Luxegen Genealogy and Family History » UK & Ireland

My Irish Eyes are Smiling

Advanced Search now available on All-Ireland searches

The Advanced Search facility is now available on All Ireland Searches on the main search page of www.rootsireland.ie.

For those of us with Irish roots this is a good thing! (as Martha Stewart would say).

The counties Limerick and Sligo do not participate in the Advanced Search facility and will be excluded from the results of an Advanced Search on the All Ireland site but the rest are there.

The Advanced Search facility is also available for each county centres’ data with the exception of Co. Limerick and Co. Sligo.

Note that Standard search will continue to work across all counties.

All-Ireland Search (excluding Co. Limerick and Co. Sligo)

The Advanced Search adds a number of fields to the search criteria for Birth/Baptism and Marriage records and changes the way you pay to view the full details of these records.

==> Go here to visit RootsIreland

WILSON – DOCKAR Marriage 1840 Scotland

From Wilson Family Tree

Alexander Wilson, Shoemaker and Elizabeth Dockar were married 20th June 1840 before witness, William Dockar and Alexander Innes.

Source - ScotslandPeople – 20/06/1840 WILSON, ALEXANDER (O.P.R. Marriages 155/00 0030 0728 Gamrie and MacDuff)

This couple were my great, great grandparents on my father’s maternal side.

Victorian Criminal Records

Do you have an ancestor who was criminally inclined and lived in the Victorian era? If so, you will be pleased with recent news from the BBC Who Do You Think You Are website.

“Details of thousands of Victorian convicts can now be explored online, offering genealogists new insights into the journeys made by their criminal ancestors.

The two new collections, available to explore at www.ancestry.co.uk, have been digitised from original documents held at The National Archives in Kew.”

To read more, check out the news article on the BBC website.

Understanding Dit and By-Names

Kimberly Powell over at About.com’s Genealogy section has written an excellent article about the use of “Dit” Names.

Dit names arose out of the French word “to say” or “dire”. From Kimberly:

Found primarily in France, New France (French-Canada, Louisiana, etc.), and Scotland, dit names are essentially an alias tacked on to a family name or surname. Dit in French is a form of the word dire, which means “to say,” and in the case of dit names is translated loosely as “that is to say,” or “called.” Therefore, the first name is the family’s original surname, passed down to them by an ancestor, while the “dit” name is the name the person/family is actually called or known as. Dit names are used by families, not specific individuals, and are usually passed down to future generations, either in place of the orginal surname, or in addition to it.

One of the comments on the post come from Dave Pierce who explains the term “Dit” in a military context:

Dit naming was also used to identify cadres of soldiers. Most often they referred to the
surname of the (military)formation as a hailing recognition factor. In the confusion
of battle, it was always necessary to be ableto direct the formation to a particular action
for succesful maneuvering. As the dit naming would recognize “Andre Jaret Dit Beauregard” it further identified Andre Jaret as a soldier of the unit that was directed by the “Beauregard” commander or possibly by the captain whose surname was BEAUREGARD . These were some of the basic tenets of battlefield tactics that were among the first rules that an officer had to learn.

An article on Dit names by Patrick on a Quebec Research roots web had this statement:

Dit names, therefore, have varied origins: army companies (Verchères, Sorel, etc.); place of origin (Breton, Langlois, Langevin, Montpelier, etc.); landscape (Beauregard, Beaulieu, etc.); the ancestor's full name (Gaston Guay to Gastonguay or Castonguay); ancestor's given name (Richard, Vincent, Robert, etc.); and no doubt for various other reasons, including vainglory or vanity.

What I find equally fascinating is that dit names can be found in Scotland. Our Scottish ancestors used names such as Robertson – the son of Robert. Other examples – Robert Bruce who became the King of Scotland.

Another twist on names has been shown in areas where many people had the same name. An academic paper by Nancy Dorian in 1969 entitled A Substitute Name System in the Scottish Highlands uses the term “by-names” to describe a naming system found in Gaelic speakers in the East Sutherland region of Scotland.

The by-names in use in East Sutherland fall into several distinct groups: (1) basic
genealogical; (2) descriptive; (3) derisive; (4) nonsense; and (5) secondary genealogical
patterns built on the second, third, and fourth groups.

