I went to a very interesting talk in Maxton, Scotland on Monday evening by Jake Harvey, emeritus Professor and former head of Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, about the international Stone Project.
He talked for well over an hour, with interesting slides and videos, about quarrying and stone working techniques, sculptors and stone workers, sculptures, and exhibitions.
For me, one of the most astonishing views was that of a female quarry worker in Peenya Quarry, India, breaking up stone using a 15kg (33 lbs) hammer. She must have tremendous strength and I wonder if her back aches too ? She has no protection from chips on splinters, not for her bare arms, feet and ankles, or her head, particularly not for her eyes. I suspect her sari is pretty thin and chips could easily fly through thin cloth. I also wondered if she had ever hit her feet, a blow from that hammer would surely break foot bones.
When Jake said she was breaking stone for road repairs, I immediately thought of the women described in the poor registers (for example, Widow Davidson of Jedburgh, Scotland, aged 45, who 'breaks down stones into sand, and makes about 3d a day'), and in the poorhouse at Jedburgh engaged in breaking stones.
There's more about Widow Davidson of Jedburgh in our publications, Jedburgh Parish (1852-1874) and Jedburgh Parish (1875-1893).
I wonder how Widow Davidson was attired, whether she had any protection, and whether she did the work at home or in a quarry, and whether she was supervised. I haven't managed to find any detailed descriptions of this type of work.
Showing posts with label Poor Relief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poor Relief. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Friday, March 11, 2011
Return of Kirk Session Records to the Scottish Borders
During a small ceremony on Monday 14 March at 3pm, George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland, will officially handover important historical records of Borders Kirk Sessions dating back to the 1660s to the Heritage Hub, Heart of Hawick.
The Kirk duties were to maintain good order amongst its congregation (including administering discipline and superintending the moral and religious condition of the parish. It also took a keen interest in, irregular marriages, welfare and religious observance.
With moral stories and tales of scandal and social responsibility, the Kirk Session Records give us a real glimpse of the past. They show us what our ancestors and our communities thought and did, rather than just details of names and places.
This is real recognition of the quality of the facilities at the Hawick Heritage Hub and its staff.
It's also much more useful to have these records available for research in the Borders from whence they came rather than having to go to Edinburgh for them.
More information on the press release from the Hawick Heritage Hub.
The Kirk duties were to maintain good order amongst its congregation (including administering discipline and superintending the moral and religious condition of the parish. It also took a keen interest in, irregular marriages, welfare and religious observance.
With moral stories and tales of scandal and social responsibility, the Kirk Session Records give us a real glimpse of the past. They show us what our ancestors and our communities thought and did, rather than just details of names and places.
This is real recognition of the quality of the facilities at the Hawick Heritage Hub and its staff.
It's also much more useful to have these records available for research in the Borders from whence they came rather than having to go to Edinburgh for them.
More information on the press release from the Hawick Heritage Hub.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Visualising Urban Geography Launch Event
Last Thursday (23 February) I attended the launch event of the 'Visualising Urban Geography' project at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. About 80 other people attended. There was an introduction to the project at the Addressing History launch event in November, and I reported on the December Visualising Urban Geography workshop that provided a chance to try out one of the tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), that the project had developed using sample data produced by the project.
In last week’s event, Professor Richard Rodger discussed the objectives of the project:
He gave interesting examples in the ways, the tools developed have been used; we saw the development of Edinburgh over time, easy ways to calculate the area size and the length of the perimeter of irregularly shaped plots of land. He suggested other sets of data that might be used with these tools:
The new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, use a Google interface for viewing maps and the open source Thematic Mapping Engine.
Chris Fleet discussed the mapping results of the project including a demonstration of geo-referencing and suggested this would be a good tool to use for mapping burial grounds.
Professor Bob Morris talked about the massive impact this project will have on historical analysis. He said that images, graphs and maps are more important in
writing about history than ever before. He used examples to compare the ration of women to men in Edinburgh's 19th century population.
Lastly, Dr Gittings, a geographer at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out how this project has brought history and geography closer than ever before.
