Thursday, October 22, 2015

Was your ancestor a Suffragette?

Ancestry.com has just added to their collection the records of English Suffragettes Arrested from 1906-1914.
In October 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst left the more peaceful National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) to form the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Mrs. Pankhurst believed that more drastic means were necessary if women were to achieve suffrage. From 1903 to 1917, the WSPU was the leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in Great Britain, using law-breaking, violence, and hunger strikes as tactics to highlight their cause, and members became known as suffragettes.
Upon the outbreak of war in August 1914 some of the suffrage societies (but not all) declared a suspension to militant tactics for the duration of the conflict. In response, the government granted an amnesty to all suffrage prisoners.
At the beginning of the amnesty the Home Office compiled a list of all suffrage campaigners they were providing amnesty to, creating the document ‘Amnesty of August 1914: index of women arrested 1906-1914’ - which also includes the names of more than one hundred men. Each record consists of the name of the person arrested, and the date and place of arrest. If a person was arrested more than once, the details of each arrest are documented. Over 1000 male and female suffrage campaigners who were at some point arrested are listed in the document - so was your ancestor a Suffragette?

Friday, October 16, 2015

FamilySearch App Centre

We all use a variety of apps and programs in our genealogical lives - we use them for searching, recording, organising, sharing and more.  It seems like every time I turn around, I hear about something new that seems worth a look.  Some I fall in love with and dive into, finding something new, useful and unique that this program offers me that others do not.  Some I look over and play with a bit but ultimately decide programs I am already using offer me the same thing.  Others I look at, find them wanting, and discard (some I wonder why they were ever recommended to me in the first place).  I am always willing to give them a go, however, because you never know what gold you might find, and I am always excited to hear about something new.  And I am always somewhat embarrassed to find out about something that has been around for a while and somehow I have missed it.
Last night, while wandering around the FamilySearch website (as you do) I found something new.  Right down the bottom of their homepage is a little link to their App Gallery.  How long has that been there??!!
Snapshot of the FamilySearch App Gallery
The Apps are grouped to make them easier to search - categories are
  • Find Ancestors
  • Family Tree Software
  • Photos and Stories
  • Charts and Tree Views
  • Tree Analyzing
For each there is a star rating and details of cost - some are free, others have a one-time purchase cost and others require a subscription.  Some of them I already knew about, but others are new to me and I will definitely be spending some time looking through them.
So what apps and programs do you use for genealogy?  What are your favourites?  And do I already know about them??