For all those who are looking for family tree software in the light of all the uncertainty in the market recently, there is some welcome news from S&N Genealogy Supplies:

Revolutionary new multi-platform Family Tree software for PC and Mac

TreeView has been designed by family historians to fill the gap for a powerful, intuitive and feature packed family tree program that is easy to use from the outset. TreeView stores your family tree on your computer with the option to easily sync your tree with TreeView.co.uk and TheGenealogist.co.uk . There is also a free iOS and Android app allowing you to keep your family history at your fingertips! Privacy options for your online tree allows you to retain complete control over your research.

Powerful Features

• Access your data wherever you are by syncing your tree between the software and all of your mobile devices at the click of a button.

• Navigate your family tree using a variety of different views including pedigree, family, ancestors, descendants, hourglass, fan and even a full tree view.
• Create beautiful charts and detailed reports in seconds
• Easily add details of your ancestors by attaching facts, notes, images, addresses, sources and citations.
• View your entire tree on screen, or zoom in to a single ancestor.
• Quickly discover how different people in your family tree are related using the relationship calculator.
• Identify anomalies in your data with the problem finder.
• Map out your ancestors lives - use the map view to track your ancestors life events across the world.
• Import or export your family tree using the GEDCOM standard.

[Pedigree View – one of TreeView’s 9 navigational views]

TreeView has received praise from both genealogy reviewers and users:

Reviewers: Chris Paton, professional genealogist, writer and blogger:

• “One of the most versatile family history software products now available”
• “Navigating around TreeView is extremely straightforward”

Nick Peers, genealogy writer and blogger:

• “It keeps your research file in sync with the web via TheGenealogist hosted tree, as well as your iPad, iPhone or Android device”

Users:

• “I am so impressed with Treeview, I will be using it for my own research, it is so easy and user friendly, and has all the facilities you could wish for.”
• “A comprehensive multi-platform package that keeps your tree backed up online with stunningly versatile charts and reports.”
• “It’s quick to load and speedy in use”
• “I particularly like the mapping facility”

[Maps View – showing all event locations for a particular individual] TreeView allows you to create beautiful charts with a variety of ways to present your family tree. Choose from a range of drag and drop charting options and decide which facts to display. Charts include: Ancestors; Descendants; Fan; Circle; Full Tree; Hourglass and Pedigree. The software allows you to personalise your charts by adding photographs and customising the background with an image or a colour of your choice.

[TreeView’s drag and drop charting feature showing a full tree with both foreground and background images] You can also create detailed reports in TreeView, including Individual, Family and Narrative reports. These can either be printed or exported as a PDF or RTF file (a cross-platform document that can be opened by most word processors) for further editing.

[TreeView’s Narrative report showing three generations] TreeView is a powerful easy to use family tree program that comes with a host of useful features including charts, reports and maps. You can sync to the cloud and your mobile devices whilst also having the ability to work offline when you have no internet connection. TreeView’s privacy options allow you to keep full control of your data when storing your tree in the cloud, for extra peace of mind. There are three versions of TreeView available:

• Free Edition – Includes essential features, with no limits on the number of individuals or the amount of data you can add
• Basic Edition (Download only, £24.95) – Adds support for:
  • Charting
  • Reporting
• Premium Edition (CD & DVD, £39.95) – Includes all features of TreeView Basic, plus:
  • 4 Month Diamond Subscription to TheGenealogist.co.uk (Worth £59.95!)
  • Printed Quick Start Guide
  • Cassell’s Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland 1893 (Worth £16.95!)
  • Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography (Worth £16.95!)
  • English, Welsh & Scottish Landowners 1873 (Worth £36.90!)
  • Irish Landowners 1876 (Worth £12.95!)

Go to TreeView.co.uk today and find out more. More images from TreeView…

[TreeView Full Tree View with Easy Zoom]

[Relationship View showing how two people are related] Chart Examples

[TreeView Circle Chart with background and foreground images]

[TreeView Descendent Chart with background and foreground images]

[TreeView Full Tree Chart with background and foreground images]

  The collection of Customs & Excise Staff Service Registers 1833-1911 that were deposited with the Society of Genealogists by HM Revenue and Customs in 2013 and comprises of 32 service registers created by HM Customs and Excise for staff born between 1833 and 1911, have been made available to family history researchers by the Society of Genealogists on their website. If you have Customs and Excise officers in your family tree then this could be useful to you. The detailed records include date of birth, place of birth, date of civil service certificate, rank or office held, former residence (i.e. prior to employment), ports(s) in which staff served and date of admission along with notes of salary, offences and meritorious service. The registers often show dates of resignation, dismissal, retirement and pension received and dates of death. While predominantly relating to male officers some women staff members do certainly appear in the later years. The registers, that have now been digitised and indexed by the Society of Genealogists, comprise nearly 14,000 images with approximately 16,800 entries and can be accessed  via SoG Data Online.  The index can be searched by non-member here for free  but to view the full record with full entries  then you will need to join the Society.

