The National Archives have recently made a podcast available to download for those interested in Scottish history around the time of William Wallace.
The talk featured on the podcast is given by leading historian John Reuben Davies, who has published a number of works on Scottish and Welsh ecclesiastical history. He covers the time of crisis in Scotland following the death of Alexander III leading to the eventual conquest by Edward I. The podcast can be found by clicking on this link.
To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the famous wartime raid, new online records of the Dambusters Raid are now available on TheGenealogist
To coincide with recent commemorations of the RAF raid on the industrialised areas of the German heartland, TheGenealogist has now made available full online records of one of the most daring bomber raids of World War Two.
Aircrew from RAF 617 Squadron, the Dambusters
Prior to the start of the war, the British Air Ministry identified Germany’s heavily industrialised Ruhr Valley and especially the dams as important strategic targets. Repeated air strikes with large bombs could be effective but Bomber Command had struggled for accuracy in the face of heavy enemy fire. Finally ‘Operation Chastise’ was devised using a specially designed ‘bouncing bomb’ invented and developed by Barnes Wallis.
Full details of the Operation Record Book have now been made available to view online. It provides an in-depth analysis of the mission which went on to achieve legendary recognition. The fascinating information includes an account of each aircraft’s flight, including full crew list and details of the awards made to each of the crew members after the mission.
This new resource is ideal if you had a relative involved with 617 Squadron (the famous Dambuster Squadron), or if you are interested in one of the most iconic RAF missions of World War Two. There's more details available here.
Written by experienced family historian, David T Hawkins, to commemorate the 225th anniversary in 2012 of the sailing of the eleven vessels of the First Fleet from England, bound for Australia, this book is a must read for all those with any Australian ancestors.
From the arrival of the first 778 convicts in 1788, to the end of transportation in 1868, a staggering 165,000 criminals were sent to Australia for a range of crimes.In addition to those transported, hundreds of thousands of free persons emigrated from Britain and Ireland to colonies in Australia. With the vast distance involved, few people returned and many now have descendants living in Australia.
Tracing those descendants can be a huge task and that's were this book is so useful. First of all it looks at convict records - what to search for, the types of records that can be located and the actual court record proceedings with some actual examples.There's also admiralty records of the 'hulks' the prisoners were stored upon and then the ships they were transported upon.
The book looks at the voyage to Australia, giving a fascinating insight into the tough journey. Aside from convicts there is a look into other early settlers, records of officials and examples of those people who returned to Britain.
The book is a recommended useful guidebook for those people looking to trace Australian ancestry or who may have discovered a relative who was convicted and transported in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It's very thorough and provides useful pointers for what you can find and where to search to find those all important records. The book is available priced £20 from S&N Genealogy Supplies at the S&N Genealogy website.
Latest news from The National Archives is that there are a number of new, previously top secret files from the past now available to view by the public. The files contain records of the role of British Intelligence in World War 2 and the period during the early Cold War.
463 pieces from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office are now available covering the years 1939 to 1951 as well as a selection from 1903 to 1913.
Some of the fascinating subjects covered in the files include the assassination priorities of Operation Overlord (D-Day) suggesting targets such as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the security matters relating to Wallis Simpson and the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936.
There's more information about the new available files from The TNA website.
New secret files released by The National Archives
The 2013 'Readers' Choice Awards' winners have been announced by the website About.com. It was good to see my preferred choice of genealogy software, RootsMagic, do well in the reader awards. It is significant recognition following the launch of the version 6 of the software and shows RootsMagic is as popular as ever.
RootsMagic was formally declared the 'Best Genealogy Software for Windows' and was also voted in first place for the new RootsMagic App (for iPhone or iPad), voted top in the 'Best Online Genealogy or Mobile App' category.
You can read more about it on the About.com website
For those family historians with Irish ancestry, or for those people interested in Irish history, the book we've looked at this week could prove of great interest. Entitled 'Tracing your Galway Ancestors' by Peadar O'Dowd, it looks at all aspects of life in the second largest county in Ireland.
The book starts off with a look at the history of the county, dating back to the 13th century Norman adventurers. It then gives some handy tips on how to go about researching your Galway ancestry.
The author looks at the types of records available to the family historian which can help you find out more about your relatives- looking at Irish census records, census substitute records, church records, land records, grave inscriptions and more.
The book is a comprehensive research tool for those looking into this widely diverse population, giving you the ideas on what records are available and how best to use them. The book is published by Flyleaf Press and is available from S&N Genealogy Supplies priced £11.55 at http://www.genealogysupplies.com/product_display.php?prodid=6224
A number of genealogy bloggers have picked up on the new comedy series from Christopher Guest, entitled 'Family Tree' which started yesterday on HBO in the US and is rumoured to air on BBC 2 in the UK in the near future.
Chris O'Dowd in Family Tree (HBO)
It stars Chris O'Dowd (pictured) who sets out to uncover his family lineage after being left a box of objects from a great aunt. Four of the eight parts are set in the UK, the other four are set in the US, giving the programme an international feel.
There appears to be no definite date when it will screen on the BBC and we will await with interest. With Chris O'Dowd starring, it looks like proving a humourous take on family history research which may attract the attention of a younger audience and hopefully interest them enough to look into their family history!
News from the Vatican Library is the major project to digitise 82,000 valuable manuscripts from their collection is finally underway.
The project, finally up and running a year after its announcement, uses an armada of equipment to capture the vast range of pages amassed by the Vatican over five or six centuries into one of the world’s most valuable collection of books and manuscripts.
Vatican manuscripts to go online
They include the Vatican’s 8,900 incunabula (books printed before 1501): the Sifra, a Hebrew manuscript written a millennia ago, a 4th century manuscript of the Greek Bible and the De Europa of Pope Pius II, printed around 1491.
More information on the project is available here
Family History Social will be taking a weekly look at some of the popular books available for family historians which I hope are of interest to you.
This week we've taken a look at the 'Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames' by John Titford. The book describes itself as 'the definitive guide to surnames and their meanings' and is certainly very comprehensive. The author looks at the history of British surnames, regional variations and offers in one section, a humourous take on surnames from various parts of the British Isles.
The Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames
The book is very meticulous, analysing the history and thought-processes behind the use of surnames. There's also a section devoted to how genealogists can approach the whole surname issue and its significance in our research. The book also gives a comprehensive list of further sources of research (both offline and online) to discover more about surnames.
Finally, the majority of the book (as per the title) gives an A to Z of surnames and their origin and meaning. The book contains over 10,000 surnames and includes how names have developed and varied over the years. It's available from S&N Genealogy Supplies priced £14.99. There's more details on their website.
