Your Quick Tips, 12 March 2007

Transposed Names
Thank you for your continued weekly genealogy research suggestions. I have been reading them faithfully for several years but do not recall seeing this problem exactly. Perhaps this might help someone else. My father and his family lived on the same farm for more than 100 years; however, I could not locate them using the index for the 1920 census. When I searched line by line in the exact location, I found the transcriber had listed everyone in the family with my grandfather’s first name as their last name–specifically as James instead of Smith.

Helen Continue reading

Getting Ready for St. Patrick’s Day! Gaelic Place Names

St. Patrick’s Day is still a week away, but I’m already seeing a lot of folks wearing the green. With spring-like temperatures today, it feels right to start thinking about ways to celebrate my Irish heritage. For those of you who will be celebrating by researching your Irish roots, here is a neat chart of Gaelic Words Commonly Used in Place Names that I found in Finding Your Irish Ancestors, by Dave Ouimette.

  Gaelic Words in Place Names.bmp

Win a Trip To Ireland!

stpaddys_banner_120x240_v1_edited-1.bmpYou never know where your family tree will take you. Green, rolling hills, sweeping coastal views, rich cultural heritage–that’s Dublin, Ireland. And you could enjoy it all with your three favorite people for seven days, six nights, courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Enter the St. Patty’s Sweepstakes by clicking here.

OGS Summer Genealogy Workshop

Ohio Genealogical SocietyThe Ohio Genealogical Society announces its annual summer genealogy workshop to be held 24-29 June 2007 at The Society’s library, located at 713 S. Main St., Mansfield, OH 44907. This year the workshop will feature nationally known speakers who will cover many topics of interest to Ohioans and other researchers, such as cemeteries, land records, church records, vital records, internet update, immigration, and military records. Presentations will also cover research in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New England, and German, Italian, and Scots-Irish research, among others. Continue reading

New Database: Canadian Soldiers of World War I, 1914-1918

From Ancestry Historical Postcard Coll: Eagle Lake, South River, Ontario, Canada, circa 1915-1930. Click on the image to enlarge it.This week Ancestry added a database of Canadian Soldiers of World War I, 1914-1918. This database contains an index to the attestation papers of men enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) of World War I. Information contained in the database includes:

  • Name of enlistee
  • Address
  • Birthplace
  • Birth date
  • Age
  • Name of next of kin
  • Relationship to next of kin
  • Regimental number

Additional information about the enlistee, such as their occupation, marital status, religion, and/or physical description may be found on the original record. Be sure to view the corresponding image in order to obtain all possible information about the individual.

Note: The Attestation papers were usually comprised of at least two pages. You will need to hit the “Next” image button in order to see all the pages that are part of the record.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. Canadian Soldiers of World War I, 1914-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918).. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

 

1871 and 1891 Scotland Census Transcripts Posted at Ancestry

Bothwell Bridge on the Clyde River, Scotland, Currier and Ives, 1840-80. Click on the image to enlarge it.In this week’s newsletter, Sherry Irvine discussed the 1841 and 1851 Scottish Census transcripts available at Ancestry.  Now there are two more years to search. The 1871 and 1891 transcripts were added to the collection.

1871 Scotland Census
The 1871 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 2/3 April 1871. The following information was requested:

  • Place (name of street, place, or road, and name or number of house)
  • Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
  • Relation to head of family
  • Marital Status
  • Age
  • Sex (indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
  • Profession or occupation
  • Birthplace
  • Whether blind, or deaf and dumb

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households before the census night and the complete forms were collected the next day by the enumerators. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 2/3 April 1871 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of the details from the individual forms were copied into enumerators’ books and sent to the Registrar General’s office in London. These copies are the records we can view images of today. The original householder’s schedules were destroyed.

1891 Scotland Census
The 1891 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 5/6 April 1891. The following information was requested:

  • Place (parish and name of street, place, or road, and name or number of house)
  • Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
  • Relation to head of family
  • Marital Status
  • Age
  • Sex (indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
  • Profession or occupation
  • Whether an employer, employed, or working on own account
  • Birthplace
  • Whether speaks Gaelic or Gaelic and English
  • Whether deaf and dumb, blind, or lunatic, imbecile, or idiot
  • Number of rooms in house with one or more windows

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households before the census night and the complete forms were collected the next day by the enumerators. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 5/6 April 1891 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of the details from the individual forms were copied into enumerators’ books and sent to the Registrar General’s office in London. These copies are the records we can view images of today. The original householder’s schedules were destroyed.

Look for more transcripts to be added in the future.
 

Weekly Planner: Work With Timelines

If you haven’t created a timeline for an ancestral family, take some time this week to create one. Assemble the records you have found chronologically and type summaries in a database in order. Estimate dates based on the information you have and fill the estimates in as well. Timelines are very helpful in placing your ancestor in a particular place and time and in noting inconsistencies. If you have already created timelines for your ancestors, do an audit and make sure they are current. And as an added bonus, the process of creating and updating these tools is a great way to jumpstart your research!