FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RELEASES FOR 27JUL 2018

Britain, Royal Navy, Navy Lists 1827-1945

Search for your ancestor in official lists of Royal Navy Officers. The collection consists of 147 publications spanning the 1824 to 1945. The collection consists of digital images of original lists presented in PDF format.

The amount of information available will vary from volume to volume. Some details you may be able to discover include an individual's name, rank, seniority, and place of service. 

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British Army Service Records

Over 34,000 new Scots Guards records have been added to our collection of British Army Service records. The new additions consist of Enlistment Registers spanning the years 1642 to 1939.

The records include bot transcripts and images of the original documents. The Register cover both officers and other ranks and will reveal the place, date, and age of the soldier at the time of attestation. You may also find the soldier's birth place, spouse's name, marriage date, and trade prior to joining the army. The books also recorded if the individual received medals or was wounded during service, as well as the individual's rank at the time of discharge.

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Scotland, Edinburgh Marriages 1595-1800

Did any of your relations marry in Edinburgh, Scotland? Discover their names, occupations, residences, spouses and dates of marriage, former marriages, and more in this collection of records from parish registers collated throughout the city.

The collection consists of over 2,400 PDF images of printed marriage registers

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Scotland, Testaments 1514-1800

Did your ancestors die in Scotland? Discover details of their property, relatives, and more in records of their last will and testaments. The collection contains over 2,800 PDF images of original documents

The detail in these records may vary but most will include a combination of the names of those who died, their marital status, their occupations, the names of close relatives, residences and the date of testament. 

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Scotland, Edinburgh Apprentices 1583-1700

Did any of your ancestors learn their trade in Edinburgh? Discover details of their apprenticeships and occupations in this collection of almost 120 years of documents from the capital of Scotland.

The information contained in these records varies. Records may include the names and occupations of relatives, locations of birth and residence, occupations and trades, details of close relations and notable life events. 

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The latest additions to our newspaper collection

This week we have added 114,026 new pages to The Archive. We have updated three of our Irish titles, and there are also updates to titles covering the city of Liverpool, the county of Gloucestershire and one of our Scottish titles.

This week's new additions include;

Irish Independent                                                       1989-1990, 1993-1994
Peeblesshire Advertiser                                             1880-1882, 1887-1892
Cirencester Times and Cotswold Advertiser             1869
Evening Herald (Dublin)                                           1986-1987, 1990
Music Hall and Theatre Review                                1890
Belfast Telegraph                                                       1913-1914, 1920
Liverpool Echo                                                          1984, 1986

Explore British Newspapers

THE BARKER FARM NORTH ANDOVER, MA,

Last week I was watching Chronicle, a program on Boston tv channel WCVB. They were doing a show about the oldest businesses in Massachusetts and one segment was on Barker Farm, the oldest continuously owned & operated family farm. It's located in North Andover, Ma. and was established in 1642.

Now this got my attention right away. My 8x great grandfather Richard Barker was one of the original settlers of the town of Andover in the 1630's so he was the first owner of the farm, and hearing it has stayed in the Barker family amazed me. I mentioned the story on my Facebook page and discussed it with my genealogy friends, saying that I'd have to visit the farm someday.

My distant cousin Heather Wilkinson Rojo of the Nutfield Genealogy geneablog beat me to it and took some pictures while there. She's kindly given me permission to use them here:

There's a farmstand along with a working farm.

While the farm has been operated since 1642 the original buildings are long gone.

Inside the farmstand.

I still hope to visit the farm myself sometime in the next few months. Thank you Heather for taking the pictures!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2018 WEEK 27: RICHARD WILLIS SR. OF PLYMOUTH, MA.

My 9x great grandfather Richard Glass Sr. seems to had a run of bad luck. He arrived in Plymouth sometime in the early 1630's and was a servant of my ancestor John Barnes, Then for some reason he changed masters going to work for Thomas Prence. He left Prence in 1638, acquired 6 acres of land and married Amy Glass in 1639.  And that's where the bad luck really kicked in.

