Coming Soon: RootsTech Connect

 

Update: Click here for the RootsTech Connect Class 

& Keynote Speaker Schedule

The global pandemic has caused untold disruption to our lives, and one of the less crucial aspects of that has meant that family history events have had to be postponed or changed.  As the world has embraced video conferencing for work, play, and family get-togethers, genealogy organisations large and small have realised that it means their reach can be extended beyond the normal attendance in person they’ve had in the past.

No less a major player in the genealogy community than FamilySearch has adopted this approach with enthusiasm.  Its RootsTech conference is an annual international event usually held in the USA, with a ticket price of over a hundred pounds to attend.  But this year, it’s been thrown open, free, to anyone with an internet connection and as many hours to spare as they like.

Reinvented as RootsTech Connect, it takes place from 25 to 27 February; however, all the presentations (over 800 of them) will be pre-recorded, to watch on demand not only over the days of the conference, but for at least a year afterwards. 

Taking part will be a dozen keynote speakers from the worlds of sport and the arts as well as family history, including well-known names like actress Sunetra Sarker and musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  They’ll share what their family’s history has meant to them.

The RootsTech “classes” – shorter-than-usual presentations, on video – will cover dozens of topics (listed here) and you can build your own playlist of the ones you want to watch, or simply choose something at random.  No chance of a class being over-subscribed here!  

Many classes will be available in multiple languages thanks to online technology, and speakers from across the globe will be sharing their know-how about the records they use.  Experts on subjects like DNA and adoption will deliver presentations, and there will be cultural and heritage elements to the event, too.

As well as the classes, there will be areas on the event’s website where you can interact with the speakers and download their handouts.  And just like any genealogy conference, there will be exhibitors – in a “Virtual Marketplace”, where companies and groups can promote their products, be that books, technical innovations, or subscriptions, and you can ask them questions about their wares.

The conference traditionally features volunteer helpers in their distinctive “Ask Me Anything” t-shirts, and while this year the t-shirts may be absent, the helpers will still be there online to answer your queries about all aspects of RootsTech.

For younger genealogists aged 11-35, there will be a series of family history challenges starting on 25 February.  And for everyone participating there is Relatives@RootsTech  – an online app which will allow you to discover cousins you never knew, who are also registered.

So how can you take part?  Just go to https://www.rootstech.org and register, free of charge.  To take advantage of all the activities, you’ll need to have a free FamilySearch account, and if you’re interested in connecting with long-lost relatives, add your information to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree – an ambitious project aiming to build one universal genealogy of the human family.  Did I mention it's all free...?

And then sign onto the RootsTech website on February the 25th to check out everything that’s on offer!  At the last count, well over 200,000 people had registered.  Why not join them? This will be a unique opportunity to connect with relatives and fellow genealogists around the world, as well as increasing your family history knowledge and skills.  Hopefully it will also inspire you to use what you learn to build your family tree.

Postscript: If you’ve got Scots ancestors, you may want to watch one of my RootsTech classes, which are about using ScotlandsPeople, and the Kirk Session Records.

What's The Truth? Inaccuracies in records and how to spot them

 

In this post I want to highlight some ways in which we can be misled by the records whose accuracy we often take for granted.  I don't mean only simple mistakes, because while that may well be the case, a lot of inaccuracies creep into records when people are trying to blur the truth.  This could be due to a desire to conceal something that was socially unacceptable, such as illegitimacy; or worse, something that would criminalise them – bigamy, for instance.  

Here, I've listed some examples.  Of course, some genuine miscommunication may occur when an event is being recorded, as in the first example below.  This is not an isolated incident; I've encountered several such cases in Scottish records.

☙ Individuals who go to a registry office to report a life event may misunderstand the registrar’s questions; for example, a man registering the death of his wife is asked “and the mother’s name?” but he misinterprets the question and gives his own mother’s name instead.  If you notice a married couple whose respective death certificates record both their mothers with the same full name, this might be the reason!

☙ When it's available, compare the marriage date a couple gives later in life with their actual marriage date.  It’s not uncommon in Scotland to see different marriage dates appearing on the birth certificates of a couple's children, or to spot the marriage date being “adjusted” to disguise a birth that would indicate illegitimacy.

