Borders Family History Society

Website Working Again

2012-02-03T21:48:00.002Z

Our ISP resolved the website problems quickly and all the functions are working again.

Website Problems

2012-02-03T17:33:00.005Z

There are currently problems with the database-linked parts of the website, like the Forums, Other Websites, and the Gravestones Index, the Magazine Article Index, the Poor Law Records Index, the Family Tree Index.

Queries and Surname Interests are also affected.

Some of the functionality on the Maps and Parish pages will not be available.

I reported the problem at 5.30 GMT and our web host has acknowledged the problem is with our web server and estimates 2 to 4 hours to resolve the problem.

50-50 Club Draw Results - Jackpot Prize Not Yet Won

2012-01-31T23:03:00.001Z

The letters drawn in the January 2012 draw were I, L, J.

There were no winners.

The jackpot, the 1st Prize Fund, stands at £85.50, and the 2nd prize fund at £30.25.

It costs only £1 per month to have a chance of winning.

Find out more and join our 50-50 Club.

Digging Up Your Roots Podcasts

2012-01-20T19:32:00.003Z

I've already blogged about the new series of BBC Radio Scotland's popular Digging Up Your Roots family history programme.

I’ve now found out that podcasts of the Digging Up Your Roots programmes can be downloaded. The podcasts are available for 30 days after broadcast, so I think the first programme will be available until 7th February 2012, and the subsequent programmes correspondingly later.

The first programme includes one of our members, Marjorie Gavin, talking about Dr John Leyden, the famous poet and orientalist from Denholm. I’m still able to listen to last year’s Digging Up Your Roots podcasts so I’m presuming that once they’re downloaded you’ll be able to listen to them over and over again.

20 Most Common Surnames - New Feature on Parish Pages

2012-01-12T19:45:00.007Z

I've always been fascinated by the diversity of surnames and their geographical distribution, and my mind takes a leap when I speak to somebody with a surname new to me. This week's new names were DRAGE, ABLITT and QUICKFALL.

When I was a child holidaying in West Mersea, Essex, the dominance of particular surnames was really obvious; MUSSETT by a long way the most common, other common names being PAYNE, COX, CLARKE.

There is a new feature on our parish pages that shows the 20 most common surnames in the burial places that we've recorded and published. For example, on the Galashiels parish page, the 20 most common surnames on gravestones recorded by us in the Galashiels - Eastlands and St Peter's monumental inscriptions volume are (number of gravestones in brackets): SCOTT (132), BROWN (109), THOMSON (71), WILSON (69), MURRAY (67), DAVIDSON (57), ANDERSON (54), SMITH (53), HENDERSON (53), ROBERTSON (48), SANDERSON (47), TURNBULL (41), BELL (41), DOUGLAS (39), STEWART (38), DICKSON (37), WOOD (37), HALL (35), McLAREN (35), WELSH (35),

and the 20 most common surnames on gravestones recorded by us in the Galashiels - Old Ladhope monumental inscriptions volume are (number of gravestones in brackets): BROWN (29), SANDERSON (21), SCOTT (20), ROBERTS (14), PATERSON (13), HALL (13), MURRAY (12), THOMSON (10), WALKER (9), WILSON (9), DICKSON (9), MARK (8), CAIRNS (8), SIME (8), LAIDLAW (8), CLARK (7), HEWAT (7), HOGARTH (7), MAXWELL (7), ANDERSON (7).

Some of our monumental inscriptions volumes include burial grounds in more than one parish, for example, Channelkirk and Legerwood . As the composite index for the volume is included in the Gravestones Index, the parish pages for these parishes show the 20 most common surnames in the composite index.

We've created this list for each of our publications and we'll add more lists as we revise or issue new monumental inscriptions books and CDs. See our parish pages for the parishes that interest you.

However, it’s not a totally accurate guide to the popularity of surnames in a parish. Obviously, the surnames of people for whom there is no gravestone aren’t included, and the burials in each cemetery are over a long period of time, so some surnames might have been more common in the 1820s than they were in the 1920s.

Maps Workshop at the National Library of Scotland

2012-01-12T19:16:00.001Z

There's a Maps for Family and Local History workshop at the National Library of Scotland on 29th February at 2pm where you can find out about the range of historical maps available. The workshop includes an introduction to the Maps Reading Room.

