Really Useful Podcast : Season 2 Episode 5

The Family History Federation has now launched Season 2, Episode 5 of its series of Really Useful Podcasts. 

 

This episode is titled 'Occupations : Work, Leisure and Health'.  The website describes it : 

"By learning about occupations, we gain a better understanding of the lives of our ancestors such as their health conditions and how they spent their spare time. Our guests share stories and offer advice in this special extended episode. 

Joe is joined by Margaret Roberts, sports historian and editor of the Playing Pasts online sports history magazine, Publicity Officer for the FHS of Cheshire and Society Liaison Officer for the Federation http://www.playingpasts.co.uk and https://www.fhsc.org.uk, Sophie Kay, professional genealogist at Khronicle https://www.khronicle.co.uk/ and Ian Waller, retired professional genealogist, Vice-Chairman and Education Officer of the Federation, Fellow of the Society of Genealogist and author of three books in the ‘My Ancestor Was…’ series."

RootsTech

The 2023 RootsTech conference is on again, and for those of us unable to visit the conference in person in Salt Lake City, virtual attendance is once again available FREE.

There is a range of keynote speakers, on-demand videos, even the Expo Hall has virtual exhibitions you can visit online.  Once you have signed in you can even use the sessions calendar to create your own playlist so you don't miss out on any of the talks you wanted to listen to.

As most of the keynotes and classes are available online for up to 3 years, you can work through your playlist at your leisure.

So have a look at what is available and take advantage of this wonderful FREE online conference from the comfort of home.

A Masonic Connection

In my last post I showed some of my newspaper finds amongst death, funeral and probate notices, and the details they could provide.  In the case of two of my ancestors, they also led me to the discovery of some Masonic connections I had previously been unaware of.

When my great great grandfather John Clark passed away on June 11th 1894, his family placed a notice in The Age inviting friends to attend his funeral.

Directly below this first notice was another, inserted by the Brighton Union Lodge, inviting members to also attend John's funeral.  Until I found this notice I had no idea he was a Mason.

When his son, my great grandfather James Nicholas Clark died in 1924, similar notices were placed.  Which is how I discovered James was also a Mason.

The above notices were published in The Age, Friday 8 February 1924, page 16.  Like his father, James was also a member of the Brighton Union Lodge, and the Lodge placed a funeral notice alongside that of his family.  Note that in the Lodge notice has his surname listed a Clarg - spelling errors can never be discounted.

Death and Funeral Notices

As I continue my current fixation on researching old newspapers, I have come to realise I have quite a number of death, funeral and probate notices amongst my finds.

While many of these notices contain the basic details only, others provide a number of interesting details which can be very useful in further research.  Take the notices regarding my ancestor William Pummeroy and the details they provide.

Above is his death notice, from the Leader, Saturday 12 October 1889, page 43.  This notice not only gives William's date of death but his full address, age at death, names of his children (including married names of his daughters), a count of his grandchildren and how long he had lived in the colony - which helps me find his immigration details.  So much information is such a short statement.

Next we have the notice of the application for probate from The Age, Wednesday 16 October 1889, page 8.  This gives me William's occupation and the names, occupation and addresses of his executors - two of his sons.

Finally, I have a report of the details of William's will, something I have rarely found reported in the newspapers.  This was published in Table Talk (part of the Government Gazette), Friday 29 November 1889, page 6 and gives some wonderful detail of his property, belongings and the value of the estate he left behind.

Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project

The volunteers of the Irish Registry of Deeds Index Project have been hard at work on the project over the past few months, greatly expanding the work already done.

The purpose of this project is to provide finding aids for the records held at the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. There are three sets of indexes produced by the project:

• The main index is building a name index for the memorial transcription books held at the Registry of Deeds
• The grantors index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' grantors indexes
• The townland index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' townland indexes

Each of these index databases can be searched on a number of fields. None, of course, is complete. Each has those index entries contributed by the project volunteers.

Over the past year the Index has continued to grow, with the table above showing the current number of index entries.  All the Indexes are free to search