provocation”.

Margaret H or J was admitted to Stirling Asylum on 5th July and left recovered just a few weeks later on 29th July 1876. The register does not show any later re-admissions. Margaret had apparently attempted to drown herself on several occasions, which her husband had struggled to prevent. The supposed cause of her illness was “death of children”.

Dennis B was first admitted to Glasgow Asylum then transferred a day later to Woodilee Asylum. He also left a few weeks later, on 26th July 1876, apparently recovered, although he had been described by one of his doctors as “confused and sees and hears imaginary forms and voices”.

The fact that time spent in an asylum was often brief (although re-admittance at a later date was not uncommon) means that, unless this happened to coincide with a census, we are probably unaware of just how many of our ancestors were admitted to such an institution.

In fact, whilst doing this research I serendipitously came across an individual who bears one of the more unusual names on my family tree and, as his family came from the same part of Ireland as my own ancestors, who may well have been a distant relative.

His case is rather a sad one. He was just 16 when admitted to the asylum and described as “a feeble minded lad - exhibiting weakness of mind in his manner and talk”. He was apparently considered a danger to others, although the evidence presented here suggests that he was more likely a danger to himself. He died in the asylum four months after being admitted and his death record gives his cause of death as “Tumour of the Brain producing Epilepsy”.

Gone to America

2010-10-03T17:16:00.000+01:00

"Well broke off from my work the other day
Spent the evening thinking about all the blood that flowed away
Across the ocean to the second chance
I wonder how it got on when it reached the promised land"

Letter From America, The Proclaimers

I recently received two records of my great-great-grandmother, who emigrated to the USA in 1929, from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Genealogy Section. I already had copies of the passenger list of the ship on which she sailed and her U.S. Naturalization Record Index card downloaded from Ancestry, so wasn’t sure how much new information these records would give, but decided to go ahead and order copies of all records held on her.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed as these records provide new information, details of several other relatives, give answers to some questions I had and, perhaps best of all, include two photographs.

The first record is her Visa File. This includes her Immigration Visa from the American Consular Service in Glasgow, Scotland with photograph, physical description, brief details of her minor children, the name and address of a married sister (her nearest relative in Scotland) and the fact that her ticket was paid for by her ‘intended husband’. Also included is a copy of her birth certificate and the details of when and where she arrived in the USA.

I knew that she had married not long after arriving in America but not for certain that she had gone with the intention of marrying and so this helped to explain her decision to emigrate. Her intended husband was the widower of her elder sister. A fellow Scot, he first went to America in the 1870s and had become a naturalized American Citizen but had returned to Scotland on several occasions, most recently in 1927.

The second record is her ‘C-File’ which includes her Petition for Citizenship and Certificate of Citizenship, granted in 1931. These provide another physical description and photograph, the date of her American marriage and the affidavits of two witnesses. One of the witnesses was a brother who (previously unknown to me) had emigrated to the USA in 1905. I’ve since been able to find a number of records of him online including his gravestone at Find A Grave.

The process for obtaining these records involves two steps - firstly an Index Search Request to find out if any records are held on a specific individual, and secondly a Record Copy Request (once you have the relevant file numbers). Details are given in a leaflet here.

It’s not a quick service (it took about 8 months from first submitting my index search request to receiving copies of the records) but in my case was well worth the wait. I’ve had difficulties in ordering records from America in the past (Which town clerk do I write to? How can I send payment in US Dollars? etc.) but in this case, as the request can be made online using a credit card, it is easy to access the service from outside the US. For me, the total cost was $75 US (about £48 GBP), although this will vary depending on the type and number of records held.

I would encourage other UK-based researchers with ancestors or collateral lines who went to America to give the service a try as these records can reveal details not only of a particular individual, but also of their extended family on both sides of the Atlantic.

Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies - A Personal View

2010-09-25T16:47:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year this blog got rather neglected; likewise my partner, friends and family. However there was a good reason and, hopefully, it’s all been worthwhile as today I received confirmation that I have passed the Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies!

The course is part of the Genealogical Studies Postgraduate Programme provided by the University of Strathclyde which offers one of only a few qualifications in genealogy currently available in the UK. The course is delivered online (although with some opportunities to meet tutors and fellow students in person) and attracts students worldwide, although with the majority in the UK and from Scotland in particular. The Postgraduate Certificate is provided by the University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning and, despite the title, an undergraduate degree is not a requirement, although there is a formal application procedure.

My motivation to undertake the course was threefold: firstly, to increase my knowledge and improve my genealogical skills; secondly, in order to get a qualification relevant to my profession (something which I think is going to become increasingly important for professional genealogists); and finally, for personal enjoyment and satisfaction.

I’m not quite sure I knew what I was letting myself in for though, as I apparently overlooked the part of the course brochure which mentioned a requirement of 20 hours a week and it was something of a shock to hear this when attending a introductory meeting! However I kidded myself that, as I would know most of it already, I could easily get away with committing less time.

This turned out not to be the case as even simply reading the handouts and completing assignments took about 20 hours a week. As my weekdays and evenings are already filled, this pretty much meant spending every Saturday and Sunday from the time I got up until midnight on coursework, and this was without doing any additional reading (which I would have liked to have been able to do). Hence the neglect of everyone and everything else!

Nevertheless, I don’t regret my decision to do the course and would certainly recommend it to others. It definitely isn’t a course for beginners, or even for those who’ve exhausted the basic genealogical sources and want to learn a little more in order to better trace their own ancestors, but rather for those who’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug in a big way and want to undertake a serious academic study of the subject, whether with a view to turning professional or not.

I do think it’s a worthwhile course for those who already consider themselves to be quite advanced in genealogy as there is so much information given in the handouts that cannot easily be found elsewhere. I found that having some knowledge of the majority of record types discussed was an advantage as it made the background information (much of which was new to me) more relevant and easier to understand.

Any complaints I have about the course are more in the nature of small niggles: some handouts did not appear to have been spellchecked or proofread, occasionally some information was out-of-date (mainly on non-Scottish sources) and I think there was general confusion caused by a lack of clear guidelines on referencing. However, this is partly balanced out by the fact that tutors do appear to take complaints seriously and that the course is frequently adjusted in response to student feedback.

My only further comment is that it may not be clear from the course brochure how strongly Scottish-based the course is. Whilst the idea that skills learnt from researching genealogy in one country can be transferred to another country is a sound one; I would have liked to have seen greater inclusion of English and Irish records as the coverage of these at times seemed perfunctory. However, I do realise that it is not possible to include everything (certainly not in the already packed eight months during which the course runs) and that non-Scottish sources are covered in greater depth later.

Perhaps the best recommendation for the course is that following completion of the Postgraduate Certificate a large number of students, myself included, have chosen to advance to the Postgraduate Diploma. So if this blog goes a bit quiet again in a few months you’ll know why!

Assurance On Life Of A Child

2010-09-18T12:30:00.000+01:00

One of the few original documents I have from my mother’s family is a life insurance policy taken out on my grandmother at an early age and described as ‘Assurance on Life of a Child’. It’s a rather curious survival because (as it seems likely the weekly premium of one penny ceased to be paid long before she died) it apparently has no value, but presumably was kept in the belief that it might do so.

To us, the idea of insuring a child’s life is an unpleasant one, but to our ancestors it may have been a practical and sensible option. Despite fears in the 19th and early 20th centuries that insuring the life of a child was connected to infanticide (the TNA produced a good podcast on this and the related subject of Burial clubs), it seems to have been commonplace in working-class families.

Judging from the table below this policy, dated 1922, would have provided little more than the cost of a modest funeral, and in the case of a child dying shortly after birth, probably not even that.

What surprised me about the document was that it dated not from the time of my grandmother’s birth, but from several years later. However on reflection, the timing may have been significant. 1922 was the year in which her family suffered the death of a child (the second to die in infancy) and also the year in which a new baby was born.

It seems possible that having already lost children at an early age, the family decided to insure the life of the new baby, and at the same time also took out policies on the older children.

Happily no further children died young in the family, but the document remains a sad reminder of a time when, despite a fall in infant mortality rates, the death of a child remained a very real possibility for many families.

A Glimpse into English History via FamilySearch Indexing

2010-09-11T16:22:00.000+01:00

I'm a volunteer indexer with FamilySearch indexing but haven’t been able to do much lately, partly due to computer problems. However, having just bought myself a brand new MacBook I was pleased to discover that their java-based indexing software works on a Mac without any difficulties.

