All the latest news

Murgatroyd's Brine Pumps Middlewich: Open Days

Murgatroyd's Brine Pumps Middlewich: Open Days

The Brine Pumps are open for Heritage Open Days:

18th/19th September from 12 noon to 4pm each day

Brooks Lane, Middlewich CW10 0JG

 

Now restored and off the at risk heritage list.

Explore 130 years of history on this scheduled monument site, discover the story of one man's dream of progress and fortune

The site also includes information on the ground beneath our feet and the art of salt making both relevant to the school curriculum.

The event is totally free and the project would appreciate people's feedback on the restoration so far.

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Do you have Memories or Treasures from Browns of Chester to share?

Do you have Memories or Treasures from Browns of Chester to share?

On Friday 20 August, from 12pm -7pm

 

A POP-UP display at Chester Market will give visitors and residents the chance to look back on the history of the city's iconic Browns department store and contribute to a growing archive.

Staff from Cheshire Archives, Cheshire West and Chester Museums and the University of Chester will be showcasing some of the objects, photos and documents they hold from the store

Members of the public are encouraged to come along and view these treasures, and share some of their own memories and personal items from Browns of Chester.

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𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐊 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐌

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐊 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐌
Maccesfield Museums are devastated to report the Silk Museum was broken into on morning of 2nd August around 5am.
 
On top of the thieves creating a huge amount of damage to the museum building, they have smashed the donations box and taken public donations as well as stealing 2 medals awarded to Charles Tunnicliffe:
 
  • Gold Medal - awarded to Charles Tunnicliffe for his services to bird protection by the Royal Society of the protection of birds in 1975.
  • OBE - awarded to Charles Tunnicliffe for service to the arts.
 
On the centenary year of Charles Tunnicliffe this a callous act and is a huge blow to the museum in what is already a difficult year.
 
Please share these images of the medals far and wide, FHSC hope that they can be returned soon.
 
 
The Silk Museum a great home for Macclesfield's past and a great space for Macclesfield's present and future.
 
 
To help in anyway at all then please click on the link below
 
 
 
 

GENEALOGY AND SOCIAL HISTORY: KNOW YOUR ANCESTORS

GENEALOGY AND SOCIAL HISTORY: KNOW YOUR ANCESTORS
Note for the diary 📖
 
A free conference on Zoom
Saturday 25 September 2021
 
𝑮𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑨𝑳𝑶𝑮𝒀 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑺𝑶𝑪𝑰𝑨𝑳 𝑯𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀: 𝑲𝑵𝑶𝑾 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑺
from the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG)
 

The  main speakers include:

Helen Johnson, Professor of Criminology at the University of Hull and Professor Heather Shore, Professor of History, Manchester Metropolitan University speaking on focussing on their research into criminal ancestors.

Melanie Backe-Hansen, a historian specialising in house histories who was involved in the recent BBC programmes ‘A house through time’, speaking on her research on house histories

David Annal, speaking about his research focussing on the impact of illegitimacy on the records our ancestors leave behind and the ways in which they are recorded.

 
For full programme details and how to register please click on the link below

𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠

𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠
News of a FREE online conference by Legacy in conjuntion with MyHeritage: 
 
 
𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠
 
 
 
While most of the talks are North American centric there are some really interesing subjects, especially if you have ancestry over the pond!
 
You can watch live or the recordings will be free to view from September 3rd until the end of the month
 
Details below [taken from the publicity material] -
 
Take your genealogy skills to the next level with this FREE online genealogy conference, held each Friday in September:
30 live and pre-recorded webinars in all.
Join live for all four Fridays or just one, and if you can't, then you're still covered!
Enjoy the recordings at your convenience — they'll be free to view through to the end of the month.
 
Link to PDF flyer with more details and how to register 👉https://familytreewebinars.com/.../webinar-free1627577543...

Major New Release of Scottish Records by FindMyPast

Major New Release of Scottish Records by FindMyPast

Explore 450 years of Scottish family milestones with millions of new parish registers

 

Find My Past have published over 10 million new baptism, marriage and burial records, creating the largest collection of Scottish family history records available online.

 

This vast new collection of 'Old Parish Registers' to the site is in collaboration with local archives and organisations across Scotland.

 

Click on the link below to read  all the details on this major new records release.

 

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/scottish-old-parish-registers

Membership Year Changing for New Members

Membership Year Changing for New Members

To make things much fairer for members joining at any time during the year, from now on everyone joining will receive a full year's membership, so if you join on say September 13th you membership will not renew until 12th September the following year.

Also if you chose to pay via PayPal you can now join/renew with a recurring payment without having to remember each year.  You will, of course, get plenty of warning in case you wish to cancel your membership.

But, we will be running an exciting series of Seminars, totally free to members from the Autumn so your member benefits will become even more valuable so it is unlikely that you will want to.

Keep  coming back to this website for more news and offers.

