Indexes to, and digital images of, the records held by London Metropolitan Archives have started to appear online at Ancestry.
The whole collection spans over 400 years from the 1500s to the 1900s and covers parish baptism and marriage registers, burial registers, Bishops' Transcripts, Non-conformist baptisms, marriages and burials, poor law Board of Guardians records, school admissions and discharge registers, electoral registers and poll books, land tax documents, Surrey marriage bonds and allegations, wills, transportation records from the Middlesex Sessions of the Peace, Diocesan marriage bonds and allegations, Diocesan divorce exhibita and City of London Freedoms. The full collection is due to appear gradually over the next year.
At the moment the online data covers the poor law Board of Guardians Births and Baptisms 1834-1934 and the poor law Board of Guardians Deaths and Burials collection 1834-1906. The London boroughs covered are:
Camden
Islington
Lambeth
Southwark
Tower Hamlets
Wandsworth
Westminster
You will need either a premium or worldwide subscription to view the data.
See the full details at http://landing.ancestry.co.uk/lma/london.aspx
Sheena
www.setait.co.uk
Friday, 27 March 2009
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Italian family searching for relatives of the British soldier who saved their mother's life
An Italian family is searching for relatives of a British soldier who saved their mother's life during WWII.
In January 1944, the pregnant Maria Mancini from the Abruzzo region of Italy needed emergency medical treatment to save her life. A British soldier called Martin drove her to hospital in his jeep through snowstorms and across mined roads.
After an emergency cesearian section, Mrs Mancini gave birth to twin girls. Sadly one of them died a week later. Martin continued to visit Mrs Mancini in hospital, they became friends and he gave her a photo of his own two daughters.
Just after Mrs Mancini and her daughter were released from hospital, Martin was killed in action.
Mrs Mancini remembered and often told the story of Martin's kindness and friendship to her family. Unfortunately she never knew his surname.
Her daughter, Angela, and her granddaughter are now searching for the two children in Martin's photo.
Are you, or is one of your relatives, one of these girls. Check the photo and the full story on the Telegraph website at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5049684/Family-seek-relatives-of-hero-British-soldier-who-saved-Italian-womans-life.html
Sheena
http://www.setait.co.uk/
In January 1944, the pregnant Maria Mancini from the Abruzzo region of Italy needed emergency medical treatment to save her life. A British soldier called Martin drove her to hospital in his jeep through snowstorms and across mined roads.
After an emergency cesearian section, Mrs Mancini gave birth to twin girls. Sadly one of them died a week later. Martin continued to visit Mrs Mancini in hospital, they became friends and he gave her a photo of his own two daughters.
Just after Mrs Mancini and her daughter were released from hospital, Martin was killed in action.
Mrs Mancini remembered and often told the story of Martin's kindness and friendship to her family. Unfortunately she never knew his surname.
Her daughter, Angela, and her granddaughter are now searching for the two children in Martin's photo.
Are you, or is one of your relatives, one of these girls. Check the photo and the full story on the Telegraph website at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5049684/Family-seek-relatives-of-hero-British-soldier-who-saved-Italian-womans-life.html
Sheena
http://www.setait.co.uk/
Monday, 2 February 2009
Who Do You Think You Are? New Series
A new series of Who Do You Think You Are? starts tonight at 9pm on BBC1. The celebrities to be featured are:
- Rory Bremner
- Fiona Bruce
- Rick Stein
- Zoe Wanamaker
- Kevin Whately
and you can see the "teasers" about them on the series' website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/ Past series have managed to find a celebrity to fit into the English, Scottish, Irish, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Military, Jewish and aristocratic research categories. Who's going to fit into each slot this time?
And will this new series lead to a further flush of enthusiastic newcomers starting to research their family trees?
The world of online genealogy has changed dramatically since the first series, broadcast in 2004, caused delays to the GRO's online ordering service and the amount of media coverage given to the commercial outfits has grown.
But what about the family history societies? In theory the big Who Do You Think You Are? Live show at Olympia at the end of February should help them tap into this new audience, but in practice the number of "traditional" societies attending seems to be declining. Gossip suggests that this is because the costs are too high. How can smaller societies connect with new researchers? What is your society doing? Should they even try?
Sheena
New Year ..... New Data
London is currently shivering under a thick layer of snow
which, according to the news, is the heaviest for 18 years. So this seems like a good time for an update on some of the new data that's appeared online since Christmas.
First of all was the addition of Counties Antrim, Down and Kerry to the 1911 census for Ireland at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ which were added to the existing records for Dublin on 23 December 2008.