Borders Family History Society has been closely involved with the project since the December workshop, and our goal of representing poor relief recipients in Melrose and Jedburgh representation on dynamic maps was mentioned as one of the case studies. For me, there’s been a steep learning curve in using the new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, to produce these maps, however, we’re very grateful for the support we’ve had from Stuart Nicol in using these tools and from Professor Rodger in analysing the results.
In our research into poor relief, we transcribed the core information exactly as it’s written, but that was not the end of the process for creating these maps. In the case of Jedburgh, the Poor Law Inspector did not record the town name of Jedburgh, so I had to add that for Jedburgh addresses. For Melrose, the inspector abbreviated many road names (often in different ways) and they needed to be manually expanded. Any addresses that are unrecognised get assigned to 0 degrees latitude and longitude, which is in the ocean to the west of southern Africa, so such addresses need to be removed or substituted with the modern address and that has been a lot more work. We have so much data that the tool is quite slow at creating the map co-ordinates, and I found that for each set of data there’s a re-iterative process – run the tool, check the results, resolve the problems and repeat until there are no more errors. The tool uses a vast database created by Google of addresses, and that imposes limitations, as their database is not completely accurate.
Have a look at our initial attempt at mapping the residential addresses of poor relief recipients. The image is a snapshot, click the link to see the full interactive map. There's still a bit of work to be done on this map.
Each pin represents one or more recipients - we can't yet show the number of recipients represented, however clicking on a pin shows the information about one of the recipients.
Click on the ticks on the layers to the left of the map to select or deselect specific layers corresponding to our different publications.
The main drawbacks are:
We hope you find this map as interesting as we do.
These are early days in the use of this tool, and we expect to be able to use it more effectively in the future.
We would like to have your feedback (using the comments link below), especially any suggestions you have for further improvements and suggestions of other data sets that you would like to see mapped.
In last week’s event, Professor Richard Rodger discussed the objectives of the project:
- to create geo-referenced maps of Edinburgh
- to develop software that could be used for free
- to reach a broader public
- to develop dynamic maps so as to further knowledge in the 19th and 20th centuries
He gave interesting examples in the ways, the tools developed have been used; we saw the development of Edinburgh over time, easy ways to calculate the area size and the length of the perimeter of irregularly shaped plots of land. He suggested other sets of data that might be used with these tools:
- landowners and property holdings
- shareholders
- store and credit card holders
- utility bills
- census information
The new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, use a Google interface for viewing maps and the open source Thematic Mapping Engine.
Chris Fleet discussed the mapping results of the project including a demonstration of geo-referencing and suggested this would be a good tool to use for mapping burial grounds.
Professor Bob Morris talked about the massive impact this project will have on historical analysis. He said that images, graphs and maps are more important in
writing about history than ever before. He used examples to compare the ration of women to men in Edinburgh's 19th century population.
Lastly, Dr Gittings, a geographer at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out how this project has brought history and geography closer than ever before.
Borders Family History Society has been closely involved with the project since the December workshop, and our goal of representing poor relief recipients in Melrose and Jedburgh representation on dynamic maps was mentioned as one of the case studies. For me, there’s been a steep learning curve in using the new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, to produce these maps, however, we’re very grateful for the support we’ve had from Stuart Nicol in using these tools and from Professor Rodger in analysing the results.
In our research into poor relief, we transcribed the core information exactly as it’s written, but that was not the end of the process for creating these maps. In the case of Jedburgh, the Poor Law Inspector did not record the town name of Jedburgh, so I had to add that for Jedburgh addresses. For Melrose, the inspector abbreviated many road names (often in different ways) and they needed to be manually expanded. Any addresses that are unrecognised get assigned to 0 degrees latitude and longitude, which is in the ocean to the west of southern Africa, so such addresses need to be removed or substituted with the modern address and that has been a lot more work. We have so much data that the tool is quite slow at creating the map co-ordinates, and I found that for each set of data there’s a re-iterative process – run the tool, check the results, resolve the problems and repeat until there are no more errors. The tool uses a vast database created by Google of addresses, and that imposes limitations, as their database is not completely accurate.
 |
| Residential Addresses of Poor Law Recipients in Jedburgh and Melrose |
Have a look at our initial attempt at mapping the residential addresses of poor relief recipients. The image is a snapshot, click the link to see the full interactive map. There's still a bit of work to be done on this map.
