THE ARCHIVES and LIBRARIES OF NATIONS : SOME RESEARCH NOTES

Each country's archives we visited so far have a different point of view about what is important, are at a different stage in the progress of digitalization, have different levels of help from archivists and librarians to the general public who are employed there, and the collections may specialize or have have categories that are different one from the other.

I believe strongly that historical research is important to any Genealogy quest. Research the location by city, county, country - watch how borders and governments (including Kings, Queens, and noble rule) and seek out maps too. If your ancestors have taken part of any historical event (such as the founding or development of the city) there may be biographies of them in history books. 

THANKSGIVING

 

NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND

A little commentary first: IMMIGRATION means people coming INTO a country, EMIGRATION means people going OUT of a country. So records are kept by the country the people are coming into when it's IMMIGRATION and records are kept by the country the people are leaving when it's EMIGRATION records.

image from Wikipedia

The soldiers and airmen's wills is interesting to me.  I'm not sure I've heard of such a collection before. Excerpt: The soldiers' wills have been made available online as part of the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.  The poignant documents include the last wishes of 26,000 ordinary Scottish soldiers. Most of them were killed in action, died of wounds or went missing on the Western Front. A smaller number served at Gallipoli, Salonika or in Mesopotamia.

Almost all the wills were written in their pay books by soldiers below the rank of officer, who served in the renowned Scottish infantry and cavalry regiments, as well as in many other British regiments, and all the army corps that were on active service. 

In addition to the wills from the Great War, there are about 4,750 wills of Scots soldiers serving in all theatres during the Second World War, including some women auxiliaries, and several hundred from the Boer War and Korean War, and other conflicts between 1857 and 1965.

Used to be called National Archives of Scotland.  NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND

NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND FAMILY HISTORY START PAGE notes

• Birth Death and Marriage Civil Records including
  • Statutory registers of births, deaths and marriages from 1855
  • Old Parish Registers (1553 to 1854)
  • Other Presbyterian church records (1761 to 1854)
• Census records (1841 to 1911)
• Highland and Island Emigration Society records (on our ScotlandsPeople website)
• Valuation roll indexes  (1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935 and 1940)
• Wills and Testaments (1513 to 1925)
• Soldiers' and Airmens' Wills (1857 to 1965)
• Military Service Appeal Tribunals  (1916-1918)

We also provide access to:

• Catholic Parish Registers (from 1703) from the Scottish Catholic Archives 
• Coat of Arms (from 1672) from the Court of the Lord Lyon 

WALES : ARCHIVAL RESEARCH and NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES / ARCHIFAU CYMRU and LLFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL

Pride and preservation of the language and history of Wales is important to the archives and library in that small country which is also one of the United Kingdom. However, currently if something you're interested is not digitalized, you cannot get an archivist to find it for you.  The emphasis is on the digitalization.

image from Wikipedia

ARCHIVE WALES = INFORMATION START PAGE

You'll note that the holdings are not focused on Genealogy though your ancestors may be in the collection.

For Genealogy, start with 

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES

Includes maps, civil registration, census records....

Excerpt: The Library is the main repository for family history research in Wales holding a vast number of records useful to the family historian - census returns, probate records, nonconformist records and tithe maps, to name but a few, will help at some point during research.

...

The Archive collections hold substantial information relating to many Welsh gentry families and their estates and to individuals and families that have played a significant part in the life of Wales.

LIBRARY WALES : LINKS TO EXTERNAL SOURCES

These may also be useful to you.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA homepage

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AUSTRALIA - WHAT'S IN THE COLLECTION  link here for list:

The National Archives' collection contains records about key events and decisions that have shaped Australian history.

With more than 45 million items, our collection mainly includes Australian Government records from Federation in 1901 to now.

Records come from Australian Government:

• departments
• statutory authorities
• royal commissions
• military units
• security and intelligence agencies
• diplomatic posts
• law enforcement agencies
• Cabinet

We hold some key records that document Australia's journey to Federation.

We have records about:

• immigration
• military service
• transport
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• the environment
• communications
• security and intelligence
• foreign affairs
• the arts
• many other topics

We also hold some important 19th-century records about colonial activities that were transferred to the Australian Government. These include:

• customs
• patents
• defence
• lighthouses
• naturalisation
• shipping
• postal and telegraphic services

We hold some High Court of Australia records and papers from high profile Australians.

Governors-general, prime ministers, ministers, High Court judges and senior public servants have sent records to the National Archives.

While most of our records are paper files, we also have:

• photographs
• audiovisual records
• sound recordings
• maps and plans
• posters
• objects
• digital records

Our collection is unique and cannot be replaced.

