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History talks and events 30 April - 6 May 2018

24/4/2018

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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

Cramond Heritage Trust


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

Markinch Heritage Group

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

Scottish Genealogy Society

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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History talks and events 23-29 April 2018

17/4/2018

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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

Cramond Heritage Trust


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

Markinch Heritage Group

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

Scottish Genealogy Society

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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History talks and events 16-22 April 2018

10/4/2018

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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

Eaglesham History Society

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

Clyne Heritage Society


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


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Don't (always) believe what you read

7/4/2018

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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.
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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:
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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:
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​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:
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John pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to two months in prison.
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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:
  • An Act to provide for the better regulation of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Scotland, 17 & 18 Vict. c.80
  • Births. Scotland. Ayr, Ayrshire. 578. 4 April 1884. Barbara COCHRANE. NRS Data 575 0262.
  • Sheriff Court Records. Ayr Sheriff Court. Record of Criminal Jury Trials. NRS Ref SC6/54/10.
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History talks and events 9-15 April 2018

3/4/2018

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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

Fife Family History Society

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

Johnstone Historical Society


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

Abertay Historical Society

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.
Jill Dye is a third-year PhD Student undertaking an Applied Research Collaboration with the Universities of Stirling and Dundee and the Library of Innerpeffray funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. Her PhD research focuses on borrowing from the Library of Innerpeffray to 1855. She previously worked as a Librarian in the Rare Books and Higher Education sectors, after completing an MA in Library and Information Studies at University College, London, which followed BA and Mphil (Classics) at the University of Cambridge.


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

Inverclyde Historical Society


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

Cromar History Group

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

Gaelic Society of Inverness


Saturday, April 14 2018, 10.30 am

Culloden Anniversary Service

Venue: Culloden Visitor Centre

Gaelic Society of Inverness


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  • Home
  • Records
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    • Fathers Found
    • Asylum Patients
    • Sheriff Court Paternity Decrees
    • Sheriff Court Extract Decrees
    • School Leaving Certificates
    • Crown Counsel Procedure Books
    • Registers of Deeds
    • General Register of the Poor
    • Registers of Sudden Deaths
    • Anatomy Registers
  • Resources
    • Scottish Genealogy Sources
    • KINCLAVEN One Place Study >
      • Kinclaven 1911 census
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