Each pin represents one or more recipients - we can't yet show the number of recipients represented, however clicking on a pin shows the information about one of the recipients.
Click on the ticks on the layers to the left of the map to select or deselect specific layers corresponding to our different publications.
The main drawbacks are:
- There are still some recipients positioned off the coast of Africa
- Only recipients in and around Jedburgh from our Jedburgh publications have been included
- The pink pins represent Melrose 1871 to 1874, the blue pins representing the other publications
- Each pin represents one or more recipients - we can't yet show the number of recipients represented
We hope you find this map as interesting as we do.
These are early days in the use of this tool, and we expect to be able to use it more effectively in the future.
We would like to have your feedback (using the comments link below), especially any suggestions you have for further improvements and suggestions of other data sets that you would like to see mapped.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Updated Visualising Urban Geography Workshop
You may remember that I went to an interesting Visualising Urban Geography workshop on 6th December 2010 to explore their new web-based resources. They're running an updated free workshop at 2.00 to 4.30 pm on Thursday 24 February at the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge,
Edinburgh, EH1 1EW (see map), so expect to see a variety of maps and photos of Edinburgh; information on using and creating geo-referenced maps, the Visualising Urban Geography project bringing together sets of historical geo-referenced maps, social and demographic information to analyse and present data, and to get experience of using one of their tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), to plot a set of trades-people on a map of Edinburgh. I've successfully used this tool to plot recipients of poor law relief on a historical map of Jedburgh. I recommend the workshop, though I hope the weather will be better this time, and you can phone 0131 623 3918 to book your place or book online.
Edinburgh, EH1 1EW (see map), so expect to see a variety of maps and photos of Edinburgh; information on using and creating geo-referenced maps, the Visualising Urban Geography project bringing together sets of historical geo-referenced maps, social and demographic information to analyse and present data, and to get experience of using one of their tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), to plot a set of trades-people on a map of Edinburgh. I've successfully used this tool to plot recipients of poor law relief on a historical map of Jedburgh. I recommend the workshop, though I hope the weather will be better this time, and you can phone 0131 623 3918 to book your place or book online.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Visualising Urban Geography Workshop at National Library of Scotland
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| Poor Relief Recipients (with identifiable Edinburgh addresses) from Jedburgh and Melrose parishes Poor Law Records volumes 1852-1930 |
Chris Fleet began by showing us a variety of maps, prospect views, plans, aerial photos, and digital maps of Edinburgh, all part of the 20,000 items digitised over the last 15 years. Key to this is their collection of geo-referenced maps, maps that can be perfectly positioned in relation to another map by using lots of co-ordinates, and it’s these maps that allow data about locations of people and objects to be combined with maps. Chris demonstrated how new geo-referenced maps could be produced using free technology and said he would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in volunteering to produce new maps.
Professor Richard Rodger then demonstrated the Visualising Urban Geography project with some exciting tools bringing together sets of historical geo-referenced maps, social and demographic information to analyse and present data in more detail than at the AddressingHistory launch in November. He showed Edinburgh as a collection of registration districts, the growth of Edinburgh since medieval times, as a comparison of sanitary districts and property rents, as a comparison of advocates and solicitors homes over time, the occupations of Edinburgh’s colony residents and discussed the historical reasons for the changes we saw on the maps.
He showed too, how they could accurately measure distances and areas of land, which could be useful to a lot of professions.
Stuart Nicol discussed the technologies involved which was rather complicated, and I think most of us were glad that this was followed by a coffee break.
After the break we had a go at using one of their tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), to plot a set of trades-people on a map of Edinburgh, using spreadsheet sets of data that Professor Rodger’s team had extracted from a 1911 post office directory. There were coal merchants, cycle repairers, dairymen, egg-producers, and many other trades. Using their instructions, I managed to plot the egg- producers, who surprisingly were concentrated in northeast Edinburgh and on the road to Leith. Professor Rodger explained that often it’s difficult to guess, when looking at a mass of data, what plotting locations on a map will show, but the resulting map often presents new insights.