Bookings.

Family History Workshops at the National Library of Scotland

2012-01-12T18:13:00.001Z

The National Library of Scotland is running family history workshops in Edinburgh on 21st February 2012 at 6pm and 19th March 2012 at 10am.

Bookings.

Breaking Stones for Road-Mending and the Stone Project

2012-01-10T01:13:00.003Z

I went to a very interesting talk in Maxton, Scotland on Monday evening by Jake Harvey, emeritus Professor and former head of Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, about the international Stone Project.

He talked for well over an hour, with interesting slides and videos, about quarrying and stone working techniques, sculptors and stone workers, sculptures, and exhibitions.

For me, one of the most astonishing views was that of a female quarry worker in Peenya Quarry, India, breaking up stone using a 15kg (33 lbs) hammer. She must have tremendous strength and I wonder if her back aches too ? She has no protection from chips on splinters, not for her bare arms, feet and ankles, or her head, particularly not for her eyes. I suspect her sari is pretty thin and chips could easily fly through thin cloth. I also wondered if she had ever hit her feet, a blow from that hammer would surely break foot bones.

When Jake said she was breaking stone for road repairs, I immediately thought of the women described in the poor registers (for example, Widow Davidson of Jedburgh, Scotland, aged 45, who 'breaks down stones into sand, and makes about 3d a day'), and in the poorhouse at Jedburgh engaged in breaking stones.

There's more about Widow Davidson of Jedburgh in our publications, Jedburgh Parish (1852-1874) and Jedburgh Parish (1875-1893).

I wonder how Widow Davidson was attired, whether she had any protection, and whether she did the work at home or in a quarry, and whether she was supervised. I haven't managed to find any detailed descriptions of this type of work.

Digging Up Your Roots

2012-01-09T20:26:00.005Z

Just been catching up with the first programme of the new series of Digging Up Your Roots which was broadcast on Radio Scotland on Sunday 8th Jan. A listener was querying the surname Leyden and possible connections with the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. Marjorie Gavin was featured on the programme, recounting the life and achievements of John Leyden, the famous poet and orientalist from Denholm.

The programme is available on the BBC iplayer until Saturday.

East India Company Family Networks and Identities in Roxburghshire

2012-01-05T23:01:00.004Z

The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 is a 3-year research project ending in August 2014 funded by the Leverhulme Trust, led by Professor Margot Finn of Warwick University.

The project will look at the routes by which Asian luxury goods (for example, ceramics, textiles, metal-ware, furniture and fine art) found their way into the homes of Britain’s governing elite in the Georgian and early Victorian periods, and examines
what these exotic objects meant in these domestic settings and in wider national and international contexts.

The project builds upon historical research produced by family and local historians, curators, academics and other researchers into a wider collaborative research project that illuminates Britain's global material culture from the eighteenth century
to the present.

Dr Helen Clifford will play a leading role in orchestrating the project’s engagement with local and family historians, working together with the project's full-time postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Kate Smith.

Ms Ellen Filor will be funded by the grant to complete a doctoral dissertation on East India Company family networks and identities in Roxburghshire (1780-1857) as an integral part of the larger research team.

Express your interest in the East India Company at Home project.

50-50 Club Draw Results - Jackpot Prize Not Yet Won

2012-01-05T20:59:00.003Z

The letters drawn in the December draw were B, H, S.

There were no winners.

The jackpot, the 1st Prize Fund stands at £79.75 and the 2nd Prize fund stands at £24.50.

It costs only £1 per month to have a chance of winning.

Find out more and join our 50-50 Club.

Correction to Channelkirk Parish Page

2012-01-03T00:17:00.000Z

My thanks to Harry Watson for telling me that the Channelkirk page had started displaying a Shetland map again.

Unfortunately these maps depend on an interface with the National Library of Scotland's map library, so if their change affects us, we have to change our page.

I've now resolved the problem and the Channelkirk page is now showing the correct map.

You may need to refresh the Channelkirk page in your browser a couple of times in case your browser has cached the page.

New Telephone Scam ?

2011-12-22T23:59:00.002Z

Actually I suppose it isn't new, but it is new to me.
It's essentially a different way of presenting an old trick that I nearly fell for it, and I'm blogging it to prevent you falling for it.

