If so then he may be mentioned in the latest set of records to be added to the Society of Genealogists Members’ Area http://sog.frontisgroup.com/bin/aps_person_search.php

When a person died without making a will, a relative or creditor could apply for letters of Administration (or Admon). They become known as the Administrator or Administratrix of the estate, the latter often being the widow of the deceased.

Admons include the name, address and occupation of the deceased and administrator, along with the date and place of death and the relationship between them. The identity of beneficiaries is not noted, nor any details of how the estate is distributed.

Letters of administration could be granted in other cases, such as where a will is made but no executors are mentioned. Alternatively a testator might appoint executors who died before the testator or who “renounced” or refused to act in such capacity. In such cases the court granted letters of administration with “Will attached” or “Will annexed”.

The records that have been added to the Members Area are the Admons granted by The Prerogative Court of Canterbury for the period 1750-1800. They are particularly useful to family historians as the court had jurisdiction over the estates of those who died at sea or abroad.

Indeed a third of all the records relate to these 2 categories, reflecting the large number of sailors and soldiers killed in battle during this period (which included the Seven Years War with France (1754-1763), the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802).

The serviceman’s dependents would have been entitled to pay or prize money owed to the deceased, and thus an admon may survive for a person who would not otherwise have appeared in probate records.

The Society is grateful to Anthony Camp and the team of dedicated volunteers (listed on the Members Area) who have made this valuable index available to researchers. The original documents can be consulted at the National Archives at Kew.

Non-members can carry out a free surname search on these records by going to http://sog.frontisgroup.com/bin/aps_person_search.php but to view any records found you will need to join the Society.

Technorati Tags: family history, genealogy, Members' Area

 As someone whose not been at all interested in the forthcoming football excitement I’m delighted that Find My Past has given family historians a reason to wish England  well in the World Cup.

Find My Past has made the following announcement:

“The World Cup is now upon us and we thought it would only be fair to provide some entertainment for any non-football fans out there:

Whenever England play a match, you’ll be able to access all our records for free!* “

What you need to know about this fantastic offer:

- When England play, you don’t pay: 30 minutes before each England game kicks off, all the records on findmypast.co.uk will be free to view for 3 hours

- You can view original images and transcriptions of all our records for free including birth, marriage and death records 1538-2006, census records including the 1911 census and our Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 – to name just a few

- Normally you would need a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to view our records – some of which normally cost 30 credits each – so to be able to see them for free is a rare opportunity

- Keep an eye on our blog for a competition question to enter during each England match. You’ll need to answer all the questions correctly for a chance to win, so make sure you don’t miss any. The prize is a goodie bag containing a digital camera, vouchers for a year’s Full subscription plus much more

All you need to do to make use of this unique offer is register on findmypast.co.uk as you’ll need to sign in to view the records. Visit our World Cup page for more information.

If you need a helping hand with your research, take a look at our video tutorials or our Getting Started page which provide clear advice on how to use our records.

We’d love to hear about any discoveries you make while our records are free to view – post anything you’d like to share with us and our readers on our Facebook page.

Please pass this on to friends, family or anyone else you think might want to make the most of our free family history records.

*All records available using our Full subscription (including the 1911 Census) will be free: Living Relatives searches and Memorial scrolls are not included.

So this is the ideal oppotunity to escape from the football fuss and get done to some serious genealogy searching. Here are the times of the first three matches.  You will need to break a habit of a lifetime to follow the football results to find out when England may be playing further matches !

I am sure that you will know how your local time relates to GMT.

England  vs.  United States     -  12 Jun       7:30pm      
England  vs.  Algeria                -  18 Jun       7:30pm      
England  vs   Slovenia              -  23 Jun       3:00pm      

Remember that the free time starts 30 minutes before the kick-off and runs for three hours.   All records available using the Full subscription (including the 1911 Census) will be free: Living Relatives searches and Memorial scrolls are not included.

I guess that you can register in advance to be ready on time.

Happy hunting -

Geoff Stone and Else Churchill

Technorati Tags: Ancestry, family history, Family History News, Find My Past, genealogy

Canada’s leading family history website has completed the online launch of the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935with records documenting the arrival into Canada of more than 750,000 individuals between 1919 and 1924.

The only online source for these records, Ancestry.ca now provides access to the largest collection of immigration records to Canada – more than eight million records in total – from the key growth period of 1865 to 1935.

