Knowing I have the rest of the year to look at my playlist, today was a very relaxing day especially as I got up very early (7am in Tasmanian time) to take part in:
A poll was available at the beginning of the session but as I was a few minutes late joining, I didn’t get to fill it in. The data from the poll was used to lead the discussions.
Topics discussed were:
Copyright with photos and records
Terms and Conditions on websites we use as genealogists
Find a Grave – when and who to add memorials to this site
Investigative Genetic Genealogy – law enforcement access to DNA from large databases
Also mentioned in the chat was bullying and gatekeeping, knowledge from amateur or professional genealogists and joining societies and Facebook groups.
Each topic could have been an hour on its own and this was mentioned by many of the 400+ participants in the chat.
When I was teaching and blogging prior to 2011, Edublogger created guide for copyright and images. It has recently been updated for 2021. Even though it says educators, it is relevant to anyone blogging or using social media.
Diaries, journals and calendars: Documenting your ancestor’s day to day life – Melissa Barker
Many different types of diaries, journals and calendars
Adolescent or teenager diaries – interesting that the example used was one diary used over a 4 year period – could compare what you were doing in previous year on that date
War diaries – I have used these for WWI when some of my relatives were in diaries kept by the battalion or similar
Work diaries – rarer and hard to find
Daily calendars rather than diary or journal – often includes images
These help as a primary resource about what was happening in the family and maybe your family’s part in history.
Try finding them at home, archives and museums. Often mentioned under Manuscript collections. Could also be found in neighbours diaries etc.
I am very lucky in that my parents, whenever they went on a trip away, kept a diary of their travels, including our three month trip around Australia as a family. Dad’s mother also wrote a diary, which dad now has, of her journey to Adamsfield in Tasmania.
Readers:Have you got any diarists in your family? How have they added to your family history?
A relaxing day yesterday, just watching a few sessions as I know I will be able to view most of them over the next year. So now to start day 2 at 10am my time in Tasmania.
Went to the Main Stage but all sessions had finished already. Then looked at the live sessions for today and have already missed 9 out of the 10 I wanted to see. Glad these will be recorded so I can watch later on.
So looks like my plan for today is to look at some series and other sessions I have ticked and added to my playlist. I have also been watching twitter to see what other sessions are being recommended by other genealogists I follow.
Loved the introduction to this series. Common saying by mums of large families “Is everyone here?” Jana suggests ways to fill in those gaps in your family tree where you might have found some children but maybe not all of them. This is mainly for English families.
An individual’s story includes all their relationships.
Before 1900 most married women had children every 1-3 years so check your tree for gaps that might show children missing
Ask questions about why there might be a gap – change church, dad in gaol, dad a mariner, stillbirth etc
Find your family in every census
Keep a spreadsheet or chart from 1841-1921 and mark off relevant censuses you find each member of the family in
Remember children grow and leave home or are apprentices or servants in other homes of get married
If not in a census, maybe emigration
Also use 1939 register
In 1911 census , you find how many children a woman had – how many alive and how many dead
Use civil registration records to help fill gaps
Use indexes on GRO website gives more info than other indexes on Ancestry etc – register for free and order certificates from here as well
Use birth and death indexes – good for those children who died young
Church records mainly Church of England prior to 1837 when civil registration began
From mid 1500s, two copies of christenings, marriages and burials are found in parish registers or Bishops transcripts
Inscriptions on gravestones, where they are buried, maybe other members buried nearby
If you can find the images, it can be better than indexes – they often have extra information in margins
Also look in neighbouring parishes and towns
In small towns, create lists with same surname – often they are related
Probate records
Wills, admons (didn’t leave a will), estate duty
From 1858, check at gov.uk or in Ancestry
Before 1858, you need to check county probate records which can be found on family search wiki – findmypast and the genealogist also have the images
In small town keep record of all with same surname
Escaping the Famine – Irish settlement in Canada by Melanie McComb @ShamrockGen
This session really interested me as those readers who follow my blog, know of my frustrations with my Irish Jackson family. After three members of the family, William senior, William Junior and Rebecca as well as another relative Jane Steel, were sentenced to transportation, another member of the family Anne Jackson, who had dobbed them in for stealing, asked for help to get away from Ireland.
