Saturday, January 26, 2008

Copenhagen History Association

Selskabet for Københavns Historie - velkommen: "- foredrag, byvandringer, besøg i historiske bygninger, ledet af forskere, der virkelig ved noget om emnerne, artikler om København, som det var engang.

Med udgangspunkt i dagens København laves arrangementer, der sætter byen og det, der sker i den, i perspektiv. Desuden bliver medlemmerne informeret om den nyeste forskning i byens historie."

Selskabet for Københavns Historie - E-bøger: "Januar 1972 udkom første nummer af medlemsbladet 'Københavns Kronik'. På forsiden begrunder Børge Schmidt udgivelsen af kronikken på denne måde: 'Det, vi har tænkt os, er ganske enkelt at udnytte de meddelelser, vi sender til vore medlemmer om møder og besøg således, at 'Kronikken' også giver plads for lidt andet stof, ...'

På samme måde ønsker Selskabet gennem sin nye webbaserede 'Kronik', kobenhavnshistorie.dk, at supplere de praktiske oplysninger med fagligt materiale. Her har vi dog mulighed for at gå langt videre end Børge Schmidt kunne med sin trykte 'Kronik'."

ENGLISH PROBATE JURISDICTIONS

"PROBATE RECORDS OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES

by Linda Jonas, March 2003" http://www.fxgs.org/british_sig_probate.htm
" English, Irish, and Welsh Probate Records before 1858

Before 1858, probate was the responsibility of the Established Church, even if your ancestor was a member of another church. Wills could be proved in the court of an archdeacon (archdeaconry court), a bishop (commissary or consistory court), or an archbishop (prerogative court), and there even some other courts with probate jurisdiction. There is no nationwide index for these early records, so you must determine the court in which the probate occurred.

To determine English pre-1858 probate courts, the best guides are Pre-1858 English Probate Jurisdictions compiled by the Genealogical Department of the Family History Library. There are colored maps for each county in England. The maps show the probate jurisdictions within the county. In case you don't find your ancestor's probate record in the nearest, most logical court, there are also tables for each county showing which courts to check and in which order to search them. Look at the map to find the court that covered the area in which your ancestor held property. If you do not find his probate record, consult the table for that county to find other courts. These probate guides are available on microfiche and are called Hand list of English probate jurisdictions, of filmed and printed probate records. They're on FHL fiche 6026312 (90 fiche). The bad news is that the microfiched guides are in black and white, but the maps are color coded. You can still use them if you determine the original probate jurisdiction from The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, and then use the microfiched probate jurisdiction tables to locate other courts.

You can easily locate a Welsh will by using the indexes prepared by the National Library of Wales . . ."

ENGLISH PROBATE JURISDICTIONS - Google Search

a work in progress:-

FamilySearch.org - Family History Library - English Probate Jurisdiction Maps and Guides

Find a Probate Court

If you know the name of the jurisdiction, you can search for the associated courts. If you don't know the name of the jurisdiction, the maps can help you find the name.

Click here to search all Probate Jurisdiction courts.

Essex Probate Jurisdictions Map (pdf file, 1.45 MB)

London Probate Jurisdictions Map (pdf file, 360 KB)

View Probate Jurisdiction Guides

New jurisdiction maps will replace these guides in the near future.

Cambridgeshire, Series A, Number 10 (rev 1976) (pdf file, 1.36 MB)

Kent, Series A, Number 10 (rev 1976) (pdf file, 1.45 MB)

Friday, January 25, 2008

IOW FHS

Isle of Wight Family History Society: "The society is for all those who want to trace their ancestors. Members include people who live on the Isle of Wight but whose families came from elsewhere as well as those with island ancestry who may live on the mainland or abroad.
Whether you are a longstanding member of the Society or just browsing we hope that you will find something to interest you on our pages."

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Mariners

RootsWeb: Genealogy Mailing Lists: Mariners: "Topic: anyone who is researching their seafaring ancestors. The list welcomes discussions about merchant ships, the world's Navies, and the men who made their lives at sea. If your seafaring ancestor worked on the smallest fishing smack, or the largest man o'war... if he was a Marine, a Customs Officer, a Coastguard or followed any other profession involving ships or the sea, then this list is for you!"

Mariners: "Are you hoping to unravel the secrets of an ancestor's life at sea?
To discover the realities of a wartime incident?
To fill in the details of a half-remembered family story?

Whether your interest is in the smallest fishing vessel or the largest fighting ship, this page is for you."

mariners-list - Google Search

Morwyr Cymru - Welsh Mariners: "An on-line index of 22,000 Welsh merchant masters, mates and engineers active from 1800 to 1945, compiled by Dr. Reg Davies."

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Cemetery Restoration

Stone Revival Cemetery Restoration: "Stone Revival Cemetery Restoration is a small, family owned business dedicated to preserving historic cemeteries.

Please take a moment to look around the site. We can restore a single headstone, an entire cemetery or something in between. We primarily work in Indiana and surrounding states but will travel throughout the United States for larger jobs.

We can restore most marble, limestone, granite and other types of stones found in Pioneer Cemeteries. We can also restore some bronze markers."

