Summa Genealogica

After suffering a catastrophic series of cyberattacks earlier this month, the Internet Archive and its various features are coming back online, slowly but surely. This is welcome news, as there is a truck-load of useful publications and resources that are available for genealogy on the Internet Archive. Keep updated with what features are coming back online and are available again at the Archive's blog, here: https://blog.archive.org/ .

As it is the run-up to Remembrance Weekend, FindMyPast for the next few weekends are again making some of their records collections available to view for free, ending on Remembrance Weekend where all their collections will be free to view. This weekend (until Monday 21st), WWI records, the 1911 Census and BMD records on Findmypast are free to view! The next few weekends are: 25th - 28th October Newspapers on FindMyPast 1st - 4th November 1939 Register 8th - 11th November (Remembrance Weekend) All records on FindMyPast The WWI records (where they survive) are also fully indexed and searchable (with images) on Ancestry and well worth searching too. They can provide invaluable details about your serving ancestors. The 1939 Register, although very similar, and often refered to as a census, is not a census. It was taken at the start of WWII to provide an account of the British population, to aid logistics during the war. It doesn't state your ancestor's place of birth, but very usef...

As a history enthusiast, one of the things that I love the most about genealogy is the area where genealogy and history intersect, particularly in the medieval period. As you may know, for this reason I am a member of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. I have written an article on the fascinating subject of Royal ancestry and Universal Common Ancestry, which I have posted here , where it will stay as a main page on my blog. I hope you find it informative and interesting; I plan to expand further on the subject in future posts, and eventually culminate with my undergraduate dissertation. Enjoy! Luke ~ Please remember that blogs are  protected by copyright, and you may not  simply copy and paste anything on this blog, not least my articles, and act as if it is your own work. If you wish to use my writing or work, I would be delighted, but it is a requirement  that you fully cite where you got it from my blog, provide a link to it, and credit me.

It's always good to see Ancestry adding more Northern Irish and Irish collections; this time it is a collection that contains records of the Freemen of the City of Londonderry between 1675 and 1945. From Ancestry:  The collection is comprised of the Register of Freemen (1700-1945), Extract Books (1675-1840), and Freemen Index (1793-1862). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Freemen was the only organisation allowed to conduct business and own property within Londonderry. ... Detailed records from sixteenth and seventeenth century Ireland are scarce, so this collection can be invaluable in documenting your Irish ancestors. If you are unsure where to begin your search, start by locating your ancestor’s name in the Register of Freemen (1700-1945), an index organised alphabetically by the first letter of the surname. The Register will provide a year and entry number beside your ancestor’s name. Use the year to find the appropriate Freemen Index book, then the entry number ...

Avoiding Genealogical Pitfalls In the previous post, we explored how the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) provides a structured, evidence-based approach to ensuring our genealogical research is accurate, and how it is the gold standard for allowing us to reach accurate and sound conclusions in our research. Here, we are going to have a look at one pitfall that is easy to avoid and will contribute further to our genealogical search, that being an over-reliance, or complete reliance on Ancestry's Hints and Suggested Ancestors. Collaborative genealogy is certainly a wonderful thing, but it comes with risks. User-created trees are often put together by people who are just as eager to build their family history as you are—but that doesn’t mean they’ve done their homework, or are interested in taking the time to do the proper research necessary. Mistakes in others’ research can quickly become your own, and without proper verification, you could be building your tree on a shaky foundatio...

I began writing this article in an attempt to summarise a few ways in which you can ensure that the conclusions of your family history research are accurate and be content in the knowledge that you are building a family tree that is, as far as is possible to know, correct. However, when I put pen to paper and began drafting my ideas, I realised that one post will just not do this subject justice, there are many sub-topics and off-shoots that could be discussed. What about the FamilySearch "World Tree"?, how can Family Search be used to your best benefit?, what about royal ancestry?, how far can a family tree accurately be traced?, were just a few of the questions I am often asked and wanted to include in this article, but it would become a gargantuan and unweildly treatise, in which most of the information would probably be lost due to reading fatigue. Although I have tried to keep this article a more consise introduction to and explanation of the Genealogical Proof Standard,...