In our last Twitter chat Jennifer spoke about being organised for the A-Z challenge in April next year. I thought I could do the challenge on my Sorell blog. So I’m going to be asking some of the locals from the Sorell Historical Society to give me suggestions for words for each letter of the alphabet so that I can research and write posts about them on the Sorell 200 years on blog that I have.
This post has been written by using voice to text. This was a suggestion made by Carmel in one of our other Twitter chats for the #ANZAncestryTime
Questions about using voice to text:
How do you get a fullstop or hashtag?
How do you get a new paragraph?
For the first test run, it did very well. Sorell was a word it got stuck on but I expected that. Might have to start using the Windows+H key more often for writing my blog posts.
Catherine McKay tried in Edinburgh in 1848 and came to Van Diemens Land as a convict
Her future husband William Dawson tried in Edinburgh in 1847 and sent to VDL as well.
I have not researched these two people yet, as I am trying to write biographies of each grandparent and then great grandparents etc. I know more about mum’s side of the tree so normally look for the information for their stories first.
But after our twitterchat on Scottish ancestors, I learned about so many resources, I think I might have to quickly get onto that work. Then I got an email from One Place Studies about a presentation by Chris Paton who is well known for his Scottish research. So I watched this and found out so much more about resources to use prior to 1800.
They mentioned there was a lot of information on Scottish convicts so, of course, I went to the indexes and put in the names of my two convicts.
WOW, information on both of them.
Both had been convicted with other people but not all had been transported. Apparently you can buy the records for the High Court – Crown Office precognitions and High Court of Justiciary Trial Papers. These will detail the trial and evidence from both sides.
I think I might make October my Scotland month and get onto those Scottish ancestors. According to my Ancestry DNA test I am 34% Scottish this being inherited from mum with 27% and dad with 27% mainly from the highlands and islands and in particular South Sutherland. My brother also inherited 35% from our parents.
Now I wonder who these Scottish ancestors are from mum’s side of the tree? I do have one convict from County Donegal near Londonderry so maybe her parents came over from Scotland at some time before the 1830s when she was born.
Oh well, I need to start researching more!!
Readers: Do you have Scottish ancestors? What resources did you find useful for researching them?