Since the workshop I’ve used the data from our publications of Poor Law Records for Melrose and Jedburgh to plot recipients of poor relief (see the yellow circles), who lived in Edinburgh, and that's in the picture. I'd like to be able to show this as an interactive web page, and a future intention is to show recipients in Jedburgh on a map, and those recipients that lived in the bit of Galashiels that was in Melrose parish on a map of Galashiels.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Melrose Poor Law Records
In Scotland, the Poor Law was the means of providing food, accommodation, financial assistance and, latterly, care to those in need from the late 16th century onwards. There was a new Poor Law Act in 1845, which created a huge variety of records covering details on those who applied for assistance in specific areas, case studies, details on inspectors and much, much more. In many respects it saw the beginnings of local government, as we know it today. We’ve been transcribing the most important information from applications for relief and registers of the poor after 1845 in association with the Hawick Heritage Hub.
Apart from the obvious interest to the local historian, the publications open up a new horizon for the genealogist, providing details on peoples’ movement between the censuses, descriptions of illnesses suffered, domestic circumstances and more. Uniquely, the records provide details on people not born in the Borders but who lived or died there.
Although most of the people receiving relief lived in Galashiels, Melrose, or elsewhere in the parish of Melrose, some lived in other Borders localities: Clovenfords, Grantshouse, Hawick, Jedburgh, Redpath, Selkirk, St Boswells; in other parts of Scotland: Biggar, Dundee, East Duddingston, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Joppa, Macmerry, Murthly, Stirling, Stonehaven; or in England: Balsall Heath, Bournemouth, Cumberland.
The list of birthplaces is much larger, most of the applicants were born in an astonishingly wide variety of places in Britain or Ireland, but some were born in Australia, Barbados, Canada, Germany, India, Malta, or USA.
The information transcribed comprises names, place of birth, age or date of birth, address, other family members, description of disablement, date of death, and there’s more information on the images themselves, including occupation, benefit received.
You can see details of many people between the censuses, women’s maiden surnames, family details often not shown in the census, religion, and disabilities; and find people who moved away from their birthplace. If your family has lived here for 3 generations but you don’t know where they came from, these records may help you.
The Society has published the Poor Law records Melrose Parish in 3 volumes, each volume on a CD.
Each CD has chapters on Melrose parish – the historical context, English and Scottish Poor Law history, how it worked, using the Poor Law records, Dingleton asylum, duties of inspectors of the poor, a map of Melrose parish and a railway map, and the index to the Poor Law Records images contained on the CD, illustrations in the text, and digital images of the records transcribed, most of which have additional information.
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| Melrose Parish Poor Law Records Contents (1884-1930 volume) |
The 1871-1874 and the 1884-1930 volumes each cover over 760 named people, the 1875-1883 volume covers over 820 named people.