1890 Scottish marriage certificate

☙ Watch out for someone giving inconsistent information about their parents, such as someone whose father isn't named on their birth record, but for whom a father is given on their marriage or death record. An example in my family is Frederick  Byrne.  He has two middle names, but he doesn't give them on his marriage record; they would certainly make his birth record easy to find if he had.  He was illegitimate at birth, with only his mother Barbara Byrne named on the certificate as a parent.  However, on Frederick's marriage certificate (above) he gives the name of a maternal uncle as his father and combines the names of his grandmother and great-grandmother to create a fictitious mother.  And just to be on the safe side, he claims both of his parents are deceased, so that nobody can contact them and challenge the relationships.

☙ Occasionally you may find a census record that changes a child’s birth surname to that of the man with whom her mother has subsequently formed a relationship. This may have been an assumption on the enumerator’s part, or perhaps the instinct of the family to appear "respectable".  Then, in subsequent records, the child reverts to her birth name.  Blended families are nothing new, but greater stigma was attached to them in the past than now, especially if a couple were living together without the benefit of marriage.  Due diligence on the researcher's part can often ferret out the surname preference of the individual vs. the claims of their parents.

☙ The couple may be listed as married on a census record (or even a gravestone) – but were they?  Check for a marriage event before or round about the time of their eldest child’s birth.

Certificate with notation in Register of Corrected Entries

☙ In Scotland, an added bonus to civil registration records is the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE). Look in the left-hand margin of a certificate, or at the top of the certificate screen on the ScotlandsPeople system, for a notation that indicates a link to the RCE. These are amendments which may be, for instance:

• Updates to a child’s name, including changes when it was registered incorrectly
• A record of the father’s name when paternity has been established in the case of an illegitimate birth
• Corrections to inaccuracies in names of an individual on a record 
• The findings of the procurator fiscal or a Fatal Accident Inquiry, in the case of a sudden death. This can include information not given on the death certificate.

The RCE is an excellent source of additional knowledge, especially in the case of sudden deaths.  It's a favourite of mine, and in a future post I'll write about them in more detail.

Meanwhile, remember the genealogist's maxim:

"Never assume!"

Free Scottish resources: Happy Burns Night!

 

Burns Monument Centre, Kilmarnock

To celebrate the birthday on January 25th of Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, I’ve put together a selection of free websites that may help you to grow your Scottish family tree a bit.

Ayrshireroots  Lots of links to explore including maps, reference books, and a surname database for the parishes and towns of Burns' native county.

Glasgow Valuation Rolls,1913-1914  Learn about and search these lists of Glasgow owners and occupiers, with the value of their properties, to locate your early 20th-century relatives living in the city.

SCAN – Scottish Archive Network  Identify useful genealogical sources using a keyword search of over 20,000 historical records in dozens of Scottish archives.

Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-1845  Background information for the entire country, parish by parish, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  These books were compiled from contemporary accounts written by locals about their own area, with descriptions of the parish, its history, its natural features and industries.  Excellent for learning about the times and places your ancestors lived in.

Scots Abroad  Whether your relatives went abroad to work, live, or visit, they may appear in these databases hosted by the National Library of Scotland.  These include correspondence from emigrants and guides for those planning to emigrate to different parts of the world.  Get a flavour of what life would have been like for people making their first trip away from Scotland.

Scottish Emigration Database  Search by the name of a person or the ship they sailed on. Thousands of entries from 1890 to 1960 list the address from which they were emigrating and their destination overseas.

And of course, a post about Burns Night wouldn’t be complete without a link to

Happy Haggis which has a great index to over 30,000 historical newspaper articles from 1848 to 1854, covering that crucial period just before civil registration began in Scotland.

Enjoy exploring these websites as you nibble on your Scottish treats or haggis-flavoured crisps and sip your choice of national drink.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Tuesday 2nd February: Put it in your diary!

 

For the fifth year, Who Do You Think You Are? magazine has organised Transcription Tuesday – promoting family history record projects that need volunteers.

Simply put, in this context transcription means copying historical records from their original form by typing them into a computer.  WDYTYA? sets aside a Tuesday each February to focus on this important "citizen historian" initiative.

 

Last Transcription Tuesday, family historians contributed almost 25,000 individual records, and it’s an easy and worthwhile way to give back to the genealogical community.  Think of the times you’ve been able to simply type an ancestor’s name onto a free website and have their records pop up – now you can give that opportunity to others.

 

Each year, several different projects are made available for anyone to help with. 

For 2021, they are

 

Addressing Health – Health records for British Post Office workers.