Apparently Richard fell ill, and was unable to finish paying for a bed he had bought from a man named Richard Derby. To make matters worse, it appears he was taken advantage of by Derby. The case was taken to Plymouth Court in January, 1642/43:

 Whereas Richard Willis is endebted vnto Richard Derby the sum of
fourty shillings for a bedd, the which bed not being seene by the said Willis,
but taken vpon the said Derbys word, and it now appeareing, by the oath of
Willm Nelson, that the said bed was not answerable to that goodness the
said Derby aflirmed it to be of, nor of such waight by sixteene pounds as he
aflirmed also it was, and that the tick of the said bed was full of patches, for
w°" the said Willis was to haue payd three pounds fiue shillings, whereof xxv‘
is payd,-—now, the Court doth order that twenty shillings more shalbe payd
in full satisfacéon for it, & no more. -p50

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England: Court orders [being the proceedings of the General Court and the Court of Assistants], 1633-1691 Vol 1, 1633-1640,  from the Press of William White, Boston, 1855

But by September Richard was in bad health and the town went so far as to take up a collection for him. His wife Amy was pregnant with their first child, but I am not sure if he lived long enough to see it born, since Amy Glass Willis remarried in the following year. I am descended from their only child, Richard Willis, Jr.

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RELEASES FOR 20JUL 2018

Here are the Findmypast Friday records released for 20 July:

Lancashire Baptisms

Discover your ancestor in in over 1.1 million baptism register records from Lancashire. Learn when and where your ancestor's baptism took place, as well as your ancestor's parents' names. The registers span the years from 1538 to 1917 and cover 191 parishes across the county. View the full list of places included in our parish list, linked to in the Useful links and resources section. 

Each result will provide you with a transcript and an image of the original register, provided by Lancashire Archives. Some records may contain additional details such as your ancestor's religious denomination, residence and father's occupation. 

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Lancashire Banns & Marriages

Discover your ancestor in banns and marriage registers from the Lancashire Archives. The registers contains over 713,00 records, span the years 1538 to 1932 and cover 194 Lancashire parishes.

Each result will provide you with a transcript and an image of the original register. Each transcript will reveal a combination of the couples' birth years, occupations, marriage date, marriage location, parents' names, father's occupations and the names of any witnesses. Images may offer additional details, such as if your ancestor was married by banns or licence. 

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Lancashire Burials

Discover your ancestor in burial registers from Lancashire. Learn when and where your ancestor's burial took place, as well as your ancestor's age at the time of death. The registers, provided by Lancashire Archives, span the years from 1538 to 199, cover 123 parishes and contain over 712,000 records.

Each result will provide you with a transcript and an image of the original register. Images may provide additional details. 

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Lancashire Parish Registers Browse

Our new collections of Lancashire parish baptisms, marriages, banns and burials are also available to browse.

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Illinois, Tazewell County, Obituary Card Index From The "Pekin Times" 1914-2007 Image Browse

Find your relative in over 90,000 obituary index cards taken from the Pekin Times, spanning the years from 1914 to 2007. This collection has been provided by FamilySearch.

This obituary card index, from the Pekin Public Library, pertains to obituaries published in the Pekin Times and covers the years from 1914 to 2007. The paper was founded in 1881 and is published in Pekin, Illinois.

From this index, you may discover an individual's full name, birth date, death date, and burial place.

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Queensland, Inquests 1859-1897

Discover your ancestor in this index of over 14,000 records compiled from the inquest files created by the Justice Department for the period 1859 to 1897. Each result will provide you with a transcript including a combination of your ancestor's name, alias, and inquest year, any additional notes, their file number, reference and item ID.

Some records only include a first or last name. Others only include a known name, like Greasy Jack. Occasionally, no name is provided, either where it is unknown (e.g. South Sea Islander of Pentecost, sometimes with a location transcribed in the last name field) or where the incident does not pertain to an individual (e.g. fire at Abbott Street, Cairns). 

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New additions to our newspaper collection

This week we have added 134,662 new pages to The Archive. We have updated five of our existing titles, covering the county of Kent and the city of Liverpool. We have also updated three of our Irish titles, with titles covering the latter half of the twentieth century, and the Evening Herald (Dublin) now covering the twenty-first century, with pages added for 2001.

This week's new additions include:
    The years 1925, 1951, 1994-1995, 2001 have been added to the Evening Herald (Dublin)
    1857 has been added to the Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser
    The years 1968, 1978, 1981-1983 have been added to the Liverpool Echo
    The years 1920 - 1921 have been added to the Freeman's Journal
    The years 1912 and 1999 have been added to Irish Independent

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52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2018 WEEK 26:STEPHEN HOPKINS OF PLYMOUTH, MA.

Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower is my 10x great grandfather through his daughter Constance (Hopkins)Snow.  With some of my ancestors I've been unable to find much information to write a blogpost about them. I have the opposite problem with Stephen Hopkins. There is so much out there on him I could find enough for a half-dozen blogposts. But for the purposes of not falling too far behind on the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, I've chosen an excerpt from Annie Arnoux Haxtun's Signers of the Mayflower Compact, Volume 1. It was first published in 1869 and is written in florid style common to that period:

STEPHEN HOPKINS'S POSITION.
Stephen Hopkins's power and position are always shown by his being called "Mister," a title applied as Master.

"Only twelve people have the prefix Mr. in the whole list of the passengers on the Mayflower, Fortune and Little James."

Mr. Stephen Hopkins was a man of great enterprise, and in the present day would have been a very acceptable and appreciative companion at all athletic sports, whether on sea or land. At his place, near Eel River (Plymouth), which he sold in 1637, there was a wharf which gave evidence of age, and was the first one spoken of in the colony. His yacht is not mentioned, though he was part owner of the first ship built in Plymouth, but it was on hand if he could materialize matters to his liking, and there were sure to be "chips" on board for a time of need, though he never carried a "chip on his shoulder."

Not to give precedence to his allegiance to old Neptune, he owned the first horse on record (1644), when a mare belonging to the estate of Stephen Hopkins was appraised at £6 sterling.

Its rate of speed has not come to us, but nothing slow flourished under this master.

His otticeholding was continuous—of the Governor's Council from Plymouth, 16234-5-6; in 1637 one of the volunteers in aid of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut in their war with the Pequods, when the colony concluded to send them assistance, and then was of the committee appointed to levy an assessment to pay the charges of the expedition; then in 1642 was chosen to the Council of War from Plymouth,

No desire could make a narrow-minded Puritan of Mr. Stephen Hopkins; he was broad enough for the methods of the present day. It was not in the blood to live up to the requirements of that early "Vigilance Committee," who were a law unto themselves, with a "single eye" to the faults of others.-p25
Signers of the Mayflower Compact, Volume 1,  The Mail And Express Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1896

I expect to write more posts about Stephen Hopkins in the future,

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RELEASES FOR 13JUL 2018

Over 122,000 new records were added in Findmypast Friday for July 13:

 

Berkshire Registers & Records

Explore over 600 registers and records from the English county of Berkshire. Discover your ancestor in parish registers from Leckhamstead and St Mary, Reading.

This collection currently holds two titles presented in PDF format; Parish Registers of Leckhamstead, 1558-1812 and Parish Registers of St Mary, Reading, 1538-1812. The Registers of Leckhamstead include baptisms, marriages, and burials for Leckhamstead in north Berkshire. Entries will include names and event dates but may also include fathers' names or additional details. The Registers of St Mary include baptisms, marriages and burials as well as a list of vicars with brief biographies.
Search these records
 

 

Durham Registers & Records

Learn more about your Durham ancestors with our collection of more than 2,800 registers and records from the North Eastern County.

There are 16 titles included in this collection including a 1904 guide to the "Antiquities of Sunderland and Its Vicinity" as well as baptisms, marriages and burials covering the parishes of St Nicholas, St Margaret's, St Mary in the South Bailey, Bishop Middleham, the Ancient Chapel of Esh in Lanchester, St Mary le Bow, Winston, Whickham, Whitburn, Ryton, Coniscliffe, Stanhope, Whorlton, and Ebchester as well as Dalton-Le-Dale, Seaham & Sherburn Hospital.
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Scotland, Jacobite Histories 1715-1745

Discover more about the Jacobites and the Jacobite Risings with this collection of historical publications. These documents are presented in a PDF format and can be searched by name, conflict, publication title and year, and keyword.

This rich collection consists of 23 titles covering a variety of topics related to the risings. It includes a range of detailed histories, song books, estate papers, lists, historical papers and memoirs written by those who participated.
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Greater London Burial Index

Over 109,000 new additions covering 27 Middlesex parishes have been added to the Greater London Burial Index. The records consist of transcripts that may reveal a combination of your relative's name, age, occupation, religious denomination and where they were buried.