WISTFUL

 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND : GAELIC or ENGLISH LANGUAGE

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND 

And check out this link of STORIESNATIONAL ARCHIVES IRELAND : STORIES

Be sure to check the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND

 links to newly added archival collections.

CANADA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES NATIONAL ARCHIVES GENEALOGY OF OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOR : CENSUS, VITAL RECORDS, IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, MILITARY

CANADA NATIONAL ARCHIVES - GENEALOGY  

Canada's National Archives provides census history and a searchable database.  Learn the history of census taking along with the history of the development of the country - what's missing - what's available.

The Canadian Confederation was organized in 1867.  The Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into the Dominion of Canada...

Census was conducted in some areas well before that. Some Census is missing.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF CANADA - GENEALOGY  Vital Records, Immigration, Citizenship, Military

As a note the UNITED STATES CENSUS is the same: If it was not a state, then it was not counted during the Federal Census.  And if the population of a county was small, it might not have been included in the Federal Census either.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES : DON'T FORGET TO USE THESE FANTASTIC RESOURCES

Back in the day, when I started teaching genealogy at my local public library, the Internet was fairly new. The newest computers had been installed and people were just learning to use the Internet and fewer people had purchased home computers so to the library they went. Fewer people had cell phones and those came with Internet capacity.  I didn't.  I actually resisted cell phones for some time for all the reasons people do to this day.  At the time I provided students with lists of web sites and the actual http addresses.... I must've had a hundred or so bookmarked...

Today I think people do word searches to bring up web sites rather than the belabored input of the https.  I've done genealogy research using a cell phone, especially during Covid-19 closures but I didn't print out and then the cell phone died...

Back in the day there were many genealogy oriented start ups. These days certain ones are dominating.  So it's easy to feel compelled to use those one, two, or three or four.  However, I think people are failing to consider where the ORIGINAL SOURCE MATERIAL comes from that the databases use.  These are usually governmental; federal, state, county, and city. Next come church or religious records.

I have an account with the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES - NARA. (The Library of Congress is also helpful.) And the National Archives of few other countries. 

Some countries are newer at having National Archive resources digitized. YOU WILL WANT TO INTERACT WITH THEIR ARCHIVISTS IF YOU HAVE MORE QUESTIONS and perhaps, the old fashioned way, send for copies or pay them to research for you.  This is usually possible through e-mail. Some will ask you to set up an account, others not.  (I know! More accounts and passwords to keep track of...)

For the next few weeks I'm going to link to some of the National Archives of other countries that you should consider when researching - especially when you find that the genealogy databases DO NOT HAVE EVERYTHING.  And they do not.

C 2024 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

INVITATION

Image From Graphics Fairy

 

SMITHSONIAN ON THE LATEST - NEANDERTHALS and DENISONVANS

SMITHSONIAN : HUMAN ORIGINS: NEANDERTHAL DNA  a full and excellent article that provides information also on blood type evolution, the perception of bitter taste, dental enamel, immune response, 

Excerpt:   

Clotting, Depression, and Allergies

While many of the genes that we retain for generations are either beneficial or neutral, there are some that have become deleterious in our new, modern lives. There are several genes that our Neanderthal relatives have contributed to our genome that were once beneficial in the past but can now cause health-related problems (Simonti et al 2016). One of these genes allows our blood to coagulate (or clot) quickly, a useful adaptation in creatures who were often injured while hunting. However, in modern people who live longer lives, this same trait of quick-clotting blood can cause harmful blood clots to form in the body later in life. Researchers found another gene that can cause depression and other neurological disorders and is triggered by disturbances in circadian rhythms. Since it is unlikely that Neanderthals experienced such disturbances to their natural sleep cycles, they may never have expressed this gene, but in modern humans who can control our climate and for whom our lifestyle often disrupts our circadian rhythms, this gene is expressed more frequently.

FALLEN

Memories of collecting colorful fallen leaves of variety and pressing them between

two sheets of waxed paper.

 

AMAZING RECONSTUCTION OF SHANIDAR NEADERTHAL WOMAN'S FACE

BBC NEWS : FACE OF 75,000 YEAR OLD NEANDERTHAL WOMAN 

The skull was smashed flat.  In this story of cutting edge Archaeology and Science, despite the many pieces being soft, the skull was reconstructed, the "fat" and "muscles" added in the right places, and the face came forth.

Excerpt:

The rebuilt skull was then surface-scanned and a 3D print given to Dutch artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis, who are renowned for their skill in creating anatomically faithful representations of ancient people from their bone and fossil remains.

Ancestry Worship - Genealogy