 

Here is a timely Special Offer! Take a look here before it is too late! http://genealogysupplies.com/offer-of-the-week/

Save £14.95 when you buy RootsMagic UK Version 7 Platinum Edition & Getting the Most out of RootsMagic 7 Book - only £49.95!

RootsMagic has become one of the UK's most favoured genealogy packages. This software is comprehensive yet easy to use, and creates superb wallcharts and integrates with research sites. It is the top rated program in numerous reviews and articles which emphasise RootsMagic's ease of use and powerful features. Version 7 is the latest edition of this award-winning full-featured genealogy program published by S&N. This great package is authored by Bruce Buzbee, the author of Family Origins.

UK Platinum Edition - with over £105 worth of online data and CDs

S&N's most popular package, the UK Platinum Edition includes:

• RootsMagic 7 UK Edition software
• 3 Month Online subscription to the award winning website www.TheGenealogist.co.uk, providing access to BMDs, Census 1841 - 1901, Military Rolls of Honour, Directories, Parish Records, Wills, Land Owner Records, and more.
• Bartholomew's 1898 Atlas of England and Wales, a complete series of topographical maps, statistical charts, town plans, and index of 35,000 place names. This atlas also contains street maps showing places no longer in existence through development or bombing in WWII.
• Printed Quick Start manual
• UK spellcheck dictionary
• Movie Tour of RootsMagic
• Index to Change of Names 1760 - 1901 UK and Ireland
• General Armory of England, Scotland and Ireland 1894 (Encyclopedia of Heraldry)
• English and Welsh Landowners 1873
• Scottish Landowners 1872–1873
• Irish Landowners

Getting the Most out of RootsMagic Book

RootsMagic is the easiest genealogy software available, yet many people will barely touch the tip of the iceberg of RootsMagic's features. If you are one of these people, then this book is for you. You start with basic data entry and continue by learning advanced techniques such as custom reports, citing sources, GEDCOM, creating user-defined facts, scanning images, and merging. Mix that with time-saving shortcuts, and you soon will have a complete understanding of RootsMagic and its hidden powers. Written by the author of RootsMagic, Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic will teach you how to:

• Create a detailed family history
• Explore the advanced concepts and techniques
• Properly document your entire family history for future generations
• Publish your family history
• Add photos to bring your family history to life
• Use shortcuts to speed-up data entry
• Create customised wall charts
• Organise your unfinished research using RootsMagic
• Share your family history on the World Wide Web

In the last episode of the present Who Do You Think You Are?  Frances de la Tour, an actress well known for her many appearances on British TV, in Film and on the stage, is taken on a fascinating journey to discover her roots and find out more about her English family history. Her family story is better than a period piece of fiction in the theatre with Aristocratic ancestors and society scandals that include an illegitimate child and a landmark divorce. The programme concentrates on this side of her family tree, but one of the data websites has discovered more. Read TheGenealogist's research article here...

 

The BBC's run of Who Do You Think You Are? took us to the Northern part Ireland this week with Mark Gatiss's maternal line providing the family history story in the show. Mark  is someone who has always enjoyed storytelling with a particular passion for the ghoulish and so it comes as no surprise that it is in his genes. Researching his family history back five generations in Northern Ireland he found a tale of rags to riches for one member of his family and that he is descended from storytellers who just may have possibly been vampire slayers. Now that is an interesting personality to have in one's family tree! Read TheGenealogist's article...and see the Griffiths Valuation of Ireland on TheGenealogist, printed in August 1858, with Mark's ancestor having a part tenement of a mountain!

