Findmypast Record Collection

Findmypast Entire Record Collection is open for free from November 10th - November 14th for researching one's heritage. This is a beautiful opportunity for researching your family and to see what they have to offer and determine if you want to have a subscription. Also, you this opportunity may help you with a brickwall. Check it out at Findmypast

Remember it only lasts from November 10th through November 14th.

The Joiner Marriage Index

 I attended a Zoom genealogy class where the presenter introduced us to a website where one can research the Joiner marriage index, which focuses on records before 1837. The current online searchable marriage records are 3,154,329 from 5,581 parishes in 38 counties in England and Wales. 

The search cost begins at Ł2.29 for a single marriage record up to a max of Ł52.19 for 500 marriage records. The site notes the information provided is an index of the marriage records from parish registers and no marriage certificates. 

If you are new to genealogy, you may wonder why you want to use an index when you cannot access the marriage certificate. Indexes may provide you directions on where to obtain the marriage certificates.

If you have hit a brick wall in your research, you may want to check out this site to possibly have a breakthrough. You may access the site by clicking The Joiner Marriage Index. 

Welsh founders of Pennsylvania - Google Books

I am always looking for my Welsh ancestors and  recently found a book titled Welsh founders of Pennsylvania in Google books. This book has several pedigrees as noted in the snapshot below.  The book was originally published 1911-1913 and has been republished several times since then. You can view a variety of selections from this book on Google books, however, some of the pages were not able to be viewed as they encourage you to purchase the book. However, having said that, if you are one of the lucky ones, you might be able to find some of your Welsh ancestry in this book.  If you would like to search in this book, click Welsh founders of Pennsylvania - Google Books. I hope you can find your ancestor.

FamilySearch Facebook Community Research Pages

FamilySearch has developed several Research Community pages on FaceBook and Skype.  These groups have been designed to allow you to collaborate with others that are searching in the same local of your ancestors, ask questions, and help others by sharing what you know.  Do you have to be a professional?  Definitely not.  The groups are designed to encourage anyone with an interest to ask questions and to share the knowledge that you have.  Come join in the fun.  If you would like to learn more about these groups, by following the directions for the FamilySearch wiki at  Join A Facebook Research Community. The research groups currently available are worldwide and include:

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Sweden
4. England
5. Ireland
6. Wales
7. North America to include: Illinois, Missouri, New York, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia

If you do not see a local that you are currently researching, you can suggest an area to be started as a Community Research.  If you visit the link Join A Facebook Research Community, you can learn how to participate in this exciting opportunity.  Don't have a Facebook account? Then check out the Skype Research Community. Have fun!

Mariners from Swansea

Bryan Richards has developed The Mariners from Swansea website in honor of his great grandfather, Captain R. W. Brisco. The Mariners from Swansea website provides search able databases for those researching their Welsh ancestors that were in the military and/org seafarers. The database is designed to allow one to search on the Mariner's name without having to know the name of the ship. When there no information available, a hyphen appears in the database field. The information can also be searched by the ship name, and ship owners if this information is known. This website is free to research in and is user friendly. If you would like to research this site click Mariners on Swansea Register Ships. Have fun!

Do you have a Ticket to leave?

When I first saw the phrase "Ticket to Leave" it made me think of the Beatles song "Ticket to Ride". The only similarity that the two phrases have is the word Ticket. A ticket by definition is a slip of paper that allows one admission or entitlement to a service. So you may be wondering what a Ticket has to do with genealogical research. Could it be a ticket for boarding a ship to emigrate?

A "Ticket of Leave" was a document given to convicts in Australia to work and live in a given area of the colony prior to their sentence was completed or if they were pardoned. Those convicts that were given a "ticket of leave" (TOL) could own property and be self-employed, but they were required to attend church and appear before the judge when it was required. As previously discussed in an earlier post regarding convicts to the Fremantle Prison, the convicts were expected to work off their sentences. Ticket of Leave male convicts were allowed to marry or to bring their families over from England. The Ticket of Leave provides the genealogist with valuable information including birth year, previous occupation, their native country, year and place the person was tried and convicted, and also information regarding the transportation ship they were on to Australia. Another piece of information which is included on the document is a physical description of the person convicted.

This Ticket of Leave information was discovered on a website called Convicts to Australia - A Guide to Researching your Convict Ancestors. This website allows you to search the name of the ship, convict, pensioner guards, convict tales and also by the woman's name. The easiest way to these databases is through the link on the top that is titled "Search These Lists Online". Once you click on the the Convict Ships to Australia link you will need to look to the left of the page that loads to broswe the names of the ship. The other databases have a drop down list for the ships located on the upper right hand side of the page to assist in browsing. All of the links provide a search box on the upper right hand of each page where you can type in your search terms.

Now if you do not have a convict in your family tree, don't feel left out. The "Convicts to Australia" website will allow you create your own personal convict under the link "Claytons Convicts". This just for fun, but it will even create a fun story to go along with the name you choose. Another great feature of the site is the Convict tales. This link provides a brief biography of various individuals. Please note that not all of the convicts in the databases are included in the Convict Tales section. The biographies that are presently at the site are ones that have been contributed by researchers to the site.

If you would like to learn more about Convicts to Australia or the Guards, click Convicts to Australia. Have fun!

United Kingdom Mormon Pioneers

As we all know, history is a very important part of a family history. Where were our ancestors born? Where did they live? Where did they marry? What was their lifestyles?