The records from Ocean Arrivals, 1919-1924, the originals of which are held by the Library and Archives Canada, can be searched online at Ancestry.ca by ship name, port of departure, passenger name, birth year, gender and place, date and port of arrival.

The majority of the records originate from the ports of Quebec, St. John and Halifax, the key ports of entry at the time for ships coming from Europe, with the western ports of Vancouver and Victoria accounting for nearly 50,000 records of individual passengers, mainly from Australia and the Far East. Another several thousand records originate from Montreal, Sydney and North Sydney.

Unlike many of the passenger lists from before or after this period, the records from Ocean Arrivals, 1919-1924 consist of individual passenger manifests, as opposed to ship manifests.

As a result, the records provide many more personal details on arriving individuals than had previously been required, which reflects the ‘culture of fear’, mistrust and the overriding anti-foreign sentiment that existed in Canada during this post First World War period.

Because of the changing social and political global landscape, in 1919 the Canadian government introduced the Immigration Act, which was used to bar entry to anyone whose nation of origin had been an enemy to Canada during the First World War.

More significantly, the Act was also used to deny entry to groups of people whose ideologies were in conflict with that of the government of the time – specifically groups of individuals from countries with a growing socialist and anti-democratic bent. The requirements for admittance became much stricter, with immigration officials insisting on as many details as possible about entrants.

In addition to information about the ship and port of origin, incoming passengers were now also questioned about their religion, their reason for coming to Canada, how much money they had in their possession, their ability to read and if they had ever been declared insane or suffered from epilepsy or tuberculosis. Further, a physical description of the passenger was entered along with the passenger’s own signature.

Prior to this Act, people arriving from most of Western Europe were deemed acceptable for immigration into Canada, with others accepted into the country only if the government considered that their skills would be of use.

For example, with the desire to grow and populate Canada’s western frontiers, the government allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to arrive from Eastern European nations through the 1800s. These were people with the skills required to farm the land and endure the harsh climate and lifestyle of the yet untamed Prairies.

“The amount of information about the passengers in these records is almost unseen in any other immigration record worldwide,” said Karen Peterson, Marketing Director, Ancestry.ca. “You can truly travel back in time and know exactly what your ancestors looked like when they arrived to start a new life in Canada, and know the reasons, from their own testament, as to why they came.

“By making this important collection of Canadian immigration records available online, everyone can now discover their personal family story, and also understand where and why it sits within the bigger story about our country’s history and growth, when so many came from around the world to start a new life in Canada.”

Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 database is available free in the SoG library and can subscribed to at home can be subscribed to at home

Technorati Tags: Canada, family history, Passenger Lists

This database spans over 90 years from 1853 to 1943. The records provide a fascinating insight and invaluable resource to anyone researching the background of any family member who was a doctor, a dentist or midwife. The Familyrelatives website is available free at the SoG library

Copies of the Medical Directory from 1847 and the Medical Register from 1859 can also be found at the Society of Genealogists Library. In addition the Society of Genealogists has also published online for its members an index to what is possibly the earliest list known as the Medical Register 1779.  Compiled by Dr R J Hawkins, this surname index lists all those appearing in the rare 1779 Medical Register, a copy of which is held in the Society’s library. It is hoped to include scanned images of the register in due course.

A dedicated team at Familyrelatives.com spent several months painstakingly scanning and indexing original medical registers allowing them to be searched on different criteria including surname, forename and date to provide one of the most comprehensive and accurate databases available.  The records pre-date the foundation in 1858 of the General Medical Council, set up in a back room of what is now the University of Worcester to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the community.

photo credit: Sarah G…

Prior to 1858 anyone could call themselves a medical practitioner with some of the treatments worse than the disease and devices resembling ancient instruments of torture but it gave an insight into Victorian imagination  and ingenuity. The years 1853 to 1943 saw remarkable developments in the field of medicine and notable medical practitioners:

John Snow (1813-1858) – Discoverer of the means  or transmission  of Cholera

John Snow (1813-1858) – was voted in 2003 as the greatest Physician of all time some, 145 years after his death, for his evidence based investigation and tracing of Cholera in Soho in 1854. He was the first person to dispel the myth that Cholera was caused by miasma or poor air. He traced the source to a public hand water pump in Soho . Those who drunk from it were infected by bacteria although remarkably all those that worked in the nearby brewery (where water was heated and subject to a separate water source) were not affected.

