Victorian Asylum Records online

Did your ancestor spend time in an asylum in Victoria?  You may be able to access some of their records through Find My Past.
This record set includes eleven institutions, covering admission years from 1811-1919, and discharge dates from 1838-1914. While the information included varies, each transcript will include:

• Full name – note that some names may be truncated in the records (e.g. Elzbth for Elizabeth).
• Age
• Date of admission
• Date of discharge/transfer
• Method of discharge
• Hospital

My great great grandfather John Clark was admitted to Kew in May 1894 at the age of 59 suffering from dementia.  He was admitted on the authority of his son James after assessment by 2 doctors, and his admission record (below) notes him to be in feeble bodily health.  James died in Kew barely a month after his admission.

Kew Lunatic Asylum admission register for John Clark

Cornish Memory

Do you have Cornish ancestors?  cornishmemory.com was created by the Azook Community Interest Company to help museums, heritage organisations and private collectors improve access to the film, audio and photographic heritage that they hold.
Azook's vision was to develop a web site enabling anyone to search, view and listen to archive content. With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, through a project called 'Out of the Box', cornishmemory.com was created. Oral history recordings belonging to community groups became the very first collections to go on line.  The rest of the collection was acquired through a large range of formats, including VHS, U-matic and Hi8 decks, 8mm and 16mm cine film converters, reel to reel, cassette, and DAT decks, MiniDisc and more.  Using state-of-the-art technology, this range of older and obsolete formats has been converted into digital media.
As news of the project is spread, more museums and private collectors are becoming aware of the online archive and choosing to share their collections with the public through cornishmemory.com. As time goes by the project is expected to continue to expand.  The archive currently contains over 31,000 items.
The site even features an interactive map which allows you to zoom and click to see items which have had locations added to them, although it is noted that not all items have locations attached to them.  You can also perform a specific search or browse the collection to see what is there.

Was your ancestor a Freemason?

As of Monday 23 November, the records of over two million practising Freemasons dating back to the 18th century have been uploaded to Ancestry.co.uk.  Spanning 1751-1921, the larger of the two datasets names men that belonged to the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), which still acts as the governing body for Freemasonry in England, Wales and several countries overseas.  The second collection covers 1733-1923 and provides details of Freemasons belonging to masonic lodges across the 32 historic counties of Ireland, including those that were attached to British Army Regiments in the country.

The UGLE is the governing body for Freemasonry in England, Wales and some countries overseas. Each Masonic lodge anually returns to the Grand Lodge a list of its members which are used to compile the membership registers, described as Contribution Books, which are reproduced in this collection. While the majority of the registers available theough Ancestry are from lodges in England, registers are also available from lodges in Wales, Northern Ireland, and several countries overseas such as Canada, Australia, India and South Africa.

There are three degrees in Craft Freemasonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. A man will normally pass through these three degrees, known as initiation, passing and raising, and the date that he passes each degree is recorded in the register. It is worth noting that man was not confined to membership of one lodge and thus may appear on several registers. When he passed the three degrees and became a Master Mason, he could join as many lodges as he wished. The date that he joined a new lodge is recorded by his name in the register. The registers also record when membership ceased, and sometimes a reason is given. The majority of the entries also record the age, profession and brief address of a man when he became a Freemason.

Victorian Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates

Hate waiting for BMD certificates you have ordered to make their slow way to you in the post?  Wait no more.  Did you know that the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria allows you to download certificates from their Historical Indexes on the spot?  A Historical Image is a scanned image of the original registration record which cannot be used for official purposes. Download purchased images to your computer at a cost of $24 per image.  Historical Death Certificates, which are a certified copy of the original registration record and can be used for official purposes, can still be purchased in hard copy form to be posted to you at a cost of $31 per certificate.

