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William Douglas's Blog (36)

GenForum message boards and other service close to closure

Starting Sept. 30, 2014, Genealogy.com will be making a big change. GenForum message boards, Family Tree Maker homepages, and the most popular articles will be preserved in a read-only format, while several other features will no longer be available, including member subscriptions and the Shop.

I, for one, will be missing the closure of the forums, to which i have contributed over several years, both posing questions and providing responses.

I…

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Added by William Douglas on August 29, 2014 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Is Legacy responsible for incorrect data on the Internet?

For years I have been blaming The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose 'Ancestry' family trees are - or were - notoriously difficult to amend, and hence never were.

This year, Millennia Corporation will be celebrating their 29th year in business, and the 17th year since they first released their Legacy Family Tree genealogy software.

Legacy is a feature-rich package that lets you chart family trees, record details about individuals, and otherwise track your family…

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Added by William Douglas on February 5, 2014 at 2:35pm — 1 Comment

MyHeritage Acquires FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com to Enter US Market

MyHeritage, which claims to be the most popular family network on the web, has acquirited FamilyLink.com, Inc., maker of the family history content sites FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com. This is MyHeritage's seventh and largest acquisition since 2007.

MyHeritage’s 'Smart Matching' technology empowers users to find relatives and explore their family history. With all family information stored in a secure site, MyHeritage enables users to place and share family photos, and…

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Added by William Douglas on November 26, 2011 at 6:14am — No Comments

Glasgow's 1st World War dead listed online

200,000 men from Glasgow enlisted into the army or navy during the 1st World War.

Almost 18,000 never returned; they lost their lives on land, sea or in a few cases, in the air. Of these, 401 served in the Canadian forces.181 in the Australian and 44 in New Zealand's forces. Two even served in the Egyptian Camel Corps.

The Roll of Honour was first collated in 1922. It has now been made available online.…

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Added by William Douglas on November 4, 2011 at 3:46pm — No Comments

Ancestry.com, and the spread of misinformation

I have received yet another enquiry based on family trees hosted on ancestry.com which contain wrong information.

Now, I am not for one moment saying that everything on my family tree, freely accessible on the internet (though not right now, but that is a different story), is 100% correct, but my database allows anyone to 'Suggest' corrections. I have, for example, recently made a major change based on outcomes from DNA research

However, correcting something on Ancestry is a…

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Added by William Douglas on February 19, 2011 at 7:46am — 5 Comments

Preserving our research for future generations

I have just received an email from The Sprague Project. These updates used to arrive every month or so, but it is now two years since the last one.

I know the project is still alive and well, not least because of the webmaster, A. Arnold Sprague's, generous contributions to TNG users, but was becoming concerned that perhaps old age is creeping up on…

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Added by William Douglas on January 28, 2011 at 5:04pm — No Comments

A Confusion of Lyons

I received an interesting enquiry today (through my website) regarding a connection between John Lyon of Ryslippe and the Douglas family.  I immediately recognised John Lyon (1510-1592) as the founder of Harrow School, but was not aware of his connection, through the Lyons of Glamis Castle to the Douglas family.

For those not clued up with British geography, Ruislip, to give it the modern spelling, is but a short ride on the…

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Added by William Douglas on January 17, 2011 at 11:00am — No Comments

Curious Douglas family links

This morning, I received a message from someone in Mexico, who was telling me about a fountain in Nacozari, Sonora, where he lives. This town was apparently founded by James Douglas in the late XIX Century. In the early 1920s, his son, James S. Douglas built a fountain as a monument in honour of his father. This fountain still stands today in the plaza in front of the Town Hall.


James Stuart Douglas (1837-1918) was born in Quebec City, son of Scottish-born father, Dr. James Douglas.…
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Added by William Douglas on October 13, 2010 at 5:53am — No Comments

Perthshire records go online

57,000 historic records from the Perthshire area of Scotland were made available by the website Ancestry.co.uk this week.


The records date from 1566 to 1901 and cover records from school admissions and surveys of the local militia.


They include the Perthshire School Registers of Admissions and Withdrawals, which contains the names of around 75,000 pupils covering the period 1869 to 1901. Each…
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Added by William Douglas on July 27, 2010 at 3:43am — No Comments

Ancestry launches the Australia Birth, Marriage and Death Index

The release of Ancestry's Australia BMD Index seems to have been met with mixed reviews. Interestingly, here in the UK, although it got press coverage, and links to the Ancestry.co.uk website, there are no obvious details there!


