Scottish Emigration Database

The Scottish Emigration Database currently contains the records of over 21,000 passengers who embarked at Glasgow and Greenock for non-European ports between 1 January and 30 April 1923, and at other Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960.

More ships passengers lists from Scotland to North America (Canada & USA) are found at Olive Tree Genealogy

Finding Medical Records in Ontario

Medical Records in Ontario are held in various places - some are at the Ontario Archives, others are with the original institution.

To obtain these records, you should begin with the OA. Find out what they have, and then how to request it. For example,Queen Street Hospital in Toronto has records that go back to 1839. There are nineteenth century records for institutions in London, Hamilton, and Kingston and from Penetanguishene from 1904.

Files less than 100 years old are restricted under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Requests for access must be submitted in writing to the
Access Unit of the Archives of Ontario.

Files created in whole or in part on or after 6 April 1954 are restricted under the Mental Health Act. Requests for access to records in Archives' custody must be submitted in writing to the Administrator of the appropriate psychiatric hospital.

Olive Tree Genealogy has a partial list of the OA psychiatric files and holdings

Special Discount on Footnote.com Membership!

Footnote.com website and I have been talking about offering genealogists a special discount for memberships. I'm happy to announce that from today through til August 14th you can get $10.00 off a year's membership by using a special link on OliveTreeGenealogy.com websites.

Footnote is digitizing NARA records and they have a lot of great data online. There is much more to Footnote than just NARA records, so if you haven't visited, you really should.
The first time I explored their website I found an ancestor's brother in the NARA naturalization records so I was pretty thrilled.

You can start your journey at OliveTreeGenealogy.com or click on the banner below.



This promotion will run from midnight mountain time August 8 thru 11:59 pm Mountain time on August 14

Footnote.com will digitize content from Allen County Public Library

FOOTNOTE.COM ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH THE LARGEST PUBLIC GENEALOGY LIBRARY IN THE U.S.

Footnote.com announced a new partnership with Allen County Public Library (ACPL), the largest public genealogy library in the United States. This partnership will result in millions of historical records being digitized and made available online for the first time at Footnote.com. The Allen County Public Library collections feature unique American and International records including family histories, city directories, military records and historical newspapers.

All Allen County Public Library records digitized by Footnote.com will be made available at the library for free. For those that cannot travel to the library, they can access these records from the comfort of their own personal computers with a Footnote.com Membership.

NARA records are available now on Footnote.com. Search Revolutionary War Pension Files & Muster Rolls, Confederate Soldiers Service Records & Naturalization Records all on Footnote.com

History of New York Orphan Homes online

Olive Tree Genealogy has added History of Various Orphan Homes in Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities of the State of New York, 1870; Argus Company, Printers, Albany. transcribed & submitted by Linda Conpenelis Schmidt, July 2007

The following orphan homes have been added and more will be published online as they are transcribed

* Albany Orphan Asylum

* Davenport Female Orphan Asylum, Bath

* Society for the Relief of Half-Orphan and Destitute Children, New York

* St. Mary's German Orphan Asylum, Buffalo New York

* Asylum of Our Lady of Refuge, Buffalo

* Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, Brooklyn

* Home for Homeless Girls, New York

* Colored Orphan Asylum, New York

* Southern Tier Orphans' Home, Elmira

* Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, Erie county

* Five Points Mission, New York

* Five Points House of Industry, New York

* St Luke's Home, for Indigent Christian Females, New York

* Society for Destitute Children of Seamen, Snug Harbor

Creating Ancestor Cards for Children

A lot of people wrote to ask me what program I used to make the Ancestor Cards for my grandchildren. I tried a few different ones before settling on Excel. Each card that I created is 6x9 cm. (about 2.5x3.5 inches). I wanted to make sure the cards were not bigger than a baseball or hockey card so that I could buy a binder with plastic inserts and slots to hold the cards when complete.

I created 6 rectangle cells in Excel to the size I wanted, and saved 2 copies - one for the front (photos) and one for the back (text). Then I inserted the photos I wanted, cropped them if needed, and formatted them to the size I needed. I could have sized them first in something like Irfanview (a free graphic program) and then inserted them into Excel. Play with it, have fun, see what you can come up with!

I tried Picassa (a free download from Google) and Word, both printed beautifully but I had trouble lining up my back text with the photos on the front. Picassa prints beautifully, and you can automatically shrink the photos you use to fit the size card you want to make. It much easier and faster than Excel.

If you are more familiar with Word or Picassa than I am, perhaps you can make it work for you. You could also make each card slightly smaller so you get 9 cards on each sheet instead of 6. If you come up with a better method than I used, please let me know!

Ancestor Cards for Children

Recently I've been mulling over how to present the genealogy I've done on our family so that it would grab my 9 year old grandson's attention. My good friend Illya of Genealogy Today suggested I use a baseball or hockey card format with one ancestor per card.

