Upcoming family history talks and events in Scotland, 30 April - 6 May 2018
Note that there may be a small charge for some of these events, and some may be for members only. We will be publishing lists of upcoming talks and events regularly - if you are organising a talk or event relating to Scottish genealogy or history, please let us know and we will be happy to add your events to our list. Monday, April 30 2018, 7.30 pm Scottish Caribbean Historical Connections Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, OBE Venue: Millennium Room, Cramond Kirk Hall Tuesday, May 1 2018, 7 pm - 9 pm The deidis latterwills and legacies - lifting the veil on past lives Margaret Fox Venue: Lanthorn Community Education Complex, Kenilworth Rise, Livingston EH54 6JL West Lothian Family History Society Wednesday, May 2 2018, 7.30 pm AGM and Poor Relief in Falkirk Ian Scott Venue: Smith Museum and Art Gallery Central Scotland Family History Society Thursday, May 3 2018, 7 pm Scottish and Manx Stevenson Lighthouses Ian Cowe Venue: The 252 Memorial Hall, Betson Street, Markinch Free to members and £2 for non members Saturday, May 5 2018, 10 am - 12 pm Beginners Ken Nisbet Venue: Scottish Genealogy Society Library, 15 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL Beginners: This module is just what it says - for beginners. Ken Nisbet, who has many years experience in researching family history will take this class.
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Upcoming family history talks and events in Scotland, 23 - 29 April 2018
Note that there may be a small charge for some of these events, and some may be for members only. We will be publishing lists of upcoming talks and events regularly - if you are organising a talk or event relating to Scottish genealogy or history, please let us know and we will be happy to add your events to our list. Monday, April 30 2018, 7.30 pm Scottish Caribbean Historical Connections Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, OBE Venue: Millennium Room, Cramond Kirk Hall Tuesday, May 1 2018, 7 pm - 9 pm The deidis latterwills and legacies - lifting the veil on past lives Margaret Fox Venue: Lanthorn Community Education Complex, Kenilworth Rise, Livingston EH54 6JL West Lothian Family History Society Wednesday, May 2 2018, 7.30 pm AGM and Poor Relief in Falkirk Ian Scott Venue: Smith Museum and Art Gallery Central Scotland Family History Society Thursday, May 3 2018, 7 pm Scottish and Manx Stevenson Lighthouses Ian Cowe Venue: The 252 Memorial Hall, Betson Street, Markinch Free to members and £2 for non members Saturday, May 5 2018, 10 am - 12 pm Beginners Ken Nisbet Venue: Scottish Genealogy Society Library, 15 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL Beginners: This module is just what it says - for beginners. Ken Nisbet, who has many years experience in researching family history will take this class.
Upcoming family history talks and events in Scotland, 16 - 22 April 2018
Note that there may be a small charge for some of these events, and some may be for members only. We will be publishing lists of upcoming talks and events regularly - if you are organising a talk or event relating to Scottish genealogy or history, please let us know and we will be happy to add your events to our list. Tuesday, April 17 2018, 7 pm Leith Built Ships During WWI David Seaton Venue: Newhaven Parish Church Hall Newhaven Community History Group Occasional visitors welcome at £2 per meeting Wednesday, April 18 2018, 7.30 pm AGM followed by The Orry Susan Hunter Venue: Best Western Eglinton Arms Hotel, Eaglesham Members free, non-members £3 at the door Thursday, April 19 2018, 7.30 pm Open Mic Members' Night Venue: Portland Church hall, South Beach, Troon Troon & Ayrshire Family History Society Thursday, April 19 2018, 7.30 pm The History of Highland Hospitals Jim Leslie - History of Highland's Hospitals Project - Avoch Venue: Brora Community Centre Thursday, April 19 2018, 7.30 pm The Lost Village of Lassodie George Robertson Venue: Abbey Church Hall, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline Dunfermline Historical Society Visitors are charged a fee of £2.00 per meeting and are made very welcome. Thursday, April 19 2018, 7:30 pm Reflections Hunter Wilson Venue: Paisley Museum, High Street, Paisley Renfrewshire Family History Society Saturday, April 21 2018, 10 am - 4:30 pm The 29th SAFHS Conference & Family History Fair
Venue: Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, Fife Scottish Association of Family History Societies Featuring the launch of The Fife Kalendar of Convicts, 1790 - 1880, CD/digital download. Fair only, £2 at the door. Conference tickets £20 Genealogy is very much about sources – finding them, understanding them, citing them. Not all sources are equal though: a family story, passed down the generations, is still a source, just not necessarily a reliable one. Statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages on the other hand are usually much more reliable, although the accuracy of the information they contain is still dependent on the knowledge of the informant. This is particularly a problem with death registers, as the person providing the information is by definition not the subject of the information, and may not know the correct information. Scotland is unusual, in that it has a system allowing information recorded in statutory registers to be corrected after the event has been registered. This is the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE). One of the most common types of RCE entry is found when a single mother obtains a court order against the father of her child. In such cases, the court (usually a Sheriff Court) issued what was known as a Schedule (F) notification, instructing the registrar to insert in the RCE an entry recording the court’s decree and adding the name of the father to the official record. In theory, there is no time bar on adding to the RCE – the most extreme example we’ve encountered in our research was a birth record being amended more than 60 years later to record a change of name. Statutory registration was introduced in Scotland under the Registration Act of 1854. The government took the accuracy of information contained in statutory