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?

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??

Hitler's Black Book

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Forces War Records have translated and put online for the first time what is known as Hitler’s Black Book (officially called Sonderfahndungsliste Gross Britannien). It lists 2,820 English people that the Nazi regime viewed as enemies of the state, people in the UK who were targeted for execution if Germany was successful in winning the Battle of Britain.

The list was drawn up by SS General Walter Schellenbergs office.
Schellenberg was to become the ‘Police’ chief responsible for GB after an invasion, the main Gestapo offices were to be based in Birmingham.
The list shows the department of the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt- Reich security service) which would investigate each individual, giving insight into what ‘crimes’ the individual was suspected of being involved in.

Hitler studying invasion plans

Most of the people on the list were politicians, writers, prominent émigrés, known intelligence agents, scientists, entertainers and artists.  Not surprisingly, the hit list is full of people whom the Nazis knew spied on Germany, such as Conrad Fulke Thomond O’Brien-french, the real-life British Secret Intelligence officer who served as the role model for 007 James Bond. Also included are well-known politicians such as Winston Churchill. What is surprising are some of the other names on the list, such as Lord Baden-Powell (the founder of scouts), the author HG Wells and the entertainer Noel Coward.

Irish Lives Remembered

 

The September/October  edition of Irish Lives Remembered  is now available and can be read/downloaded FREE of charge via www.irishlivesremembered.com

Features include

• Genealogist and lecturer, Joe Buggy looks at tracing the Irish in Texas

• New Jersey genealogist, Maureen Wlodarczyk takes a look at the lives of James Power,  Rosalie Bridget Hart & the Irish colonization of Texas

• Tracing your Workhouse Ancestors -  6 step guide from Findmypast Ireland on how best to navigate through their record database

• Jayne Shrimpton covers a photo from a kindergarten in Waterford dated 1929

• Flyleaf Press added Tracing Your Kerry Ancestors to their county book series.

• Fly Leaf Press are offering a special discount on their title ‘IRISH CHURCH RECORDS’ for €20

• New Irish records on Findmypast Ireland

• IARC help launch Limerick DNA project

• Derry Genealogist Brian Mitchell remembers Second Lieutenant George Mitchell and the Relief of Kut who was killed in action on 1 February 1917

• The McMahon Archival Collection at Clare Museum includes details of 60 families and landed estates in County Clare from 1600’s to mid 1900’s

• Ireland Reaches Out launches Epic Journeys Ellis Island which brings to life the experiences of people who left Ireland at the turn of the 19th Century and passed through the Immigration Station at Ellis Island before scattering to all parts of North America to begin a new life

• University College Cork announces their line-up of speakers for their annual 2016 Irish Genealogy Summer School.

 

New Records on Ancestry

Once again Ancestry has been adding new records to their database.  Here are some of the Australian and United Kingdom records which have been added or updated in the past few months.

New Australian Records

Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854

Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records, 1800-1899

Victoria, Australia, Lunatic Estates and Register, 1867-1906

Victoria, Australia, Selected Trial Brief and Correspondence Registers and Other Images, 1837-1993

Victoria, Australia, Deserter, Discharged, and Prisoner Crew Lists, 1852-1925

Australia Newspaper Vital Notices, 1851-1997

New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Marriages, 1790-1966

New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Burials, 1790-1986

New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Baptisms, 1790-1916

New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Confirmations, 1911-1925 and 1960-1966

Victoria, Australia, Index to Naturalisation Certificates, 1851-1928

Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923

Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980

Australia, WWI Service Records, 1914-1920

New United Kingdom Records

U.K., Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1914

London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1659-1930

Leeds, England, Beckett Street Cemetery, 1845-1987

West Yorkshire, England, Select Removal and Settlement Records, 1689-1866

UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835

UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628-1969

Manchester, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930 (Cathedral)

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

UK, City, Town and Village Photos, 1857-2005

UK, Apprentices Indentured in Merchant Navy, 1824-1910

London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965

Gloucestershire, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938

Gloucestershire, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813

Gloucestershire, England, Confirmations, 1834-1913

Gloucestershire, England, Burials, 1813-1988

Gloucestershire, England, Baptisms, 1813-1913

Northern Ireland, Will Calendar Index, 1858-1943

UK, British Army Muster Books and Pay Lists, 1812-1817

The Bomb Site

The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps , geo-referenced the maps and digitally captured the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map.

You can use the interactive web-mapping application to explore and search for different bomb locations across London. Click on individual bombs and find out information relating to the neighbouring area by reviewing contextual images and memories from the Blitz.

You can explore statistics for different areas and see how many bombs fell in different wards and boroughs in London as well as read memories of Londoners contributed to the BBC WW2 People's War and images from the Imperial War Museum to allow you to visualise what it was like in London at such a difficult time.

Save Your Photos Day

Can you imagine losing your treasured family photos, videos and other documents? In the digital age that we live in, it doesn't just take a natural disaster to wipe our your photo library. A crashed hard drive or broken smart phone can also result in instant loss of treasured memories.

How safe are your photos and other treasures?  How prepared are you for a fire, flood or other catastrophe??  How often do you back up your digital photos - and how safe are your backups??  The Save Your Photos website has hints and tips for you.

On Save Your Photos Day consider how you can better preserve, backup and share your family's photographs, both physical and digital, and make sure they are preserved for future generations.