Next came the annual upload of new data on Scotlandspeople. We can now view the images of the registers of births for 1855-1908, marriages 1855-1933 and deaths 1855-1958 at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
The current big excitement is the 1911 census for England and Wales which went live on 14 January at http://www.1911census.co.uk/. They have gradually added to the number of counties available and currently the whole of England except for Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, Durham and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire are available. Wales has still to be added. To check on progress and find out about enhancements to the search facilities as they are added, read the blog at http://blog.1911census.co.uk/
A less well publicised launch was the addition of the civil registration indexes for Ireland which are available on the Familysearch Record Search pilot site at http://pilot.familysearch.org. Irish civil registration indexes begin in 1845 for Protestant marriages. Civil registration indexes for births, deaths and all marriages begin in 1864. The available indexes cover all of Ireland from 1845/1864 to 1922 and the Republic of Ireland from 1923-1958. As the General Register Office for Northern Ireland has an online certificate ordering facility at http://www.groni.gov.uk/index/order_certificates.htm and the General Register office for Ireland has downloadable order forms at http://www.groireland.ie/apply_for_a_cert.htm ordering Irish certificates has now become much easier.
Sheena
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Meet the ancestors!
Meet George Calder who was born in Wick, Caithness in 1842. He emigrated to the USA in 1870, when he was 28, and married and had a family there.
At the age of 80, he decided to return to Scotland to visit his family. He sailed from New York to arrive in Plymouth on 6 July 1923. Presumably he travelled up to Scotland from there as he sailed from Glasgow almost 8 weeks later to return to New York.
George was my first cousin, three times removed. Does it make more sense if I say he was my grandfather's first cousin, once removed?
This isn't a family photo. I discovered it when I found his 1923 US passport application on www.ancestry.com
Now meet his daughter Helen
She was born in Hartford, Connecticut in the USA in 1877. She applied for her passport in 1919.
In addition to the photo, we also get a physical description.
She was 5 feet 10 3/4 inches tall, with grey-blue eyes, brown-grey hair and a light complexion. Her face was long-oval with a straight nose, round chin and a medium mouth.
She was a missionary worker and was planning to travel to China, Japan, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] and India to inspect missions.
Isn't the internet wonderful!
Sheena
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Glasgow Police Museum to close
The Glasgow Police Museum which is based in the old District Court in St Andrew's Square is due to close on 8 December. The Scottish Courts Service is taking over the District Courts from Glasgow Council but does not want the old court building, so the museum has been given notice to quit. The full story is on the Evening Times website at http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2468550.0.curators_anguish_as_glasgow_police_museum_is_axed.php
The Glasgow Police were Britain's oldest police force.
The first attempts to establish a police force for Glasgow were made as far back as 1779 but it wasn't until the Glasgow Police Act was passed in 1800 that a permanent force was established. The newly formed force, consisting of three sergeants, six police officers and 68 watchmen mustered for the first time in the Laigh Church, Trongate on 15 November 1800.
For the following 175 years the City of Glasgow Police served the city.
The force was finally disbanded on 15 May 1975 when it was amalgamated with other forces to form Strathclyde Police.
The Police Museum has a website at http://www.policemuseum.org.uk/ where you can read about the history of the force.
Sheena
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Online courses in November
There's a week left to sign up to a GenClass genealogy course in November. Each course lasts for 4 weeks and costs US$34.50
The courses are:
This class provides not only instructions of how to search, but addresses the emotional aspects that affect such a deeply personal and poignant endeavor.
How to research your family in Australian and New Zealand records. Learn how to use the online indexes and find the digitized records that can help overcome the "Tyranny of Distance".
All areas for each of the different tribes in North American are covered from the Canadian First People to the various tribes in the United States.
Start researching your English ancestors using both paper-based and online resources. Learn how to find the "bones" of your family using birth, marriage and death records, the censuses, parish registers and wills.
After the census, the next most important series of records are more specific. Specific types, and ethnicities of persons and the records created about them. And, of course, immigration - which includes passenger lists - and Government records.
This class will show you how to begin researching your Central and Eastern European roots using both traditional and online sources.
The program has been completely redone and has many new features that are available to you, if only you knew where they were. Learn your way around this new Family Tree Maker as well as learning how to enter your information including names, dates, media and sources.
Have you ever wanted to locate a lost love or missing relative? Reminisce with a military buddy or childhood friend? Don't let another year pass without that special someone back in your life!
Using the Internet, access the largest genealogical library in the world located in Salt Lake City - without ever leaving your home! Perform searches, knowledgeably; and more importantly - understand what you've found.
This extensive class will provide a detailed description of what you need to know to track your Scottish ancestry.
You don't have to be a prize-winning novelist to capture your family's story on paper! This class will cover how to document your family's story in simple manageable steps.
Each course begins on Saturday 1 November and ends on Friday 28 November.
What better way to spend cold November evenings!
Sheena
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