Their surnames comprise Adams, Agnew, Aikman, Ainslie, Aitchison, Aitken, Alister, Allan, Anderson, Archer, Archibald, Armit, Armstrong, Askew, Atkinson, Auchincloss, Baillie, Bain, Ballantyne, Balmer, Barron, Bates, Bathgate, Beattie, Bell, Bennet, Bennett, Berry, Bishop, Black, Blackburn, Blackhall, Blair, Blyth, Boa, Bogg, Booth, Borthwick, Boston, Bower, Boyd, Bradley, Bradshaw, Braidie, Braidy, Bremner, Broad, Brockie, Brodie, Brogan, Broomfield, Brotherstone, Brown, Brownlee, Bruce, Brunton, Bryce, Brydon, Buchanan, Buist, Bunyan, Burn, Burns, Burrell, Burton, Cairns, Callaghan, Cameron, Campbell, Carey, Carlysle, Carmichael, Carnachan, Carr, Carruthers, Carson, Cartmill, Cassidy, Cavers, Chambers, Chapman, Charleston, Cheyne, Chisholm, Christie, Clark, Cleaver, Cleghorn, Clemiston, Clifford, Close, Closky, Cochrane, Cockburn, Coldwell, Colledge, Collier, Coltart, Colvin, Common, Connar, Connel, Conner, Connor, Conolley, Cook, Corcoran, Cormick, Cossar, Coulter, Cowan, Cowe, Craig, Craise, Cranston, Craw, Crawford, Crines, Crooks, Crosbie, Crossan, Cruden, Cruickshank, Culbert, Culbertson, Cunningham, Curle, Curran, Currie, Cuthbert, D'Agrosa, Dalgetty, Dalgleish, Dalgliesh, Danes, Danoir, Danvir, Darling, Darrie, Davidson, Dawson, Deans, Develin, Dewar, Dick, Dickson, Dinnany, Dobie, Dobson, Docherty, Dodds, Dods, Donachan, Donald, Donaldson, Donelly, Dorey, Douglas, Dowie, Downs, Doyles, Drawhill, Drummond, Dryden, Duncan, Duncanson, Dunlop, Dunn, Duthie, Edenton, Edgar, Egan, Elder, Elliot, Emmonds, Enterkin, Faed, Fairbairn, Fairgrieve, Fairley, Fairnie, Falla, Feely, Ferguson, Fernie, Ferries, Fiddes, Field, Finlay, Finlayson, Fitzpatrick, Fleming, Foggie, Foggs, Foley, Forbes, Ford, Forrest, Forson, Fortune, Fowler, Fraser, Frater, Freil, Friel, Fyfe, Galbraith, Gallocher, Galloway, Ganard, Ganyard, Garvie, Gavin, Gibson, Gilday, Gillespie, Gillies, Gillon, Gilmartin, Gilroy, Givan, Gladstone, Glen, Glover, Goldie, Goldsmith, Gordon, Gough, Graham, Grant, Gray, Green, Greenan, Grey, Grierson, Grieve, Griffen, Grossart, Grossert, Guthrie, Haig, Haldane, Haley, Hall, Halley, Halliday, Hally, Hamilton, Hanlon, Hannay, Hardie, Harkness, Harrison, Hart, Harvey, Hawkins, Hay, Helam, Henderson, Hendry, Henry, Hepburn, Herson, Hill, Hillock, Hislop, Hoban, Hobkirk, Hodson, Hogarth, Hogg, Holmes, Hood, Hope, Houstler, Howard, Hoyle, Huggan, Hughes, Hunter, Hutton, Imrie, Ingles, Inglis, Innes, Instant, Ireland, Irvine, Jackson, Jamieson, Jardine, Jenkinson, Jerdan, Jobblin, Johnston, Johnstone, Jollie, Jones, Keddie, Kelly, Kemp, Kempsell, Kennedy, Kerr, Kiernan, Killin, King, Knox, Laidlaw, Lamond, Lanerd, Larkin, Lauder, Laurie, Law, Lawrie, Lawson, Lawton, Learmonth, Lee, Leech, Lees, Leishman, Leitch, Lennie, Lennox, Leonard, Leslie, Lessels, Lever, Lidster, Lillico, Lillie, Lindsay, Lines, Linton, Little, Lockie, Loftus, Logan, Logree, Lowrie, Luke, Lumsden, Lunn, Lusky, Lynch, Lyons, Mabon, Mack, Mackay, Maginnies, Maguiness, Main, Maloney, Mann, Maquigan, Mark, Mars, Martin, Mather, Mathieson, Mathison, McAdam, McBryde, McCannon, McCardell, McCarron, McCorkindale, McDonald, McDougall, McEwan, McFayden, McFie, McGalvie, McGill, McGinn, McGlasson, McGlinty, McGowan, McGregor, McGrigor, McGuire, McInnes, McInspinte, McInspirit, McIvor, McKay, McKenna, McKingstree, McKinstrae, McLaren, McLauchlan, McLay, McLean, McLeish, McLeod, McLusky, McMichan, McMorran, McNab, McNair, McNamara, McNaulty, McNeill, McPartlan, McPheely, McPherson, McWilliams, Meenan, Meickle, Meikle, Mein, Melrose, Melville, Mercer, Middlemas, Middlemass, Miles, Millar, Miller, Milne, Mitchell, Moffat, Montague, Monteath, Monteith, Moran, Morris, Morrison, Morton, Mossman, Mowat, Mowbray, Muckersie, Muir, Mulvey, Munro, Murchison, Murphy, Murray, Neilson, Nevin, Nichol, Nicholson, Nicol, Nicoll, Nicolson, Nilson, Nisbet, Nixon, Noble, Norrie, O'Brien, O'Connell, O'Donnel, O'Donnell, O'Hara, O'Keefe, Oliver, O'Mailley, O'Neil, Ord, Ormiston, Orr, O'Shaughnessy, Ovens, Paisley, Parish