One of the things I like about FamilySearch indexing is the wide range of projects to choose from. So that you can either work on a project relevant to your area of interest, or alternatively you can choose a type a record you wouldn’t normally encounter during your own research, in order to extend your genealogical knowledge and experience.

Having had a bit of a break I decided to plump for some relatively familiar English parish registers and this week have been indexing some batches from the UK, Warwickshire - Parish Registers 1538-1900 project.

I was fascinated, after downloading a batch, to find myself looking at a nearly blank page headed by the following:

These are to Certifie those th[a]t may make sirch for names Christeninges
Weddinges or Burialles, in Sheldon Register Book in the yeares of o[u]r
Lord God 1651 & 1652 th[a]t you find here omitted (for the major parte)
by reason of the late consumeing inward warres here in England whome
God deliver us from the like for ever Amen. for this reason I omitt
the residue of this page. Thomas Dunton junior de Sheldon

This appears to come from the Parish Register for Sheldon, an ancient parish that has now been absorbed by the City of Birmingham.

I’ve read about the gaps in parish registers during the period known as the English Civil War and the Commonwealth (1642-1660) but have not come across such a clear reference to it before, or one apparently for the benefit of future genealogists!

In England in 1653, responsibility for registering births, marriages and deaths was taken away from the church and given to an elected official known as a ‘Parish Register’. However, this was sometimes the former parish clerk who simply carried on making entries in the parish register as previously. This may be the case here, although as I could only see one double-page of the register I am not certain.

The register does contain entries from 1653 and this was presumably when Thomas Dunton junior of Sheldon became ‘Parish Register’ and wrote the above explanation for the missing years. In fact, despite the warning, this register (with only two years missing) is probably one of the more complete registers for this period.

I would encourage anyone who’s thought about becoming an indexer with FamilySearch to give it a try. The software is easy to use and you don’t have to commit a lot of time. Just about all genealogists have used the IGI at some point and this is a great way to give something back for all the free information. Not to mention, you never know what genealogical gems you may stumble across!

Married in Haste?

2010-09-04T19:26:00.000+01:00

Researchers who have traced their Scottish ancestors back to the pre-1855 Old Parish Registers will know that many so-called ‘marriage registers’ are in fact records of the proclamation of banns and do not necessarily include the date the marriage took place (or indeed if the couple ever actually got married).

You may find, however, that the register includes details of the fee paid for proclamation or records the numbers of days on which banns were proclaimed (sometimes abbreviated to ‘3 Sab’ for three Sabbaths, for example).

In theory, banns of marriage should have been proclaimed on three successive Sundays, but it is clear that this did not always happen. So I was interested to come across this explanation in the Kirk Session Minutes for the Parish of Ceres in Fife of exactly how a couple could have their banns proclaimed more quickly (providing they were prepared to pay the additional fees of course!).

National Archives of Scotland Reference: CH2/65/5 Pages 186-187:

Ceres 6th Octr 1794

The Session taking into consideration
that there has crept into this parish several irregularitys
with Respect to the proclamation of Bands_
The Session unanimously agreed and resolved for the
future, That each couple of folks that is to be pro=
claimed three different Sabbaths in the ordinary
way shall pay the Ordinary to the poor which is
Fourteen pence Stirling and if they choose to be
proclaimed three times in two Sabbaths, they shall
pay Two Shillings and sixpence Stirling to the poor
and if they choose to be proclaimed three times in
one Sabbath they shall pay six shillings Stir:
to the poor_ and if they are
proclaimed three times in two different Sabbaths
they shall be proclaimed in the morning of the
first Sabbath, and on the Second Sabbath in the
morning befor divine worship and at noon that
day before divine service, for the last time_
And if they are to be proclaimed three times in
one day they shall be proclaimed at the ringing
of the second Bell by the Precenter befor two or
more witnesiss; and for the second time at the convun=
ing of the forenoons service, and for the third and
last time at the convuning of the Congregation
in the
afternoon_ The Session further ordains
that when partys are to be proclaimed three times
in one day they shall pay to the Precenter one shilling
Stirling for his additional trouble_

Presumably, similar arrangements were in place in other parishes, so by noting the fees your ancestors paid for their proclamation you may be able to determine how much of a hurry they were in to get married!

A Pair of Speedie Baptisms

2010-02-21T19:18:00.000Z

Whilst researching in the Scottish Old Parish Registers (OPRs) recently I came across an interesting pair of baptisms and couldn't resist following them up.

The baptisms were recorded consecutively in the OPR for Beath in Fife as follows:

OPR 410 - Beath, Fife - Register of Births and Baptisms 1835

David Speedie had a

Child born to him of Henderson

in fornication in the parish of Inverkeith

-ing on the 15th August, baptized and

named William

David Speedie had a Child

born to him of his wife in Oakfield on

the 12th Novr 1835, baptized and

named Helen

Were both these children fathered by the same man?

I was surprised to find no mention of David Speedie in the Kirk Session Minutes for the Parish of Beath for 1835. However, his fruitfulness did not go completely unnoticed.

In the Kirk Session Minutes for the Parish of Inverkeithing, Fife (viewable on Virtual Volumes at the National Archives of Scotland) I found two references to him:

CH2/195/3 - Inverkeithing St Peter's, Kirk Session Minutes - Page 552

Inverkeithing 29 November 1835
The which day the Session being met and constituted Sederunt the
Moderator with Messrs Bell, Cousins, Robertson, Bell & Brown
Elders Compeared David Speedie, Farm Servant and declared
that he was guilty of Fornication with Elizabeth Henderson Seceder
who had brought forth a child to him. He also acknowledged that
he was guilty of Antenuptial Fornication with Margaret Walls
he was suitably rebuked for his repeated transgressions and

exhorted to repent and Amend his life. The Session considering

this aggravated Case require him to produce a Certificate from the

Kirk Session where he now resides how he has behaved since he left

this Parish at Whitsunday last. Concluded with prayer

Inverkeithing 7 February 1836

The which day the Session being met and constituted Sederunt The

Moderator with Messrs Bell, Cousins, Christie, Bell and Brown Elders

Compeared David Speedie mentioned in a former Minute and having

professed deep repentance for his sins he was again rebuked and

exhorted and absolved from the scandal.

The birth of a child to Elisabeth Henderson on 15th August 1835 is also recorded in a list kept by a midwife of children born in Inverkeithing which now forms part of Inverkeithing Kirk Session Records (Reference: CH2/195/70). This does not name the father.

The mention in the minutes of 'Antenuptial Fornication' refers to the fact that David Speedie and his wife were married in Glasgow (OPR 644/01) on 7th July 1835, only four months before the birth of their child. Obviously, someone could do the maths!

A Case of Bigamy

2010-01-24T23:43:00.000Z

I've been looking through old newspapers at http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ today and the following story caught my eye. Not only because it involves bigamy (always popular with genealogists) but because of the great amount of detail given about each marriage.

The article comes from the Caledonian Mercury of Monday, October 13, 1851:

ABERDEEN CIRCUIT COURT. - This court was appointed to have been held on Wednesday; but, in consequence of that day being the Aberdeen sacramental fast, it was formally adjourned until Thursday morning, when it was opened by the Lord Justice Clerk. There were only nine cases, six of which were for thefts, one for assault, one for forgery, and one for bigamy. The name of the party accused of bigamy was Robert M'Intosh, miller, Bagrie Mills, Forgue, as respectable-looking young man. On the 23d day of July 1849, he was lawfully married, by the Rev. Robert Houston, Glasgow, to Catherine Anderson, then residing there, yet, notwithstanding his knowing that the said Catherine Anderson was alive, he entered into a matrimonial connection, at the Inn of Cornhill, parish of Ordiquhill, Banff, with Isabella Murdoch, daughter of George Murdoch, mason, parish of Marnoch, having been married to her there, on the 9th day of February 1850, by the Rev. James Grant, minister of Ordiquhill. He pled guilty, and the judge, in sentencing him, remarked that this was a most heinous offence, being always deliberately conceived and committed. That the present was one of the worst he had ever heard of - only eight months elapsing between the marriages. A great number of parties now, in shifting about the country, labouring, seem to think that they should get a new wife at every place they went to; but he (the judge) felt he would not be doing his duty to his country, nor affording due protection to women, if he was to let the prisoner pass with a slight punishment, and he therefore sentenced him to transportation for seven years. In concluding the criminal business the Lord Justice-Clerk congratulated the Sheriffs on the lightness of the calendar.

