Tuesday 29 January 2013

Genealogy News - 29th January


Well, there's still not a great deal to report on during what has been a sluggish start to 2013. An important piece of news from north of the border, however, is the availability of the Scottish Valuation Rolls for 1905 - see here.

Helping to keep the genealogy world afloat, too, is the latest issue of the always excellent Lost Cousins Newsletter.

TNA blogger, Audrey Collins, looks forward to a certain rather large genealogy event next month.

Essex researchers may wish to have a look at this.

Interested in the subject of Devon wills?

Here's a global genealogy round-up from GenealogyInTime - note the very first item for the Isle of Man.

I know I've mentioned this in passing before, but the National Library of Ireland's new family history booklet has been given a special blog post, here.

The usual history round-up from the Two Nerdy History Girls is always worth a browse.

Latest TNA Podcast is here.

Forthcoming events:



Finally, I have been asked to pass on the following appeal and 'offer' from professional genealogist, Anthony Adolph, which I am delighted to do...

Are you related to President Lincoln?

To help celebrate the British launch of Steven Spielberg’s movie ‘Lincoln’ and the 204th anniversary of the president’s birth on 12 February, genealogist Anthony Adolph is working with the Illinois Office of Tourism to find British relatives of America’s most famous president.

In 1637, Samuel Lincoln, an apprentice weaver in Norwich, left his home in the obscure Norfolk village of Hingham to brave a voyage across the Atlantic. Samuel had no idea he would survive to raise a family in the new colonies of America, let alone that his great great great grandson Abraham would become one of the greatest figures in American history.

This means that if you have ancestors from Hingham or have Lincoln ancestors from the Norwich area, you could have President Lincoln in your family tree!

Illinois, the home state of Abraham Lincoln, hosts many Lincoln attractions and is a great place to visit for a truly adventurous holiday, where you can visit the house Lincoln shared with Mary Todd, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Springfield cemetery where he is buried.

If you know of a family connection with the Lincolns of Hingham, Norfolk, please contact Anthony Adolph via www.anthonyadolph.co.uk. You could be in for a trip to Illinois!


Keep in touch with the latest news over the next few days at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.


My History

Friday 25 January 2013

Genealogy News - 25th January


There's been a bit of controversy surrounding the price of Irish BMD certs this week. Once more, Claire Santry is the girl to turn to for the finer detail of Irish news with posts here and here. Claire also lists some Irish events for next week.

The latest S&N Genealogy Newsletter can be found here.


London and Fife researchers will want to check out the latest announcement from DeceasedOnline.

The February issue of 'Family Tree' magazine is out today. And the latest issue of 'WDYTYA? Magazine' has been released this week, too. Oh, and February's 'Your Family History' magazine has also been published!


Chris Paton reports on a little disagreement between the IWM and War Memorials Online.

Here's the latest from the British Library Document Supply Service.

An interesting little item for Catholic researchers.

A very handy post for Scottish researchers.

The Foundling Hospital/Museum, London, is featured in this post at Ancestry.

Some interesting thoughts from blogger Audrey Collins can be found on TNA's blog.

And this is worth a look: The Military Service Act 1916.

FindMyPast have posted an article on the family history of actor Tom Ellis.

Here are a couple of stories which I recently fell across on Dick Eastman's blog:

The usual stuff from the BBC...
Keep in touch with the latest news over the next few days at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.




You think it's cold now? Well...


Tuesday 22 January 2013

Genealogy News - 22nd January


Thursday 24th January has been designated 'Irish Family History Day' by FindMyPast - and the organisation is offering free access to some 21 million BMD records to celebrate. Irish expert Claire Santry does a great job of explaining the position here and here.

More Irish news concerning North Tipperary.

Blog post re. the Kent and Sussex Crematorium.

Here's a short post on the subject of 'Scottish Police'.

Interested in Offaly history?

Oxfordshire researchers beware.

And here is some important information for Devon researchers, via the FFHS news service:

Devon Heritage Services have informed us that Devon record offices in Barnstaple and Exeter will be closed for stocktaking from Monday 4th to Friday 15th February 2013 inclusive. The majority of the West Country Studies Library's holdings have been relocated to the Devon Record Office in Sowton, Exeter.
Devon Family History Society's Tree House is now the Exeter Service Point and has the Parish Register Fiche and IR Wills. Tree House is open 10.30 to 4pm Monday, Tuesday & Thursday. There are also other Service Points around the county, and the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office is open during this time - see
http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/councildemocracy/record_office/dro-service-points-2.htm 
(thanks to Maureen Selley / Beryl Evans)

The usual round-up of interesting history links by the Two Nerdy History Girls.

If you've got a spare hour or two, you could do worse than investigate this handy resource as flagged by the FFHS.

Here's an interesting discussion of research methodology by Kirsty Wilkinson.

And several sources have made reference to Geoff Swinfield's recent summary of a lecture by geneticist Professor Steve Jones.

Forthcoming events:


And here's a history crossword for you to have a stab at.

More news items at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.

Oh, and I missed it, but the second anniversary of this blog passed us by on 17th January - thanks for reminding me John! (and a couple of other folk - cheers). Seems like a good opportunity for me to thank you all for sticking with me for so long - so, er, thanks!




Stiff Upper Lip...


Friday 18 January 2013

Genealogy News - 18th January


Ancestry have released a new dataset: Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1911 (note: they only cover England & Wales). Further comment from Audrey Collins, here.