Last week I was phoned by a lassie with a very pleasant Scots accent - somewhere in the Central belt, I think, but not Glasgow or Edinburgh.

She said she was conducting a survey on behalf of Genealogy UK magazine to find out about the family historian audience in the UK.

That's believable, though I hadn't heard of the title, there are probably lots of magazines I don't know.

She said she would ask me several questions and she asked me to indicate the answers by pressing numbers on my telephone so that they could be captured automatically and stored in a database.

The first question was "How long have you been researching your family history ?"
Key
0 for not yet started
1 for less than 1 year
2 for 1 to 3 years
3 for 3 to 5 years
4 for 5 to 10 years
5 for more than 10 years

I was just about to press 5, when it occurred to me that whatever number I pressed, I might be connected to a premium rate line, so I just put down the phone.

The BT 1471 service told me "We do not have the caller's number to return", which I think means that the call originated outside the UK.

I wouldn't have blogged this at all, had it not been a genealogical pretence, however, a friend who has not researched their family history, also had a similar call.

I've since discovered that there is no Genealogy UK magazine.

Have you had such a call ?

Start Your Family Tree Week - 26 December to 1 January

2011-12-21T21:04:00.002Z

Next week, apparently, is Start Your Family Tree Week, a celebration which escaped my attention last year. It seems to have been started in Ireland, last year.

To celebrate this week, and no doubt to jump on the holiday season competition bandwagon, FindMyPast will provide tips and hints next week, and is running a competition.

There are lots of prizes:

A day with Else Churchill at the Society of Genealogists including return travel by train to London and two nights' accommodation in London
Subscriptions to the British Newspaper Archive, Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, family history societies, Family History Monthly magazine,
Family Tree magazine
Tickets to Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2012
Family Historian family tree software packs

You'll need to be quick off the mark, though, as you need to visit their Facebook or Twitter page for a new question to answer every day between 26 December and 1 January, and then send the answers by email by 10 January 2012.

More information on FindMyPast's competition.

However, the real winners will be the people who start researching their family tree or who make progress with it. Good luck !

Win a Family History Guide

2011-12-21T19:49:00.003Z

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is offering the chance to win an expert research guides.

The five books to be won are:

Tracing Your Family History on the Internet by Chris Paton
Tracing Your Legal Ancestors by Stephen Wade
Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors by Mike Royden
Tracing Your Naval Ancestors by Simon Fowler
Tracing Your Rural Ancestors by Jonathan Brown

More about the Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine competition.

The closing date is 13 January 2012.

Good luck!

Hawick Heritage Hub - Changed Opening Hours

2011-12-12T22:37:00.004Z

If you're planning a visit to the Hawick Heritage Hub (Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre) from 19th December, please note the changed hours.

Monday 19 December 10am - 4:45pm
Tuesday 20 December 10am - 4:45pm
Wednesday 21 December Closed
Thursday 22 December 10am - 4:45pm
Friday 23 December 10am - 1pm 2pm-4.45pm
Saturday 24 December Closed

The Hub will be closed for Christmas and New Year from 24 December 2011 and re-open on Thursday 5 January 2012.

Their new opening hours (from 5th January 2012) will be:

Mondays 9:30am - 1pm 2pm-4.45pm
Tuesdays 9:30am - 1pm 2pm-7pm
Wednesdays Pre-booked groups and school groups only
Thursdays 9:30am - 1pm 2pm-7pm
Fridays 9:30am - 1pm 2pm-4.45pm
Saturdays 10am - 2pm

There's been positive reaction from several people, one of whom said that the new hours are more convenient, another said that she'll make more use of the facilities because she can get in straight after dropping her daughter at school.

50-50 Club Draw Results

2011-12-12T22:16:00.005Z

The letters drawn in the November draw were Z, U, O.

There were no winners.

The 1st Prize Fund stands at £74.25 and the 2nd Prize fund stands at £19.

Find out more and join our 50-50 Club.

More Maps Implemented on our Parish Pages

2011-12-11T20:26:00.003Z

Yesterday, I added maps for the majority of our parish pages.

I have now added maps for these parishes:
Castleton, Kirkurd, Langton, Manor, Mertoun, Newlands.

