The Society of Genealogists has recently added many more family history records to the Members Area of its website (http://sog.frontisgroup.com/bin/aps_person_search.php)  More than 600,000 people are now listed, ranging from railway workers to nuns, and you may well find reference to your ancestors amongst them.

To celebrate the addition of the new records an article will appear here each Friday describing them in more detail, starting tomorrow with an exciting collection that lists many people who died at sea.

Non-members can carry out a free surname search on the site but to view any records found you will need to join. New records are being added all the time so check back regularly – you may just find a reference to that elusive ancestor.

Technorati Tags: Family History News, Members' Area, the society of genealogists

 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

 The Society of Genealogists and Pharos Teaching & Tutoring today announced a new joint programme, the distance learning Certificate of Family History Skills and Strategies (intermediate).

The Society of Genealogists, in conjunction with Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd is now bringing its popular classroom programme to the Web. Following successful pilot courses last year, the Society and Pharos have teamed up to make available a full course of instruction, with  optional assessment, to any interested genealogist anywhere in the world. First modules in the Skills and Strategies programme will be offered in September 2010. It will be possible to complete all 10 modules in an 18 month period. 

The modules are listed here in alphabetical order:

Apprenticeships & Guilds
Employment Records
Lists & Sources from Georgian England
Migration in the British Isles
Military Records
Nonconformity in England and Wales
The Poor, the Parish and the Workhouse
Victorian Crime & Punishment
Wills and Administrations
17th Century Sources

Tutors include the well-known authors and genealogists, Gill Blanchard, Liz Carter, Else Churchill, Simon Fowler, Sherry Irvine, Michael Isherwood and Stuart Raymond. All have made significant contributions to the world of family history and bring a wide array of records knowledge and teaching experience to the online classroom.

The Skills and Strategies course is suitable for genealogists who have had at least two years experience in family history research in England & Wales and have mastered the fundamentals of census, civil registrations and parish registers but who now wish to move on to new records and a greater understanding of research methods and skills.

Students choosing to take all ten modules as a full programme with assessments leading to the Intermediate Certificate can sign up now at an introductory price of £450. This represents a saving of £42.90 on the full listed price.  Each module is monitored by the Society to ensure excellent standards of content and teaching.

Students may, alternatively, choose not have work assessed and to take any arrangement of individual topics. Courses taken individually without assessment cost less.
 
Find out more or enroll  for this great learning opportunity

Information about the course and a link for bookings can also be found on the Society of Genealogists’ website

Helen Osborn, Managing Director of Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd, said today

“We are very pleased to continue and build on our collaboration with the Society of Genealogists. We know that many Pharos students are interested in working towards a certificate that acknowledges their achievements and that others are looking for a wider range of choice in online programmes. The Skills and Strategies course meets those needs, offered by organizations and teachers with shared standards of excellence.”
                                                         

Else Churchill, Genealogists at the Society & tutor on the new programme, said today

“The Society of Genealogists is delighted join forces with Pharos to offer the highly regarded SoG courses and education programme to a wider audience than can attend the Society’s classes in London. The Skills and Strategies course will offer a practical opportunity for family historians to take their research further and to develop their own expertise and understanding of genealogical sources and techniques.”

Technorati Tags: family history, family history course, Family History Courses, Family History News, genealogy, Pharos Teaching & Tutoring, Society of Genealogists

Breaking the Barriers – innovative genealogy in the 20th & 21st centuries

Proposals will be accepted starting 1 May 2010 for the Society of Genealogists’ Centenary Conference, Breaking the Barriers, to be held at The Royal Overseas League, Over-Seas House, Park Place, 5 St James’s Terrace, London SW1A 1LP on Saturday 7th May 2011.