I loved the idea and created cards 6 cm x 9 cm. Each card features one ancestor's picture or a picture representing that ancestor. The back of each card has ancestor stats - their relationship to my grandchildren, date and place of birth, date and place of death, spouse's name, parents' names and a tiny blurb about that person (hopefully something unique or of interest to an 9 year old!)

After laminating the cards, I presented them to my grandson and granddaughter (who is 7) when they came for their annual summer week long holiday with us. They loved them and not only read every bit of information about each ancestor, they began figuring out who was the oldest ancestor.... who died at the oldest age... who died at the youngest age... which parents went with which ancestor.. and so on.

Then they decided to play a game, which we called simply "Ancestor Game". They each chose an ancestor card and played it, with whoever had the furthest back ancestor winning both cards. The next day they begged me to make more cards!! I now have 48 cards made for them with many more to go. To add even more interest I also created cards that were not direct ancestors, but had some small claim to fame or something historical or interesting to a child. Thank goodness for my Family Tree Maker Genealogy Program which tells me if a person is a 3rd cousin 5x removed or something else!

We decided I should also make double cards wherever possible, that is, two cards for one ancestor but with different photos or representative pictures on each one. Then they can play "Go Fish for Ancestors".

It was a genealogist's dream come true - for 5 days they asked for "more ancestor stories please Grandma!" and "Can you make us more Ancestor Cards?" When their mom called to see how they were doing, the first words out of my grandson's mouth were "Mom, you won't believe about one of our ancestors!" and he proceeded to quote from the Ancestor Cards.

I thought I'd like to share this in case you are looking for something to capture your little one's interest, because it was fabulous and my grandchildren loved it!

Ancestor Birth Record Finder

Can't find your ancestor in Birth records?

Most genealogists search Birth records such as Church records and Vital Stats (Birth Registrations or Certificates). If we don't find our ancestor in one of those birth records, we're stuck! Where to search next? My ABF (Ancestor Birth Finder) can help. I am pleased to announce that the complete book Ancestor Birth Record Finder: Tips on Finding a Birth Record When You've Hit a Brick Wall is available on Amazon as  an E-Book for only $1.15

What happens when a child is born? When a woman becomes pregnant? What events take place around the birth of a child? What kind of birth record paper trail is created on the birth of an individual? The answers to these questions will lead you to other sources of birth records and hopefully end that brick-wall.

When an ancestor is born, many records leading up to and surrounding that birth might be created. Let's talk about records kept before an ancestor birth and those created after a birth.

1901 & 1911 Census of Ireland Coming Soon

The National Archives of Ireland has arranged for the digitisation, indexing and contextualisation of its most popular records, the census records for 1901 and 1911.

The resulting website will contain images of the forms for each household and institution, which will be indexed by name (all names), townland/street, age and sex.

The first phase of the project, Dublin City and County 1911, is to be launched in Autumn 2007.

For more census records for America, Canada and United Kingdom see AllCensusRecords.com

Dating Ancestor Photographs

A new Genealogy Section is now online on Olive Tree Genealogy. It is devoted to helping researchers identify Ancestor Photos.

It is a companion project to Lost Faces - Photo Albums, which is the rescue of old albums from the mid to late 1800s

You can read and see graphic examples online of

* Types of Early Photographs

* Hints for Dating Old Photographs

* Dating Old Photographs through Clothing & Hairstyle

* How Revenue Stamps Can Date Ancestor Photos

Feel free to pass this news on to anyone you think might be interested. Enjoy!

Lorine

Released Prisoners on the ship Erasmus van Rotterdam 1638

Source: Journal of the Ambassy of the Lord Anthonis de Liedekerke, Extracted entries from Adriaen Matham's Journal 1640-1641. translated and transcribed by Cor Snabel & Liz Johnson, published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission May 2007.

Preface: On the 1st of September 1640, the ship Gelderlandt sailed from Texel on a diplomatic mission to the King of Morocco. On board were the Dutch Ambassador Anthonie de Liedekerke, Lijsbeth Jans with her brother-in-law Jacob Arissen, and the painter Adriaen Matham.

The 1640-41 diplomatic mission to Morocco was made in order to renew the Dutch alliance with Morocco, and to effect the release of some fifty men who had been employed aboard the ship Erasmus van Rotterdam. This ship had stranded off the coast of Morocco near Agadir in May 1638, and her crew had been enslaved there.

By 1640, funds had been raised for ransom, and Admiral Liedekerke was delegated to negotiate their ransom and release. Jan Janszoon assisted with this dual mission by making certain arrangements with his Moroccan associates for Liedekerke. Adriaen Matham, along with another artist, were sent along on this mission, possibly to make observations about the geography of countries they passed, and to record observations about the persons with whom they came in contact.