The greater London Burial index now contains over 1.7 million records spanning the years 1399 and 1992 and includes Middlesex Burials & Memorial Inscriptions, The South London Burials Index 1545-1905, City of London Burials 1754-1855 and Middlesex Burials 1538-1992.
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British & Irish Newspapers

This week we have added 111,538 new pages to our collection of historic British Newspapers. We have added one new title – the Witney Express and Oxfordshire and Midland Counties Herald – and updated seven of our existing titles. We have added pages to four of our Irish titles, including the incredibly influential Freeman's Journal, as well as adding to our Liverpool and Dover titles, and also to the Music Hall and Theatre Review.
 
The new additions include;
    Witney Express and Oxfordshire and Midland Counties Herald (new title) - 1869-1887
    Evening Herald (Dublin) - 1897, 1899, 1901, 1907, 1996
    Irish Independent - 1913, 1915
    Freeman's Journal - 1912-1919, 1922-1924
    Sligo Champion - 1983, 1988-1995
    Liverpool Echo - 1973, 1979-1980
    Music Hall and Theatre Review - 1910-1911
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AN APOLOGY PART 2

I've had some comments from fellow geneabloggers about my previous post and the situation with email notices from Gmail about readers' comments.

First, a confession: when it comes to technology and the internet I am a dummy. (same goes for understanding the DNA stuff). You would not believe how long it took me to learn how to cut & paste things back in my days on mIRC. So when I get a question from Tony Proctor, who I consider to be a genealogy technology guru, my reaction is to be speechless for several minutes and then panic. I am not sure I can come up with a coherent answer.

So let me quote the advice given me on FB by Carol A. Bowen Stevens::

I believe the fix is to go to the Dashboard in Blogger. Go to where your email addy is recorded, You know, it will say, send notifications to Mr. Bill. I Believe one is in Settings? Or Comments. Snoop around till you discover the area.

Remove the email addy information. Erase it. Save the change. Now go right back in and type your email address in again. Yea. SAVE the change again.

Check all the spots in the Dash that has your email. Do the erase and re-add motions in each.

Since I am writing this in the middle of the night, and NOT on the computer, if this does not make sense let me know.

Now here’s another little trick, after, check your email there will be a verification link thingy you have to click. 

Good luck.


Thanks Carol!

And here's a screenshot of  the emails screen on the Dashboard:

I hope this is helpful.

AN APOLOGY

Recently I found out that Google had changed a setting on my blog that sent me an email whenever
someone left a comment on my blog. They stopped sending the emails.

Now I hadn't really suspected that was the case. I'd noticed I hadn't gotten any comments on my blogposts of late, but didn't think much about it. After all, I'm not one of the better known geneabloggers and don't have as many followers as others do. Then I saw a post on Facebook from another genealogist about finding hundreds of comments from readers she hadn't been notified about. So I checked the Comments link on my blog settings and was dismayed to find I had many comments from as far back as last year that I hadn't known about. To make matters worse, a few days ago in an attempt to publish them en masse I inadvertently deleted them all.

Tonight I found five new comments left from the last few days and those have now been published. I will try to fix the Comments setting so I will once more get the email notifications and this situation  doesn't continue.

I apologize for not responding to those readers who took the time to read my blog and never saw them published.

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RELEASES FOR 6JUL 2018

More new records from Great Britain were released for last week's Findmypast Friday:

BRAND NEW RECORDS:

Cambridgeshire Registers & Records

OVER 350 RECORDS Explore publications pertaining to the English county of Cambridgeshire. Discover your ancestor in the parish registers of Orwell spanning the years 1560 to 1837 and of St Michael’s, spanning 1538 to 1837.
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

Buckinghamshire Registers & Records

OVER 600 RECORDS Uncover details pertaining to your Bucks ancestor’s baptism, marriage or burial with parish registers from Great Hampden and Stewkeley covering more than 260 years of the county’s history. A 1910 guide to the Highways & Byways in Buckinghamshire is also included.
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS:

Thames & Medway Baptisms

New records: 9,968
Total records: 367,610
Covering: Baptisms in the parish of St Mary Magdalene in Woolwich between 1837 and 1851
Discover: Your ancestor’s birth date, baptism place, baptism date, parents’ names and additional notes
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

 

Thames & Medway Burials

New records: 6,044
Total records: 201,333
Covering: Parish of St Nicholas in Deptford between 1813 to 1847
Discover: Your ancestor’s age at death, burial date, residence and burial place
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2018 WEEK 25: NICHOLAS SNOW OF EASTHAM, MA.