Dit names and by-names can complicate your research but by understanding how and why they are used will greatly help you find that missing ancestor.

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Names and Nicknames: Naming Practices in Early Modern Ireland

Names and Naming Patterns in England 1538 -1700

Surname Saturday: WILSON Scotland to Canada

It has been a good week for connections regarding my grandmother Elizabeth (Lizzie) WILSON married to Homer KERR. She was born 02 November 1884 near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Lizzie’s parents were Martin Watson Wilson (1857 – 1942) and Margaret Metcalf Robertson (1854 -1936)

Siblings were Alexander, Mary and Martin. All of the children immigrated to Saskatchewan Canada. Other names married into this family are Freethy, West, Whyte.

I heard from a descendant of Lizzie’s brother’s (Martin) family this week. Like me, she grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in Montana. We share great grandparents.

I’m looking forward to comparing our research!

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Related posts:

My Grandmother was a Blue Tooner!

7 Websites for Irish Genealogy Research

It is St. Patrick’s Day….a fitting day for a list of 7 Irish Genealogy Websites that you may find useful.

1. GENUKI: www.genuki.org.uk/big/irl

2. Fianna Hideaway & Guide to Irish Genealogy: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fianna

3. Irish Ancestors: www.irishtimes.com/Ancestor

4. National Archives of Ireland: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

5. The National Archives (UK) - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

6. Public Records office of Northern Ireland: www.proni.gov.uk

7. Cyndis List: http://www.cyndislist.com/ireland.htm

[Please comment below if you have have additional websites for Irish Genealogy research].

Yippee! More Genealogy Books Arrived!

Okay, it doesn’t take much for me to get excited.

I’ve been borrowing books from the Alberta Family Histories Society library, some of which I wish I had available all the time at home for reference.

My latest purchases are:

Finding Your Ancestors in English Quebec by Althea Douglas

Finding your Irish Ancestors by Dr. Penelope Christensen

Researching Irish Court Records by Brian Hutchinson

Researching Irish Census Records…Including Census Substitute Records by Brian W. Hutchison

The more I know about the hows and whys the more likely I’ll solve our KERR brick wall and get them out of Quebec and back to a specific place in Ireland.

P.S. I am sooooo lovin’ being retired. I have time to play

Surname Saturday: WOODLAND Ireland to Ontario 1800s

Stewart William WOODLAND was born 19 August 1835 in Collooney, Sligo County, Ireland.

He married Eliza Victoria GODWIN on 02 June 1857 in Ontario, Canada.

They had one child Samuel Franklin WOODLAND.

Connections?

Please comment below no matter how remote the connection might be. Thanks!

The 1939 National Identity Card Database

Census Substitute

Those of us researching in England, Wales or Scotland will be interested in the recent release of the 1939 National Identity Card Database.

The 1939 National Identity Card Survey was undertaken at the outbreak of the Second World War and took place on National Registration Day Friday September 29th, 1939. The details collected for each person included:

sex
date of birth
marital status
occupation
whether member of armed forces or reserves

The 1939 Identity Card database formed the basis of the NHS Central Register when the NHS was set up in 1948. The data remained secret until challenges to the Freedom of Information Act at the end of 2009 and early into 2010. It has now been announced the release of data for individuals who have died and are recorded as deceased.

Where to find it

The records can be accessed at the following links:

For England and Wales – National Health Service information centre – download a form to request information for a fee
For Scotland – administered by General Register Office for Scotland – fee based
For more information about the 1939 National Identity Card Database

The 1939 National Identity Card database can complement genealogy research using the 1911 Census, most of which will be released up to and including 2012. The 1921 Census is due to be released 2022. The 1931 Census was lost in a fire in 1942. There were no census in 1941 due to the second world war.

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Related:

Early British Census – 1086 to 1841

Examples of Listings in the British Isles

Early Irish Maps

The National Archives has available online a collection of more than 60 early Irish maps (c.1558 to c.1610) featuring fortifications, plantations and townships in Ireland during the reigns of James I and Elizabeth I. They include the historical map of Hibernia by John Goghe in 1567.

To access the collection click here.