One tip - you can't accidentally remove or spoil the map. If the map disappears, or you've resized it or moved it around and you want to look at the original again, just refresh the page.

Maps Implemented on our Parish Pages

2011-12-11T00:33:00.002Z

At the Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference on 1 December 2011, Martin Ogg mentioned Visit Scotland's intention to geo-web some of their pages.
I thought it would be nice to do that for our parish pages but I didn't know how, so I didn't mention it as one of the ideas.

After looking at the new additions to digital six-inch maps of Scotland, I noticed that the National Library of Scotland have created a Maps API (application program interface) which makes it possible to put their maps on our website.

I've used this to put maps on to the Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire parish pages for the following parishes:
Ancrum, Abbey St Bathans, Ashkirk, Ayton, Bedrule, Bowden, Broughton, Glenholm & Kilbucho, Bunkle & Preston, Caddonfoot, Cavers, Channelkirk, Chirnside, Cockburnspath, Coldingham, Coldstream, Crailing, Cranshaws, Drumelzier, Duns, Earlston, Eccles, Eckford, Eddleston, Edgerston, Ednam, Edrom, Ettrick, Eyemouth, Fogo, Foulden, Galashiels, Gordon, Greenlaw, Hawick, Hobkirk, Hounam, Hutton, Innerleithen, Jedburgh, Kelso, Kirkhope, Kirkton, Ladykirk, Lauder, Legerwood, Lilliesleaf, Linton, Longformacus, Lyne & Megget, Makerstoun, Maxton, Melrose, Minto, Mordington, Morebattle, Nenthorn, Oxnam, Peebles, Polwarth, Roberton, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Simprim, Skirling, Smailholm, Southdean & Abbotrule, Sprouston, St Boswells, Stitchill, Stobo, Swinton, Teviothead, Traquair, Tweedsmuir, West Linton, Westruther, Whitsome, Wilton, Yarrow, Yetholm.

I haven't yet added maps for these parishes:
Castleton, Kirkurd, Langton, Manor, Mertoun, Newlands because the API method I'm using doesn't work for these parishes, however I hope to rectify this in the next week.

The maps appear below the Magazine Articles listing.
The maps used are the Quarter-inch to the mile, Scotland, 1921-1923 and/or the One-inch to the mile, Popular edition, Scotland, 1920-1930.
You can use the control at the top left of the map to zoom in or out and drag the map left, right, up, or down as you wish.

If you've looked at these pages before, you may need to refresh the page once or twice in order to see the map.
Please let me know if you have problems or if you see a mistake.

Another Isle of Man Collection Added to Family Search

2011-12-05T01:11:00.001Z

I've just discovered a family member in a new collection indexed by Family Search.

They now have 4 sets of vital records for the Isle of Man though there's a warning for the first 3 collections that only a few localities are included and the time period varies by locality.

Isle of Man Births and Baptisms, 1821-1911
Isle of Man Marriages, 1849–1911
Isle of Man Deaths and Burials, 1844-1911
Isle of Man, Parish Registers, 1598-1950, containing baptisms, marriages, and deaths.

All in all, there's over 300,000 records included, and that must be good.

There's also a full list of all 891 of the Family Search collections.

The family member I found was Hamlet Lowe who married Catharine Ware at Braddan, Isle of Man, on 08 Jan 1788, though, of course, I still need to check that he is the correct one. I wonder where she was born, as there's no mention of her birth in the Isle of Man.

New Additions to Digital Six-inch Maps of Scotland, 1892-1960, at National Library of Scotland

2011-12-04T01:21:00.001Z

The National Library of Scotland have made available a full range of the Six-inch 2nd and later edition maps of Scotland, 1892-1960.

That's just what we've been waiting for. It was revised for Scotland from 1892-1907, and then updated regularly until the 1940s. You can zoom into the detail of the OS six-inch maps using an interactive index map, and search by county, parish and a gazetteer of place names.
You can order digital images and prints.

Use the maps link or the county links below, click the sheet on the map that you want, then at the left select the actual map you want.

Berwickshire

Peeblesshire

Roxburghshire

Selkirkshire

Free Access to American World War II military records

2011-12-03T00:20:00.002Z

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the defence against the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Ancestry are offering their entire collection of 58 million World War II military records for free access until midnight ET on 7th December (which I think means 5am GMT on 8th December).

