Finding Your Way

 

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland

There are plenty of online resources to help you locate and become familiar (or more familiar!) with the places where your ancestors were born, lived, worked, and were laid to rest. I've picked just a few examples and you can find plenty more using GENUKI for the UK and Ireland, or Cyndi's List for pretty much everywhere.

The Gazetteer of British Places was created by the Association of British Counties and has a number of useful tools including a post code converter, an interactive map of the UK and Ireland, and a database of more than 300,00 place names. It's a fantastic reference resource and definitely worth adding to your bookmarked websites.

When I'm carrying out research in the United States, my first port of call is often Hometown Locator. Its searchable website lists places in the USA by state, county, and city, providing maps and useful historical information about changes in county boundaries which can dictate the location of the archive most relevant to your search. Although it's aimed at current house hunters, it's proved invaluable to me as I've found my way around my ancestors' American wanderings.

Once you've pinpointed where your family's home was, you'll want to learn more about the area when they lived there. 

For Scottish research, some of the best resources for this are The Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-1845. These contain contemporary descriptions of each parish, county by county, with details of the geography, history, trades and industries, agriculture, historic sites, and land-owners. The latter is invaluable for finding out who your ancestors might have worked for, or been tenants of. The accounts only refer to individuals who were influential, wealthy, or otherwise of note, so don't expect to find your family named unless they fall into one of these categories!

An equivalent for England is the Victoria County History. Each county has a home page assigned to it, where you can find links to historical resources such as the Red Books, which may be hosted off-site at the Internet Archive. These include references to sites within the county that are recorded in the Domesday Book.

Victoria History of the County of Surrey

No list of geographical resources would be complete without reference to the National Library of Scotland's excellent online map images. It covers the whole of Great Britain and Ireland and its historical maps go back several centuries. It also hosts town plans, admiralty charts and aerial photography collections.

NLS Maps

And of course it wouldn't be a frugal family history post if any of these resources cost you anything! A word of advice: set yourself a timer or alarm, or you may find that hours have gone by since you started browsing...

Graveyard Research: Planning & Visiting

Glamis Kirkyard

In this post, I want to share some resources to help you plan and carry out research visits to graveyards.

For those working out of doors in Scotland at this time of year, the most important item to pack is

MIDGE REPELLENT

A few years ago, a nurse gave me a tip that has worked for me.  Dilute a small amount of Listerine mouthwash in a spray bottle and apply to exposed skin (yours, not the midges’). Frugal and effective!

Planning

For identifying historic graveyard locations, I recommend the National Library of Scotland’s Maps (their OS collections cover the UK).

The Ordnance Survey (the official UK Government mapping organisation) provide free access to contemporary maps, as well as an app to purchase for your mobile device, with a free 7-day trial.

Current online maps provided by popular search engines like Bing and Google are not always accurate or up to date.  This report about Google Maps' dangerous path up Ben Nevis highlighted the potential hazards of relying on this kind of source. 

GENUKI may give names and/or locations of burial grounds in a parish or county you are researching.  Again, check that the information is current (especially crucial details like opening hours) by contacting the local church, council, or family history society. Their contact details may also be found on GENUKI or, for the latter, through the Family History Federation or the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.

While websites such as BillionGraves or FindAGrave won’t necessarily list your ancestors, they may have an entry for the graveyard(s) you’re interested in, with the all-important location details, including GPS coordinates.

 

Arriving

“Leave nothing but footprints” is a phrase often used to raise awareness of the potential impact we can have on the countryside.  I’d suggest that we adopt a similar approach to visiting cemeteries whether in town or country.  These spaces are often havens for wildlife and need to be treated with care, as well as the respect due to burial grounds in general.

I would advise you to choose footwear appropriate for rough terrain, especially if you aren’t familiar with the cemetery.  Some graveyards may suffer from subsidence and require caution while navigating around.  Many cemeteries are neglected and overgrown, and while I'm not advocating the use of machetes, sensible clothing is definitely advisable!

 

Recording

Decide in advance which method(s) of recording gravestones you’ll use, and bring the appropriate kit.  Hidden Heritage has some great ideas for non-invasive techniques, including a link to free imaging software and how this can help make inscriptions clearer. 

To preserve the fabric of headstones, use contactless methods to take a note of monumental inscriptions.  Pen and paper or photographs may be old-fashioned but they’re reliable and good for the stones.  Digital photography and smartphones have transformed our ability to take multiple images of a gravestone and its surroundings, and to share and store them online.

Historic Environment Scotland has produced a PDF leaflet, Looking After Gravestones, which has some excellent advice about the treatment, care and preservation of cemetery monuments.

 

Searching

While some burial grounds may have plans or maps available, either online or in the cemetery itself, it can still be difficult to locate a specific burial site, even if you have a plot number.  Do ask for help if local staff are available.  Those tasked with keeping the grounds in good order will be very familiar with the chronology of the place as well as the location of some of the occupants.

If you have a plot or lair number for the grave you want to see, these are sometimes carved into the side of the headstones in larger cemeteries, and while your family stone may not have one, the surrounding stones might.