The conference lectures will be a celebration of the past century of genealogy and the Society of Genealogists and will look forward to the future of the subject. The conference will include a full day of lectures, networking luncheons, and workshops featuring nationally and internationally known genealogical speakers. To learn more about forthcoming news on the conference and other centenary celebrations see the SoG Centenary Conference Blog and web pages

Deadline for Submissions — 31 July 2010

Conference Themes
The Society is inviting submissions for papers and presentations on a variety of themes and expects submission topics to include, amongst others:

How the SoG has affected genealogy
Expanding the frontiers in genealogy
The development of genealogy. Then and now and what next?
Expanding the frontiers in genealogy
Problem solving. Breaking the barriers in genealogy
London research and London problems
Technological innovation in genealogy (with a particular look at British innovation).
Social themes from 2011, the end of the Edwardian Age ¬ – Women’s suffrage, pensions etc

General genealogical topics including methodology, skills building, record analysis, problem solving and writing family history

Sessions are generally limited to fifty minutes plus a ten-minute question-and-answer session. Syllabus material (word documents or PDF files), due in early 2011, is required for each lecture or workshop presentation

Guidelines
Anyone wishing to submit a talk for the conference should contact the conference team genealogy@sog.org.uk who will supply a conference proposal form which should include the following information:

• Speaker’s full name, address, telephone and email address.
• Lecture title, not to exceed fourteen words, and a brief but comprehensive outline
• Short summary of the lecture; word count not to exceed 100 words, which will be used in the program, if selected.
• Brief speaker biography, not to exceed 100 words.
• Resume of recent lectures given by the speaker. Those who have not spoken previously at a regional or national conference are encouraged to submit an audio or video tape of a recent lecture.

Speakers are expected to use an electronic presentation program. Such as Powerpoint. The SoG will provide the data projector, VGA cable, stand and power. Talks using OHPs will NOT be accepted.

Individuals may submit any number of proposals. SoG members will be given first consideration as speakers.

Completed proposal forms must be e-mailed to genealogy@sog.org.uk  with the subject: 2011 SoG Family History Conference-Call for Papers.
Selected speakers will be notified in August 2010. Speakers will receive a complimentary full conference registration

Compensation by the Society of Genealogists

Speakers selected by the SoG, and who are not sponsored elsewhere, will receive a speakers fee and reasonable travel expenses, within the UK, agreed in advance with the SoG.

Sponsorship opportunities
Sponsorship for individual lectures and lecturers may be agreed with the Society. Speakers who have their sessions sponsored will receive a complimentary one-day conference registration. Compensation and travel expenses are at the discretion of the sponsoring organization.

Questions  – Contact the Conference Team on genealogy@sog.org.uk  

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

 The Society of Genealogists is delighted to announce that its database index of Great Western Railway Shareholders is now complete for the years 1835-1932 and published in partnership with Findmypast. co.uk

This is not an index of railway staff, but  records shareholders in the Great Western Railway. The index currently contains details for approximately 440,000 individuals, with a total number of 570,464 records and 153,569 events entered into the registers. A record is an entry for an individual in the database, including not just shareholders but executors, beneficiaries and others involved in the transfer of shareholdings. An event is a disposal of a shareholder under a will or an intestacy following death, or otherwise than by simple sale during the lifetime of the shareholder

The registers were started when the GWR was created in 1835 and the series continues through to 1932. Each of the 270 volumes contains between 450 and 600 individual entries, which may relate to an event occurring up to 20 years earlier than the making of the entry.

The date range covered in each volume starts about 10 years before the entries were made, but there are a number of earlier entries dating back up to twenty years in most volumes, with the earliest entry seen being a baptism in 1806, but this is an isolated exception.

In almost all entries, the name of the shareholder is given together with an address, the names of the other parties (executors or legatees for deaths; husbands for marriages) and dates of death, probate, marriage or other event.

The majority of events are deaths in England and Wales, the split of events within the records is as follows:

Event
•Death 90%
•Marriage 4%
•Power of Attorney 4%
•Change of Name 0.5%
•Lunatics 0.2%
•Bankrupts 0.1%
•Others 1.3%

Most events relate to individuals in England and Wales, but there are also a significant number of Scottish, Irish and overseas records. The figures are:

Location
•England & Wales 95.2%
•Scotland 3.5%
•Ireland 0.7%
•Overseas 0.6%

The Index lists names, dates, places and the event or role of the person listed. Some people appear on two or more occasions, for instance those solicitors who acted as professional executors to estates.

Start searching the GRW index on Findmypast here

The original images of the GWR shareholder regsiters will be added to the Findmypast website at the end of April. More information about these records can be found on Findmypast’s Knowledge Base

William Ewert Gladstone invested in GWR shares

Technorati Tags: family history, Family History News, genealogy, Great Western Railway Shareholders