1939 National Identity Register

2010-01-16T19:25:00.003Z

Family historians may know that, following applications under the Freedom of Information Acts, it is now possible to request information from the UK 1939 National Identity Register.

The National Register was taken on 29th September 1939 (shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War) and was used for the issuing of identity cards and rationing books. Information from the register later formed the basis of the National Health Service Central Register. For genealogists, much of the importance of the 1939 National Identity Register lies in the fact that no census was taken in 1941 and so, although not strictly a census, the register serves as a replacement.

As with many records, the process for obtaining information is slightly different in Scotland than it is in England & Wales. Although in all cases it is only possible to request information on deceased persons.

The situation in England & Wales is far from clear, although Guy Etchells has successfully requested information on the deceased residents of an address in Leamington Spa and the results can be seen at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/census/1939NatReg.htm.

However, a news release from the Scottish Government at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/01/12103321 clearly sets out how to obtain information from the Scottish register, providing an address to write to and detailing the necessary fee. What isn't clear from the news release is whether it is necessary to know the address where a person was resident in 1939 in order to request their details.

Further information can be found on Chris Paton's blog Scottish Genealogy News and Events. Chris has successfully requested details of two ancestors, in one case without knowing an address, and received a response in just three days – quite impressive!

For me, the ability to request information on an individual without knowing their address greatly increases the usefulness of the 1939 National Identity Register. In effect, you supply a name and date of death and in return are given that person's date of birth, with their occupation, marital status and address on a given date – if only all genealogical research was that simple!

I wonder if the fast turnaround was in part due to the fact that the availability of this information has not been well publicised. In fact, aside from the news release and Chris' blog mentioned above I could find very little online about it.

I was particularly surprised to find no mention of how to request information from the 1939 National Identity Register on the website of the General Register Office for Scotland (although there is a little history given in the section on the NHS Central Register and elsewhere).

However, I was intrigued to find, hidden away on the site, the information that the 1939 National Register has been digitised (apparently in the last few years). It seems likely that the existence of this digitised version of the register is the reason why requesting information from Scotland is apparently so straightforward.

Presumably the digitisation of the register was not done with any intention of making the information public. However, surely a strong argument can be made that the information held in the register is no more personal than that provided in modern records of births, marriages and deaths. Records which, although not available as digital images online, can be viewed in full by anyone who visits the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh.

If the Scottish 1939 National Identity Register is already digitised why not make it fully accessible to the public at the ScotlandsPeople Centre?

UPDATE: 14 September 2011

I've recently become aware that people searching online for information on the 1939 National Identity Register may be coming across this, now outdated, post. For the avoidance of confusion, the access details and costs are currently as follows:

England & Wales - £42 per request
Application details at www.ic.nhs.uk/services/1939-register-service

Scotland - £13 per request
Application details at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/national-health-service-central-register/about-the-register/1939-national-id-register.html

Northern Ireland - via FOI request
General details at www.proni.gov.uk/index/about_proni/freedom_of_information.htm
For details of a success request see Chris Paton's post: http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2010/03/1939-northern-irish-foi-request.html

By Any Other Name?

2010-01-09T22:55:00.000Z

This week I worked on an heir tracing case concerning a man who was known by two different surnames – neither of which, it turned out, was exactly what was recorded on his birth certificate.

I've also had a few enquiries lately about people who changed their surnames and that has got me thinking about some of the reasons why a person might change their name, or be known by a variety of different names.

One of the most common reasons was probably illegitimacy. In Scotland in particular, illegitimate children usually took their father's surname. However, on statutory birth records the name of the father of an illegitimate child is normally only recorded if he was present at the time the birth was registered (alternatively if the mother brought an action of paternity against the father his name might be given in an R.C.E.). Therefore the surname on the birth certificate may be one the child never used. Some individuals born to unmarried parents seem to alternate between two surnames, sometimes being recorded with their father's name, sometimes with their mother's.

Also quite common (in my family at least) were women who took the surname of a man they lived with, but were not actually married to. I discovered quite recently that one of my relatives who did this actually changed their name by deed poll.

Then there were children who were adopted and subsequently took the surname of their new family. Adoption only became legally recognised in England & Wales in 1927 and in Scotland in 1930. However many informal adoptions took place before these dates. I came across an example of this recently by accident. When researching a family of Scottish origin I was surprised to come across the death, aged 7 months, of a boy who had apparently emigrated to New Zealand twelve years later. My first thought was that a younger child had been given the same name but I could find no evidence of this in birth records. It turned out that following the death of their child the couple 'adopted' a baby born to an unmarried mother and gave him the name of their dead son. As this was prior to adoption being legally recognised there is no official record of this. Luckily, the information had been passed down through the family or this might have remained a mystery.

Similarly, children of a widow might acquire the surname of their mother's husband should she marry again. Even if this did not happen step-children may be recorded in census returns under the surname of the head of household regardless of whether they actually used the name.

Other reasons for a change of surname might include to benefit from an inheritance, an immigrant changing their name to one found in their adopted country and, of course, someone who deliberately wished to conceal their identity.

In fact, for our ancestors, a change of name seems to have been incredibly easy and, in most cases, left little documentary evidence. This presents rather a challenge to the family historian, who often has little more than a name to go on when searching for their forebears.

I wonder how often a change of name could be the reason for a research brickwall. Then again, there are some ancestors who by any other name would still present a challenge!

Happy New Year and Thanks for the Awards!

2010-01-03T21:30:00.000Z

I'd like to start this post by wishing everyone a very happy new year.

I don't really make new year resolutions (too easy to break) but, as it's been nearly two months since my last post, I certainly intend to make this year one in which I will blog a little more often!

I'd also like to thank the fellow bloggers who have nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award, that is: Earline Hines Bradt of Ancestral Notes, Professor Dru of Find Your Folks, Mary B. of AncestorTracking and M of Roots Digging. I really appreciate all the kind words and it's great to know someone is actually reading what I write. Thanks for the encouragement!

I understand that the recipient of a Kreativ Blogger Award has to write seven things about themselves and then nominate seven other bloggers for the award, so here goes:

About Me:

1. Despite being primarily a researcher of Scottish genealogy I'm actually English born and bred (but with plenty of Scottish ancestors).

2. One of my favourite names on my family tree is Patience Porritt.

3. Since taking up genealogy professionally I barely have time to trace my own ancestors any more (and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what there is to find on them!)

4. I would like to learn Latin properly (if I can ever find the time).

5. When I was a child my ambition was to be a writer.

6. I'm a vegetarian and so was one of my great-great-grandfathers.

7. I'm a fan of Real Ale (mine's a Deuchars if anyone's asking :p).

My nominations for the Kreativ Blogger Award (in no particular order):

1. Geneageek - http://geneageek.blogspot.com

2. Patten Genealogy - http://pattengenealogy.blogspot.com

3. Your Ancestors Free.Com - http://www.yourancestorsfree.com

4. Carole's Canvas - http://caroleriley.id.au/

5. Blog of a Genealogist in Training - http://genealogist-in-training.blogspot.com

6. Folk are the Thing - http://folkarethething.com

7. History Repeating - http://familytreeuk.wordpress.com

Wordless Wednesday - 11 November 2009 - Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T22:32:00.000Z

Written on reverse: "Our two sons Douglas & Joseph meet after 4 years absence."

Foundling Children in Glasgow

2009-11-08T21:03:00.000Z

Researching at the ScotlandsPeople Centre this week I was looking for a baptism in the Old Parish Registers when I came across a list of names under the heading 'Exposed Children Continued'.

By looking at the previous page I discovered that this was actually a list of baptisms of Foundling Children in Glasgow's Town's Hospital.

According to the Old (or First) Statistical Account of Scotland (Account of 1791-99 vol.5 p.520): “The Town's hospital, or Poor's House, was founded in the year 1730. It was intended to maintain and give good education to orphans, or those who were left destitute, to afford an asylum to the old, and to promote the best interests of all, in the cheapest possible manner.”

The list appears to be at the end of one of the baptismal register books for the Parish of Glasgow (OPR 644¹/20) and there may well be similar lists in other books of the register.

These baptisms are included in the usual indexes to the OPRs (you can spot them because there are no parents' names) and at least some of them are included in the IGI. However, on the IGI ages have been rounded up or down to the nearest year rather than being given as recorded.