, Parker, Paterson, Patterson, Peake, Peden, Phaup, Philipps, Philips, Phin, Piercy, Pirrie, Pittillo, Polson, Porteous, Porter, Pow, Preston, Pringle, Proudfoot, Pryde, Punton, Purvis, Quinn, Rae, Raeburn, Rankin, Rattray, Redpath, Regan, Reid, Reilly, Rennie, Renny, Renton, Renwick, Reynolds, Richardson, Riddell, Rigley, Robertson, Robson, Romanes, Ross, Rule, Russell, Rutherford, Ruthven, Saddler, Sanderson, Sandis, Schick, Scott, Scougal, Scoular, Screen, Sell, Semple, Sharp, Sheach, Shieils, Shiel, Shields, Shiell, Shiells, Shillinglaw, Short, Shortreed, Sibbald, Simpson, Simson, Sinclair, Sinton, Sked, Skeldon, Skellin, Skelling, Skirving, Slater, Smail, Small, Smellie, Smith, Smith Knox, Sneddon, Snowden, Solan, Somers, Sornbay, Spence, Spiers, Spott, Sprott, Stavert, Steele, Stenhouse, Stevenson, Stewart, Stirling, Story, Stott, Stuart, Sullivan, Sunderland, Sutherland, Swan, Swanston, Sweeny, Swinton, Symington, Tait, Taylor, Temple, Thin, Thomson, Thorburn, Tilly, Tinlin, Tocher, Tolmie, Tosh, Trenchard, Trotter, Tucker, Tully, Turnbull, Turner, Vair, Vallance, Veitch, Von, Waddell, Waite, Walker, Wallace, Wanlass, Ward, Warrick, Waters, Watson, Watt, Wayness, Weatherston, Weir, Welsh, Whillans, White, Wight, Wightman, Wilcox, Wilkie, Williams, Williamson, Wilson, Winning, Winton, Wintrup, Wishart, Wood, Woodend, Woods, Wright, Wylie, Wynne, Wyse, Young, Yule.
Search for people.
The CDs are priced at £12 each or £22 for two different volumes, or £30 for the set of 3; all plus postage. Two other CD volumes were published last year, Jedburgh Parish 1852-1874 and Jedburgh Parish 1875-1893, both priced at £12, £22 for the pair, plus postage.
CDs can be purchased directly from us via our Contacts page using the contact type ‘Order for Publications’.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Melrose Pipe Band Championships Pipers Parade, Melrose, Scotland, 21st August 2010
Nothing to do with family history, except that one reader now living abroad said that she missed the events in the Borders.
I had intended to go and watch the competitions at the Melrose Pipe Band Championships, however, I got sidetracked by the research I'm doing for the forthcoming Melrose Poor Law Records publication and the talk on Melrose Poor Relief 1871 - 1890, that I'm giving at our forthcoming Family and Local History Fair and Conference.
If you're interested in Melrose in the late 19th century, or in poor law, do please book a seat.
So, in the end I got to Melrose in time to see the bands parade through the streets; along the High Street from Gibson Park (where the event was held), along Buccleuch Street, up Abbey Street, into Market Square, and down the High Street.
It's my impression that there were far fewer bands than last year, obviously the recession's biting hard, so let's hope there will be more bands next year.
Here are a few videos I took.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
I had intended to go and watch the competitions at the Melrose Pipe Band Championships, however, I got sidetracked by the research I'm doing for the forthcoming Melrose Poor Law Records publication and the talk on Melrose Poor Relief 1871 - 1890, that I'm giving at our forthcoming Family and Local History Fair and Conference.
If you're interested in Melrose in the late 19th century, or in poor law, do please book a seat.
So, in the end I got to Melrose in time to see the bands parade through the streets; along the High Street from Gibson Park (where the event was held), along Buccleuch Street, up Abbey Street, into Market Square, and down the High Street.
It's my impression that there were far fewer bands than last year, obviously the recession's biting hard, so let's hope there will be more bands next year.