Once you have found the grave(s) you’re looking for, check nearby for potentially related memorials.

My perennial graveyard tip: look on the reverse of the headstone (just in case they ran out of room on the front). I found an example of this on a recent churchyard search near Forfar.

Check out another of my posts for more tips on graveyard research.  Happy hunting!

Secrets of ScotlandsPeople

It’s sometimes unpopular because it doesn’t offer subscriptions, just pay-per-view.  It’s the official government website offering access to the church, civil, and census records of Scotland.  It’s not free…not all of it.  If you didn’t know that some of it is free, you should read on. 

🔊 Late breaking news  Yesterday it was announced online that from early next year, the Kirk Session records of the Church of Scotland up to 1855 will be available, free, to browse and read on ScotlandsPeople.  Welcome news indeed for Scottish researchers everywhere!  You can read a bit more on the Scottish GENES blog.

Free Searches

When you’re searching for any type of record on ScotlandsPeople, you don’t need to have paid anything up front.  All that’s needed to carry out a search is to register with the website, which costs nothing.  Once you’ve done that, you can perform as many searches of as many record sets as you like, and view the results, which can run to several pages. 

Detailed Matches

Several of the record sets provide additional information in the list of matches.  In the case of the pre-1855 christening records, for example, the matches will name not only the child but at least one parent, and usually both.  A list of results for military appeals tribunals will give the occupation, grounds for appeal, and decision of the court.  And testament (probate) matches may give as much detail as this example, in addition to the name of the individual:

Cashier with Denny & Coy., Engineers, Dumbarton, sometime residing in High Street there, latterly at The Bield, Bonhill Road there, d. 17/06/1894 at Dumbarton, testate (SC65/34/40)

To see images of the document requires payment, but the information provided with the search results enables you to more accurately decide if it’s a good fit for the individual you’re researching before forking out, in this case 10 credits for a testament. 

1881 Census

You may have overlooked the free-to-view transcription of the 1881 Scottish census.  This is the product of a community indexing project carried out in conjunction with FamilySearch in the 1990s.  To search this set, choose "Census Returns" and tick the box marked "1881 (LDS)", then enter your search terms.

For instance, if I search for anyone with the surname Wyatt living in Glasgow who appears in this census, I can see not only a list of matches which seems to indicate a family, but I can freely view a transcribed version of the census entry containing those individuals.  This states their relationship to one another, confirming they are indeed a family, and gives all the essential details contained in the original census image such as address, occupation, age, and birthplace.  This is more than you'll find on some subscription websites, which can also be less accurate in their interpretation of the nineteenth-century handwriting.

The 1881 (LDS) transcriptions were written out twice and then keyed into a computer twice - and compared for accuracy at both stages - so they are a good reflection of the original document.  Of course, it’s always advisable to view the original when you can; you can do so without incurring a charge at public libraries or family history centres with microfilm copies. 

Highlands and Islands Emigration

Around 5,000 emigrants from Scotland to Australia between 1852 and 1857 are listed in this database.  These were Scots who received assisted passage in order to try and relieve some of the destitution that prevailed in the Highlands and Islands at that time.  They are enumerated in passenger lists which contain the names, ages, and places of origin of each person, proving very useful as a genealogical source.  You can read more of the story behind these records and their contents on the website’s guide. 

Maps and Plans Images

National Records of Scotland, who operate ScotlandsPeople, claim to have the largest known collection of original maps and plans of Scotland.  Almost 2,500 of these can be freely searched and downloaded, with a further thousand viewable online.  The earliest of these date from the sixteenth century. 

Plan of the River Ness, Commissary Court records,
Crown copyright, National Records of Scotland, RHP672

Historical Images

Another image set you can search and view freely contains images of historical photographs, manuscripts, and drawings.  These can be searched by subject category, ranging from “Armed Forces” to “Whisky Industry”, or by your choice of keyword, which might be a family name you are interested in.  When I entered “MacLeod” as my search term, a very interesting image of a seventeenth-century document of fosterage popped up – written in Gaelic.  

And finally

Don’t forget that search tips plus advice and support are always available via the search pages, or on the help and guidance section of the website.  Whenever I’ve run into difficulties in reading a poor-quality image, the website administrators have been extremely helpful in having the record re-scanned, and sometimes refunding credits spent, in the case of index errors.

Free Family History Mini-Class : Lesson 8

In our digital age, many otherwise inaccessible historical sources and information are readily online, not just to read, but to search using keywords and names.  You’ll find that they are often provided in formats (such as PDF files) which can be downloaded to a mobile device for use on the go.

Digital resources are an indispensable element of the genealogist’s toolkit, and even more so when access to physical archives and libraries is limited.  Check out the following links, and hopefully you’ll identify sources that you can use in your research.  All of these are free to access.

Books

HathiTrust hosts millions of digitised books from libraries the world over, while

Project Gutenberg has free e-books of many classics and out-of-copyright titles.

Newspapers

Read my previous blog posts here and here for details of some of the essential free newspaper archives online.  Don't overlook these invaluable records of your ancestors' everyday lives.

