Monday 30 June 2014

Genealogies & Registers



I realize not everyone has it within their present budget to subscribe to a pay genealogy site to look up BMD records. Besides the Family Search site, which is free, there are other sites and publications that hold BMD records, indexes or genealogies of our ancestors.

As I said in my article titled "No Luck of the Irish" I found my ancestors in one of the Irish Pedigrees published in the early 1900's. I found other family members in their community histories at Our Roots.  A lot of counties, towns, societies or individuals have put together genealogies over the years, and some have published transcripts of registers or indeed copies of the actual records in some cases.



In the UK a guy named William Phillimore Watts Phillimore (brother to Reginald Phillimore Phillimore the artist) of Nottingham who was a genealogist. He founded a publishing business, and therewith he published what are called the Phillimore Registers. One of the links below is for the Catalogue of Phillimore's parish registers. If you see the parish you want, at Internet Archive (archive.org) search [parish name] register + Phillimore. Also for the UK you can google search [county name] + OPC or parish register. Quite a few of them are transcribed online. (OPC is Online Parish Clerk). There is another site for the South Hams of Devon with info PLUS volunteer lookups - click the ask button. They broke down one of my walls for me, and sent me the marriage certificate. More genealogy people helping people.  Wonderful!!

Ontario is a difficult place to find records for.  Luckily there are several volumes published of "Papers and records - Ontario Historical Society" which hold a lot of birth and marriage records, and include other interesting information. That link is below as well. Check the index of each volume and some random pages, as not all registers are under a heading "Look here for registers!!" I have also provided the links to BMD of the other provinces.

I have also found for you some books with records for the USA, including some early Quaker records. You can find more Quaker records by searching at archive.org using the keywords quaker (or friends) + records.


Relevant Links:


London Marriage Licenses 1521-1869

Newfoundland Vitals

New Brunswick Vitals

Nova Scotia Vitals

PEI Links and Vitals

Quebec BMD Records 1621-1979


Papers and Records - Ontario Historical Society Vol 1 - Baptisms ad Marriages

Fort George - Ontario Historical Society Vol 15-18 Military Baptisms 1821-1827

Marriage Records of Thomas Cummings - Niagara Peninsula, Stamford and Chippawa

Marriages at Church of Assumption, "La Pointe de Montreal du Detroit" 1760-1781

Papers and Records - Ontario Historical Society - several volumes

Manitoba Vitals

List of men married by the Catholic Missionaries at Red River Mission 1818-1831

Saskatchewan Vitals

British Columbia Vitals

Mayflower Descendents: quarterly magazine and passenger lists

Catalogue of Phillimore's parish register series 1913

Marriage Records, Marion County, Indiana 1929-1944

Martin County, Indiana birth records 1-2

Martin County, Indiana birth records 3-4

Miller County, Mo Birth and Death Records 1883-1890 Transcribed by I. S. Yarnell

Birth and death records, 1764-1870's - Quaker - Mill Creek, IN

Birth Records of Livingston County, MO - 1883-1891

The Birth, Marriage and Death Register, Lancaster, Mass 1643-1850

Birth Record Book A 1755-1882; Wayne County, Indiana Monthly Meeting

The Records of Lee, Mass 1777-1801

Vital Records of Washington, Mass, to the year 1850

The old records of the town of Fitchburg, Mass (several volumes)

New Amsterdam & New Netherlands Records

Quaker Records, Peru, Clinton Co, NY

Australia Victoria BMD historical index stored as cvs data

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Published quarterly since 1847 

Genealogical Register of the Town of West Boylston, Mass to 1858

New Brunswick Genealogy Files

Tweedsmuir Local town and family histories - Ontario

Irish Pedigrees (see Ireland links for more, blog "No Luck of the Irish")

Pedigree Register London 1867 (+ others)

The database Íslendingabók contains genealogical information about the inhabitants of Iceland, dating more than 1,200 years back (not English)

