The SoG has been asked to pass on this call for anyone interested in history and
genealogy to act as participants for a web usability study. The study take
place in central London on Tuesday the 22nd and in central Manchester on
Thursday 24th November. The SoG can’t disclose full details of the research but
we can assure you that it’s bona fide.

The study will be exploring an online service for searching an extensive collection
of records held across a range of archives. People often find taking part in
such usability studies interesting and rewarding. By taking part in this study
you will not only get a chance to explore a developing online search facility,
but will be able to actively help improve the service for researchers like
yourself.

You don’t need to be an experienced researcher to take part and if you know anyone
else who might be interested please pass the message on.

The session will last for one hour and there will be a cash incentive for taking
part.

If you are interested, please answer a few questions about yourself here:

http://www.surveymk.com/s/5KRGLXL

For more information about the study, please contact Dr Andrea Fallas, andreaf@cogapp.com

For more information about the organisation carrying out the research, please
visit www.cogapp.com

Else Churchill

SoG Genealogist

Technorati Tags: family history, Family History News, genealogy

Family History News

From Monday 14 November 2011 there will be changes to weekday openings at LMA.

LMA will close on Fridays, but there will be an extra late night opening on Wednesdays (as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays) until 7.30 pm.

The new opening times are:-

Monday  9:30am – 4:45pm
Tuesday 9:30am – 7:30pm
Wednesday       9:30am – 7:30pm
Thursday        9:30am – 7:30pm
Friday CLOSED

For Saturday openings  and information about visiting the London Metropolitan Archives

please check the LMA website

Technorati Tags: family history, Family History News, genealogy

The Society of Genealogists is pleased to announce the forthcoming President’s Lecture in celebration of the Society’s 100th anniversary.

On the occasion of the Society’s Centenary, Patric Dickinson takes the opportunity to offer some reflections on the many changes that have taken place in the world of genealogy during the fifty years since Sir Anthony Wagner’s lecture ‘Genealogy and the Common Man’ (given as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1961), a period that has witnessed the growth of family history from a hobby enjoyed by a small minority to a popular activity pursued by millions of people worldwide.

With Patric Dickinson, LVO, MA, FSG, Clarenceux King of Arms and President of the Society of Genealogists

Venue: The Swedenborg Society, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH

Tuesday 18th October at 7pm . Buffet & Wine . Tickets: £17.50*

Online booking at www.sog.org.uk (events & lectures section).

Alternatively contact our events co-ordinator on:
020 7553 3290 or email: events@sog.org.uk

14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA
Tel: 020 7251 8799
Fax: 020 7250 1800

*Ticket price includes a donation for buffet & wine.

Technorati Tags: Family History News, genealogy, Society of Genealogists, Society of Genealogists Centenary

Findmypast (sponsors of the Society of Genealogists’ centenary year and host of some 9 million names from the SoG online Library Collections)  have had a busy time recently. The Society has received the following update of new ventures and online family history records relating to the British in India.

Selections from the India Office Records and a century of electoral registers will be made online

The British Library and family history website www.findmypast.co.uk are to digitise a treasure trove of family history resources held by the Library, making them available online and fully searchable for the first time.

The project will involve the scanning of UK electoral registers covering the century that followed the Reform Act of 1832, along with records of baptisms, marriages and burials drawn from the archives of the India Office. When available online, these collections will enable historians, genealogists and family history researchers to make connections and track down details of ancestors and others at the click of a mouse – work that would previously have necessitated visits to the Library’s Reading Rooms and many hours of laborious manual searching.

The British Library holds the national collection of electoral registers covering the whole of the United Kingdom.  The registers contain a vast range of names, addresses and other genealogical information.
“Digitisation of the electoral registers will transform the work of people wishing to use them for family history research,” said Jennie Grimshaw, the Library’s curator for Social Policy and Official Publications. “Printed electoral registers are arranged by polling district within constituency and names are not indexed, so the process of finding an address to confirm names of residents is currently incredibly laborious. Digitisation represents a huge breakthrough as users will be able to search for names and addresses, thereby pinpointing the individuals and ancestors they’re looking for.”  
The other holdings included in the large-scale digitisation are drawn from the archives of the East India Company and the India Office. These records relate to Britons living and working in the Indian sub-continent during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, up to Independence in 1948. They include over 1,000 volumes of ecclesiastical returns of births, marriages and burials, together with applications for civil and military service, and details of pension payments to individuals.

Antonia Moon, curator of post-1858 India Office Records said, “These records are an outstanding resource for researchers whose ancestors had connections with British India, whether as servants of the administration or as private inhabitants.”
The partnership between the British Library and findmypast.co.uk followed a competitive tender process and will see five million pages of UK electoral registers and India Office records digitised over the next year. The resources will become available via findmypast.co.uk and in the British Library’s Reading Rooms from early 2012; online access will be available to findmypast.co.uk subscribers and pay-as-you-go customers – access to users in the British Library Reading Rooms will be free.