While I was travelling in Ireland I did some research on Anne and found her with two other children Mary Ann and Robert going to Canada on the recommendation of the magistrate who had sentenced the Jacksons.
Melanie’s session included the history of Irish Immigration to Canada and many of the reasons why this happened. She also discusses the voyages across the Atlantic from Ireland to Canada. Once in Canadian waters, there was quarantine to go through at various points along the coast.
Before 1865, no formal passenger lists but some shipping companies kept lists. This is where I found Ann and her children on the J.J.Cooke list arriving on the ship Superior in 1847. These records are now on Ancestry.
Melanie also mentions a collection of records coming into New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick for the years 1841-1849. It includes more than just immigration records.
Melanie then went into other ways to build your Irish family in Canada:
Using census to looking for parent(s) born in Ireland but children born in Canada. Different information found in each census will help you work out when someone came to Canada and maybe where they came from in Ireland.
Church records – some found online, others still on microfilm and found in registers at particular churches.
Land records also might help build your family tree in Canada – province level first then county level
Newspapers also give lots of information including goods belonging to dead people and how to claim them. Also check out obituaries and articles in area near where your Irish family settled.
Gravestones might also have town and parish in Ireland mentioned on them.
Readers: What was your takeaway from day 2 at RootsTech 2022?
Any links will take you directly to a recommended website.
My playlist is ready and I have now started checking out some sessions, series and keynotes. Some are of interest to me personally and others might be helpful information for those people I help at the local library doing their family history.
English and Welsh returns for 1841-1911 found at Family Search. Scroll down the page to specify which collection you want to check by typing in England census then choose from the options.
England, Wales and Scotland records transcribed by volunteers at FreeCen. Note not all places have been transcribed.
Second session – BMD
Civil registration was different for each country.
England 1837 but compulsory only from 1875
Ireland from 1864 but non Catholic marriages from 1845
Scotland from 1855
Places to find civil and church records:
ScotlandsPeople – search for free but pay for documents at reasonable price – incudes both civil and church records
IrishGenealogy – has both civil records and church records
General Register Office – has index for BMD and you can order certificates here more cheaply than from a large database like Ancestry
UKBMD – again a volunteer based group which shows parishes or counties looking at BMD in their area specifically. Also includes lists of counties with Online Parish Clerk websites (OPC). Also has one place studies and census info – so great site for lots of free information and indexes to use.
County councils – some councils have their own archives of things like dog licences, canal boats, gaols
GENUKI – great site, breaks down to country then county and parish and what records are available at each level
Cyndi’s list – world wide links to thousands of websites
Also check out specials and free trials of the big databases. Often family history societies and local libraries have more resources as well.
Help online from rootschat, facebook groups and other social media.
Latest DNA Painter releases by Jonny Perl
I love using some of the tools on DNA Painter especially What are the odds (WATO) and the shared cM page. But I have also tried to paint chromosome maps but have found it very tedious adding in one person at a time. But there are now ways to import more than one persons DNA chromosome segments which I might have to start using.
I also learnt about using phased kits at GEDmatch to import just my mum’s data or just my dad’s data. This makes it easier to work out if segments are maternal or paternal on the chromosome map when importing from GEDmatch cluster groups. (Tier 1)
Another new tool was looking at adding dimensions such as birth/death year on your family tree instead of just names. Also colour coding on family trees as well as on WATO.
Main stage events
Many of these sessions are very early in the morning in Australia so I will have to watch them at another time once the recordings are up on the website. But I did listen to Maysoon Zayid and Matthew Modine talking about their family history and how memories make connections through oral history as well as movies and photos.
I did look at some other sessions but will not be writing about them all.
I am disappointed though that I only have 13 relatives at RootsTech – maybe my relatives are not into family history as much as I am.
Readers: What were your takeaways from day 1 at RootsTech?