The British Mormon Historical Society has developed a website titled Mormon History - Dedicated to the British Latter-Day Saint History. This site is dedicated to providing historical information regarding the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the United Kingdom. The information provided on this site includes historical accounts of some of the newly converted members, missionaries, and mission presidencies.

The website has several pages including information regarding Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England. A few countries that are also included on this site and not readily apparent, are listed under the side tab(link) titled LDSEP Archive. The LDSEP Archive is an older version of this site titled the LDS European Project. I have used the LDSEP site prior to it's incorporation with the British Mormon Historical Society website. The countries included on the LDSEP Archive are Denmark, Sweden, England, Wales, Ireland, and Switzerland. Like the current Mormon history website, LDSEP has information regarding missionaries, members, and mission presidencies.

Both the LDSEP and Mormon History site contain biographies of various missionaries, members and mission presidencies. I you have LDS immigrant ancestors from the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark, this site would be a great place to learn about the history of the church in the ancestral areas. If you would like to search the Mormon History - Dedicated to the British Latter-Day Saint History site click Mormon History in the UK. To research in the LDSEP site, click LDS European Project. If this link does not work properly you can also go to the site by clicking the LDSEP link (located on the lower left hand tool bar)on the home page of the Mormon History - Dedicated to the British Latter-Day Saint History site.

Have fun searching!

Gazetteer of British Place Names

The Gazetteer of British Place Names maintained by the Association of British Counties, is another excellent resource for Family Historians and Genealogists to research that will provide information regarding the current location of historical records repositories, which will decrease the amount of time trying to locate the proper place to request for records.

According to the website, the authors state that this site has advantages over on-line gazetteers because of the following reasons:

"1) Firstly, it has the most comprehensive coverage of any on-line gazetteer in that it covers the whole of Great Britain and contains over 50,000 place-name entries. It contains commonly accepted spelling variations of place names including an exhaustive coverage of Welsh and Gaelic spellings. It provides full details of the correct county for places both prior to and following the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1843."

"{2) An important feature of the Gazetteer is that the places it lists in Column 1 are settlements (e.g. villages, hamlets, towns, localities) rather than administrative areas (i.e. parishes, townships, tythings etc.). Many gazetteers aimed at genealogists only include the names of these latter types of administrative areas. Within a parish there can be several separate settlements each with its own distinct name and identity. In some cases these would be recognised on Census Reports as "townships", "tythings" etc. and they may appear in gazetteers in this guise. However, large numbers of identifiable "places" do not fall into these categories and usually do not appear in Census Reports (or in the various on-line gazetteers based upon these). This is particularly true in the case of the large number of new towns and villages which developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of these never gave their names to parishes. However, most parishes did give their name to the main settlement within them. Hence, these parish names do appear in the Gazetteer."

Also discussed on this site is a discussion regarding the term counties in the early 1970's where the Local Government Act abolished the counties, when in fact they had abolished the "administrative counties" and "county boroughs" created by the LGA 1888 and create a whole new set of local government areas." The key word here is "administrative" and "local government areas." The change did not effect the geographical counties. If you would like to read more about the challenges of English Gazetter research, please click Notes for Historians and Genealogists.

If you would like to search the index, please click
Gazetteer Index.>

Need a Old Map England, Wales or Scotland? This site is for You!

How many times have you been researching for one of your family members and hit a brick wall because you can't locate the place of their birth, marriage, death or residence? We all know that borders, names of cities, towns, and streets have changed through the ages. What can you do? Well the best solution is to try and find a map of the area and the time period you are researching. This can be a task in and of itself but the Genmaps website is a great resource for the England, Wales, and Scotland maps. Genmaps has maps and charts for each of the counties in England, Wales, and Scotland ranging in years from the 1300's to the 1900's. Each of these maps are available for use by genealogists but the commercial use of the images is forbidden without the permission of the copyright holder.

The owners of the website encourage the viewer to contribute a digitized format of their old maps of the area if they desire to share. This is a wonderful community effort of assisting others in their research. If you would like to browse their maps, click GenMaps. I am sure that you will find some hidden gems. Have fun!

Historical Directories of England and Wales

Directories are a wonderful primary source of information for the genealogist and family history enthusiats alike. Directories can help you locate people in your family tree in a particular place and time aiding in finding more about your ancestors. The directories can be from an institution, society family associations, schools, professions and telephone directories to name a few. The Historical Directories of England and Wales contains digitized directories from England and Wales covering the time period between 1749 and 1910. This site is searchable by location, time period or by key words. I have found that the keyword search is more efficient if you are looking for a particular person. If you are interested in researching at this site, please click here to go to the site. When you arrive at the site, I would suggest that you view the brief tutorial on how to search the database. Enjoy!

Welsh Mormon History

The Welsh Mormon History is the brain child of Dr. Ronald Dennis as he researched his own Welsh ancestry. He has also assisted in the translation of many Welsh documents regarding the early records of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to English.

Welsh Mormon History website is easily navigated using the tool bar on the top which includes the following tabs:
1) Home
2) Immigrants
3) Resources
4) Users - Adminstrative link
5) About - Provides information about the site

The site is nicely organized with a search engine allowing you to search for your specific Welsh ancestor by surname and/or given name. Dr. Ronald Dennis has obtained this information through the use of documents, journals, photos, biographies, books and various writings. Each of the various sources are online and can be read page by page if desired.

Click here to visit Welsh Mormon History and have fun!