Record of the Smith Family from John Smith born 1655 Ireland

Lancashire Online Parish Clerk

South Hams, Devon - records and volunteer help

Genealogies del comtes de Barcelona 

Marriage contracts of Natchitoches (Louisanna) 1739-1803 

History of the Parish of Banchory-Devenick, Aberdeenshire 1890 

Here you will find several volumes of "Genealogy : a journal of American ancestry" - includes marriages and deaths, graves of soldiers, Preachers names, etc..New England - starts in the 1700's


 

Sunday 29 June 2014

Serendipity Sunday - Trick or Treason




Every movie buff knows of the swashbuckling Australian actor that played in Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sun Also Rises and Sea Hawk to name a few. Errol Flynn played opposite all the great actresses of the day, including my favourite, Bette Davis in The Sisters. We all know that this dashing young man was the matinee idol of the late 30's and through the 40's... but did you know he was investigated by the FBI for Treason??

Released under the Freedom of Information Act is this detailed collection in PDF form of FBI documents, with some blocks of writing blacked out.

You can read this article about it in The New Statesman and this one at the blog Facts and Falsehoods. I am sure there are also others online.

What do you think really happened?



Tuesday 24 June 2014

Books We Own




Another great example of people helping people in the world of genealogy!

While researching an ancestor you might have come across a reference to books that may contain information for that person.  Your library doesn’t have that book, and it is not online.  What to do?

I have asked a couple of volunteers at a website called Books We Own to look things up for me with great results. They will even copy the relevant pages and email them to you. Visit their site and browse through their “Library”.  Everything is categorized by theme or country, then by city or county or state.  If they get notice, they note when a book becomes digitized so you can look yourself. 

Read their SEARCH TIPS carefully to ensure a quick and proper response, and keep in mind these are volunteers that have a life.

They also have a list of genealogies by Surname.

If you have a rare book containing people’s names, maps or other info that may be valuable to genealogists, consider adding your book and look-up service to the site.

Books We Own

Monday 23 June 2014

United Empire Loyalists




drawing by C.W. JEFFERYS

The United Empire Loyalists are American colonists who stayed loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution (1775 - 1783) and came to settle n Canada. I have a relative who has been searching for the Loyalist in our tree ever since she read mention of one in my great-grand aunt's papers.


QUOTE from Wikipedia: Realising the importance of some type of recognition, on November 9, 1789, Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and Governor General of British North America, declared "that it was his Wish to put the mark of Honour upon the Families who had adhered to the Unity of the Empire". As a result of Dorchester's statement, the printed militia rolls carried the notation:

"Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their Children and their Descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their names: U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire."

That means that if you are descended from a Loyalist you can use the letters U.E. after your name, just as a doctor uses M.D. It is said to be the only honorific in Canada that is hereditary.  Also you can use the Loyalist coronet in your coat of arms.
                                               Military Coronet           Civil Coronet


Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog was the inspiration for this article, giving you tips on finding a Loyalist ancestor in your tree. She reminds us that if you don't find your ancestor on one list, look on others.


Relevant Links:

Kingston and the Loyalists of the "Spring Fleet" of 1783 : with reminiscenses of early days in Connecticut; a narrative to which is appended a diary written by Sarah Frost on her voyage to St. John, NB with the Loyalists of 1783




Monday 16 June 2014

No Luck of the Irish




Take a good look at the above photo - that is the Dublin Four Courts building housing the Public Records Office, going up in flames at the Battle of Dublin, 1922. That is part of the reason there are few BMD records at Archives for Ireland and why you have no luck finding a trace of your Irish ancestors.  So if your family came from Ireland, you will have to go to the parish where your ancestors came from or search out alternate records. 
UPDATE: Parish surviving records are being digitized and made available. Check HERE to see what records are available and where. 

My grandfather was estranged from his family so we didn't know anything about our Irish Seale ancestors. When I started researching that family line and discovered there were no records online.... I felt double gypped! But I am determined! I posted queries on every genealogy board out there. Finally, after a few years and more people were getting into genealogy I got replies. Two of them!  One was from a distant cousin also descended from my 2nd great-grandfather John Seale of Queen's County Ireland, and the other was from a person in Australia who mentioned a Seale pedigree that was floating around the internet somewhere. So off I went, using every searching skill I could muster, trying to find that pedigree. And I did.  Along with a few others for which there are links below.