Anita Rani is the next celebrity to appear in the current BBC series of Who Do You Think You Are? Countryfile presenter and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Anita Rani was born in Yorkshire to Indian parents. But it is her maternal grandfather's story in the turbulent period of Partition that takes Anita to the Punjab to see if she can find out more. Ahita Rahi Nazran, better known as Anita Rani (born 25th October 1977) is an English radio and television broadcaster born in Bradford. Her mother Lakhbir (Lucky) Kaur, works at the Bradford Royal Infirmary as a liaison officer and is of Sikh descent. Anita's father, on the other hand, is Balvinder Singh Nazran and he is a Hindu. Both her parents were born in India, although her father came to Britain when he was four, so Anita says he's a Yorkshireman through and through. There is a featured article about Anita on the family history website TheGenealogist.

 

Just a little confused by family history abbreviations?

John Smith,  bach;  MS. 

b: 1847   d: 1889

  If you find an ancestor was "b 1847" does this mean they were born or baptised in 1847? What is the agreed abbreviation for buried, or if you find an ancestor in the records with the shortened word "bach" what does this indicate? Or what does "do" mean? If these and many other abbreviations are taxing you then take a look at this website here: http://www.familytreeassociation.org/abbreviations.html

  Answers: "b" means born, "bur" is used for buried, "bach" is bachelor and "do" is Ditto.

On Thursday night the BBC  aired the latest episode of Who Do You Think You Are? It fascinatingly explored the maternal line of the BBC's Security correspondent, Frank Gardner. His mother's family turn out to have been descended from William the Conqueror in a direct line that went through a Tudor knight who, having picked the wrong side in the power struggle between the Duke of Somerset and Warwick, ended losing his head at the Tower of London. Frank was seen in the broadcast to be incensed by the unfair treatment of his ancestor Sir Michael Stanhope, who was beheaded on being found guilty on circumstantial evidence. The programme traced the journalist's maternal line through 28 generations back to William I. A slightly different angle on Frank's family history has been discovered in this article published on TheGenealogist website. A diplomatic incident involving Frank Gardner's father!

 

  The Royal Hospital Chelsea often get requests from people researching their family history, wanting to know whether anybody in their family was ever a Chelsea Pensioner. Looking on their website there is a dedicated page that you can visit on Tracing Ancestors who were Chelsea Pensioners: http://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/tracing-ancestors All of us in Britain are aware of the scarlet uniformed ex-servicemen and women who are known as Chelsea Pensioners, but do we know how far back in history their ranks go? Perusing the website we can learn that from 1692 until 1955, all Army pensions were administered and paid from the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which is why all Army pensioners tended to be known as Chelsea Pensioners. It seems that there are two categories of Chelsea Pensioner: The In-Pensioner:   refers to those who surrendered their Army Pension and were admitted as residents of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The Out-Pensioner: those who lived 'Out', in the UK or abroad and received their pension in cash from agents around the country.  All records for Out-Pensioners are held by the National Archives at Kew. The Royal Hospital Chelsea website suggests that If you find details of an ancestor in a Census other than the institution one for the Royal Hospital Chelsea it is a definite indication that he was an Out-Pensioner. The Royal Hospital Chelsea has an archive that includes some but not all records of In-Pensioners from 1871 to the present date. Records that are pre-1871 are held at the National Archives at Kew. If you think your ancestor may have been a Chelsea Pensioner then for advice on how to use the Royal Hospital Chelsea Museum Archive services and for more detailed information on what materials that they hold, you can download their advice sheet here.   If you have any further enquiries about a Chelsea Pensioner that think appears in your family tree then you can contact them on: [email protected]

Choirmaster, Gareth Malone, is not the first in his family to perform to an audience. Music and drama is in his blood. From an ancestor that appeared at King George V’s Coronation Gala to a Dublin impresario. Tracing back the family to Gareth's great-great-grandfather, researchers have found that he was an English actor, comedian and singer named Edmund James Payne.  Gareth's forebear begun on the stage in the 1880s playing more than 300 roles including parts in The Shop Girl and The Messenger Boy. A critic from the time described him as a "little man with a very funny face with which he could work wonders" while another report says that Payne was a "universal favourite and a very great comedian". Research in Dublin has also unearthed that Gareth's four times great grandfather Daniel Lowery was in the theatre. Family legends, passed down to Gareth, were that Daniel had been a theatre impresario in Dublin. It has been discovered that there had actually been two Daniel Lowerys, father and son - the latter having been the manager and impresario while the father had the talent and had created the theatrical legacy. Read full article about Gareth Malone's ancestry on TheGenealogist's website.