The full list is as follows:

List of Foundling Children, in the Towns Hospital, Baptized by D^r John Lockhart

Mess^rs Daniel Mackenzie, Preceptor, James Moffat, Chaplain & Francis Ross, Witness

Baptized 13^th. Dec^r. 1805. - Age as nearly as could be conjectured at the Baptism

Duncan - Mathew Duncan - 2 years & 3 Months
Stewart - James Stewart - 2 years
Russell - John Russell - 6 Months
Largs - Paterson Largs - 4 Months
Frazer - Campbell Rae Frazer - 3 Months

Baptized 29^th. July 1806.
Gardner - John Gardner - 9 years & 3 months
Hay - Margaret Hay - 4 years & 3 months
Lindsay - Jean Lindsay - 2 years & 6 months
Govan - James Govan - 3 years & 3 months
Thomson - Richard Thomson - 2 years & 3 months
Brown - Thomas Brown - 3 years
Falconer - Mary Falconer - 3 years & 9 months
Smith - John Smith - 1 year & 3 months
Miller - Elisabeth Miller - 8 months
Young - Alexander Young - 2 months

Baptized 21^st. May 1807.
M'Arthur - Mary M'Arthur - 3 years & 9 months
Graham - James Graham - 6 years & 9 months
Young - Agnes Young - 4 years & 3 months
Cleland - Martha Cleland - 2 years & 3 months
Duncan - Mary Duncan - 3 years & 3 months
Patrick - Elisabeth Patrick - 1 year
Monteath - Robert Monteath - 6 months
Miller - Joseph Miller - 6 months
Cherry - Agnes Cherry - 3 months

Baptized 16^th. Sept^r. 1808.
Paisley - William Paisley - 1 year & 3 months
Martin - Elisabeth Martin - 1 year & 3 months
Gillies - Mary Gillies - 1 year
Fairley - Elisabeth Fairley - 9 months
Paul - Charlotte Paul - 9 months
Symons - Jean Symons - 9 months
Smith - Martha Smith - 8 months
M'Farlan - Mary M'Farlan - 8 months
Wilson - Mary Wilson - 8 months
M'Lachlan - James M'Lachlan - 8 months
M'Grigor - Mary M'Grigor - 8 months
Gordon - Stewart Gordon - 6 months
Robinson - Ann Robinson - 6 months
Miller - Agnes Miller - 5 months
M'Kean - Mary M'Kean - 5 months
Campbell - Sarah Campbell - 3 months
Sinclair - George Sinclair - 3 months
M'Dermid - Janet M'Dermid - 6 months
Dodd - William Dodd - 3 months
Brown - Joseph Brown - 2 months
Ross - Sarah Ross - 2 months
Paterson - Jean Paterson - 1 month
Fergus - James Fergus - 3 years & 3 months
Torrance - Maria Torrance - 10 months

Baptized 18^th. May 1813
Ferguson - Ann Ferguson - 3 years & 11 months
Stewart - Ann Stewart - 3 years & 1 month
Ramsey - Margaret Ramsy - 3 years & 1 month
Fotheringham - Peter Fotheringham - 4 years & 3 months
Chisholm - James Chisholm - 4 years & 1 month
M'Lachlan - James M'Lachlan - 3 years & 4 months
Strachan - Nancy Strachan - 3 years & 3 months
Nichol - Harriet Nichol - 1 year & 6 months
{…...} - John Buntine - 1 year & 10 months

Exposed Children Continued
Stewart - Helen Stuart - 1 year & 6 months
Stewart - Robert Stewart - 1 year & 2 months
M'Pherson - Isobel M'Pherson - 1 year & 2 months
Stevenson - John Stevenson - 1 year & 2 months
Campbell - Will[ia]m Campbell - 1 year & 2 months
Berrie - John Berrie - 1 year & 2 months
Stwart - George Stuart - 1 year
Maxwell - Jean Maxwell - 1 year
Newark - Jean Newark - 1 year & 4 months
M'farlan - Peter M'farlan - 1 year & 1 month
Houstoun - Cathrine Houstoun - 1 year & 3 months
Rodger - Will[ia]m Rodger - 5 months
Sym - Will[ia]m Sym - 7 months
Stewart - Agnes Stuart - 3 months
Govan - Mary Govan - 1 year & 9 months
Lumsden - Mary Lumsden - 9 days
Gillespie - Janet Gillespie - 1 year & 6 months

It appears that some records relating to the town's hospital are held by Glasgow City Archives and the University of Glasgow.

Dead Woman Walking

2009-10-31T17:54:00.000Z

This photograph shows my great-great-grandparents Albert Barker and Ellen Culpan with their children Mary Ellen, Louisa and Arnold. At first glance it's a pretty ordinary family portrait. However, there is something a little unusual about it.

It depicts a scene that never actually took place as, according to family story, it was created after Ellen's death. The surviving family posed for the photo and then Ellen was added in. Luckily for me, the story of the photo, and the original portrait of Ellen from which the image was created, were passed down through the family, as otherwise I think it would be quite easy to take it at face value.

There is a definite outline around the girl on the right which continues along her brother's shoulder but it would be easy to mistake this as being the result of movement or a fault in the process. There is a similar fault around the head of the girl on the left and along the top of the image.

Ellen died in 1892, aged 29. Presumably, there was no photograph depicting the whole family together and so it was decided to create one posthumously. I wonder if the portrait of Ellen dates from her engagement or marriage as her left hand, apparently wearing a ring, is quite prominently displayed. Albert and Ellen married in 1882 (see my previous post Marriage With Deceased Wife's Sister) and so Ellen may actually be somewhat younger than this image would first suggest.

I can't help wondering what was going through the minds of the family as they posed for this photo, leaving a gap for where Ellen should be. From the apparent ages of the children I think it must have been taken not long after Ellen's death and so they must still have been feeling her loss very keenly. To modern sensibilities the whole idea of the photo seems rather morbid but perhaps the family found it a comfort.

The image is a useful reminder that just because our ancestors didn't have Photoshop doesn't mean that every picture in the family photo album is necessarily “real”.

Registers of the RC Bishopric of the Forces

2009-10-25T13:38:00.000Z

I've blogged previously about Scottish Catholic Registers, the first set of which are now available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Also included in this set of records are registers of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of the Forces. The RC Bishopric of the Forces provides chaplains to the Armed Forces and, according to the website of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, “Differing from any other Diocese, the Bishopric of the Forces is not aligned along geographical boundaries but encompasses anywhere in the world that United Kingdom military personnel are serving or deployed”.

As may be gathered from this description, despite being made available on a Scottish genealogy website, the majority of these records are not related to events that took place in Scotland and in most cases do not concern Scottish individuals.

A list of registers included in the collection can be downloaded as a PDF from http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/images/ScotlandsPeople%20CPR%20Missions.pdf. However, a word of warning: it appears that ScotlandsPeople is applying the same rules to these registers as to the Statutory Registers – that is images of records will only be made available on the site for baptisms of individuals born over 100 years ago, marriages that took place over 75 years ago and deaths/burials that occurred over 50 years ago. Therefore, many of the registers on this list, which cover the mid to late 20th Century, are not going to be included.

Admittedly this collection is probably going to be of interest to only a fairly small number of family historians but I hope it becomes better known because at the moment I feel it's rather hidden. After all, if your Irish ancestor had their child baptised whilst serving in Aldershot, England in the 1870s or your English ancestor converted to Catholicism whilst stationed in Cairo, Egypt in the 1930s you probably wouldn't think of looking for them on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk but records of both events would be there!

The RC Bishopric of the Forces Registers were digitised at the National Archives of Scotland along with the Scottish Catholic Registers which is probably why both sets of records have been released on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk as one collection. However, as indexes to Armed Forces births, marriages and deaths and British Overseas births, marriages and deaths are already available on ScotlandPeople's sister site www.findmypast.com that would seem to be a more obvious home for them.

If it is not possible to make the RC Bishopric of the Forces Registers available on www.findmypast.com how about a compromise – making an index to the records available on findmypast with a link to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk to then view the complete record? This would surely make the collection accessible to many more researchers and benefit both websites.

Who Witnessed a Marriage?

2009-10-18T16:12:00.000+01:00

A question I recently read in a family history magazine suggested that the fact that a man was not named as a witness on his daughter’s marriage certificate was evidence that he had died by this date, or possibly that he was unable to attend the wedding due to illness or infirmity. This seems to presuppose that it was common for parents, or at least the father of the bride, to witness a marriage.

