Scotland's First World War Pensions Appeal Records

Work has begun on indexing Scotland's First World War Pensions Appeal records. Until now these records have been arranged by month of hearing. This means that unless you knew when the appeal happened you might have to search 288 boxes to find the paperwork for your ancestor! Not very practical. 

These records hold vital information for around 30,000 Scottish servicemen and the reports can help you understand what these men went through. Here is an example for you.

Name: George Blane

Unit, Rank and No.: 9th Btn. Seaforth Highlanders, Private, No. 4437

Date of Hearing: 5 January 1920

Age: 26

Last Address: 14 Mossvale Street, Paisley

Report and other documents from Paisley L.W.P.C.

Man’s Statement:

I enlisted on 10th September 1914 at Paisley Barracks and went to Fort George where I commenced my training. This training lasted till 23rd November, 1914 when I was finally discharged as no longer fit for service on account of having Chronic Bronchitis. This disability was brought on by constant exposure in very severe weather. I was wet through about twice a week, sometimes with the water running out of my boots and was only provided with one shirt and pair of drawers at the time and could not therefore change my underwear. Very often I had to stand in my trousers and dry my shirt before the fire. I hold that it was due to this condition of things that I contracted my disability. I never had bronchitis before I enlisted and was constantly on the road conducting my business as a general dealer, and through this Chronic Bronchitis I am no longer able to stand the exposure which is required of me.

Historical Search Room - National Records of Scotland

The above (reference PT6/2 held by the NRS) is just part of the record but it gives you a sneak peek at what will be coming. Find out more by reading the NRS blog.

If you want to find out more about the lives of your ancestors our genealogists can help. We can research in Scottish archives and help add colour to your family tree.

www.scottishindexes.com

Scottish Kirk Sessions

The biggest problem I have in my work is that I am way too easily distracted! Here is an example. I was searching the Tongland Kirk Session Minutes (CH2/1244/2) in the National Records of Scotland the other day and found this very interesting entry from 2 September 1869:

Voluntarily compeared Ann Bird or Morton wife of Joseph Bird, Sailor who confessed that in the month of October last she gave birth to a child in uncleanness, she having been married in the month of July previous: On being admonished to be ingenuous and to speak the truth, she declared that Jonathan Turner was the partner of her guilt and the father of her child. Her husband Joseph Bird is known to bear testimony corroborative of the statement, and although disowning the paternity of the child has adopted it as his own. Having been solemnly admonished by the Moderator she was absolved from scandal.

Tongland Kirk

A search in the birth records found the birth certificate of the unnamed child. James Morton (or Bird) was born on 1 October 1865, and it is column 4 of his birth certificate which is the most interesting. Column 4 on a Scottish birth certificate gives the ‘Name, Surname, & Rank or Profession of Father, Name, and Maiden Surname of Mother And Date and Place of Marriage’. In this column on James’ birth certificate we read: “Ann Morton, married on 22nd July last to Joseph Baird, sailor who she declares is not the father of the child, & further that he was at sea for Months prior to 18 July 1868.”

A search in the census of 1871 shows that James (aged 2) was living with his maternal grandparents. I’ve not traced this family any further as I really should be doing research for clients but if you are related I would love to hear from you.

What do we learn from this? It is important to look at as many records as possible to get a full picture of what’s going on within a family, which can take effort. Historic Scottish birth certificates are available online but Kirk Session records are not (yet). For the time being you can access them in Edinburgh and various satellite locations around Scotland, including archives in Hawick, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Glasgow. There are other archives who also have access to the digital images, it’s worth checking with the National Records of Scotland to see if an archive near you has access.

The fact that the Church of Scotland Kirk Sessions are digitised is a great help but there is as yet no index to most of these minutes. Having said that, I wouldn’t have found this entry if I had used an index, when you browse a volume interesting entries jump out at you. If your family is from a small to medium-sized parish in terms of population, and you have access to the digital images, I would recommend browsing the volumes; who knows what you will discover!

Smallpox in the National Records of Scotland

Smallpox is a word that has inspired fear for generations. Our ancestors suffered with little help and it was not until the 26th of October 1977 that the world’s last naturally occurring case was discovered.

We are the product of generations of ancestors who survived long enough to have children, but we know that sadly many of our ancestors’ siblings did not survive. It is rare to find detailed health records of our ancestors, so although we might theorise that they endured diseases such as smallpox we do not often have any evidence one way or the other.

