Some Recent Discoveries

 

Image by SimoneVomFeld on Pixabay

You may already be familiar with some or all of these websites, but I’ve only recently come across them! I found them all really useful and enlightening, and have bookmarked them for future use.

A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921

Some twentieth-century occupations may have changed their name, be very niche, or no longer exist. For instance, what’s a kapok worker? What’s kapok, for that matter?! What does an uncallower do? Which industry would a brilliandeer work in? Find out in the Dictionary of Occupational Terms that was produced to accompany the 1921 UK census.

Scottish Mining Website

A friend recently pointed me in the direction of this tremendous resource. It lists mines operational in Scotland for certain years in the 19th and 20th centuries, and has a mining accident section from before 1840 up until 1939.

Various resources such as government reports and newspaper articles are included throughout the site. One fascinating page lists miners’ wages and the cost of living from the 17th century until after World War Two. If your Scots ancestors were mineworkers, you’re sure to learn something new about the lives they led, as well as their work.

2025 Rhind Lectures on Scotland’s Place-Names 

I recently watched these lectures live. They’re sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and were free to view over the weekend when they took place. Now they’re available to watch on YouTube. This year’s theme was “Scotland’s Place-Names” and I learned so much about the survival of various languages in Scotland via the names that were given to places by their inhabitants and others. 

Several topics were addressed, including archaeology and religion. The lectures were delivered by Dr Simon Taylor, an academic in this field with over 30 years’ worth of expertise, and it was a pleasure to listen to someone so knowledgeable about his subject.

Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland

In a previous blog post, I extolled the virtues of joining a family history society – but other historical societies and heritage groups can also be of help to genealogical research. One such is the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. Whether your ancestor was a congregant or a minister of a Presbyterian church on the island, the society has records and advice for your research.

You can learn more about the organisation and its purposes by viewing the slide collection which explains the origins of different forms of Irish Presybterianism.

The society also has an active events programme and some of their previous lectures can be found on YouTube.

YouTube Family History

 

 Image by Tymon Oziemblewski from Pixabay

Videos are perfect for brushing up your family history research skills.

There are plenty of organisations that have their own channels hosting genealogy how-to videos. Use them to learn about researching a specific country’s records. Get ideas on how to use your DNA results to better effect. How can probate documents help to build your family tree? What impact is AI having on genealogists’ work?

All these and other topics can be found on the YouTube channels listed here – and more. If you can think of an organisation or company that is involved in family history, they very likely have a selection of YouTube videos too. For instance, the national library of your country of interest may well have its own video channel. 

Check out some (or all!) of these for inspiration.

The Society of Genealogists

The National Archives UK

FamilySearch

FamilyTreeDNA

Findmypast

ScotlandsPeople

The Genealogist

MyHeritage

Who Do You Think You Are?

I’ve made a few presentations that have found their way online as well, courtesy of the RootsTech genealogy conference and YouTube: https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/speakers/alison-spring/en

Happy St Patrick's Day from your ancestors ☘

 

With St Patrick’s Day coming up on Monday, it’s the perfect time to revisit some great free online Irish family history resources that I've mentioned in the past.  I hope you find them useful!

☘  National Archives This resource for Irish research offers a free genealogy advisory service by email as well as searchable church, civil and census records. 

☘ FamilySearch Wiki provides information, tools, how-to guides, tutorials, maps and more for your research into ancestors on the island of Ireland.

☘ IreAtlas Townland Database is a comprehensive searchable listing of Irish townlands and is a handy reference resource. 

☘ Irishgenealogy.ie is a government-owned website with access to church and civil records.  Having recently undergone an upgrade, it boasts a searchable index and images for many of the records, as well as a section offering research help.  One aspect of the service is 2016 Family History, an excellent resource for learning to do Irish genealogy.  It includes a workbook, case studies, record guides, and fun tasks to complete. 

☘ Irish Census Records are available for 1901 and 1911 in digital, indexed format. Like the church and civil records website above, it's just had a facelift, so if you've used it in the past, give the new interface a try, and bookmark its new web address.

☘ Context is key when exploring the history of your family. The Great Irish Famine website delves into many aspects of this time period in the history of Ireland and its people, including a map that shows the spread of the potato blight that triggered the tragic events of what became known as the Great Hunger. It will give you some insight into what prompted so many Irish people to emigrate, perhaps including your family.