My ancestor Thomas Rogers married Elizabeth Snow, daughter of my 9x great grandparents Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins. Through her parents I am descended from Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.  Here's a short biography of Nicholas from Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts Vol.III

The American ancestor of most of the Snows of southeastern Massachusetts was (I) Nicholas Snow, who came to this country in the ship "Ann" in 1623, and had a share in the first division of land in Plymouthin 1624. He was made a freeman in 1633. With six others—Thomas Prence, John Doane, Josiah Cook, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs—he began the settlement of Eastham (at first called Nauset) in 1645. Nicholas Snow was elected the first town clerk, and held that office for sixteen years from 1646; was deputy from 1648 for three years, and was'selectman from 1663 for seven years. He was one of Gov. Thomas Prence's associates, being probably from Somerset, England. He died at Eastham Nov. 15, 1676. Mr. Snow married, in Plymouth, Constance Hopkins, daughter of Stephen Hopkins, of the "Mayflower." They had twelve children: Mark, born at Plymouth May 9, 1628; Mary, born about 1630; Sarah, about 1632; Joseph, about 1634; Stephen, about 1636; John, about 1638; Elizabeth, about 1640; Jabez, about 1642; Ruth, about 1644; Hannah, probably in Eastham in 1646; Rebecca, probably in Eastham in 1648; and one whose name in unknown.-p127

Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ..VolIII  J.H. Beers & Company,  Chicago Il.1912

FINDMYPAST FRIDAY RELEASES FOR 29JUN 2018

There were over 57 thousand new records in last week's Findmypast Friday's releases:

BRAND NEW RECORDS:

Kent, Lydd Midwife's Birth Register 1757-1815

OVER 2,400 RECORDS The records in this collection were transcribed from the original birth register of William Waylett (1729-1815), a male midwife who practiced in Lydd and the surrounding parishes on Romney Marsh in Kent. Transcripts will reveal a combination of your ancestor’s birth date, birth place, parents' names and any additional notes. Notes may include details of the pregnancy, delivery, mother, or payment for services.
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR EXISTING SETS:
  
Sussex Monumental Inscriptions
New records: 1,839
Total records: 24,941
Covering: Churchyards in Eastbourne, Litlington, Lullington and West Dean
Discover: Birth year, age at death, death year, location, inscription, number in grave and register reference
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

Northumberland and Durham Memorial Inscriptions

New records: 14,370
Total records: 119,133
Covering: Churchyards in Birtley, Blyth, Boldon, Eighton Banks, Gosforth, Great Lumley, Penshaw, Ryhope, South Shields, Whitley Bay, Woodhorn
Discover: Burial year, birth date, death date, age at death, denomination, inscription, location, plot, stone type and any additional notes
SEARCH THESE RECORDS » 

Yorkshire Burials

New records: 38,386
Total records: 5,164,222
Covering: Stoney Royd Cemetery in Halifax
Discover: Age, birth year, burial date, burial place and images of original documents
SEARCH THESE RECORDS »

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2018 WEEK 24: ELEAZER ROGERS OF PLYMOUTH, MA

One again another ancestor for whom I haven't found much information online...yet. My 7x great grandfather  Eleazer Rogers seems to have been a seaman up until he suffered some serious wounds during fighting Indians  in Maine:

"To  Honoble" William Stoughton Esqr Lieutenant Governour and to the Council
and Representatives in General Court Assembled, The humble petition, of Eliezer Rogers
of plymouth

Sheweth
That your Petitioner being a Soldier under the Command of Captain Thomas Dymock did
on the ninth day of September last (1697) receive Several Wounds in an Engagemt with the ffrench and Indians att Winagauts. particularly he was shott through the Thigh, and
through the right side of his head which put out his Eye, and has made him in a great
measure incapable of his Employment

Yor Petitioner therefore humbly prays that he may have his Cure perfected att the publick Charge, and may have Such further Stipend and pension as to this Honoble Court shall Seem reasonable, and yor petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray &c
Eleazer rogers

May ult. 1698 Read in the House of Representatives
and Committed.

June 7'h In Answer to this petition
Ordered, That the petitioner shall be allowed and paid out of ye publick Treasury the Sum of Twenty pounds in full compensation for smart money, and for the loss and damages abovementioned, by him sustained

Sent up for Concurrance.
June 8th 1698. In Council.
Read and Resolved a Concurrance
Isc Addington Secry./ "

Baxter, James Phinney, ed .Documentary History of the State of Maine Vol 5 Containing the Baxter Manuscripts Maine Historical Society Portland 1897 (p512)