However, full details can be found on the…
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Added by William Douglas on July 16, 2010 at 3:46am — 2 Comments

Regnal dates

Some of old editions Burke's Peerage have "living temp Henry II, which is fairly obvious, but what does "living 5 Henry IV" mean, I wondered?



If it meant 5th year of his reign, but if so why not just say 1404?



I discovered that this is the system of regnal years which in medieval times was more commonly reckoned from 25 March (or sometimes from 25 December). In England, and later the United Kingdom, until 1963, each Act of Parliament was defined by its serial number within… Continue

Added by William Douglas on June 21, 2010 at 5:22am — No Comments

Angus Douglas-Hamilton, the 15th Duke of Hamilton, dies

Duke of Hamilton One of Scotland's most senior noblemen, the Duke of Hamilton, has died, Buckingham Palace has announced.


Angus Douglas-Hamilton, the 15th Duke of Hamilton, died in his wife's arms in his home in the early hours of Saturday.



He was the premier peer of Scotland. The Duke's eldest son and heir uses the courtesy title Marquis of…
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Added by William Douglas on June 7, 2010 at 3:47am — No Comments

Are you related to the British Prime Minister?

When Gordon Brown stood down as British Prime Minister on Tuesday, HM the Queen asked David Cameron to form a new government, making him the 12th Prime Minister of her reign.


Many are now having fun working out if they are related to him, or to his wife Samantha, nee Sheffield. Both families are descended from nobility, and, indeed, from royalty.


Using my home software, Legacy, I find I am an 11th cousin, but my online genealogy…
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Added by William Douglas on May 13, 2010 at 4:30am — No Comments

Northern Ireland Douglases

I am seeking help with these Northern Ireland families


Matthew Ford Married Elizabeth Knox in 1750. She was the sister of Viscount… Continue

Added by William Douglas on April 26, 2010 at 12:17pm — No Comments

Still searching

I went searching for an ancestor, I cannot find him still.

He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.

He married where a courthouse burned, he mended all his fences.

He avoided any man who came, to take the local Census.



He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame,

And every 20 years or so, this rascal changed his name.

His parents came from England, they should be on some list,

but for unknown reasons, somehow they got… Continue

Added by William Douglas on March 29, 2010 at 5:53am — No Comments

Are you a Count of the Holy Roman Empire? Am I?

Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour (c. 1560 – 7 November 1639) was an English nobleman. He was the second son of Sir Mathew Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, a member of the ancient family of Arundells in Cornwall, and of Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby.


In 1579 he was personally recommended by Queen Elizabeth to the emperor, Rudolph II, and was Created a Count of The Holy Roman Empire by Imperial Letters Patent of the Holy Roman…
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Added by William Douglas on March 15, 2010 at 4:00am — No Comments

Naming conventions

In their recent newsletter - and if you don't subscribe, you should - Rootsweb has an excellent article on the conventions for naming children.


I wonder how many of us named our children using this convention:…




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Added by William Douglas on March 10, 2010 at 6:49am — No Comments

MyHeritage.com Acquires Major Family Network OSN

MyHeritage.com, the company that connects families to their past and to one another, today announced a significant expansion of its global family network through the acquisition of the Hamburg-based OSN Group, which operates a network of 10 market-leading family sites, including Verwandt.de (Germany), Moikrewni.pl (Poland) and Dynastree.com (USA).



MyHeritage.com now holds a formidable international registered member base of 47 million, and offers its services in 35 languages. The… Continue

Added by William Douglas on March 3, 2010 at 12:22pm — No Comments

Using professions to trace family members

Sally Douglas has several ancestors who were clock and watch makers, silversmiths and artists. Discovering this has led to a search of Douglases with this profession, using Pigots directory, and other listings.



Her findings have now been included in the Douglas Archives, although it is still very much work in progress.


The above watch was made by James Douglas of Chertsey in 1774


Sons…
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Added by William Douglas on February 11, 2010 at 4:45am — No Comments

Uk's national Archives selling off used microfilms

Following the introduction of online access to digital images in the reading rooms at Kew, The National Archives is disposing of the batches of redundant microfilms listed in the following schedule.



The films are offered on an 'as seen' basis with no warranty or guarantee offered as to their quality or completeness. They may not be used for digitisation, publication or any commercial re-use. Any copyright restrictions on the films or their content will remain after disposal.… Continue

Added by William Douglas on February 8, 2010 at 2:46pm — No Comments

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