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

FamilyLink.com beta

FamilyLink.com :: Welcome

What is FamilyLink?
follow the above link and you may listen to a message from their C.E.O, Paul Alle

WorldVitalRecords Blog » Press Release: "The company said it will also continue to grow its FamilyLink.com social network that has attracted more than 47,000 customers and has doubled its site traffic already this year. It will also continue to operate the We’re Related Facebook application, the #1 social application for families out of nearly 14,000 Facebook.com applications. We’re Related has more than 2 million users and is growing at a rate of 6,000 users a day. More Facebook applications are in the works.

“The FamilyLink.com name is more reflective of the broad mission of our company, which is to provide innovative tools to help families connect,” said David Lifferth, President, FamilyLink.com. “WorldVitalRecords.com will continue to provide hundreds of millions of vital records that family historians love, but as a company we are also creating tools and content for family members of all ages and interests.”"

About Us: " About World Vital Records, Inc.

Founded in 2006, by Paul Allen and several key members of the original Ancestry.com team, World Vital Records, Inc. provides affordable genealogy databases and family history networking tools to a worldwide audience . . . ."

Special Offers from WorldVitalRecords.com: "Membership in World Vital Records provides many benefits including access to over 850 million names including Everton's Online Library, our International Parish Register Collection and the Quintin CDROM library. Get access to premier data like e-Yearbooks, Newspaper ARCHIVE, SmallTownPapers®, Accessible Archives, Find A Grave, AllCensus and much, much, more!"

The Urban Woo blog

The Urban Woo: Daughter Of A Lay Preacher Man:

one comment - but do read the blog too

"I love digging around in family history. My grandfather's grandfather emigrated to Philadelphia, with a cheery wave to his wife and kids and the promise that he'd send for them as soon as he was settled. That was the last they heard of him until his second family wrote to them 25 years later to ask for help with his funeral costs. He was rarely spoken of, understandably."

Monday, January 21, 2008

Great War Blog

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier: "I have just received your parcel alright everything was in good order. I am glad you are going on alright and like your job. How did you go on at Christmas. Ethel tells me you managed to get home for a week. How did you find Connie and Willie where they alright, well how did you find them all. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I am going to write home. It is very cold out here at night but we have some nice days. I am sorry to hear about Uncle Shelton and about Jack Bonser getting wounded. I hope he gets on alright. Write as often as you can. I think we shall get our letters alright now. I shall be glad to see you all again."

World War I: Experiences of an English Soldier

This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. To find out Harry's fate, follow the blog!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

names in Germany in 2002

Namensforschung - Ancestry.de

rundlage der Namensverteilung sind ca. 35 Millionen Telefonteilnehmer in Deutschland aus dem Jahre 2002. Mehrfacheinträge (z.B. Festnetz, Fax und Handy) sind jeweils nur einmal in der Zählung berücksichtigt worden. Die fehlende Aktualität der Daten ist Absicht, da mit dieser Funktion die Familienforschung unterstützt werden soll. D.h. über die Verteilung der Nachnamen lassen sich z.B. Rückschlüsse über die Herkunft der Familie schließen. Und hier sind sogar ältere Daten wertvoller als aktuelle Daten. Ziel der Darstellung ist es dementsprechend nicht, Ihren Wohnort anzuzeigen, sondern statistisch aussagekräftige und für die Familienforschung interessante Karten zu erzeugen.

and this new freebie draws a really nice map for you

Scotland Online Buys Findmypast

Scotland Online Buys Family History Website (from The Herald ): "Scotland Online, the IT business owned by Dundee media dynasty DC Thomson, yesterday said it had acquired findmypast.com, a leading independent UK-based family history website.

The company said it had acquired the business Title Research Group as part of its plans to establish a world-class online network of family history resources, but it did not disclose the sale price.

The merger will see Scotland Online's current online genealogy service, ScotlandsPeople, amalgamating with findmypast.com to create an enlarged resource to serve millions of family history enthusiasts worldwide.
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The company said the merger 'will enable a wider audience to access the most complete suite of family history records available online in the UK'.

Scotland Online recently won the tender for the 1911 England and Wales census records, which will be available during 2009.

Chris van der Kuyl, chief executive of Scotland Online, said: 'We are delighted to welcome the findmypast team to Scotland Online and look forward to working very closely with them on building a wonderful family history resource.

'Family history enthusiasts the world over will benefit.'

Findmypast.com established itself as an innovative genealogical service that has become one of the leading destination websites for family history researchers.

It was the first company in the world to put the complete birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales online, later adding its census and unique passenger-list records."

DearMYRTLE: Scotlands People & FindMyPast to merge: "FindMyPast has extensive United Kingdom records in index and scanned image format including complete birth, marriage & death indexes; census; passenger lists; family trees, the National Burial Index; civil service evidence of age 1752-1948; GRW shareholders 1835-1910, a variety of military records.

The Scotland’s People website is the result of a partnership between General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by Scotland Online. Offerings include indexes and scanned images of old parish registers (1553-1854), census, wills & testaments in addition to birth, marriage & death records.

Both sites are considered among the top tier genealogy research sites for their localities, and are “pay per view” membership sites.

It would seem the consolidation of efforts should save money on site development and maintenance, freeing up dollars to digitizing records. This may provide Ancestry.uk.com et al with healthier competition. Hopefully this will translate to keeping costs down for subscribers of all services."