Historical city & trade directories

Scottish Post Office directories list names, addresses, and trades or occupations of people in urban areas from the 18th century onwards. 

For England & Wales, there are similar Trade & Local Directories from the 1700s to the 1910s.

Area histories

To learn more about the local history of specific counties or parishes, there are the Victoria County Histories covering England, and for Scotland, the 18th- and 19th-century editions of the Statistical Accounts. 

Digital Collections 

Such resources include many images that can bring your family’s history to life.  These are just a few suggestions.

SCRAN offers still, sound and moving images from hundreds of museums, including the Victoria & Albert and National Galleries of Scotland.  View buildings where your ancestors lived, worked, or went to school, objects they might have used, and views they would have looked out on.

The British Library's digital collections include illuminated manuscripts and vintage books with photo-illustrations, which could easily side-track you en route to their wide selection of online maps, or their oral history recordings.

Ireland

Fordham University in New York City provides an extensive list of links to free digital content from Irish libraries, archives and museums, including many sources of use to family historians.

United States

The US Library of Congress’s vast range of subject matter, from music to maps, includes local, social, and business history collections in different formats.  The America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 collection is just one highlight of a fascinating online repository.

The next class will introduce you

to some essential reference tools

for family history research.

Free in June

☙ Are you running out of things to do at home? 

Looking for new ways to build your family tree?

Then check out just a few of the free events coming up 

online to inspire you and help you gain new skills ☙

Every day in June, MyHeritage is giving 
free access to a different set of their

records.  These range from newspapers to passenger lists, censuses to electoral rolls, and countries as far apart as Brazil, Hungary, Australia and Israel, as well as the UK, US and Canada.  Check out their schedule and see what interests you.  

For those with Scottish ancestry, Highland Archives’ Learn With Lorna Thursday Facebook live talks highlight different aspects of their archives’ collections. This week it’s 'Crime and Punishment', and some of the upcoming topics are 'Fake News and Reliable Sources' and 'Transport'. 

If you’re into maps – or even if you’re not – sign up for this webinar on June 25th, run by the National Library of Scotland (renowned for their fabulous digital map collections).  They don't just cover Scotland, either, but the whole of the British Isles, and include Ordnance Survey, Admiralty, and town maps throughout the centuries.  Find out how to use these great resources to trace your ancestors' footsteps. 

Are you scratching your head and wondering where you can get help with your research?  You might consider booking a free online consultation with staff at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  Find out if this would suit your needs and how to go about scheduling an appointment, or if the suggested alternatives might be more helpful and immediate.

☙ Watch out for my regular posts about online events for genealogists ☙

Where in the world did my ancestors live?!

Right, settle down, frugal family historians. Today’s geography lesson will save you some money.  Pay attention at the back there!

Did your ancestors come from an area you’re not familiar with?  When you found out where your great-grandparents lived, did you have problems finding the place on a modern map?  These free tools will help you locate your forebears’ town, village, or maybe even farm.  We’ll start with the big picture and work down to local level. 

First, on a global scale, let’s look at FamilySearch Places.  Type the place name you want to learn about in the box labelled “Search for a Place” on the left of the map.  You may be given several options, so pick the one that looks closest to what you want.  I checked out Saint Helier in the Channel Islands as an example, and once I’d selected the parish, the map focused on the exact location (although I could zoom in even closer).  I could also see general information – and a link to a related Wikipedia entry, if you trust it! – the town’s latitude and longitude, population history, and links to other sites including the official town web page.

Looking back in time as well as around the world, we can revisit the British Empire and the impact it had for centuries by exploring Legacies of British Slave Ownership.  This site lets you identify the Caribbean and British estates of slaveholders with its mapping facility, or search the database of individuals and companies connected with the slave trade.  Learn how slave ownership shaped Britain and other nations, and discover the legacies it left behind.

Narrowing down to the United Kingdom, A Vision of Britain Through Time is a popular website that links maps to census reports over the decades.  Select your location of interest and then choose from a range of topics such as housing, work, and infant mortality, to understand what life was like for your family at a given period in time.  Also featured is a handy gazetteer from 1900 to help you pinpoint locations that may have vanished from the landscape since then.

Many of the place names in England can be traced back to medieval times, and are listed in Open Domesday, the electronic version of William the Conqueror’s land survey. Find out who owned the land, how it was used, what it was worth, and how much tax was payable on it.  If your Latin’s up to it you can read images of the original book.

Turning finally to the capital city, Bomb Sight maps the London Blitz of the Second World War, showing the locations where bombs fell over a nine-month period.  You can see how many bombs were dropped in one night, a week, or overall during that time.  Try exploring a neighbourhood using the search facility, or for a stunning visual representation of the Blitz, zoom out of the map using the slider at the left of the screen.  Click on a bomb icon to find out its exact site and description.  Some records include photographs of the aftermath of the bombing and recorded memories of witnesses.  If you’re in London, there’s an augmented reality app you can use on the ground.

Geography and history are two strands of the same thread.  It’s almost impossible to trace your family’s history without being aware of where they lived or came from.  So get digging into the places of your people’s past, and you’re bound to discover more than just a spot on the map.