Although I have heard this belief expressed before it is not one I necessarily agree with. There are examples in my family tree of parents witnessing the marriage of one of their children, but I believe it was more usual for the witnesses to be contemporaries of the couple, often siblings, but sometimes cousins or close friends.

More specifically, in the 20th century at least, I thought it was usually the Best Man and Chief Bridesmaid who signed the marriage register as witnesses. This belief is confirmed by my paternal grandparents marriage in 1939. The marriage certificate names as witnesses two individuals who I recognise as the groom’s brother and bride’s sister. A detailed report of the wedding in the local newspaper shows that this same brother was best man and the sister the first named of three bridesmaids.

Searching English Parish Registers in particular, I’ve noticed the same names appearing as witnesses time and time again. I suspect that these were individuals connected with the Church and this certainly seems to be the case with two marriages in my family that took place in the Parish of Gorleston, Suffolk.

A William Bristow witnessed the marriage of my ancestors there in 1809 and a William H. Bristow witnessed their grandson’s marriage in the same church in 1892. A search of census returns indicates that a William Bristow and William H. Bristow, were father and son who both followed the double occupation of ‘Tailor & Parish Clerk’, the younger man taking over the role of Parish Clerk from the older. Both men appear to be have served the function of Parish Clerk well into old age. William senior is recorded as ‘Church Clerk’ in the 1861 Census, aged 67 and William H. Bristow as ‘Parish Clerk’ in the 1891 Census aged 71. If these ages are correct William senior would only have been about 15 at the time of the 1809 marriage so I wonder if he took over the role from another William Bristow, parish clerk - his father perhaps?

So why would the parish clerk be a witness? Does this imply that there were no relatives or friends present at the wedding? I suspect this may have been the case for the 1892 marriage. The couple in question had apparently been living together for over 10 years and had at least four children. It seems likely that the wedding would be a small, private affair, so as not to draw attention to the fact that they were not already married (as they had claimed in the 1881 and 1891 censuses).

However, I am not convinced that just because no relatives are named as witnesses that this always implies they were not present, and suspect there may have been another reason why parish clerks witnessed so many marriages.

For the marriage of my ancestors in 1809 there are actually four witnesses recorded in the parish register. Two signed their names in full and two signed with an 'X'. Although it is not clear, I wonder if the two who could write their names (one of whom was William Bristow) were not so much witnessing the marriage, as witnessing the X marks of the other two.

To avoid the need for this extra step was there perhaps a preference for witnesses who could sign their names? In which case, does the fact that a parish clerk witnessed a marriage not necessarily indicate that there were no guests at the wedding but rather none who could sign their own names?

If so, this might also explain why in the early 19th century and earlier witnesses often seem to be two men, rather than one man and one woman as was common later.

I would be interested to hear from others as to who witnessed the marriages in your family. Relatives or non-relatives? Parents or siblings? Literate or illiterate?

A History of Private Life

2009-10-03T12:23:00.000+01:00

This week whilst browsing through radio programmes on BBC iPlayer, looking for something to help me get to sleep, I came across a wonderful new series entitled ‘The History of Private Life’.

The series, which is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, consists of thirty 15-minute programmes presented by historian Amanda Vickery and, according to the press release, includes:

‘Men behaving badly, adultery on the sofa, servants running amok, witches, poltergeists, burglars, bashful bachelors, glamorous widows, wedding nights, rows in bed, bedbugs, pots and pans, the imperial bungalow and suburban love – all in their own words.’

As family historians it is perhaps with private life, the domestic, that we are most concerned. We want to know who our ancestors married, how many children they had and where they lived. This series explores how they lived and is based on research in archives across the UK.

Some of the most revealing material comes from private letters and diaries and so naturally is concerned with the middle and upper echelons of society rather than the illiterate masses, but there are also sources used that will be familiar to many genealogists including The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.

I think the strongest programme so far has been the opening episode entitled ‘The Bed’. A particular highlight was an extract from Samuel Pepys’ diary showing that married life has changed little in 350 years:

‘At night to bed, and my wife and I did fall out about the dog’s being put down into the cellar, which I had a mind to have done because of his fouling the house, and I would have my will, and so we went to bed and lay all night in a quarrel.’

The series also includes songs from the 18th and 19th centuries that have never previously been recorded.

The first five episodes are currently available on BBC iPlayer and there is also an omnibus edition and a discussion inspired by the programme. Further information, including details of the research behind the series, is given on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/history-of-private-life/

An Irregular Catholic Marriage

2009-09-26T17:22:00.000+01:00

As a continuation of my last post I thought I would include another entry from one of the Catholic Registers.

This entry is recorded in the register for Kirkconnel in the Diocese of Galloway and is interesting not only because of the parties involved but also because it refers to a marriage that had already taken place:

At Gateside 7 Jan[ua]ry 1813

Louis Marie Narcisse Dubois de Gennes, & Catharine Allan of Gateside having, by a written document which is littorally as follows -

(“We, Louis Marie Narcisse Dubois de Gennes, Agent for the Military Stores in the French service, present prisoner of War on parole at Dumfries in Scotland, & Catherine Allan McCartney, daughter of John Allan McCartney Esq[ui]re of Halketleaths, Physician in Liverpool, having, for some time past, been privately married, think it proper to acknowledge our said Marriage before witnesses, in order to render it valid by the law of Scotland: We do therefore hereby in presence of the witnesses subscribing acknowledge that we are Man & Wife, & promise to adhere to each other as such, till death shall part us: in Testimony whereof, we have subscribed this acknowledgment, written by me the said Dubois de Gennes, along with a duplicate thereof, at Dumfries, the eighteenth day of November Eighteen hundred & twelve years, before these Witnesses Pierre de Grege, Knight of the French Empire, officer of Light Artillery, & Jean Pierre Huet, paymaster in the French Service.”
Signed - Dubois de Gennes
Catherine Allan)
Pierre de Grege
J.P. Huet

satisfied me that they were legally married, according to the laws of this Country, in compliance with their earnest request, as they profess the Roman Catholic Religion, I, Thomas Bagnall, Cath[olic] Clergyman at Kirkconnell, did confirm their marriage according to the Rites of the Holy Cath[olic] Church, at Gateside in presence of Mrs Allan, Mrs & John Carmont on the 7th January. 1813

According to the online catalogue of SCAN (the Scottish Archive Network) the McCartney of Halketleaths Papers are held by Dumfries Archive Centre. The following information is recorded on the family:

The McCartney of Halketleaths family (the estate being near Castle Douglas in Buittle parish, Kirkcudbrightshire) can be found first in the 16th century. They remained in possession of the lands until 1833, the last owner apparently being Dr John Allan McCartney, who died in Liverpool on 28 July 1829. He left a widow, Alice Worswick or McCartney, but apparently had no children by her. He had, however, apparently had three daughters by Catherine Beveridge. Dr McCartney also went by the name John Allan or John McCartney Allan. The lands of Halketleaths (and others) were bought in 1833 by William Parke, of Anfield Lodge, Lancashire from Dr McCartney's trustees.

Scottish Catholic Registers – A Preview

2009-09-21T21:12:00.000+01:00

As some of you may know, images from Scottish Catholic Sacramental Registers are due to be added to the ScotlandsPeople website in the near future. These registers, which include births and baptisms, marriages, burials and cemetery registers, confirmations and communion records, are held by the Scottish Catholic Archives and the Glasgow Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Archive. They have been digitised by a team at the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and indexed in India.

The latest information I have is that births and baptisms are due online at the start of October with marriages, deaths, confirmations and communion records to be added later in the year, although this may change.

NAS has long had copies of the registers from pre-1855 parishes (held in RH21) but these were mostly quite poor quality photocopies and not indexed, so you either had to know fairly precisely what you were looking for or have a lot of patience. The new colour digital images will be a great improvement and the indexing and online availability will make the registers accessible to many more researchers.

There are plans to make the images and index available at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, however I wonder if, like the OPR burial registers, there will be a delay in this happening due to technical issues.

Researchers in Edinburgh will, however, be able to view the images for free on ‘Virtual Volumes’ at NAS, without the name index but with year linking (that is an index added to the images to indicate where each new year in the register begins).

I’ve been looking at some of these Catholic registers recently. The most valuable for genealogists are probably those containing pre-1855 entries (Statutory Registration began in Scotland in 1855) as they may well be the only surviving record of a particular birth, marriage or death (the earliest register starts in 1703 although many do not begin until the mid-1800s). However, the post-1855 registers are certainly also worth a look even if you already have a copy of the relevant civil record as you may find additional details.