Clues do exist, though, if you know where to look. One interesting source is the prison registers held by the National Records of Scotland. Victorian prison records are very detailed, and one of the columns on the registers was headed ‘Marks’. In this column, as well as finding details of tattoos or scars, we commonly see written ‘pock marked’, ‘poxpitted’, ‘pock pitted’ and even ‘Marked with small pox’. A person could become pockmarked by various skin conditions, but smallpox was a major cause of such scarring. Depending on the description used, it can be very clear that they suffered from smallpox at some point in their life, information which may not be found in any other record. The image to the left shows William Phillips and Betsy Phillips are recorded as being marked with the smallpox in an 1848 prison register; you can search an index to these records on our website.

Another source of information is the Kelso Dispensary patient records, which are also held by the National Records of Scotland. These records provide a fascinating glimpse into the history of smallpox. Founded in 1777, this charitable institution saw patients with many ailments, and smallpox is frequently seen in the records. Between October 1793 and October 1794 the Dispensary saw 29 cases of smallpox, with one case resulting in death.

Click to see image full size

The records of the Kelso Dispensary document many cases of smallpox. Above we see an entry for Thomas Tenant who died of the disease in 1797. This entry is again from the National Records of Scotland, their reference number for the document is HH71/43.

In 1796 a physician named Edward Jenner discovered that infecting someone with cowpox gave them protection from the much more dangerous smallpox. This was effective because when a person was exposed to cowpox, the human body produced antibodies which helped protect them from smallpox. This was the world’s first vaccine!

The vaccine came too late for poor Thomas, though. Just a few years later, on 10 August 1800, we see the first entry of smallpox inoculation by the Kelso Dispensary. Sadly the names of the children are not listed but these ten children surely have a place in history.

Click to see image full size

As with many new ideas the smallpox inoculation (or vaccination) was not universally accepted. Cartoons of the time depict the fear that the public had at the time, that somehow the cowpox may turn them into a cow! Science prevailed however and the results were clear. In time an improved vaccine was made and the rest, as they say, is history. This terrifying disease now only exists in laboratories, let’s hope it stays that way!

When researching our ancestor’s past we are not content with a lists of names, dates and places, we want to dig deeper and understand the people we are descended from. By looking at a variety of records you can do that too. We are working on a project to index Scottish prison and health records so that you can trace your family tree and find out more about the people behind the names, including the diseases they had to endure. Search www.scottishindexes.com for the names of your ancestors and discover more about their lives.

A page from a prison register

Using Marriage Contracts to Trace Your Family Tree

Marriage contracts are just one type of deed that can be very useful when you are tracing your family tree. As well as detailing the persons getting married they frequently mention other family members including parents, siblings and sometimes even more distant family members. They were usually drawn up by families who had land or wealth of some kind. If your family worked on the land rather than owned the land you are unlikely to find a marriage contract. 

There was no legal obligation to register a marriage contract, it was a private document. As a fee would be involved in registering the document it was often only done if and when it became necessary. For example, a marriage contract could be dated 12 July 1735 but only registered on 20 December 1769; as you can see in this entry on our website index. 

Finding these marriage contracts without an index can be challenging and time-consuming. That is why we have decided to begin indexing sections of the Register of Deeds that are currently un-indexed. We hope this project will uncover many genealogical gems that will help you and others research your family tree.

So far we have indexed 1,072 entries… there’s a long way to go! We are indexing these under the ‘Sponsor an Index’ initiative: can you help? From just £7 you can be involved in getting Scotland’s historic records online: http://scottishindexes.com/sponsor.aspx

A good dig through dusty documents!

One of the things I love about being a genealogist is that every day is different, you can never know exactly what you’ll find. I was looking through some Dumfries Sheriff Court processes the other day (on the hunt for ‘paternity’ cases) and came across a case innocuously entitled Jones v Lochmaben. As this bundle of folded papers tied up with string was larger than the others and appeared to contain some sort of notebook I untied the string to have a nose inside. 

This lengthy case was regarding the ‘Nuisances Removal (Scotland) Act 1856’. It would seem that far from being the picturesque holiday destination that it is today, back in 1866 Lochmaben had a big problem with dung, pigsties and general filth.

Amongst the items was a large document entitled: “Report of list of Nuisances in the Burgh of Lochmaben on 6th and 7th November 1866”.