Here are a few videos I took.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
London Lives 1690-1820
There's a fascinating new site, London Lives 1690-1820 online. There seems to be another name, too, Plebeian Lives.
It's a searchable database of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to over 3 million names; and it appears to be free.
So if your ancestors came from or went to London, or were just passing through but were involved with Local Government, the Criminal Justice systems, Poor Relief, Guilds and Hospitals; you may well find them here.
There are some other records too, but not for the whole of London, parish registers, taxation records, and the index to wills at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
As well as the names there's useful introductions to the records themselves, a number of biographies (that they call Completed Lives) constructed using London Lives, and there'll be 'Lives in Progress' on a wiki yet to be implemented.
For example, there's Mary Nichols, also known as Trolly Lolly, born around 1685 in Deptford, Kent. She came to London, married a butcher, and started stealing at the age of 28. At her first trial in December 1714, she was found guilty of stealing goods worth more than 5 shillings (25p) from a house and sentenced to be branded on the hand. That didn't deter her, for on 22 July 1715 she broke into the house of Christopher Hurt and stole a pair of flaxen sheets worth 10 shillings and other goods. Mary was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to death. She claimed falsely that she was pregnant and was conveyed to Newgate Prison to await her execution and was hanged on Wednesday 21 September 1715 at Tyburn.
You can search by surname, or forename, or a combination of both as well as by month and year from 1680 to 1820, and restrict it to a document type. Additionally, I've discovered that once you find an interesting record, you can browse through subsequent records in the same dataset. Many (but not all) of the search results give you the capability to view a digitised image of the original document.
Registering as a user provides additional benefits, your own workspace to store names, ages and occupations of people, and link them together in sets, and download the info. The download is as an XML file which seems a very odd choice, as few people will know how to use it.
Thanks to Chris Paton at Scottish Genealogy News and Events for making me aware of it.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
It's a searchable database of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to over 3 million names; and it appears to be free.
So if your ancestors came from or went to London, or were just passing through but were involved with Local Government, the Criminal Justice systems, Poor Relief, Guilds and Hospitals; you may well find them here.
There are some other records too, but not for the whole of London, parish registers, taxation records, and the index to wills at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
As well as the names there's useful introductions to the records themselves, a number of biographies (that they call Completed Lives) constructed using London Lives, and there'll be 'Lives in Progress' on a wiki yet to be implemented.
For example, there's Mary Nichols, also known as Trolly Lolly, born around 1685 in Deptford, Kent. She came to London, married a butcher, and started stealing at the age of 28. At her first trial in December 1714, she was found guilty of stealing goods worth more than 5 shillings (25p) from a house and sentenced to be branded on the hand. That didn't deter her, for on 22 July 1715 she broke into the house of Christopher Hurt and stole a pair of flaxen sheets worth 10 shillings and other goods. Mary was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to death. She claimed falsely that she was pregnant and was conveyed to Newgate Prison to await her execution and was hanged on Wednesday 21 September 1715 at Tyburn.
You can search by surname, or forename, or a combination of both as well as by month and year from 1680 to 1820, and restrict it to a document type. Additionally, I've discovered that once you find an interesting record, you can browse through subsequent records in the same dataset. Many (but not all) of the search results give you the capability to view a digitised image of the original document.
Registering as a user provides additional benefits, your own workspace to store names, ages and occupations of people, and link them together in sets, and download the info. The download is as an XML file which seems a very odd choice, as few people will know how to use it.
Thanks to Chris Paton at Scottish Genealogy News and Events for making me aware of it.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Criminal Ancestors
Last Sunday's programme, the fourth episode of the new 'Digging up Your Roots', which is broadcast on 92-95 FM every Sunday at midday until 21 February was about criminal ancestors.
If you have a question to ask, write to: Digging Up Your Roots, BBC Radio Scotland, Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, AB15 5ZT or email them at diggingupyourroots@bbc.co.uk .
If you missed this, it is available as a podcast.
In 1827 and 1828, the notorious William Burke and William Hare carried out a series of murders and sold the bodies to a medical school. Helen MacDougal, Burke's bidie-in, claimed she knew nothing about the murders. When the case came to court on Christmas eve 1828, Burke was convicted, but Helen's verdict was Not Proven.