☘ If you know your ancestors lived in Dublin in the mid-nineteenth century but can't locate them in the later census returns, perhaps this online city directory will help you pin them down.

These websites should help you have a

☘☘  Happy St Patrick’s Day!  ☘☘

Online events plus free software

 

Image by Alexa on Pixabay

This week’s post is a quick run-through of some upcoming online events (one on Tuesday 11 March) and a free genealogy software program for you to try. The presentations take us around the world from England and Wales to Canada and back to Scotland and Ireland.

A free online talk from the Society of Genealogists will cover the England & Wales Pre-1841 Census Returns. Was the 1841 census the first useful one, or can surviving pre-1841 fragments and substitutes reveal more? Else Churchill will explore early census records, including some that are held in the Society’s London-based collections. If you book in advance, a recording of the presentation will be available for one month.
Book free: https://t.co/SH5qZqL2ME 

Tuesday 11 March 2-3pm

Free Census access and Mining History

Image by Sabine from Pixabay

Until the 9th of March, Ancestry are offering free access to the 1921 England & Wales census to mark Women's History Month. If you haven't already searched this census for your relatives, it's definitely worth a dive, especially as it's free. However this is a shorter free run than Ancestry's standard 14-day trial subscription, and the sign-up procedure will be pretty much the same, plus the two-week trial gives you access to all Ancestry's records, not just the 1921 census.

My discovery of the week is the Eco-Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes, guiding you on a virtual tour of the mining areas of central Scotland. Explore the site, and the mining communities, by clicking on the website's map. Plan and make your journey on foot or by bike, using the map's guide to industrial archaeology, geology, heritage, and, most essential, cafes along the routes. Parking and public transport access points are included to make the trip easier. Once the better weather is here I hope to try it out on the ground. The site is also looking for volunteers to build some of the walks in their local area. Their Facebook account highlights the latest developments.

The whole project (which also covers mining areas south of the border) is a tribute to our ancestors who laboured below and above ground to earn a pittance - no, it's not a pun - and provides a real-time way to experience and learn more about their communities and environment.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus - the National Library of Wales

  

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Credit: Rhyshuw1~enwiki , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A version of this post was originally published in 2021. Links were updated and it was last republished in 2023.

Happy St. David's Day!

If you have Welsh branches in your family tree, these online records, hosted by the National Library of Wales, are well worth exploring.

This list includes just a few of the indexed, original sources they have made freely available online.  I recommend exploring the website to see more of what they offer.

Crime & Punishment   

Tithe Maps 

Welsh Newspapers  

Welsh Journals including magazines 1735-2007 

Marriage Bonds pre-1837 

Wills proved in Welsh ecclesiastical courts before 1858 

There’s also a first-steps guide to family history research, a guide to church records in Wales,  and a list of independent researchers who carry out work for clients at the NLW.

So, with all those resources, you can start your search for your Welsh ancestors right away!

 

 

This post was originally published in 2021. Links were updated and it was last republished in 2023.

New to RootsTech?

 

Next week, Thursday to Saturday, 6-8 March, it's RootsTech 2025.

If you've not come across RootsTech before, here's a quick introduction:

• It's an international 3-day family history conference
• It happens every year
• It's free to take part online
• That's it

To take part, you'll need to register, but no payment details, or indeed payment, are required. It's completely free to join in online.  Hundreds of pre-recorded presentations on a wide variety of genealogy-related subjects will be released over the three days of the event, adding to the many hundreds more already in the archive.

Watch a short video showing you how to register for RootsTech here,

then visit the conference website to sign up and learn about some of the speakers. Keep an eye on that website to see when a PDF file of the conference schedule is posted - that will help you choose which classes you'd like to watch. And don't worry if you can't view them in real time, as most of the presentations will be available for quite a while after the event.

As well as the video presentations, there will be

• Keynote speakers
• An expo hall
• Experts to chat to

and possibly one of the most useful aspects of the event: finding out if you're related to any of the thousands of other attendees, using Relatives at RootsTech.  Just last week, I used this to identify some distant cousins and see where their family tree joins mine.

The event as a whole is a great opportunity to learn new skills, discover new tools, and connect with others around the world - all helping you to build your family tree.

You can even check out some RootsTech presentations that I've delivered in previous years 😁