You can search and get a skeleton overview for nothing, but to get the details you'll need to register for (or sign in with) a free account.

It doesn't say so, however their records seem only to relate to people that lived in America or who were in the United States forces. This does include Scots born here, so it may still be worth while searching. There's an illustrated PDF research guide available for download.

Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference on 1 December 2011

2011-12-01T21:32:00.005Z

I went to the Scottish Borders Tourism Industry Conference today, organised by Visit Scotland and Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership held at the Buccleuch Arms Hotel, St Boswells. There were about 50 delegates.

I didn't know what to expect and I thought it wasn't likely to be useful particularly as I had intended going to the monthly Scottish Borders Social Enterprise Chamber Business Group meeting.

I'm glad I attended, and fortunately the Salmon Room at the hotel was warm on arrival.

I was very inspired by Professor John Lennon's talk on 'Tourism businesses and how to survive in a recession'. Although Borders Family History Society is a charity and not a tourism business that needs to make a profit, much of what Professor Lennon said was valid for us, too. It's also important that as a charity we generate a surplus to help us remain sustainable and improve facilities for our beneficiaries. We're also members of Ancestral Scotland and we think it's so important that we have the Ancestral Scotland logo on our home page.

I got some good ideas from Martin Ogg's presentation on the new Visit Scotland website and the work that the website team are undertaking.

I didn't understand a lot of the Marketing presentation but there were some stunning images in their new campaign, and as a regular user and reviewer for Trip Advisor , I was interested that there was a widget available (though it costs £200) for tourism businesses.

Nice buffet lunch especially the tomato soup.

After lunch, David Taylor told us about the Year of Creative Scotland set up to 'celebrate and promote Scotland’s cultural and creative vibrancy, shine a spotlight on our creative assets, provide a test-bed for new initiatives and a launch platform for activity to support Year of Homecoming in 2014 .'

I also attended the Accessible Tourism session after the main conference, telling the fewer people that remained about the importance of accessibility and how to improve. I think this session should have been in the main conference.

We were told the slides for the presentations will be on the Visit Scotland corporate site, and I found them useful.

Here are the ideas and inspirations I took away from the day:

It would be nice to show equivalent prices in euros and US Dollars for the sterling prices on our website
Put testimonials by users of our services on the website
Put highlights of our Annual Report on our blog
Put the top 10 surnames in the Gravestones Index on our parish pages

Scott's Selkirk - 3rd and 4th December

2011-12-01T00:36:00.001Z

Just a reminder that it's Scott's Selkirk in Selkirk (Scotland) on 3rd and 4th December !

This annual event is loads of fun, people in old-fashioned clothes walking around, decorated shops, stalls in the High St with interesting things to taste and unusual presents you can buy for Christmas presents.

It commemorates Sir Walter Scott, and there's re-enactments of him presiding in the Court-house; but there'll also be tours of the prison under the main road, the A7, music in the streets and the Square, childrens activities at Halliwell's House museum and fireworks to finish the festival off.
According to the website there's tours of Haining House (with mulled wine) but that's not mentioned in the program.

More info about Scott's Selkirk.

I try to go every year, however the weather caused its cancellation last year.

Even though there's snow on Soutra, I hope it's going ahead this year.

See you there ?

Innerleithen Wins Competition for Fastest Broadband

2011-11-29T18:35:00.001Z

Earlier this year, Innerleithen was one of six winners in a BT competition to find communities where there was highest demand for super-fast broadband. All the other winners are in England.

According to the BBC "BT has announced that Innerleithen is to become the first place in the country to benefit from fibre to premises superfast broadband".

More about the BBC News item 'Innerleithen to get fastest broadband speed in Scotland'.

That's good for our chairman, David Rudram, because he lives in Innerleithen but it's good for the town as well, because business will be attracted by the availability of super-fast broadband.

It's also good for another of our trustees, Gwen Stein, who provides family history research at The Wells, Innerleithen from March till October and maintains a photographic archive of people and events after World War II for Innerleithen, Traquair, and Walkerburn and can help with your research in those localities.

Innerleithen was in the news last July, too, when we announced the completion of our Innerleithen Monumental Inscriptions (gravestone inscriptions) volume.