Later on, Helen was possibly killed by millworkers at Deanston, after she was unmasked as Burke's accomplice.
Lots more detail about them which you can hear in the podcast.
Jane Stark was a one woman crimewave in the late 19th century, housebreaking, affairs, drunkenness. She died in 1899. The information from NHS records was that she was a hawker and had been run over by a lorry and died an hour and a half after admission. The local press reported that she had been run over by a North British railway truck after stepping out in front of it while she was drunk. Poor Relief records came into play when Jane went to prison and her children went first to a shelter and later to an industrial school.
The National Archives of Scotland has prison records from 1657. Most useful are the admission registers which show name, age, height (in feet and inches for men; low, middle, or tall for women), birthplace, residence, marital status, occupation, crime, the court, sentence, dates admitted and released, and photos (mostly of criminal lunatics) from the 1880s. There are also records of prison staff, and governors' journals.
Apparently any child born in North prison, Glasgow was entitled to a farthing (a quarter of an old penny) for life from Glasgow Council. A year's farthings (365) would be 7 shillings and 7 pence farthing (£0.38).
They also mentioned a book by William Seivwright, a preacher reader in Perth prison, which details prison life.
Also see Black Sheep Ancestors, which has details of insane asylums, executions, and prisons in Britain, Canada, and the USA.
British Library Online can be used to view newspapers. It is a subscription site, but many universities provide free access to staff and students.
One listener wanted to know more about a her great uncle in Canada, who she thought had killed his wife's lover, and they found some information in Library and Archives Canada.
Another listener wanted to know about Huguenot ancestors - there are records at the Huguenot Library in London.
There was a quite a lot on Kirk Session records too.
Next Sunday's programme will be about military matters, including a prisoner of war, a daring Battle of Britain pilot, and a unique tribute to a Black Watch soldier.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
If you have a question to ask, write to: Digging Up Your Roots, BBC Radio Scotland, Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, AB15 5ZT or email them at diggingupyourroots@bbc.co.uk .
If you missed this, it is available as a podcast.
In 1827 and 1828, the notorious William Burke and William Hare carried out a series of murders and sold the bodies to a medical school. Helen MacDougal, Burke's bidie-in, claimed she knew nothing about the murders. When the case came to court on Christmas eve 1828, Burke was convicted, but Helen's verdict was Not Proven.
Later on, Helen was possibly killed by millworkers at Deanston, after she was unmasked as Burke's accomplice.
Lots more detail about them which you can hear in the podcast.
Jane Stark was a one woman crimewave in the late 19th century, housebreaking, affairs, drunkenness. She died in 1899. The information from NHS records was that she was a hawker and had been run over by a lorry and died an hour and a half after admission. The local press reported that she had been run over by a North British railway truck after stepping out in front of it while she was drunk. Poor Relief records came into play when Jane went to prison and her children went first to a shelter and later to an industrial school.
The National Archives of Scotland has prison records from 1657. Most useful are the admission registers which show name, age, height (in feet and inches for men; low, middle, or tall for women), birthplace, residence, marital status, occupation, crime, the court, sentence, dates admitted and released, and photos (mostly of criminal lunatics) from the 1880s. There are also records of prison staff, and governors' journals.
Apparently any child born in North prison, Glasgow was entitled to a farthing (a quarter of an old penny) for life from Glasgow Council. A year's farthings (365) would be 7 shillings and 7 pence farthing (£0.38).
They also mentioned a book by William Seivwright, a preacher reader in Perth prison, which details prison life.
Also see Black Sheep Ancestors, which has details of insane asylums, executions, and prisons in Britain, Canada, and the USA.
British Library Online can be used to view newspapers. It is a subscription site, but many universities provide free access to staff and students.
One listener wanted to know more about a her great uncle in Canada, who she thought had killed his wife's lover, and they found some information in Library and Archives Canada.
Another listener wanted to know about Huguenot ancestors - there are records at the Huguenot Library in London.
There was a quite a lot on Kirk Session records too.
Next Sunday's programme will be about military matters, including a prisoner of war, a daring Battle of Britain pilot, and a unique tribute to a Black Watch soldier.
To comment on this article, please click the 'comments' link below.
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