Within are contained the names and addresses of 182 households, detailing the condition of the property. I found this item fascinating, it tells us so much about the town that after reading a few entries you could almost smell the place!

Here are some excerpts: 

No. - 140

Date of Inspection - 7th [November 1866]

Name and Occupation of Occupants of Premises - Ebenezer Brown Hill, Free Church Manse 

Description of Nuisance - An accumulation of dung and filthy stagnant water and very dirty yard.

Remarks - [In pencil] None*

No. - 141

Date of Inspection - 7th [November 1866]

Name and Occupation of Occupants of Premises - John Clark, Schoolmaster 

Description of Nuisance - A necessary* containing in and about it a great accumulation of filthy matter.

Remarks - [In pencil] None

No. - 167

Date of Inspection - 7th [November 1866]

Name and Occupation of Occupants of Premises - Robert Thorburn, Labourer.

Description of Nuisance - One Pigsty containing one Swine and an accumulation of Dung at Back of House.

Remarks - [In pencil] Nuisance

No. - 176

Date of Inspection - 7th [November 1866]

Name and Occupation of Occupants of Premises - John Green, Carter

Description of Nuisance - A House unfit for Human Habitation Occupied by Green. Having only one small apartment and his Family consists of Himself, Wife and 7 children. The House is Thatched on roof and they Occupy one Small apartment in which there is 3 Beds and where they all live both night and day. No ventilation. Bad House. 

Remarks - [In pencil] Nuisance.

No. - 178

Date of Inspection - 7th [November 1866]

Name and Occupation of Occupants of Premises -Barnard Kelly, Hugh McGauchie, William Helon

Description of Nuisance - All keep Lodginghouses with no Rules and Regulations formed for their Guidance and Conduct. 

Remarks - [Blank]

The dusty documents make your hands quite dirty!

I hope I am not alone in being fascinated by this document and as we continue our research in the Sheriff Court records of Scotland I hope to come across more wonderful accounts like these. 

This particular record does not neatly fit into our existing collections, so for the time being we have created a PDF index to this specific record which you can download for free from our website; just click this link.

If you are researching your Lochmaben forebears and see an entry relating to your family please get in touch and I will email you the full account relating to them.

*We presume the ‘necessary’ was the toilet… it’s mentioned as a ‘necessary’ quite frequently.

*The remarks in pencil we believe to have been added at a later date, perhaps on a subsequent inspection.

No Books Were Harmed in the Making of this Index

Day after day people visit archives around the world and look at historic paper records. Sadly each time these items are handled they deteriorate. There is no point, though, in keeping records if nobody can ever access them!

Letter found in Sheriff Court records.
NRS reference number SC62/10/390 Heatlie V Bell 

Back in 1911, when access was requested to the Old Parish Registers of Scotland (OPRs), the then Registrar-General (James Patten McDougall) said “...I am afraid it would open a very wide door and might lead to abuses, e.g. the public would come here without having recourse to the ordinary registers, and their object in coming might be prompted by mere inquisitiveness. Further I am afraid that these old books would not last long if handled by all and sundry.”

I wonder what poor James would make of Scotland’s People? Perhaps he would be delighted as it means that we do not have to handle the original volumes any more. While we might find his words amusing, we also must acknowledge the point: the more often books are handled the more quickly they will wear out!

Whilst the OPRs, census returns, valuation rolls, birth, marriage and death records have now been digitised this is a drop in the ocean of what exists in the National Records of Scotland.

Mental Health Records.
NRS reference number MC7/1

The documents Graham and I are indexing for scottishindexes.com have not been digitised, meaning that we are making use of the original records. As such, we have a responsibility to look after the records we access and avoid damaging them for future generations.

On occasion, we find that cannot read a record in entirety, often because a volume has been bound tightly and some of what is written is obscured by the binding.

When this happens, it may mean that a record, or index entry cannot be completed. In such cases, we insert in square brackets what we believe will complete the record, or indicate that something is missing.

When searching scottishindexes.com and you see square brackets you’ll now know what they mean, and you can rest assured that no books were harmed in the making of the index!

Major Glitch in the National Records of Scotland Online Catalogue!

Update 6 May 2014: I am pleased to say the NRS catalogue has now been fixed!


Major Glitch

There is a major glitch in the catalogue of the National Records of Scotland (NRS). I'm not sure when it started but we discovered it on Sunday and reported it on Monday (28 April 2014). It has been reported by the staff to the relevant department so let's hope it gets fixed quickly.