registers very seriously. Section 60 of the Registration Act reads: Every Person who shall knowingly and wilfully make or cause to be made, for the Purpose of being inserted in any Register of Birth, Death, or Marriage, any false or fictitious Entry, or any false Statement regarding the Name of any Person mentioned in the Register, or touching all or any of the Particulars by this Act required to be registered, shall be deemed guilty of an Offence, and on Conviction shall be punishable by Transportation for a Period not exceeding Seven Years, or by Imprisonment for a Period not exceeding Two Years. Despite the risk of a prison sentence, people did sometimes continue to lie – about their age, about their family background – and those lies are made official by the act of registration, and might never be corrected in the registers. Fast forward three and a half years, and on 24 April 1884, James Shaw registered the birth of a baby girl, Barbara Cochrane, born on 4 April 1884 at 13 Weaver Street, Newton on Ayr. The informant was the child’s mother, Barbara Cochrane, who informed James Shaw that the child’s father was her husband, Hugh Cochrane, a general labourer. The original register entry gives no indication that anything is amiss. However, on 8 December the following year, the Sheriff Court at Ayr issued a criminal libel against Barbara Aitken or Cochrane, accusing her of contravening Section 60 of the Registration Act, alleging that she had visited the registry office in Ayr and she “knowingly and wilfully” made, or caused to be made “false statements … in order that the said statements … might be entered … in the register of births for the said district of Ayr”. The libel then includes a facsimile of the entry in the Register of Births, and explains how the statements were false: When Barbara appeared in court on 8 December, she pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to one month in prison. Six weeks earlier, on the 27 October, John James Love alias Ryan alias Ryans appeared in court on similar charges. John’s case related to a different child though, one Eliza Jane Ryans: The criminal libel issued by the Sheriff Court, alleged that Eliza Jane was the daughter not of Margaret Toy, but of Barbara Aitken or Cochrane: John pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to two months in prison. Perhaps surprisingly, neither birth record has an associated RCE entry, resulting in a situation where an official record which operates a correction system continues to this day to contain information that the authorities knew to be false. All of this serves as a cautionary tale: genealogists should always treat every source – even those normally considered to be the most authoritative and reliable – with reasonable scepticism - don't always believe what you read. Sources:
Upcoming family history talks and events in Scotland, 9 - 15 April 2018
Note that there may be a small charge for some of these events, and some may be for members only. We will be publishing lists of upcoming talks and events regularly - if you are organising a talk or event relating to Scottish genealogy or history, please let us know and we will be happy to add your events to our list. Tuesday, April 10 2018, 7.30 pm Flemish Immigrants into Fife John Irvine - Tay Valley FHS Venue: Volunteer House (Vonef Centre) in 69 Crossgate Cupar KY15 5AS Tea/coffee and biscuits included. Members entry free - Non members very welcome entry £2 for refreshments. Phone Dave Reid on 01333 350557 for any queries re talks. Tuesday, April 10 2018, 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm Voyage of Hope Ian Murray Venue: Masonic Halls, Collier Street, Johnstone Wednesday, April 11 2018, 6.30 pm, refreshments available from 6 pm Breakers Ahead, Hard a' Starboard: Remarkable tales revealed by the McManus ship model collection Andrew Jeffrey Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee Free but donations requested from non-members. Wednesday, April 11 2018, 7 pm Kirk Session Minutes Bruce Bishop Venue: Lasswade Centre Library, Lasswade High School Lothians Family History Society All welcome Wednesday, April 11 2018, 7 pm for 7.30 pm The Library of Innerpeffray Through its People 1680-1855 Jill Dye Venue: Innerpeffray Library, Innerpeffray, by Crieff, Perthshire Friends of Innerpeffray Library Jill Dye will explore some of the characters associated with the Library of Innerpeffray, its foundation, governance and use. Using both institutional and wider local context, she will focus on the stories of individuals to shed new light on the library’s famous borrowers’ records. Wednesday, April 11 2018, 7.30 pm Were your ancestors farmers? John McGee Venue: Smith Museum and Art Gallery Central Scotland Family History Society Wednesday, April 11 2018, 7.45 pm Guys,Dolls,& Sugarbabies Margaret Kane Venue: RAF Club, Ardgowan Square, Greenock Thursday, April 12 2018, 5.15 pm Deeper into the labyrinth of horrors: The imaginative construction of paid childcare in Victorian Glasgow Dr Jim Hinks (University of Edinburgh) Venue: Room G.13, Doorway 4, Old Medical School University of Edinburgh The Scottish History research seminars take place throughout the academic year and are open to all. Thursday, April 12 2018, 7 pm - 9 pm Dundonald Castle Irene McMillan Venue: Johnnie Walker Bond, Strand Street Kilmarnock East Ayrshire Family History Society Thursday, April 12 2018, 7.30 pm The Pictish Symbol Tradition Dr Gordon Noble Venue: MacRobert Hall, The Square, Tarland Dr Gordon Noble is head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen. His talk will outline new dating evidence for the symbol tradition found in Pictland. The symbols appear to represent a non-alphabetic written language and this talk will explore new data on the origins and dating of this epigraphic tradition. Thursday, April 12 2018, 7.30 pm Social Evening in Loudoun Hall Program TBA Venue: Blue Room, Town Hall, Ayr Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Friday, April 13 2018, 7.30 pm Annual Business Meeting 7.30pm Jo Macdonald Venue: Beaufort Hotel, 11 Culduthel Road, IV2 4AG Saturday, April 14 2018, 10.30 am Culloden Anniversary Service
Venue: Culloden Visitor Centre |
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