The latest TNA podcast focuses on wills. And don't forget TNA's sale.

Here's the latest newsletter from the National Library of Ireland.

A new website dedicated to Methodist history has been flagged, here.

Other genealogy bloggers have been quite busy, so here's a round-up from my favourite trio (these are all worth following, by the way)...

John D Reid has 'blogged' a few interesting bits and bobs of late:

Similarly, blogger Claire Santry has several Irish items of note:
And Chris Paton has the following news to spread:
Oh, and here's the usual weekend stuff from the Beeb:

And don't forget that there are more news items at the BI-Gen twitter feed.





A couple of oddments for the weekend...



Tuesday 15 January 2013

Genealogy News - 15th January


This looks very useful indeed: the new 'help section' from The National Archives website.

The Lost Cousins Newsletter is always incredibly useful, too - latest issue here.

The Ancestry.com blog has a couple of interesting posts. One concerns the AncestryDNA set-up (with some interesting 'comments', too), and the other introduces their new 'Support Communities' venture.

Ever wondered about the use of images from the internet and copyright? Well the National Library of Ireland has reminded us about the copyright-free source that is 'The Commons on Flickr'.

More about Bolton Cemeteries from DeceasedOnline. There's another helpful link here.

Scotland has a new 'Registrar General & Keeper of the Records of Scotland'.

Here's a little piece about tonight's FindMyPast TV Show.

Latest TNA Podcast (Cockleshell Heroes).

Important news concerning Baptist records from Chris Paton's blog.

The usual weekly round-up of history links from the Two Nerdy History Girls is here.

Many of you may be aware of the North American-based 'In-Depth Genealogist' - well, it's been re-jigged and re-launched. Read all about it here.

Your forthcoming events...


More items of interest at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.





From the MailOnline...


Friday 11 January 2013

Genealogy News - 11th January


Oh dear, there really isn't very much to report on at all this week - but that's not unusual for early January. Anyway, let's have a look at what's on offer...

First of all, you may wish to have a browse of this message from the WDYTYA? website. If nothing else, please do follow the link to their 'Directory' which looks very handy indeed!

Two useful recent posts by John D Reid:



A couple of Irish items from Claire Santry:



PRONI have overhauled their online directories collection. More info here.

Forthcoming IHGS courses.

Latest Parish Chest Newsletter.

January newsletter from the National Library of Scotland.

Techies may be interested in the latest announcement from MyHeritage.

Pen & Sword Books' January sale.

And the usual Friday stuff from the BBC History website:

Please also call in at the BI-Gen Twitter feed for other items of news and useful links. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twitter, well, you don't need to sign up to read my tweets - just click on the link above, then keep calling back regularly. However, it's best if you sign up fully - and even then you don't have to actively participate (or 'tweet'), as you can simply sit there quietly and merely 'follow' others. Good fun.





From the Sussex Ancestors blog...

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Genealogy News - 8th January


The latest e-bulletin from Essex Record Office is now available, complete with a list of upcoming events (and many other things).

Here's a nice round-up of recent releases (and future plans) from DeceasedOnline.

Can't recall if I've mentioned this or not: news about an RAF records digitisation project. The same website has a piece about a Manchester map collection.

Canterbury Cathedral Archives reopen soon - see here (thanks to @AchievementsGen on Twitter).

Users of TNA's online catalogue should take note of this.

A new genealogy course begins at Durham County Record Office soon (thanks to @GenealogyGent on Twitter).

Recent developments on the FamilySearch site are covered by Chris Paton, here. And Chris also brings us happy news concerning the Scotsman Digital Archive.

Though it has a North American bias, Ruth Blair's blog is always worth a look. See this useful post as an example.

Here's a helpful post about Scottish Tax Rolls by blogger Alan Stewart.

Latest edition of 'Irish Lives Remembered' is now available (free).

Irish researchers may also wish to check out this post by John D Reid. And John also reviews a new genealogy book with Scottish connections, here.

GenealogyInTime has its latest worldwide round-up of genea stuff here.

The Two Nerdy History Girls give us their weekly round-up of history links.

Kirsty Wilkinson provides interesting food for thought on the process of genealogical research.

The latest TNA Podcast.

Forthcoming events (not many, I'm afraid)...


Remember, there's plenty more news at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.





Thanks to John D Reid for this short video (funny, but contains swearing)...


Friday 4 January 2013

Genealogy News - 4th January


OK, so it's a bit of a slow start to the genealogy year, but it's about time I brought you up to speed...

First up, it's the latest Lost Cousins Newsletter.

London researchers will want to check out the free online heritage guide from the City of London's website, which includes a helpful 'What's On' section.

And more from London: the January listing from Gresham College (talks are free and open to all).

Here's the latest CWGC Newsletter.

Ancestry has added an important new resource to its database, namely, the 'UK Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960' - see their 'updates page' for the relevant link.

Blogger Alan Stewart reminds us of the upcoming episodes in the ongoing series of the 'Find My Past TV Show'.

There's a new railway workers database available at the National Railway Museum.

News from Claire Santry's 'Irish Genealogy News Blog':

As we're a bit short of news, here's a couple of articles that may tickle your fancy. Firstly, check out this Chinese couple's very special celebration; then there's a really neat DNA analysis article.

The usual set of Friday links from the BBC History website:

More bits and bobs at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.





New Year Stuff...