News of RootsTech 2022

News of RootsTech 2022

RootsTech 2022

Here are the key announcements fron the RootsTech2022 team: 


• Next year's RootsTech will take place March 3–5, 2022.
• RootsTech 2022 will be entirely virtual and FREE.
• While we won't be seeing each other at RootsTech London 2021, we look forward to seeing you online at RootsTech 2022.
• Call for content (presentations and exhibitors) is opening soon.
• You can receive updates all year long by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Questions? Contact us at .

Video with more details at link below

👉https://youtu.be/w28NJMkR_kw

𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞

𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞
More than one million Jameson employee records have been released and are now free to access online for the month of July.
 
Irish Distillers, producer of some of the world’s best-loved Irish whiskeys, and Ancestry, the global leader in family history, have worked together to share the Jameson employee records online.
 
The historic Jameson Distillery Bow Street records, which are part of the Irish Distillers archive, contain detailed weekly wages books and include the employee names, as well as occupation, hours worked, and wages paid, spanning over 100 years from 1862 to 1969.
 
The Jameson Distillery at Bow Street closed as an operational distillery in Dublin in the 1970s and production moved to Midleton, but today, the lives of its ‘Barrelmen’ can be explored through these digitised wage books – a potential treasure trove of information for those researching their Irish family history. 
 
The records are thought to be important for many reasons, but mainly because for many of those listed in the earlier volumes, there is no other surviving administrative record of their lives.
 
cropped_Bow_St_Malthouse._Irish_Distillers_and_Ancestry.jpg
 
Civil registration of births only began in 1864, so many may not have had birth certificates, and later records were destroyed in the bombing of the Four Courts in 1922. 
 

The records also show further insight into life in Ireland within the period covered. During the Easter Rising in 1916, the distillery on Bow Street was taken over by the rebels which meant no staff could get to work. By law, that meant the employer did not have to pay them. However, there is a note in the wage book to say: ‘Rebellion in Dublin, all employees paid full week.’

Commenting on the release of the records online, Archivist at Irish Distillers, Carol Quinn said: “I have always tried to answer any genealogical query that I receive. However, physically looking through the volumes – some of which are half a metre in size – isn’t good for the longevity of the records and leads to damage.

"Thanks to Ancestry and the team who came to Midleton to digitise the volumes, all of the records are available online and people can look up the records themselves and find out if their relatives worked at Jameson Distillery Bow Street and what their working life was like.”

Records in the collection span from 1862-1969, but records that hold personal details are only available to view up to 1937, to protect the privacy of any living people. 

Direct Link to search the collection at Ancestry 👉https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61942/

Access to Civil War Records on Fold3.‌com

Access to Civil War Records on Fold3.‌com
Fold3: FREE ACCESS ALERT
 
If you have American Ancestry then you may be interested in the following: 
 
Access to Civil War Records on Fold3.‌com will be free from July 1st until 18 July 2021 at 11:59 pm MT
[NOTE: The US Mountain Time Zone is about 6 hours behind us here in the UK]
 
After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view records using a paid Fold3.com subscription
 
Registration required. Click below to get started! 👉https://go.fold3.com/civilwar

New Irish Records on Ancestry

New Irish Records on Ancestry
 
Members with Irish ancestry may be interested in the following Irish records just added to Ancestry
[all sourced from the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin]
 
 
Direct Links to Ancestry search page for each record under the indivudual heading 
 
 
Wills and Grants of Probate, 1858-1900
Source: Wills and administrations. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives.
 
Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds and Licences, 1591-1866
Source: Indexes of Wills, Administration and Marriage Licence Bonds. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives
 
Registers of Wills and Administrations, 1828-1885
Source: Inland Revenue registers of wills and administrations. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives.
 
Crew Lists and Shipping Agreements, 1863-1920
Source: Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1860 - 1921. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives.
 
Census Fragments, 1821-1851
Source: Pre-1901 Census fragments. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives.
 
National School Registers, 1847-1959
Source: National School registers and roll books. Dublin, Ireland: Microfilm of original records at the National Archives.

Journey to the Past with Free Immigration & Travel Records!

Journey to the Past with Free Immigration & Travel Records!

MyHeritage is offering free access to all immigration and travel records from June 24–28, 2021

 

The Immigration & Travel category on MyHeritage encompasses 57 collections with 181,280,020 historical records from all over the world.

They include passenger arrival records, naturalization records, border crossings, emigration records, passports, and convict transportation records.