Like other Scottish church registers the amount of detail recorded varies considerably, even within the same register. What struck me particularly though were those entries, particularly marriages, which mentioned a place of origin, something I’ve rarely seen in the OPRs of the Church of Scotland.

This is particularly valuable as many Catholics in Scotland (particularly in the south-west) were of Irish origin and making the link back to a particular place in Ireland can be difficult for researchers, especially as census returns often only record a place of birth as ‘Ireland’.

The following marriage entry comes from the register for Dalbeattie, Diocese of Galloway:

June 25th 1815 at St Peter’s Dalbeattie Arthur Murphy Native of Parish of Minan, County Down, Ireland to Jane Macnight, Native of Parish of Buitle, and both presently residing in said parish. Witnesses Robert and Euphemia Macnight, James Copland & others.

Note: Minan is possibly Meenan, a townland in County Down.

Duties of a Church Officer

2009-09-13T16:36:00.000+01:00

Like my last post, the following entry comes from the minutes of Cambuslang Old Kirk Session (NAS Ref.: CH2/415/7).

It details what was expected of the church officer at Cambuslang in return for his salary of £12 10s a year (about £603 in today’s money according to the currency converter on the TNA website).

Session House, Parish Church
Cambuslang, 1st May 1876.
The clerk laid upon the table a note from Mr George Muir specifying his income as church officer. It was agreed to augment his salary to £12 10/- a year on the following conditions; - that he have the church washed out from time to time, and especially immediately preceding the sacrament; that he sweep out every pew every week, and carefully dust it every Saturday afternoon, minister’s pulpit and precentor’s desk included; that the sheep droppings be removed from the walks every Sabbath morning; that the remains of old coffins be in future kept out of sight; that no ashes or dross be laid down on the northern corner between the vestry and the church; that said corner be levelled down and improved; that brushes and all other articles be removed from the front lobby; that he take the collection to the treasurer every Monday; that he wear a white tie when on duty as becomes his office; and that the church and its surroundings generally be kept tidy and in good order; also, that he undertake the cleaning of the Industrial School, which is to be swept out every school day and dusted the following morning; that the floor be washed every Saturday during school time; and that he kindle the fire during the winter. Salary to date from 15th May next.

The clerk was instructed to provide a brush for the school, and permission was accorded him to get a japanned tin box for the session books and records, two crimson cloths for the collection plates, and printed boards for the special collections.

From the Kirk Session Minutes

2009-09-06T19:47:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite sources for researching Scottish family history are the minutes of the Kirk Sessions of the Church of Scotland. Many deal with discipline of the congregation. Although I do not always find what I am looking for I nearly always find something interesting.

My search this week of the minutes of Cambuslang Old Kirk Session were no exception. Although ‘guilt’, i.e. sex outside of marriage, is a staple of the Kirk Session records I think this is the first time I have come across mention of an abortion.

The original record is held by Glasgow City Archives however a digital copy can be viewed at the National Archives of Scotland under reference CH2/415/7:

Page 240

Session House, Parish Church, Cambuslang, 2nd Dec[embe]r 1878.

The Mod[erato]r reported that he had privately dealt with Marg[are]t McLachlan, now Mrs John Cunningham, residing at 80 Crownpoint Road, London Road, Glasgow, as to her alleged guilt, and, as to her having given birth to an illegitimate child. He stated that he had elicited from her a confession of her having been guilty about five years ago, which guilt had terminated in an abortion. She expressed her penitence and a desire to be taken under discipline, but by the Kirk Session of Calton where she now resides. Considering the circumstances of the case, this Kirk Session agree to transfer her to said Kirk Session for discipline, and to enable them to proceed therewith at same time to issue an extract of this minute.

Note: I was unable to find any mention of the case among the minutes of Old Calton, Glasgow Kirk Session and was not able to examine those for New Calton, Glasgow.

A Very Useful Obituary

2009-08-23T14:36:00.000+01:00

I was browsing through some family documents on my computer this week when I came across a newspaper clipping and was once again struck by the great amount of information contained in these few paragraphs.

Like most of the newspaper clippings I’ve inherited there is no indication of which paper it came from or the date of publication. However, I suspect it came from the Colne Valley Guardian (a title which went through a number of name changes) and based on other documents I have must have been published on 13th February 1925.

The gentleman concerned, Edmund Wilkinson (1853-1925), was the brother of my great-great-grandfather.

DEATH OF MR. E. WILKINSON.

FORMER MANAGER OF SLAITHWAITE CO-OP.

The death occurred on Monday of Mr. Edmund Wilkinson, at the home of his brother, Mr. David Wilkinson, Hill Crest, Scar Lane, Golcar, at the advanced age of 71 years. He had been suffering from a disease of the heart for a considerable period, and for the last three months had been confined to his bed.

Mr. Wilkinson, who was a bachelor, was very well known in the district, having occupied the position of general manager of the Slaithwaite Equitable Industrial Society for 22 years, and previous to that was 20 years manager at the No. 2 Branch, Bolster Moor, Golcar. He retired from the position in July, 1917. In 1919 Mr. Wilkinson was elected to serve on the County Council, and he represented the Golcar district for three years. The previous member was Mr. William Lockwood.

The deceased gentleman was born at Bank Top, Slaithwaite, and for many years lived at Hill Top. Upon retiring he took up residence at Bethel Villa, Clough, Golcar. In politics he was a Liberal, and was a member of the Slaithwaite Liberal Club. Mr. Wilkinson was a regular attender at Sunny Bank Baptist Chapel as long as his health would permit.

By his oft-expressed wish he was cremated at Manchester on Tuesday, and the funeral took place at Pole Moor Baptist Chapel yesterday. The last rites were performed by the Rev. D. W. Young, pastor at Sunny Bank, and a large number of relatives and friends were present.

Warning: Genealogy may affect your emotional health

2009-08-16T14:11:00.000+01:00

This week’s Who Do You Think You Are – the BBC programme in which celebrities trace their family history – was a particularly emotional one. Kim Cattrall set out to discover what had happened to her grandfather who had abandoned his young family some 70 years earlier.

Seeing a celebrity reduced to tears is pretty familiar WDYTYA territory. In fact I’ve long suspected that the amount of emotion to be wrung from a family story is a major factor in deciding which make it to the final series and which are assigned to the cutting room floor.

To the outsider genealogy must seem like a cosy little hobby. The collection of names, dates and dry historic facts may not immediately strike one as something to get the pulse racing and yet the emotional impact of uncovering the past can be very real.

We may not all have a story like Kim’s in our family history but there were certainly elements I could connect to my own family.

I’m someone that believes that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask a question just because you might not like the answer. However, I wonder if before undertaking a journey of ancestral discovery we should all take a moment to consider whether we are prepared not only for what we might find but also for the effect it will have.

So my question this week: Should genealogy carry a health warning?

Do clans have anything to do with researching Scottish genealogy?

2009-08-01T22:16:00.000+01:00

A week ago, along with 47,000 others, I attended The Gathering a two-day ‘celebration of the culture and history of Scotland’ and the signature event of Homecoming Scotland 2009, a year-long government initiative aimed at encouraging those with a passion or connection with Scotland to ‘come home’.

As a tourism initiative and a boost to the local economy it appears to have been a success and I have personal evidence of this, as my Scottish-born Mum (now resident in England) was one of those who made a special trip to Scotland to attend. However, those of us who live in Edinburgh, where it seems whatever your surname or however tenuous your connection to Scotland someone will be happy to flog you ‘your tartan’, may have been left wondering what the point of it all was.

Interestingly, The Gathering website acknowledges ‘the near extinction of clan activity’ in Scotland and describes the event as ‘an opportunity to thank the clan associations and Scottish societies from around the world for their role in keeping these traditions alive’, so I guess it’s fair to say this wasn’t really one designed for the locals!

As a genealogist working in Scotland it’s not surprising that I sometimes get asked ‘Which clan do I belong to?’ or ‘What’s my tartan?’. Unfortunately though, these are questions I struggle to answer. I realise that Scotland’s strong cultural identity is one of the reasons why people are so keen to learn about their Scottish ancestors, but the subject of clans seems to have very little to do with the genealogical research I carry out.

However, in honour of The Gathering I thought it was time I looked a bit more deeply into the issue and so today, armed with seven different books on tracing Scottish ancestry, I have sat down to see what I can discover.

