Summa Genealogica

The Edinburgh Central Library and the National Library of Scotland have organised another Family History Fair, taking place this October, Friday 24th, in the George Washington Browne room of Edinburgh Central Library. This year the Fair and the talks take on a miltary theme: " Using archive material which documents aspects of Edinburgh during the 1940s & 50s, we'll have a look at life in the city as it recovered in aftermath of World War Two. In these years much new housing was needed for the growing population, as were schools. Rationing remained for some time but there was growing hope, as the capital began to boom." (From VisitScotland ) There will also be tables with various organisations, including the Scottish Genealogy Society. You can find tickets to the event at the Scottish Genealogy Society's website, here . It is a great opportunity to come along, meet some interesting people, and learn some local history, something of vital importance to genealogical ...

For the first time, on Sunday coming, the Association of Professional Genealogists are holding a global gathering, open to members and non-members alike, but mainly aimed at those with an interest with joining or becoming a professional genealogist. The meeting will be from 4pm to 5pm EST.  https://members.apgen.org/Calendar/moreinfo.php?org_id=APG&eventid=147804 The link to view the event page and sign up for the meeting is above! ~~~ Luke Gibson is a professional genealogist in Scotland, and a member of the Association for Professional Genealogists, and the Scottish Genealogy Network.

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...

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 ...