The next challenge was going to be to connect this pedigree with my family in Kingston, Ontario. After sitting on it a while, I received a message from a fifth cousin whose relative had gone to Ireland and found parish records at the church. The connection was made. I have the luck of the Irish! Please let it hold true for my other Irish families!

Follow the Irish Genealogy News Blog for updates on available new records.
Registers that survived in individual parishes and church archives are being slowly digitized and being made available. Some wills and military records may be available at National Archives UK.

Hopefully you can find your Irish ancestors mentioned in some of the links I have gathered for you and set out below. 


Relevant Links:


Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry 1887

Irish Pedigrees

Irish Pedigrees - The origin and stem of the Irish Nation Vol I

Irish Pedigrees - The origin and stem of the Irish Nation Vol II

A Genealogical History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland Vol I

A Genealogical History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland Vol II

A Genealogical History of Irish Families - with their crests and armorial bearings

Irish Marriages: Index of marriages in Walker's Hibernian magazine 1771-1812 Vol I

Irish Marriages: Index of marriages in Walker's Hibernian magazine 1771-1812 Vol II

Roscommon Soldiers who died in World War I

Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1682-1750

Missing Friends (Ads for Irish immigrants in the Boston Pilot)

The genealogies, tribes, and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, or O'Dowda's Country (Galway)

Dublin Records

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)

PRONI Will Search

Perogative of Irish Wills 1526-1897

PRONI Freeholders database

National Archives of Ireland Genealogy

Irish Genealogy 


A catechism of Irish geography and topography,physical, social, historical and biographical, for schools and families: 1822-1917

Electoral Rolls Ireland 1908-1910

Irish Flax Growers 1796

The Irish Lined Trade Hand Book and Directory

More good sources for Ireland at Fáilte Romhat website

"Devia Hibernia" : the road and route guide for Ireland 1893

The Royal Irish Academy: List of Members Vol I – 1836


Calendar of Deeds - Dublin

> Volume II: 1350-1413.

> Volume III: 1412-1509.

> Volume IV: 1509-1547.

> Volume V: 1547-1584.

> Volume VI: 1584-1603. This volume includes Appendices, and Index Nominum (name) and Index Locorum (place).

IRELAND - Reflections and resolutions proper for the gentlemen of Ireland, as to their conduct for the service of their country, as landlords, masters of families, as Protestants, as descended from British ancestors, as country gentlemen and farmers, as justices of the peace, as merchants, as members of parliament


Irish Archive Resource - free

Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland: for the guidance of registration officers and the public in searching the indexes of BMD - 1901

Laois, Queen's Co - The Laois Papers - Index to papers classified as Deeds - leases, assignments, settlements, indentures, wills etc.  PDF

Gravestone photos, records, and transcriptions and other records

Church of Ireland Gazette 1913-15

The Wild Geese - Irish Genealogy

Thom's Irish Who's Who 1923

Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland

Registry of Deeds Index Project website

Trinity College Graduates - Dublin 1865-1885

The Irish in America 1868



** Note:  Get PDF of Ireland Genealogy links under Resources tab in above menu.




Related Posts: No Luck of the Irish 2, No Luck of the Irish 3, Ireland Constabulary Resources  

Sunday 15 June 2014

Serendipity Sunday - Making a list, checking it twice....



While I was searching for information and links for WWI I was taken to the Mocavo blog post about WWI diaries. Just what I was looking for! But on the same page was a post about this broadside from Library of Harvard University. It is called the Eleventh Blacklist and was printed in the year 1706, consisting of a list of prostitutes, drunks and pick-pockets in the London area. The abbreviations used are at the bottom of the page.
If your ancestor is on the list, you sure have some colourful characters on your tree! 