 

If you haven't already, you'll need to sign up for a free account, no need to give an financial information, just name and a contact email address and set a password etc 

 

Link to blog with more information https://blog.myheritage.com/2021/06/journey-to-the-past-with-free-immigration-travel-records/

 

 

Society of Genealogists are Moving

Society of Genealogists are Moving
Society of Genealogists: new premises announcement
 
The Society of Genealogists has announced it has given notice to the landlords at its current premises, with the details of the final days available to visitors released.
In an announcement on its website The Society of Genealogists (SoG) chairman Ed Percival, writes that as part of a ‘once in a generation’ transformation, the society will be moving to a new home sooner than originally thought.
Whilst the new address hasn’t yet been announced, SOG is ‘focusing on staying in London’ and will be closing its doors for a few months after the final opening day for members at Charterhouse Buildings on 17 July 2021.
The announcement also states that people will be invited to join the society’s new membership system in early July and, with the launch of a new website, be able to enjoy full access to SoG data online.
 
To read the full announcment follow the link below

Scottish Indexes Conference XI - 10 July 2021

Scottish Indexes Conference XI - 10 July 2021
Note for the Diary 📅

The next Scottish Indexes online conference will be held on 10 July 2021 via Zoom and Facebook

[as a sixteen-hour event to incorporate global time differences]

The conference, which runs from 7am to 11 pm BST, is hosted by genealogists Graham and Emma Maxwell and includes:

  •  ‘Merchant and Trades House Records’ by Dr. Irene O’Brien
  •  ‘Tracing Scottish Women’ by Kirsty Wilkinson
  •  ‘Tracing Scottish Ancestors Before 1855’ by Alison Spring
  • ‘Overcoming Brickwalls: Case Studies’ by Emma Maxwell

The event also includes a Q&A session where attendees can pose questions to the panel of experts.

 

How to register:

Registration is free on Zoom and Facebook. Follow the directions at Scottish Indexes.

Chester Heritage Festival

Chester Heritage Festival
Today marks the beginning of Chester Heritage Festival
 
Running between 18 Jun, 09:00am  until 28 Jun, 21:00pm, this year the Chester Heritage Festival takes on a new format determined by the coronavirus pandemic. Some live events will take place, Government ‘road-map’ permitting, but there is a tremendous amount to explore from your own home via this new website. Everything you need to know about events, live or on-line, is here.

So, whether you are interested in our Roman amphitheatre, shipbuilding on the River Dee, Chester’s workhouse or Thomas Brassey, the great Victorian railway builder, it’s all here for you to see. Delve into Chester’s heritage, learn something new about our past and enjoy the experience!
 
 
 
For more information on the Chester Heritage Festival itself then pop along to the Festival website - Link 👉https://www.chesterheritagefestival.co.uk/
 
 
 
It's also the  launch of the Cheshire Archives Talking Tour of the city!
To download the audio content (available through either the Echoes app or our website) & the map, please head on over to the VisitCheshire website - Link 👉https://www.visitcheshire.com/whats-on/living-memory-a-talking-tour-of-chester-p284281

Scottish 1921 census release delayed until latter half of 2022

Scottish 1921 census release delayed until latter half of 2022
Scottish 1921 census release delayed
 
ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has added an update on the release of the 1921 census - and it is going to disappoint a lot of people!
 
 
 
"𝑾𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝟏𝟗𝟐𝟏 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆.𝒈𝒐𝒗.𝒖𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒇 𝒐𝒇 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐. 𝑾𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒖𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒂 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒔"
 
 
All good things come to those who wait - we'll just have to wait a wee while longer...

British Association for Local History: AGM and Annual Talk

British Association for Local History: AGM and Annual Talk

Local History Day 2021 AGM and Talk

Book now for the BALH annual event, taking place Saturday 12th June, 1;30-4;30pm with lecture from Dr Nick Barratt

 

BALH Annual Lecture

Local history after the pandemic: some thoughts for the future
Dr Nick Barratt
Director of Learner and Discovery Services, The Open University

Booking is required

As thanks for your continuing support of the BALH in difficult times, this year’s Local History Day will be free to all to join online via Zoom.

 

Link for more details and to book your place - https://www.balh.org.uk/event-balh-local-history-day-2021-agm-and-talk-2021-06-12

Fabulous New Service Coming Soon to FamilySearch

Fabulous New Service Coming Soon to FamilySearch

New Library Lookup Service from FamilySearch —For When You Can’t Visit the Family History Library

The Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City, Utah, has long been a go-to place to find genealogical research materials and is the flagship library for FamilySearch International.

With the closure of the library a year ago due to the COVID 19 pandemic, people have had to rely largely on online materials, unable to access records that are only viewable at the Family History Library or other locations.

A new Library Lookup Service will soon provide greater access to these records globally. 

 

Click the link below to learn more!

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/library-lookup-service-fhl/

Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture

Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture

Join University of Manchester School of Arts on Tues 8 June, 5pm, for the Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture

This year given by David Olusoga, Prof of Public History at Uni of Manchester

David will be discussing the New History Wars & the many controversies surrounding history; particularly empire & slavery.

Link to find out more and register for this free talk below

👉https://your.manchester.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/cockcroft-rutherford-lecture/