22nd SAFHS Conference

We have just received confirmation for our stall at the 22nd Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS) Conference in Edinburgh on Saturday 25th June 2011, 09.30-16.30. The  the Conference will be Adam House, 3 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1HR so if your able to attend pop in and see us. We’ll be giving free help and advice all day and we’ll have some of our books for you to look through.

Many other people will be there too: various family history societies, Families in British India Society,  Scotsman Archives, Tay Roots and many others.

For more information visit  the Scottish Genealogy Society’s website: http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/Conference.aspx

Hope to see you all there!

William Richardson, Kirkcudbright 1787

As promised I have uploaded the Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal today, issue No. 6. The first article is very interesting - it is entitled “Discovery and Punishment of Murder by Circumstantial Evidence.”

It tells us about the case of William Richardson who murdered a woman in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in the autumn of 1786. William Richardson was found guilty on evidence and circumstance not on the testimony of witnesses. It’s a fascinating account although all very sad for the poor girl that was murdered.

I have ordered the appropriate high court minute book and will look at it when I’m in Edinburgh next week. I’ll let you know if it gives any further information.

I find these cases fascinating. If your family tree is anything like mine there will be a lots of “Ag. Labs” and very few people recorded in sasines or wills, so it’s nice to find documents outside of the OPR’s and census. As one customer said this week prison records add some “spice” to a family tree. Court papers can be a wonderful addition if your ancestor was tried, in fact we hope to have some exciting news about that later in the year!

If you’ve not already looked have a search in our prison registers and see if there are any black sheep in your family!

Church Denominations

As regular readers will know we have been publishing birth, marriage and death records which have been kept by non Church of Scotland churches. These are a very important source of information. Although the established church, the Church of Scotland, were supposed to keep a record of all births, marriages and deaths which took place in the parish in reality this did not always happen.

To understand more fully what was going on, how many denominations where in existence and therefore have a chance of finding your ancestors have a read at Chris Paton’s blog: Walking in Eternity. Chris also tells us he is writing a book entitled "Discover Scottish Church Records" which may help you in your quest to dig deeper into the past.

If you still need help though to find a specific elusive character in your family tree please email me and I’ll see what we can do for you. We give a free consultation to everybody!

info@maxwellancestry.com

Scottish Genealogy Society Sale

When we were in Edinburgh yesterday we had a wee trip into the Scottish Genealogy Society. They have a sale on so we bought a few new books and fiche for our library. Here’s the link to the online sale, you may find something interesting.

Here’s a few interesting items with good discounts, they have many more but these caught my eye:

How to find Shipping & Immigration Records in Australia. - Price: £3.00 - Was £9.00

Ecclesiastical - Lady Glenorchy Transcripts Communion Rolls 1785-1835. -  Price: £2.75 -  Was £5.25

Alumni & Grads. in Art, Aberdeen Colleges, 1850-1860. Price: £2.00 - Was £4.00

Hope you find something useful!!

1832 was a leap year!

If you have been on your toes this week you may have noticed that Friday's Chambers' Edinburgh Journal was dated the 3rd of March not the 4th as 1832 was a leap year.

I still like the idea of reading it each week on the correct date so from now on it will be uploaded on a Thursday.

If you have not already read this week's visit our website to either read online or save the images to your computer to keep forever.

www.maxwellancestry.com

Aye Can, can you?

In the excitement surrounding the release of the 1911 census we must not forget the 2011 census which is about to be taken here in Scotland. One of the questions is: “Which of the following can you do? Understand, speak, read or write: English, Scottish Gaelic, or Scots?”

English and Gaelic are fairly easy to answer. However, can you speak Scots? In fact, what is Scots? Well to help those of us in Scotland to answer this question more effectively a website has been set up by the Scottish government: www.ayecan.com. This website has snippets of the spoken Scots as well as a written description of the various dialects.

If you’re not living in Scotland though it’s definitely worth a look and a listen. See how much of the Scots you can understand! Listen to what your ancestors may have sounded like and see if any of the words are still spoken in your family today.

www.ayecan.com

The closure of West Register House

As I sit in West Register House today I half expect to see tumbleweed roll along the search room floor. When I was in on Tuesday you could hear, in the background, the sound of staff sealing up boxes, deciding which computers and phones to take and reminding everybody that this is the last week that the West Search Room of the National Archives of Scotland will be open to the public. Today though there is just silence, stillness and a general sadness for what will be lost.

Since the start of the photography trial last spring I’ve spent a lot of time here and it’s been a very pleasant place to work. As this is the less used search room there is a more peaceful atmosphere. Staff are relaxed and on hand to help, the desks are modern and the lamps well placed. There is more space, you generally have about two desks each so plenty of room for books on cushions, laptops and notebooks.

There is also a camera stand available in this search room, which means we have high quality images and I can take them very quickly. We hope the stand will be available from Monday onwards at General Register House, as from that day on we will all be able to take photographs in the Historic Search Room there - which will a momentous day!

The rationale for having just one search room is sensible to a degree, they will save money and we won’t have to go to two venues to see documents. With more and more information on the Virtual Volumes system, the need for as many desks will I suppose have reduced. The Virtual Volumes system is where you can view documents that have been digitally imaged on the computer screen. This makes access easier and reduces the risk of damage to the documents.

I am sad however that this is my last week in the wonderfully tranquil West Register House and would like to thank all the staff that help bring these historical documents to us, whether they are on the front desk, in the search room or behind the scenes, they all do a fantastic job. Without them our Kelso Dispensary project, our prison records project and poor roll projects would not be happening, not to mention the exciting new projects we have planned for later this year. This means that even if you haven’t been here yourself they have helped all of you delve into your family’s past.

Thank you West Register House!