It’s here, as promised.

The  redesigned site “make(s) accessing Scotland’s records easier than ever with quick, simple searching of our birth, marriage, death and census records.”

You’ll still find the same records documenting the lives of millions of Scots over centuries, as well as recently added record sets, including

Church records
Taxation records
Employment records
Prison records
Wills & testaments
Maps & Plans, and much more

There’s also a “streamlined certificate-ordering process that gives you speedy access to vital documents” and “a new, dedicated help and support section that will help if you encounter problems.”

To search Scotland’s People’s records, you need to be logged into your account or register. Fortunately, the account details saved on my computer continued to work. The site recognized a document I’d purchased years ago and displayed it without requiring me to purchase it again.

A new edition of Documenting Your Canadian Ancestors who served in World War One (1914-1918) or World War Two (1939-1945) with the Canadian Navy, by Kenneth Cox is now out from Global Genealogy. This updated 2024 edition includes more information on WW1 Merchant Seamen records.

Also reissued recently is Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada Before Confederation (pre-1867) Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4,
by Donald Whyte. There’s more information here.

A little bird told me a new book is in preparation to be published by Global.

When researching family history, we rely on well-known sources like birth, marriage, and death/burial records (BMDs and BMBs), censuses, probate records, and documents preserved by family members. These are invaluable, but are you exploring the full range of resources available?

Digitized newspapers and city directories have more recently become key research tools. However, other publications also offer unique insights into your ancestors’ lives. Are you making the most of them?

For instance, MyHeritage offers several specialized databases that can greatly expand your research, such as the “Historical Books – Index of Authors and People Mentioned, 1811-2003” with 494,146,925 entries, “Authors of Scholarly Articles” with 276,246,210 entries, and “Inventors of Historical Patents” with 258,995,128 entries.

I recently explored the patent database using the surname Allcroft, which is connected by marriage to my family line. Walter Lacey Allcroft, the son of businessman, philanthropist, and Member of Parliament John Derby Allcroft, was an engineer who registered seven patents. One of his patents, titled “Motor Road Vehicles,” pertains to steering mechanisms for vehicles with short swivelling axles and includes methods for preventing axle binding on pivots. The axle socket is conical at both ends, with vulcanized fibre bushes inserted into it.

While these technical descriptions may not seem particularly exciting, they offer valuable insights into Walter’s career and interests during a productive period of his life. Additionally, he is mentioned 18 times in the Historical Books database, providing further context for his achievements and contributions.

Exploring such resources can uncover fascinating details about your ancestors’ lives, offering a richer, more comprehensive understanding of their world.

Teresa at Writing My Past posts only about once a month. She blogs about “my genealogical research adventures and (I) explore the people and events from my family’s history…”

A 2 September post, Deaths of a father and son…
looks into the typhus and typhoid fever deaths of the husband and eldest son of Sarah Taylor in the spring of 1865 in London.

Do you know the difference between typhus and typhoid?

Teresa explores a range of resources for these deaths and looks into the historical context of the diseases.

Recommended,

TheGenealogist has just released nearly 300,000 historic landowner records offering unique insights into land ownership and transfers across centuries.

Feet of Fines: A Window into English Land Transactions

Dating back to the 13th century, these documents provide detailed accounts of land transactions, often involving the transfer of property rights. Each record includes information such as the names of the parties involved, descriptions of the properties, and the dates of agreements.

Index of Sasines: Tracing Scottish Land Ownership

For those with Scottish roots, the addition of the Index of Sasines is noteworthy. Sasines are legal documents that confirm land and property ownership in Scotland, dating from the 16th century onwards. This index allows researchers to locate and access detailed records of property ownership.

Scotland Record Office Index to Register of Deeds: Exploring Legal Histories

The Scotland Record Office Index to Register of Deeds offers access to a wide array of legal documents related to property and inheritance in Scotland. This index provides a gateway to uncovering your family’s history and understanding social and legal contexts.