The first thing I notice is a certain similarity. Most of the books seem to have a chapter whose title includes the word clan somewhere near the end of the book, but the relevant section is rather short. Some suggest that a book on genealogy is not the place to discuss clans, others give a brief definition but do not indicate how this relates to tracing one’s ancestry as described in the foregoing chapters. Cameron Taylor, ‘consultant to Scotland’s national AncestralScotland initiative’ and author of Rooted in Scotland refers the researcher to the clan search facilities on the website of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs and on www.ancestralscotland.com (neither of these facilities seemed to be working when I tried today). Alan Stewart in Gathering the Clans (a book with only a brief mention of clans) cites instances of families changing their surname to that of a clan chief whose protection they wanted, whilst Bruce Durie is bold enough to declare that ‘Not every Scotsman has a clan’ as well as giving some reasons why not everyone who had a ‘clan surname’ was related to the clan chief or to each other.

Whilst this has pretty much confirmed what I already knew it hasn’t really given me an answer to the tricky clan question. It seems no one feels they can quite ignore the subject of clans but, in a book on tracing Scottish ancestors at least, they don’t have much to say about it.

So do clans have anything to do with researching Scottish genealogy? Not really but maybe, maybe? At least with the setting up of www.tartanregister.gov.uk I now have somewhere to refer those who ask about finding their tartan!

Sex and the Scottish Ancestor

2009-07-18T22:14:00.000+01:00

When I first began researching my Scottish ancestors and discovered that my great-grandfather, Hector McNeil (1886-1954), was born just one month after his parents married I was a bit surprised. Surely a hint of scandal here? Something that got the neighbours gossiping? I mean that just wasn’t the done thing back then, was it?

Further research revealed that not only did Hector follow this particular family tradition, his first child being born six months after he married, but that both Hector’s father and grandfather lived with and had children by women to whom they were not married.

Expanding my research to other family lines I discovered similar stories: a couple who married five months after the birth of their first child; a woman who had two children, probably by the same man, but never married.

Were my ancestors turning out to be the most immoral in Scotland or was there something else going on here? Was it just that my preconceptions were wrong?

As a teenager, I think I had the vague idea that pre-marital sex was ‘invented’ in the 1960s. Even then, as my mum was keen to point out, the ‘sexual revolution’ didn’t affect everyone, with many people continuing to live with their parents until they married and ‘baby’ arriving a respectable one year after the wedding.

Of course as a keen viewer of costume dramas I did know about illegitimacy. Some innocent young girl taken advantage of, usually by an employer, is thrown out and disowned by her family when her pregnancy is discovered. She usually comes to a sticky end and should the child survive the ‘shame’ of illegitimacy follows him or her throughout life.

No doubt such situations did happen, but in my family the majority of illegitimate children appear to have been born to parents in long-term relationships.

As I’ve researched more and more families I’ve discovered that mine are hardly unique. There do appear to have been some regional differences though and, as these particular ancestors of mine were all involved in coalmining, I suspected that sex before (or outside) marriage was particularly common in Scotland’s mining communities.

However, this week I’ve been researching two families from the north of Scotland, one from a fishing community, the other from an area that was largely agricultural, and I’ve been finding much the same thing.

This has got me thinking about the issue again. Firstly, was the apparently high rate of pre-marital sex in Scotland (or ante-nuptial fornication as it is often described in Kirk Session records) related to the law that legitimised children upon the subsequent marriage of their parents? (This applied only when both parents were free to marry, i.e. not married to someone else, at the time of the child’s birth.)

It is difficult to know how aware people were of this law but it may explain why some parents were content to wait until after the arrival of their child to get married, rather than rush to tie the knot before the birth. Legitimacy was generally only important with regards to inheritance and as most working-class Scots had little to pass on to their children the legal situation was perhaps of less importance than the attitudes of their neighbours.

The law doesn’t always seem to have been universally applied either, as I found recently. I came across a child who was born to parents who married a few days later but waited until after their marriage before registering the birth. The registrar, however, considered the birth to be illegitimate (the word is included on the birth record) although the date and place of the parents’ marriage was recorded, as is usual on Scottish birth certificates.

It has been suggested that pre-marital pregnancy was seen as an insurance against infertility, particularly in agricultural communities where a farm worker was expected to provide family labour. Personally though, I think the most convincing argument is simply that in some communities sex was an accepted part of the courtship process, just as it is for many people today.

But what I’ve really been thinking about is why all this pre-marital sex should come as such a surprise to me. Why did I think that the youth of great-granny’s day were so very different from my own generation? Was there a particular time when what was once common behaviour began to be seen as something to be ashamed of and to be hidden from later generations? Has there be a deliberate attempt to rewrite history?

If so, I’m sure our ancestors weren’t expecting all us genealogists to come snooping around uncovering their secrets!

Marriage With Deceased Wife's Sister

2009-07-12T19:38:00.000+01:00

In England & Wales a widowed man was prohibited from marrying the sister of his deceased wife until 1907. It’s a subject that gets mentioned in the columns of family history magazines from time to time and, despite the law, there’s plenty of evidence that such marriages did happen. There usually seems to have been some secrecy involved, the couple married where they were not known, and it was not difficult to escape detection.

I’ve an example of a man who married two sisters in my own family tree. However in this case there seems to have been little effort made to disguise the fact and I’ve often wondered how the couple got away with such blatant law breaking.

In 1882 my great-great-grandfather Albert Barker married Ellen Culpan. Ellen died in 1892, leaving Albert with three young children to bring up alone, and in 1894 he married her older sister, Jane Culpan.

I have copies of both marriage certificates and they are remarkably similar documents, right down to the fact that both brides gave the same address. Both weddings took place at King Cross Wesleyan Chapel in the District of Halifax, Yorkshire. The marriages were not performed by the same minister but both certificates include the name of Walter Common, Registrar.

At this date when a marriage took place in a nonconformist place of worship, a civil Marriage Registrar had to be present when the couple exchanged their vows. My interpretation would be that Walter Common not only registered both marriages but also actually attended them.

Witnesses to the first marriage were John Barker (most likely Albert’s older brother) and Jane Culpan (who would become Albert’s second wife). John Barker was also a witness at the second wedding but obviously Jane could not be a witness at her own marriage and so another sister, Hannah Culpan, performed the role.

Nearly twelve years had elapsed between the two marriages during which time Walter Common must have attended hundreds of weddings so we can perhaps understand why he was apparently unaware that the law was being flouted in front of his very eyes. I can’t help wondering though if he didn’t experience a certain feeling of déjà vu, seeing so many of the same people assembled at the same place. I have identified Walter, recorded as a Building Society Secretary & Registrar of Marriages, in both the 1881 and 1891 Censuses and so I am sure it was the same person. In 1891 he was aged 73 so well into his 70s by the time of the second marriage.

The second marriage appears to have taken place with the support of both the Barker and Culpan families. Although I do not know that Albert Barker regularly attended the King Cross Wesleyan Chapel, the fact that both marriages took place there suggests a fairly long association and makes me wonder if fellow members of the congregation, even maybe the minister himself, knew Albert’s wives were sisters. Did everyone simply turn a blind eye?

There was certainly support for the idea of allowing widowers to marry their deceased wives’ sisters. In fact the issue was raised so often in parliament that in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Iolanthe the Queen of the Fairies sings, “He shall prick that annual blister, Marriage with deceased wife’s sister”. The 1907 Marriage Act removed wife’s sister from the list of prohibited marriages but, confusingly, it was not until 1921 that a man could marry his deceased brother’s widow.

The fact that Ellen and Jane were sisters was passed down through the family but it was fascinating to see the marriage certificates and to discover more of the details. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has a similar story in their own family and to learn of the circumstances surrounding the marriages.

Who's that Girl?

2009-07-05T14:40:00.000+01:00

When my maternal grandmother’s house was cleared after she died this photograph was found among her papers. There are no names, date or other details recorded on it, not even the name of the photographer. My mum could not remember having seen the photo before but thought that the baby bore some resemblance to my aunt at a similar age and was probably my grandmother.

Due to family circumstances my grandmother, ‘Nannie’ to me and my sister, had few possessions dating from her childhood or even from the early years of her own children, but somehow this photograph had survived the ups and downs of her eighty-two years.

When I began researching her family, building on records collected by my mum some years earlier, one of the tasks I set myself was to identify the people in this photo and the approximate date it was taken.