Joseph Lister (1838-1912) Discovered Carbolic Acid (Antiseptic)

In 1865 Joseph Lister (1838-1912) discovered that by using carbolic acid as an antiseptic during surgery and by ensuring hygienic conditions in theatre and around patients greatly improved chances of survival.

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) – His discovery saved 200 million people

Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) is arguably responsible for saving in excess of 200 million lives having in 1928 discovered the antibiotic-penicillin, which although accidental has been hailed by many as possibly the greatest advance in medicine. He was Knighted in 1944 and won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

He was also recognized by being awarded the Honorary gold medal from the Royal College of Surgeons, received a fellowship from the University of London, a fellowship from Toronto, Philadelphia, and many other institutions including from Harvard, USA and from Spain. He is buried in St Pauls Cathedral, London.

Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) – Identified mosquitoes as the cause of malaria

Another Nobel Prize winner Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) identified the mosquito as the cause of malaria during his service in India and distinguished himself in tropical medicine and the prevention of malaria in Indian, Africa , Egypt , Cyprus and Mauritius

Technorati Tags: dentists, doctors, Family Relatives, midwives

Ancestry.co.uk has launched online the largest single collection of records of some 10,000 marriages which took place at Gretna Green in the 18th and 19th centuries. These Gretna Green Marriage Registers, 1795-1895 detail the weddings of more than half of all those who crossed the Scottish border so that they could marry without their parents’ consent. Access to these records on the Ancestry.co.uk database is free at the Society of Genealogists’ Library.

Each record details the full names of both husband and wife, their respective locations of residence, and the date of their wedding. The original collection, also referred to as the ‘Lang Registers’ were purchased by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies some years ago. They contains the marriage records of Gretna Green’s most prolific minster, David Lang, who was renowned for his ‘immodest air’ and clerical style.

Gretna Green became a popular destination for young English elopers after Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, passed in 1753, required parental permission for all couples wanting to marry under the age of 21. This law did not apply in Scotland where boys could marry at 14 and girls at 12. A free infomation leaflet about these Irregular Border Marriages and where other records might be found is available from the General Register Office for Scotland. Some transcripts of other registers are held in the Society’s library.

A mile inside the Scottish border, Gretna Green was the first changing post in Scotland for the stagecoaches on the main route from London to Edinburgh. It was also the first place couples arrived at when eloping to Scotland, resulting in thousands of weddings taking place in what quickly became known as Britain’s ‘marriage capital’.

Almost anybody could conduct a marriage ceremony in Scotland as long as two witnesses were present. This resulted in a range of tradesmen, including many blacksmiths given that Gretna Green was a changing post, setting themselves up as ‘ministers’ and charging for their services.

Dubbed ‘Anvil Priests’ by the locals, ceremonies were often conducted over the anvil with the blacksmith officiating, which was why the blacksmith and his anvil have come to symbolise Gretna Green weddings.

In order to restrict the rising number of couples eloping to Gretna, Parliament passed an act in 1857 that required for one of the parties to have resided in Scotland for a minimum of three weeks prior to the wedding for the marriage to be recognised in England.

Gretna Green marriage rates were never quite the same thereafter yet its reputation as the ‘Las Vegas of the UK’ remained and lives on today.

Gretna Green wedding scandals have made newspaper headlines since the mid 1700s. Among the records are a number of notable people and famous nuptials, including:

The Shrigley Abduction – A national scandal in 1826, Edward Wakefield duped wealthy 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner into marriage at Gretna Green by claiming her father, a wealthy mill owner and Sheriff of Cheshire, was a fugitive and if she would agree to marry Wakefield, her father would be saved. Ellen consented and they were married on the 8th of March 1826 by blacksmith David Lang.

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham – The marriage of the British Governor General and High Commissioner of British North America known as ‘Radical Jack’ to Lady Louisa Grey is recorded in 1816. Also a British Whig statesman and colonial administrator, Lambton was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1837 for his political work at home and abroad.

The Gretna Green Marriage Registers, 1795-1895 were transcribed as part of the Ancestry World Archives Project, which provides the public with indexing software and training support to enable them to contribute in making even more historical records available and searchable online. To date, thousands of Britons have contributed their time to this project. As the original marriage certificates which comprise this collection were badly age damaged, Ancestry experts also spent many months conserving them before they were digitized.

Technorati Tags: family history, genealogy, Parish Registers