Maxwellancestry.com is back to normal again

We just wanted to let you know that www.maxwellancetsy.com is back up and running again. We don’t know why it was down but the important thing is that it’s working now so you can get back to using the free census search.

I don’t have any other website updates for you at the moment as I’m working my way through the first volume of the Kelso dispensary records but I’ll post a sample once it’s ready. The disease column has been slowing me down but as many of the diseases repeat themselves the transcribing is starting to pick up speed now.

Our website is down!!

I have just gone online to use our census search and I have discovered the website is down and also our emails are not coming through (I thought is was very quiet). I have contacted 1and1 who host our website so hopefully we’ll be up and running again soon.

I’ll let you know when we’re online again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Txt spk 4u from 1777

Don’t worry I’ve not gone crazy, well no more than usual. I have started work on transcribing the Kelso Dispensary records which we told you about a few months ago. They are very neat but full of abbreviations and it struck me that despite the slightly highbrow opinion that shortening words to squeeze more into a text message is a terrible thing to do, the same kind of thing was done two centuries ago, and ultimately for the same reason.

Stop and think for a moment, you are running an institution back in 1777, paper is expensive, you need to record certain information; how will you organize your page? The later records, post industrialisation, have one page dedicated to each patient. Back in 1777, however paper was much more expensive, and these records cram about 24 people to each page with almost the same amount of information included. They have managed to do this by not wasting space on the pages just as their modern counterparts don’t waste text messages.

There is less blank space but also many abbreviations: for example: Tho – Thomas, Recov^d – recovered and Ap^r  – April. So next time you receive a message from a text abbreviation user don’t be so quick to complain but remind yourselves that they are following in the footsteps of your frugal ancestors.

Transcribing your old documents

Having now transcribed such a volume and range of documents Graham and I now have a vast amount of experience transcribing and now feel confident to offer a transcription service. There are so many documents that are hard to read, it could be a will, an old parish register entry, a legal document, old letters or a census page.

When you come across one of these documents get in touch and see what we can do. Obviously each document is very different and will take a different amount of time to transcribe for you. This is why we will offer a free transcription quote service. Just send us a copy of the document you wish to be transcribed and we will let you know how much we will charge. You will be under no obligation to proceed with the service once you have the price but you could be surprised how inexpensive it can be.

Why not email me today for more information info@maxwellancestry.com

Chirnside Burials 1817-1854

I just wanted to tell you about a new book we have transcribed and which is now available in our bookshop. This book contains a transcription of the registers of deaths or burials for Chirnside parish, Berwickshire which are to be found amongst the Kirk Session records for Chirnside parish held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The main register, Volume 7, commences in January 1817, and the last burial entry in this volume is from August 1841. Another burial register is contained in Volume 8, which commences in August 1841, and we have transcribed until the year 1855, when civil registration of deaths commenced in Scotland.

These entries are not to be found in the Old Parish Registers of Chirnside parish kept by the General Register Office (Scotland) at New Register House in Edinburgh (the burials for Chirnside in the Old Parish Register end in 1815), and it is believed they have not been transcribed or indexed before.

Buy Chirnside Burials 1817-1854 for just £8.99 from maxwellancestry.com

To help you out here is a list of surnames found within the book:

Aitchison; Aitkin; Alexander; Allan; Anderson; Angus; Atchison; Atkin; Ballantine; Balsillie; Begbie; Bell; Bertram; Bird; Black; Blackadder; Blackhall; Blackie; Blair; Bogue; Bonar; Bone; Bowmaker; Broomfield; Brown; Bruce; Brunton; Burns; Cairns; Cameron; Carr; Carse; Carter; Chambers; Clazey; Cleghorn; Clinkscale; Cochran; Cockburn; Cooper; Cossar; Cow; Cowe; Cowie; Cowper; Craig; Cranston; Crawford; Crichton; Crosbie; Crow; Cryghton; Dally; Darling; Davidson; Dawson; Denham; Dickison; Dickson; Dodds; Donald; Donaldson; Dougal; Douglas; Downie; Dryden; Dun; Dunbar; Duncan; Edgar; Edgely; Elder; Elliot; Elliott; Ewart; Ewert; Ferguson; Foord; Ford; Forman; Fortune; Foster; Fuller; Fulton; Galbreath; Geggie; Gibson; Gilbreath; Gillie; Gillies; Gilmour; Girvan; Gray; Grey; Grieve; Gullon; Gutridge; Hailstones; Haliday; Halliday; Hastie; Hately; Hay; Henderson; Hermiston; Heugh; Hewit; Hill; Hills; Hilston; Hogg; Home; Hood; Houliston; Hudson; Hume; Hunter; Hutson; Jamieson; Jeffrey; Johnson; Johnston; Jordan; Kerr; Kinghorn; Kirkaldy; Knox; Laidlaw; Landells; Landreth; Lathem; Lauder; Laurie; Learmont; Leslie; Liddel; Liddle; Lidgate; Lillie; Lindores; Litster; Lockhart; Logan; Lorrain; Lorrains; Luggate; Lunham; Lyal; Macdougal; Mack; Maclaren; Manderson; Mark; Marshall; Martin; Mason; Mather; Maul; McCulloch; McDougle; McGechan; McIndoe; McKay; Mclean; McQueen; Melrose; Middlemis; Miller; Mills; Mitchell; Molle; Neilson; Nelson; Nesbit; Nicholson; Orkney; Ormiston; Palmer; Paterson; Patterson; Paxton; Peacock; Philip; Pilmour; Platt; Polwarth; Ponton; Porteous; Porter; Pringle; Punton; Purves; Ramage; Ramsey; Ray; Redpath; Reid; Renton; Richardson; Robertson; Romanes; Ross; Russel; Russell; Rutherford; Sanson; Scott; Selby; Sett; Shepherd; Sheriff; Shiel; Simpson; Sinton; Smart; Smeaton; Smith; Spark; Spears; Stark; Steel; Steele; Sunderland; Sutherland; Swordy; Taylor; Temple; Third; Thompson; Tod; Todd; Torry; Trotter; Turnbull; Utterson; Valentine; Veitch; Vertue; Vineycomb; Virtue; Voy; Waddel; Wait; Waldie; Ward; Watherston; Watson; Watt; Waugh; Wedderburn; Weir; White; Wilkie; Wilson; Winter; Wood; Wright; Youl; Youls

Hawick has been mapped!!

Finally the mapping of Hawick has been finished. That means we have linked over 20,000 individual records to Google maps and of course the National Library of Scotland. It’s been a while since we have updated the database and we have been busy with other things too, which I will tell you about in separate blogs.

The last update not only added the Hawick map links but also some map links for Duns and varies other household links and notes that we have been collecting while we have been researching in the Borders.

So here is the link too our free census search away, I hope you all find it useful!!