Having traced records of my great-grandparents and their family I now believe this photograph was taken before Nannie was born and is of her parents Hector McNeil (1886-1954) and Agnes Gray McNeil née Frickleton (1892-1923) with their three oldest surviving children: Andrew Frickleton McNeil born 1911, James ‘Jimmy’ McNeil born 1913 and Agnes Gray Frickleton McNeil born 1915.

I suspect the photograph may date from the family’s move from the mining village of Standburn near Falkirk in Stirlingshire, where these children were born, to the City of Glasgow where their next child, Hector, was born in 1917, and so was probably taken about 1916.

What I don’t know is the identity of the girl standing at the back of the photo. She was obviously considered important enough to be included in a family portrait but somehow she seems a little apart from the rest of the group, not quite one of the family. Although the photo is a little unclear it appears that Hector has his arm slightly in front of her, rather than around her protectively as with his son.

It’s rather difficult to judge how old she might be, but certainly quite a few years older than the other children and, I think, probably too old to be Agnes’ daughter.

Agnes was the eldest of ten children, eight of whom were girls, and so my guess is that this girl is one of Agnes’ little sisters. Agnes might have been glad to have an extra pair of hands to help take care of her growing family and the girls’ parents might well have been grateful to have one less mouth to feed.

I’ve been lucky enough to find out quite a lot about the Frickleton sisters. Firstly through the detailed information on various Freckleton/Frackleton/Frickleton families at www.geocities.com/pookyface that alerted me to the fact that Agnes was the only one of the sisters to remain in Scotland, the rest (and one brother) all emigrated. Then through records of their emigration and later lives available online at www.findmypast.com and www.ancestry.com. And finally through the great kindness of a former client who asked ‘if there’s ever anything I can look up for you in Canada’ (probably not imagining that there was!) and found me several newspaper notices and an extract from a book relating to the two sisters who emigrated to Canada and their families.

I realise I will probably never know for certain who the girl in this photograph is, and, that as far as researching my family history goes, this isn’t one of the greatest unanswered questions. But for some reason I’d really like to put a name to this face, so if anyone out there thinks she looks familiar I would love to hear from you!

Marital Disharmony in 18th Century Scotland

2009-06-20T16:45:00.000+01:00

Whilst researching at the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) this week I came across the following record which shows the problems one man experienced with his wife and how the difficulties this caused between him and the church continued into his subsequent marriage.

The spelling is rather more phonetic than is usual for this date but is hopefully intelligible. In some places the letter 'w' is used instead of 'u'.

This extract is taken from the Minutes of Duns Relief Church, Berwickshire - NAS Ref. CH3/1146/7.

Reliefe Records of the Session in Dunse 1800

Augest 17th About the speace of Sevin years ago There arose a Diference Betwx George Bone and his Wife Jean Jafrie then Liven at Polwart wood Heads being Galows of her Husband George Bone She having been maried a number of years to him and had a famlie of Children to him outerly refused him of his Privelidge as a husband in Brech of her Marige Bond Likewise Provicken him to go to sike another Wife Declireng that hi should have no more fredom with her as a husband ought to have with his wife this Contwning for a Long time Alexander Bell farmer at Crunklie being Elder of that South qarter of the Reliefe Congregation Reperisented it to the Session

The Revd Mr Thomas Thomson being then Minester in Dunse it was a veray Longe Tidwes Trayel George Bone being Brought before the Session Declered that Ther was a Great dispace Betwx his wife and him and Likewise she had seet the whole famlie aginst him and she had Disired him often to go to seke a nother wife and ould some times Give him Bread and Cheis to put in his Pocket to go to sike another wife which she acknolidge to be trwe her self in the Session when she was Brought to the Session Likewise she Disired him to make a new Bond of Sepration Betwx him and her which They Did

Some time afore or after George Bone Gave a Bond to a nother woman that had been his Servant which Bond his wife Jean Jafrie found in George Bones Saboths Cloas and brought it to the Revd Mr Thomas Thomson but her Husband misin the Bond Demanded her to Preduce that Bond or Eles hi ould Burn her in a fire to Death the Session Could not Determinet maters betwx them ther being so maney Difrent Grivences from both Parties the Sesson Consiston then of teen Elders thought Proper to Leay them both aside from Church Prividelidges which they Did and George Bone was publickly lead aside from the Pulpet by the Revd Mr Thomson Minester then George Bone Stil adhering to the mitten keeping his seat paying his Seat rent aplaying now and then for to git Church Privelidges but Still Refused of them

At Lenth throw process of time the woman that hi had or was to give the Bond to to take her for his wife maried a nother man at the same time Jean Jafrie his Lafwl wife Lived a veray agreable Life with her husband George Bone which hi Declared to Robert Gray Elder which Contwance was for a year before her Death but all the time of her Life she had no Church Prividlegs at Lenth Jean Jafrie Deid and George Bone was maried to a nother Woman George Bone still aplayen for Church Prividledges but was still refwsed of them

On the year 1799 the Revd Mr John Wattson being Minester in Dunse Reliefe Congregation George Bone still aplaying for Church Prividleges a Bar Being in Georges way Concerning some monie that was taken out of a Chist in Georges howse which hi impetecd his son with which was a Law Procces his son being Clerad George still aplayen for Church Privilidges at Lenth the Revd Mr John Wattson Leaving Dunse not being ther Minester any Longer who was Placed on Tusday 21th of Augest 1798 and was Lowsed by the Edinbrough Presberty on May 6th 1800 to go to Glasgow we not having a Minester the Congregation agrieing to have the Saccrament Dispenced among them wrot to the Revd Mr Andrew Thomson Minester at Berwick which Came to Dispence that Ordnance with others wpon the fourth Day of July 1800

The Session being Constuit by Prayer the Revd Mr Andrew Thomson Being Morator George Bone being Presant in the Session ther was a Contest in the Session about George Bone some was for absolven him Publickly The Majority Caried to admonise him in the Session as ther was no Book of Records which Tistefied agenst him only some Scrols of Paper which was Lost hi being admonised by the Revd Mr Andrew Thomson Morator Receved a token from his Elder John Sklinskel in Polwart becaws hi attested Georges Carator for some years bygon

Georges Wife having a Child to him Disiring the Session to favour him to have his Child Baptised on Tusday first after the Saccrament which requist they Granted accordingly The Revd Mr John Pitkern Minester at Kelso upon the Monday intmited that ther was a Child to be Baptised on Tusday the Day folowing when that Day Came hi refusied to Baptise the Child becawse George had not been absolvied Publickly althow George had Jonied upon this occision the Elders being Put to a nonplush not having a Minester at that time agreed to refier it till some Statited Minister Should Come and have a nother Session

Accordingly the Revd Mr Ried Came a Session Being Constuit by Prayer the Revd Mr Reid being Told what had been don with George Bone hi being Presant advised George to apier Publicty in the Mitten house on the Saboth after being the 24th of Augest 1800 which hi willingry agreed to and Likwise on that Day was admonished Publickly By Mr Reid and on The afternoon the Revd Mr Reid intemited from the Pulpit that ther was to be a baptesim at Polwart Woodhead on wedensday first which hi accordingly Did and Baptised two Children To George Bone at that Time for his Wife was Deliverd of a nother Child befor George was Clerad
Robert Gray Session Clerk

Note: Galows = Jealous - here probably meaning mistrustful, or resentful of a suspected or known infidelity

Professional What?

2009-06-13T15:51:00.000+01:00

Firstly, I’d like to thank Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, authors of ‘Good Omens’, for the title of this blog. Anathema Device, the Professional Descendant of the novel, is not a genealogist but it seems like a good job description for someone who has based a career on who their ancestors were. Anathema is a descendant of the witch Agnes Nutter and appears to have inherited some of her ancestor’s talents. Having long suspected there were some Nutters in my own family tree I feel a certain kinship with her!

These days I spend most of my time researching other people’s ancestors and I felt it was time my lot started earning their keep. This blog will be a place to tell some of their stories, to celebrate them and to air some of the family’s dirty laundry. I also intend to include some extracts from the records I come across whilst carrying out research and to discuss some of the broader questions raised by the study of family history.

My own ancestors are a mix of English, Scottish and Irish. A fairly ordinary bunch but at times quite a challenge to trace. What fascinates me about family history is not only the process of research, piecing together small scraps of information to reconstruct a person’s life, but also what it can reveal about social history and human behaviour, the insight it gives into a world that can seem very different from our own but populated by individuals with our strengths and our weaknesses, our virtues and our failings.