What Happens

We discovered the glitch by searching for the Kelton Kirk Session records. In the top box we put 'Kelton' and in the second we put 'CH' as below:

No results where found. This surprised me. I searched online and found the top level reference for the Kelton kirk session records. Went back to the catalogue with that reference:

Records of Kelton Kirk Session 1715-1903! This should have come up in my initial search.

We had a bit of a rummage and discovered that this is happening a lot, we know that the items not showing up number into the thousands at the least. If you use only the document reference you can find items, but not by searching for words in the titles of items: which is how must of use will use the catalogue!

In the Building

The catalogue works in the building using the NRS intranet, I believe it's just the online version that's not operating correctly. NRS staff are aware of the problem. Meantime, while the NRS work hard to get this fixed, feel free to email me as I'm in the National Records of Scotland a couple of times a week and can do a search for you. I would not recommend using the online catalogue until this glitch is fixed!

Researching in the National Records of Scotland

Once you have your basic Scottish family tree, perhaps going back to the early 1800s, it is almost inevitable that you will need the National Archives of Scotland. The documents they preserve on our behalf can help you to trace your ancestors, find out about their character, and the ups and downs of the lives they led.

 If however you are living on the other side of the world, accessing these records may seem impossible; but it’s not!

 We can research on your behalf, searching out the records relating to your ancestors and helping you understand them. In most cases we will also be able to take photographs of them for you, as the National Records of Scotland now allows digital photography of the vast majority of items they hold.

The NRS catalogue

Depending on your experience, we can either advise you on which records to search, or you can give us a reference number from the NRS catalogue and tell us what you would like us to research on your behalf.

If you’re not sure where to start email me or have a rummage around in the NRS catalogue.

In the coming weeks I’ll be writing about how to get the best out of the catalogue so keep an eye on this blog. Follow me on Twitter for regular updates or subscribe to my newsletter. 

Annie Lennox's Scottish family tree

Last night's Who do you think you are? was really most enjoyable and a great introduction to Scottish genealogy. Featured in last night's show were the Kirk Session records of Braemar parish. These could have been a new type of record to you and perhaps it made you wonder if they could be of use to you. These records hold vast amounts of interesting information as well as containing useful genealogical data, as was ably demonstrated by the National Records of Scotland's Pete Wadley! (I see a glittering TV career in front of him!)

If your ancestor was illegitimate it is definitely worth looking but also if your ancestor was born shortly after the marriage there may be a case of what was termed as ante-nuptial fornication recorded. If you can't search these records personally we can make the search for you, all our searches in Edinburgh start at twenty-five pounds and many Kirk Sessions can be searched for that fee or perhaps a little more. We offer a free consultation and will give you an exact price for any research we suggest. Just email me info@maxwellancestry.com with the information you have and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

For a full review of last night's programe see Chris Paton's blog.

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.

Free surname lists added to Parish Records and Prison indexes

It’s not exactly an index however it is an indication. We have added lists of the surnames found in each of our parish and prison books. This will hopefully make it a little clearer as to whether or not your ancestors will be recorded in the book.

Just go to the county page and click on the title of the book to see the list. Here is the Roxburghshire county page.

I hope this will make finding those illusive Scottish ancestors easier but remember if you still have a brick wall and need some guidance please email me, we can often solve genealogy mysteries quite easily with the resources we have on hand as well as our years of experience.

  

Email me today: tell me as much as you can about your brick wall.

Where have all the records gone?

Genealogy can be very rewarding and enjoyable, not to mention interesting and yes, at times a little frustrating! One major reason for frustration is missing records. There is an endless list of reasons some records have never made it into the appropriate archive. Some have been burnt, others lost at sea, some just deteriorated to such an extent they can no longer be read. Some however are just missing, with no real explanation, it is as if they never existed.

Whilst researching in the National Archives yesterday however I came across a wee note in baptism register. It was a post 1855 register and the note is dated January 1918. It read:

“Mr. Pollock is using the old Church Records for reference at the present these will follow.

Any extracts can be got from the same at any time.

But for Mr. Pollock’s illness he would have had finished with said books.”

From what I can tell the earlier registers from this parish have been returned, Mr. Pollock was obviously a reliable man. The question it raises however is this: Just how many books were borrowed and never returned?

Various books continue to turn up even now so if your ancestors are in a missing register don’t despair, they may still be returned.