The Historical index has entries relating to:

• births in Victoria from 1853 to 1914
• marriages in Victoria from 1853 to 1942
• deaths in Victoria from 1853 to 1988
• church baptisms, marriages and burials in Victoria from 1836 to 1853

Each entry includes the:

• name of the person or people the entry relates to
• type of event (such as birth, marriage or death)
• registration year
• registration number
• other information relevant to the type of event.

Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories

Do you have Scottish ancestors?  If so, you will probably be interested in the latest database Ancestry has added to their already considerable holdings.
The new database includes an index and images to the Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories filed in Scotland for the years 1876–1936. Ancestry's website tells us that "In Scotland, probate records are called confirmations and they include a testament and an inventory of the estate. The testament is the court record ordering distribution of the deceased’s estate. Some included wills (testament testamentar) and some did not (testament dative), the latter being more common."
As with probate records everywhere, not everyone filed testaments for a variety of reasons, especially if they had little to leave. The wealthy were more likely to have filed a Confirmation, simply because they had more money, resources and property to distribute. Regardless of your ancestor’s wealth and social standing however, checking the Confirmations way be well worth your time.
The calendar, which began publication in 1876, is separated into a different volume for each year with the entries in each volume are then alphabetised by surname. Information varies across different entries, but each typically includes:

• testament date
• full name of the deceased
• death date and place
• name of an executor (often a relative, but sometimes a creditor)
• where and when the testament was recorded

17th Century London animation

Ever wondered what London looked like centuries ago?  Six students from De Montfort University have created a 3D representation of 17th century London, as it existed before The Great Fire of 1666. The three-minute animation portrays Tudor London, and particularly a section called Pudding Lane, which is where the fire started. As judges noted, “Although most of the buildings are conjectural, the students used a realistic street pattern and even included the hanging signs of genuine inns and businesses.” The signs portrayed have been mentioned in diaries from the period, and the street patterns taken from historical maps of the time.
Their animation saw the De Montfort team was awarded first prize in the Off the Map contest, a competition run by The British Library and video game developers GameCity and Crytek.

Remembrance Day

Each year the Department of Veterans’ Affairs produces a Remembrance Day poster with a commemorative focus.  This 2009 poster features an image of the Flanders poppies and is overlaid with the text of the poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, and was downloaded from their website.  I have always loved this poem and can remember my father reciting it in the past.

Find My Past

For those of you with subscriptions to Find My Past, there have been some exciting new additions to their website over the past few weeks.  I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Firstly, Find My Past has put online electoral registers from England and Wales that span the years from 1832 to 1932. In total, this collection consists of some 5.4 million images containing 220 million names. These records can be searched by first name, last name, year, county, constituency and polling district. I love Electoral rolls as they can serve as a valuable supplement to 10-year census records and can be used to trace the address of someone who moved frequently. They can also help to estimate the year of birth and the year of death of an ancestor, as once an individual reached voting age, they tended to stay on the voting list until they died. To estimate the year of birth, simply determine the first time a person appears on the electoral roll. Counting backwards from this year by the minimum voting age provides a reasonable estimate of the year of birth.

Secondly, FindMyPast launched the UK 1939 National Identity Register on Monday 2 November.  Basically, the 1939 National Identity Register, although not a census, did have some similar information to a census, and it was taken on the night of Friday 29 September 1939 just after the start of World War II. The British Government conducted the survey because it wanted updated statistics on the population so that identity cards could be issued. It was also required in case a draft was needed, in case of mobilisation, in case of mass evacuation of the general population and in case rationing was required (which was introduced just a few months later in January 1940). The details recorded in the 1939 National Identity Register include name, address, sex, specific date of birth (not just their age), marital status, occupation and whether the person was a member of the armed forces or reserves. There was a strong incentive for everyone to register correctly. Other than societal pressure given that war had just broken out, it was widely broadcast that anyone who “neglected” to register would not be eligible in the future for ration books. One thing to note is that due to privacy issues, information listed on individuals still alive today will not be included in the database.

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