Houghton Library



Click on the image to go to the Houghton Library page. While there visit their Archive to see some pretty awesome photographs and illustrations. Then change month at top menu.

Below are some links to a couple of other sites that have images or stories of some "unsavory characters"!


Also search Pub Blacklist 1903..1906 on Google Images


1904 Birmingham Pub Blacklist (sorry, this site has been taken down, try a search)

1902 Birmingham Pub Blacklist

Lost Weekenders - more Blacklist

Birmingham Pub Blacklist 1903-1906 - Ancestry $






Saturday 14 June 2014

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!





While researching my Tait family I came across a reference to an announcement of one of the daughters' wedding in the newspaper for Bath, Somerset. I only have the one family that was in Bath for one generation from Scotland then immigrated to Canada, so I don't have a subscription for that set of British Newspapers. I asked in a group and a kind person offered to look it up for me and she found that article and two others.  These are the two stories:

On the 24th of April, a beautiful spring day in 1901, Alice Tait and her brother Andrew went boating on the Avon River with some friends, starting in the morning at Maynard’s Boating Station and going upriver past Bathampton to Warleigh. They spent the day there and headed back to the Boating Station around 6:40 in the evening. Alice was in a boat with Mr Roberts, and Mr and Mrs Pope who got off the boat at Bathampton and walked home. They waited for the other boat holding Mary Davidson and her sister, Mr Cottle and Andrew Tait. They passed under the bridge and Andrew’s boat got too close to the weirs and tipped over, the misses Davidson screaming for help. Mr Robert jumped out of his boat to help the girls, and Alice also got out of her boat and ran for help, then returned and jumped back in the river to help her brother Andrew, who was having trouble against the unusually strong currents. Mr Robert couldn't save Miss Mary Davidson and she drowned in the water. There was a coroner’s inquest the next day at which Alice had to testify. Andrew was seriously ill for a while but slowly recovered.

A few days later their father Andrew Smith Tait had a stroke and died.




Besides birth, wedding and death announcements, also look for bankruptcies, gossip columns (Mrs Jane Smith is getting a visit from her niece Miss Eliza Jones from England), probate announcements (to notify creditors), ship arrival and departure notices, unclaimed mail, society meetings, estate auctions, etc.  

You may find some archives of local newspapers in city libraries, universities or historical societies. Below are some links to newspaper archives, and some collections may overlap but better to have more than to miss some.
 
Relevant Links:



Google News - varied collection - 2-2000 issues

Wikipedia List of Online Newspapers

Family Search list of Digital Historical Newspapers

Australia Newspapers

Ireland Dublin Library

Word on the Street - UK Broadsides

Crime Broadsides (Harvard)

New York Times May 1915, Oct 1915, July 1919

Extracts from old Newspapers - USA

British Newspaper Archives (free to search $)

Greenfield (Mass) Gazette Centennial Edition 1892

Helen Keller Newspaper Notices

Chronicling America LOC Newspapers

Newspaper Collection Wisconsin University

New Hampshire Newspapers

Netherlands Newspapers

The London Gazette

Some Canada Newspapers

Canadian Newspaper Databases & Indexes 

Newspaper Links on Active History

Newspaper info at LAC


Nova Scotia Newspapers Online

Republican Advocate, Batavia NY

Ontario Newspapers 

Manitoba Newspapers

Saskatchewan Newspapers

The Gazette - UK and Ireland


Quebec Newspapers at BANQ

Church of Ireland Gazette - 1913-15







Friday 13 June 2014

Tools for Genealogy Research






There seem to be quite a few beginners to Genealogy reading my articles, so today I am giving MY take on Genealogy and will give you some tools to help you in your research. There may even be some to help the seasoned genealogist.... we are learning something new every day.
Genealogy is like having a sail boat – you have to throw money at it. Eventually.  But first there are lots of ways you can search for free....  enough to get you started and HOOKED!
The first place to check for records is at Family Search.  There is a wealth of information there, not just records. Click on Search and at the bottom left, click on the Country of your ancestors and a list will come up of all the relevant records they hold. Take a tour of the site, especially their Learning Center. They also have Family History Centers all over the world where you can go for help through classes, inter-loan, and internet access to pay sites. I have one down the road from me, and you an go to their site to find one near you. They also have an online chat to assist you.