This release includes records from regions, such as:

• Berwick: Index to Register of Sasines Volume I. A-H (1617-1780)
• London and Middlesex: A Calendar to the Feet of Fines (1179-1485)
• Yorkshire: Feet of Fines (1327-1614)
• Huntingdon: Calendar of the Feet of Fines (1194-1603)
• Scotland: Index to Particular Register of Sasines for Sheriffdom of Dumfries and Stewartries of Kirkcudbright and Annandale (1617-1732)
• Scotland Record Office: Index to Register of Deeds (1661-1679)

Choose from selected free online events in the next five days. 

Wayne Shepheard has rerecorded his Legacy Family Tree Webinars talk Genealogy and the Little Ice Age.  He discusses the importance of understanding the Little Ice Age (1300-1850 AD) in genealogical research. The presentation includes:

The Little Ice Age’s impact on climate and environment:
Effects on human populations
Historical and genealogical implications
Useful information sources for genealogists.

However, at 2:55, he claims that during the warm periods of the last 10,000 years, temperatures were much higher than today. That’s the view of some climate skeptics but at variance with the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment.

However, that should not detract from Wayne’s analysis of climate impacts during the Little Ice Age.

 

Find over 15 million records for Cheshire in this new Ancestry release. Transcriptions are linked to images of the original record. You can also browse by parish. It doesn’t get much better.

Title	Records
Cheshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812	5,689,110
Cheshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1939	2,086,347
Cheshire, England, Non-Conformist Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1800-1948	341,835
Cheshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1923	5,484,641
Cheshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1998	1,410,680

 

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa’s 2024 conference. Teaghlach Gaelach: a Celebration of Irish Family History will be held virtually on 26-27 October  2024.

Registration opened on 1 September.

The conference registration fee ($35 for BIFHSGO members, $50 for non-members) includes six presentations on topics ranging from researching farming ancestors to using surnames to map families, bonus Connect Sessions, and access to the presentation videos and handouts until 30 November.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Tribute to Childless Cat Ladies

All About That Place
From Friday, 27 September to Sunday, October, take advantage of 140 recorded 10-minute talks from well-known speakers on genealogy and local history. It’s a FREE learning event from the Society of Genealogists, the Society for One-Place Studies, and the British Association for Local History and Genealogy Stories.

All About Belfast
A collection of Belfast Street Directories leads off this enthusiast site. There’s much more. https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/

The London Bawdy House Riots of 1668

Skeptical Science
Getting skeptical about global warming skepticism.

Congratulations to those who tried and were delighted with the results from the new FamilySearch Experimental Labs Search of Canadian Probate Records.

Here are the newspapers.com titles that are newly available or have had updates in the past month. They are shown in descending order of the number of pages available for titles with more than 10,000 pages.

United Kingdom

Newspaper	Years Available
The Guardian	1821–2024
The Bolton News	1867–2019
Isle of Wight County Press	1884–2019
South Wales Argus	1901–2019
Lancashire Telegraph	1959–2019
The Press (York ed.)	2014–2019
Dorset Echo	1984–2019
Daily Echo (Bournmouth)	2015–2019
Evening Times (Glasgow)	2014–2019
Evening Times (Glasgow)	2014–2019
Southern Daily Echo (Southampton)	1994–2019
The Argus (Brighton)	2015–2019
Swindon Advertiser	2015–2019
Oxford Mail	2015–2019
The National (Glasgow)	2015–2019
Aberdeen Evening Express	2014–2019
The Courier (Dundee ed.)	2014–2019
Hereford Times	2014–2019
Daily Gazette (Colchester)	2016–2019
The Oxford Times	2015–2019
County Gazette (Taunton)	2015–2019
Greenock Telegraph	2015–2019
Warrington Guardian	2014–2019
Evesham Journal	2014–2019
The Westmorland Gazette	2014–2019
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard (Cotswold ed.)	2014–2019
East Lothian Courier	2014–2019
Dunfermline Press and West of Fife Advertiser	2014–2019
The Shuttle (Kidderminster)	2014–2019
Hexham Courant	2014–2019
Stourbridge News	2014–2019
Salisbury Journal	2015–2019
St. Helens Star	2014–2019
Wirral Globe	2015–2019
Whitehaven News	2014–2019
Hampshire Chronicle	2015–2019
Free Press (Pontypool ed.)	2015–2019
Kilmarnock Standard	2014–2019
Lancaster Guardian	2014–2019
Cotswold Journal	2014–2019
Harrow Times	2014–2019
The Herald (Wantage)	2014–2019
Western Telegraph (Haverfordwest)	2014–2019
Witney Gazette	2015–2019
Gloucestershire Gazette	2014–2019
Ayr Advertiser	2014–2019
Monmouthshire Free Press	2015–2019
Clydebank Post	2014–2019
Bury Times	2014–2019
Craven Herald and Pioneer	2014–2019
Stroud News and Journal	2014–2019
South Wales Guardian	2014–2019
Leigh Journal	2014–2019
Andover Advertiser	2015–2019
Thurrock Gazette	2016–2019
Oswestry and Border Counties Advertizer	2014–2019
Largs and Millport Weekly News	2014–2019
Berrow’s Worcester Journal	2014–2019
Penarth Times	2014–2019