More details at https://addressinghealth.org.uk/opportunities/

 

Every Name Counts – WW2 concentration camp inmate records from the Arolsen Archives.

More details at https://arolsen-archives.org/en/learn-participate/exhibitions-campaigns/everynamecounts/

 

FamilySearch - Church of England and non-conformist records.

More details at https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/feature/transcription-tuesday-2021-familysearch/

 

Voices Through Time – Records of children admitted to the Foundling Hospital from 1741 onwards, from the charity Coram.

More details at https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/feature/transcription-tuesday-2021-voices-through-time/

 

Check out the information about each project, pick one that you like the sound of, and register your interest in advance.  I'd advise signing up in plenty of time to begin transcribing on the 2nd, and to get familiar with the transcription software as the projects will be providing different platforms for you to use.

 

If you want to get updates about Transcription Tuesday from the magazine you can subscribe to their free newsletter - visit their website and scroll down to “Sign Me Up” at the foot of the page.

Still At Home, Still Free Access

Time for a quick recap on the fantastic historical resources that are being made freely available to home users during lockdown.  Most of these providers have been doing this since last March, and some have put end dates on their free access, but keep an eye on that in case they extend (or reduce!) the time period.

In no particular order, then, here are my recommendations for great British research without spending a farthing. 

National Archives (TNA) 

Digitised documents such as wills or military service records can be downloaded free from the UK's national repository at Kew.  Search TNA’s Discovery catalogue and use their subject research guides to explore their collections. 

North Lanarkshire Records  

Sign up for a temporary free account to search Ancestry’s North Lanarkshire Poor Law and Electoral Register collection from 1847 to 1969. 

Ancestry   Find out from your local public library if they offer home access to Ancestry Library Edition.  All you’ll need to register for it is your library card number, and if you don’t have a library card, you should be able to apply for one online.  While you’re in touch with the library, check what other online resources they provide.  While not always genealogy-related, useful reference works like the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography can help fill in details of the times and places your ancestors lived in. 

British History Online  

This site is making all research content free to individual users until the end of April.  Browse the wide range of historical sources they host, for Britain and Ireland, particularly for the period 1300-1800.

There are many more resources opening up part or all of their collections.  I'll post about any others that I find especially useful.  Meanwhile, happy hunting!

It's not just family history from home...

 

With schools closing across the UK, and elsewhere, various organisations have been offering free homeschooling resources online to help parents.  Here's a list of some of those resources, along with the subjects they cover.  

Historic Scotland: history, Gàidhlig

including, among other things, video content for early years learners and a good selection of colouring sheets.

FamilySearch: history

Lots of family learning and fun activities to help young people appreciate their heritage.

Marks & Spencer: business, textiles, graphic design

Images, videos, activities, lesson plans, downloadable worksheets and slideshows in new digital learning resources, for Primary, Secondary and learning at home.

Ordnance Survey: geography

A National Grid PDF factsheet and flashcards for learning map symbols.

BBC Bitesize: almost everything!

Click on the “All Bitesize” tab on the website to see the different resources for Scotland, NI, Wales and England.  And of course the Bitesize programmes are available on BBC television channels.

Plus: don’t forget PE classes with good old Joe Wicks, 9am on YouTube, Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. 

Record Focus : Gibraltar List of Inhabitants

John Mace, North View of Gibraltar from Spanish Lines 
Government Art Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This week I’ve got a recommendation for an archive resource – the Gibraltar National Archives’ List of Inhabitants, which contains 219,229 records covering over six hundred years, from 1309 to 1920.  It’s got a very straightforward search function, so give it a play if you have relatives who might have spent any time there.

Clicking on the “Inhabitants” tab at the top of the page next to “Home” lets you switch to searching Military records – very useful as the Rock has had a significant British military presence for many years.  This particular record set contains births, marriages and deaths from 1869 to 1914.

It’s also well worth exploring the rest of this fascinating Archives website which includes historical background, photographs, and oral histories.

Tip: This may just be my browser, but I found the text on the Gibraltar site rather small, so I used this shortcut: to enlarge any text and images on any web page, simply press the "Ctrl" and "+" keys at the same time. You can do this as many times as you need to in order to make the text readable.  And to reverse the process if necessary, use "Ctrl" and "-" (minus) together.  (If you have an Apple device, the "Command" key works in a similar way to Windows' "Ctrl".)