Search for Online Parish Clerks (OPC).  Many counties in England have sites where the records for the churches in their county have been transcribed and give more information than the indexes.  Once you know you have the right ancestor you can order a certificate if you want, without wondering if you are wasting your money.

You can use Social Media to get further in your research.  There are FaceBook groups for just about every country or place, and more popping up all the time. You don't have to post your latest photos or take about who's doing what etc. Set up an account and post a couple of photos and make a couple of posts about the weather or something, and I'll tell you why.  Administrators of groups get requests to join daily, and some are scam.  You can mostly tell the scammers, because they have little to nothing on their FB page.  I always check what groups they belong to and if they are not apropos, I ignore the person. The members of these groups are quite knowledgeable and love to help, or point you in the right direction. 

And I don't mean going on a Facebook genealogy group and asking people to find all the records for you, because then YOU are not doing genealogy, they are doing it for you. The same holds for trying to “help” people – it is better to give them the resources and let them have that Eureka moment for themselves, rather than say here, I found the records for you. That said, many of these groups have posted files of records to help you search. To me, the thrill is in the hunt, tracking down that bit of information that, when you find it…. the dam breaks and a whole flood of ancestors come pouring through!  It is amazing!
You can download the PDF of Genealogy on Facebook here.
 
Another helpful tool is Webinars. Knowledgeable people have put together free webinars on all subjects of genealogy to help you in your research.  Did I mention they are free? I have watched many that have helped me, like the one I recently saw on Tax Records that gave me inspiration for yesterday's article. Check out what webinars are coming up and sign up for those that interest you. Some are still free to watch for a week or so after the event, so check their archived webinars too. Also follow free blogs like mine, everyone writes about something different.
 

 
There are a plethora of forms available online that are a great way to keep track of who, what and where you are searching so you don’t waste your time and money. I learned that the hard way. Even if you have unlimited searches at pay sites, the forms are a valuable tool. Being organized and having a plan will save you time and money in the long run. The same holds if you are visiting archives, libraries and research centers. Remember to keep track of your Sources.

I can’t travel to different locations at this time (hopefully some day) so I myself have had to rely on people from time to time, at home and abroad. That is frustrating for me, being a do-it-myself kinda person. But you gotta do what you gotta do! I have found most people to be helpful and generous with their time.  I have written to libraries across the country for newspaper obituaries, the Grey Nuns for information on one of my husband’s aunts, the RCMP Archives for service information on my husband’s father, countless cemeteries (one even sent their janitor out to take photos of the graves for me!!)… and all were generous enough to give freely of their time, for which I am forever grateful. Here too, keep track of all the people you write to asking for information, as it may be a while before they can get back to you.

Here below I will give you some links to other tools to help you on your genealogical journey.  They vary from reading ancient handwriting to figuring out relationships, and backtracking to find an approximate birthdate when a death records gives you a precise age, which some do. There is also a place called Books We Own (I think I have mentioned it before).  If you hear about or see reference to your ancestor's name in a book, you can go to this site and ask someone that owns that book to look it up for you. Then decide if you want to borrow it or buy it.

Just because someone else in your family is researching, doesn't mean you can't too.  Two heads are better than one, four eyes are better than two! Remember too, there comes a time when you have to get off the computer and out of your chair and Go There!

May your journey to the past be as revealing and exciting as it can be frustrating.


Relevant links:

Genealogy Numbering System

Old French handwriting and spelling guide

Old Handwriting Styles

Relationship Calculator

Family Tree Explained, video on YouTube

List of Documents/Sources to seek for French Genealogy in North America

Baileys Free Genealogy Forms and Charts

Genealogical Research Forms

Books We Own

Extreme Ancestry - Genealogy Toolkit 



Related Posts:
 
Keyboard Commands

Help me Search my Google








 

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