Canada

Newspaper	Years Available
The Toronto Star	1900–2024
Calgary Herald	1888–2024
The Province (Vancouver)	1894–2024
The Hamilton Spectator	1852–2024
The Gazette (Montreal)	1857–2024
The Ottawa Citizen	1898–2024
Edmonton Journal	1903–2024
The Windsor Star	1893–2024
The Leader-Post (regina)	1883–2024
Waterloo Region Record	1893–2024
Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)	1884–2024
National Post	1907–2024
Le Devoir	1910–2023
Whitehorse Daily Star	1901–2024
Guelph Mercury	2001–2016
L’Acadie Nouvelle	1984–2014
Etobicoke Guardian	1952–2002
The Scarborough Mirror	1962–1999
The North York Mirror	1957–1999
The Willowdale Mirror	1960–1984
The Weston-Downsview Mirror	1965–1999
Etobicoke Gazette	1975–1981
The Lakeshore Advertiser (Etobicoke)	1927–1987

 

The collection added 95 new or updated titles in August compared to 75 last month. That includes 6 new titles.

The earliest publication year mentioned is 1832 for two newspapers:
Halifax Guardian: 1832, 1834, 1838-1841
Durham Chronicle: 1832-1833, 1864-1865

32 papers had more than 10,000 pages added.

Newspaper Title	Years Covered
Wolverhampton Express and Star	1882, 1997-1998, 2000-2003
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail	1978-1979, 1998-2000
Littlehampton Gazette	1940-1954, 1978, 1987, 1993-1997, 2000-2003
Banbridge Chronicle	1874-1875, 1877-1924, 1927-1967, 1969-1977, 1994
Crawley and District Observer	1996-2001, 2003
Halifax Evening Courier	1999-2002
Chad (Alfreton)	1989-2002
Skegness Standard	1971, 1974-1984, 1996, 2001-2002
Warwick Courier	1996-1997, 2000-2002
Shropshire Star	1996, 2000
Whitley Bay Guardian	1987-1990, 1992, 1996, 1998-1999
Educational Times	1847-1851, 1853-1881, 1883-1894, 1897-1923
Shields Daily Gazette	2000, 2002
Horncastle News	1996, 1998-2003
Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News	1995, 1998-1999, 2001-2003
Sussex Express	1980, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2002-2003
Hemel Hempstead Gazette and West Herts Advertiser	1993-1994, 1996, 1998, 2000-2003
Belfast News-Letter	2003
West Sussex Gazette	1967-1968, 1996-1999, 2001-2003
Mid Sussex Times	1997, 1999, 2001-2002
Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian	1956, 1984, 1999, 2001-2002
Spilsby Standard	1997-1999, 2001-2002
Morecambe Guardian	1961-1963, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998
Leamington Spa Courier	2000, 2003
Worthing Herald	1998-1999, 2002
Milton Keynes Citizen	2000
Epworth Bells, Crowle and Isle of Axholme Messenger	1986, 1989-1993, 1998-1999
Bucks Herald	1997-1998, 2000, 2003
Eastbourne Gazette	1888, 1996, 1998, 2000-2001, 2003
Woman Teacher	1919-1961
West Sussex County Times	1894-1897, 1899-1900, 1980, 1998, 2003
Kirkintilloch Herald	1957-1958, 1960, 1962-1974