Simon Bell, the British Library’s Head of Licensing and Product Development, said: “We are delighted to announce this exciting new partnership between the British Library and findmypast.co.uk, which will deliver an online and fully searchable resource that will prove immensely valuable to family history researchers in unlocking a treasure trove of content that up to now has only been available either on microfilm or within the pages of bound volumes. The Library will receive copies of the digitised images created for this project, so as well as transforming access for current researchers, we will also retain digital versions of these collections in perpetuity, for the benefit of future researchers.”

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.co.uk, said: “We’re very excited to be involved with this fascinating project. The electoral rolls are the great missing link for family historians: after censuses and civil registration indexes, they provide the widest coverage of the whole population. To have Irish and Scottish records alongside England and Wales is also a huge advantage. These records will join the 1911 Census, Chelsea Pensioner Service Records and many more datasets available online at findmypast.co.uk, which enable people to make fantastic discoveries day after day.”

Technorati Tags: family history, Family History News, findmypast.co.uk, genealogy, Society of Genealogists

Members of the Society of Genealogists can now login to MySoG.

The Society of Genealogists has launched an enhancement to the website called MySoG. You will find a link on the top right hand banner on all pages on the Society of Genealogists website www.sog.org.uk

 What is MySoG?

MySoG currently allows Members, who want to, to update some of their personal details, to renew their membership using secure online payment options and to access to the Society of Genealogists Family History Data Online (previously known as the Members’ Area). It will also improve the Society’s communications as members will be able to provide current email addresses. So please do take the opportunity to update your information.

 How do I start?

To use MySog for the first time you must follow the instructions in the letter sent to all Members in early February 2011 (and by Airmail to overseas Members). This explains how first to validate your membership to access MySog and obtain a password which is sent by email. To validate you will need to input the two different numbers on the front and back of your membership card.You can then login once the validation has been completed. Please note any Usernames and Password used in the past to access the old “Members’ Area” or SoG Data on Origins are not valid to access MySoG. Your MySoG access details are not valid on either of those facilities so you must follow the instructions that have been sent to you. If you have not received the letter or have any problems please email support@sog.org.uk. Please avoid using other sog.org.uk email addresses or telephoning the SoG. The support facility is managed off-site and outside opening hours.

Once you have completed the validation process and received your password you may log into MySoG.

Once logged-in access is available to existing SoG online datasets which during the next few months will provide unlimited access to those datasets previously only available for a 72 hour period each quarter. Until then Members can still access the data using British Origins using your Orgins login and password but once all the data has migrated onto MySoG the Society’s contract with Origins will come finally to an end and our data will no longer be available on that site.

What will I find on MySoG?

Firstly MySoG will enable Members to ensure we have the correct information and contact details including email addresses. MySoG can also be used renew membership subscriptions and check payments and direct debit information. There is a “contact us” page to send specific questions on a range of topics.

During the next few months MySoG will be enhanced to give access to a new online bookshop (also available to non-members) where Members can obtain discounts on Society of Genealogists’ family history publications and other benefits. Members will also be able reserve places and receive tickets for the wide range of family history courses, lectures, tutorials and other events with membership discounts automatically applied. Additional facilities are expected to be added during 2011. In the meantime Members can order books and tickets for events using the existing online shop

What SoG data is online on MySoG?

As well as the existing datasets previously available in the members’ area of the website, the Society has been uploading those datasets that were formerly available on British Origins. So far the following have been added -

Boyd’s London burials (found under Middlesex parish registers)

PCC wills 1750-1800 (found under wills)

Vicar General marriage licences (found under Marriage Licences)

Faculty Office marriage licences (found under Marriage Licences)

St Leonard’s Shoreditch burials 1805-58 (found under Middlesex parish registers)

St Andrew Holborn marriages 1754-1812 (found under Middlesex parish registers)

By May it is hoped that those remaining indexes such as Boyd’s Marriage Index will also be available along with data sets that have accompanying images. These include Apprentices of Great Britain index volumes, Teachers Registration Council registers, Boyd’s Inhabitants of London, Trinity House Petitions Calendars and the Bank of England Wills abstracts.

All SoG data available on findmypast.co.uk will be available to members on MySoG and this will include the indexes and ultimately the images of the Civil Service Evidences of Age and the GWR shareholders index.

Keep an eye on MySoG as data and enhancements are added in the next few months. Don’t forget you can use the free surname search of the SoG Data Online so you can quickly check if any new sources include the surnames you are researching before logging into MySoG

Technorati Tags: family history, Family History News, genealogy, MySoG, Society of Genealogists