View the names of the slaves (ordinary Dutchmen) who sailed with the ship Erasmus van Rotterdam on 17th April 1638 in the service of the West India Company

Black Sheep, Good Sheep

On June 19, 2007 the Globe and Mail "Family and Relationship" section featured the genealogy website of Tyler Schulze. Tyler is a communications specialist for the Department of Defence and has served in Afghanistan. You can find his website Blacksheep Ancestors here.

Tyler is the son of Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy so it seems that love of genealogy is a genetic trait

BLACK SHEEP, GOOD SHEEP
by Patrick White in Tuesday's Globe and Mail June 19, 2007 at 9:20 AM EDT

He may have killed two wives, but your great-great-great-grandfather is no longer a pariah. Amateur genealogists are tapping into online databases to shine a light on the less desirable ancestors from our pasts. Finding an outlaw in the family is much cooler than discovering your great-uncle was a farmer

Even by criminal standards, Albert Bradt, a 17th-century outlaw who lived in present-day New York, was a genuine scoundrel. Marking his lengthy rap sheet are charges for knifing a neighbour and burning down a house with his two sons inside.

Read the rest of this article Black Sheep, Good Sheep

Passenger Lists Scotland to New York 1823-1829 online

More Scottish Passengers Lists have been added to Olive Tree Genealogy.

These are partial lists, gathered from the names of those admitted to the New York Almshouse before 1830. The New York Almshouse records give details of the ship name, port of departure and place of origin of each individual (as well as the standard date of admission, age and so on)

This is part of an ongoing project to extract the names of passengers on board ships sailing from Canada, Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany and France, to New York. See Ships to New York 1800-1824


The following ships are now online:

* Ships Passenger List of Ship Comet Sailing from Greenock Scotland for New York before September 1823
* Ships Passenger List of ship Friends sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York before May 1824
* Ships Passenger List of Ship Camillus Sailing for New York from Greenock Scotland before February 1826
* Ships Passenger List of Ship Richmond Sailing from Greenock Scotland for New York before September 1826
* Ships Passenger List of Ship Franklin sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 15 April 1826
* Passenger List of Ship Eliza Sailing from Dundee Scotland for New York before December 1827
* Ships Passenger List of ship Tom sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 2 July 1827
* Ships Passenger List of Ship Hero sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 19 May 1828
* Ships Passenger List of ship Roger Stewart sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 9 June 1828
* Ships Passenger List of Ship Superior sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 25 September 1828
* Ships Passenger List of Brok or Brooke sailing from Greenock Scotland arriving New York 29 August 1829

NEW passenger lists ships Ireland to New York online

27 Ships Passenger Lists Sailing from Ireland to New York have been added to the current ships passenger lists online at Olive Tree Genealogy.

These are partial lists, gathered from the names of those admitted to the New York Almshouse before 1830. The New York Almshouse records give details of the ship name, port of departure and place of origin of each individual (as well as the standard date of admission, age and so on)

This is part of an ongoing project to extract the names of passengers on board ships sailing from Canada, Scotland,Ireland, England, Germany and France, to New York. See Ships to New York 1800-1824 and 1825-1849
or choose Ships From Ireland 1825-1830

The following ships lists were added today:

* Ship Otis from Dublin Ireland before November 1819

* Ship Ontario from Dublin Ireland before Oct. 1819

* Ship Prince from Dublin Ireland before July 1821

* Ship John & Adam from Cork Ireland before July 1823

* Ship Schuykill from Cork Ireland before August 1825

* Ship William from Cork Ireland 21 May 1825

* Ship Laurel from Dublin Ireland before March 1826

* Ship Lord Strangford from Dublin Ireland before August 1826

* Ship Louisa from Belfast Ireland 20 July 1826

* Ship Wilson from Cork Ireland before March 1826

* Ship Ganges from Cork Ireland before September 1826

* Ship Henry from Cork Ireland before November 1826

* Ship Dianna from Cork Ireland 1 May 1826

* Ship Liverpool from Cork Ireland before January 1827

* Ship Union from Cork Ireland before September 1827

* Ship Trio from Cork Ireland before October 1827

* Ship Hope from Galway Ireland before April 1827

* Ship Marcella from Galway Ireland 18 May 1827

* Amanda from Galway Ireland 23 May 1827

* Ship Jubilee from Galway Ireland before October 1827

* Ship Newry from Newry Ireland 11 July 1827

* Ship Mary from Dublin Ireland before June 1827

* Ship New England from Dublin Ireland before September 1827

* Ship Thomas from Dublin Ireland before January 1828

* Ship Hibernia from Dublin Ireland January 25, 1828

* Ship Dublin Packet from Cork Ireland before October 1828

* Ship Othello from Dublin, Ireland before 1829

Ships Passenger Lists From Canada to New York 1819-1855

There are no archived Ships Passenger Lists for ships sailing from ports in Canada to USA. However some partial lists do exist. These can be found in the Almshouse Records of New York City from 1819-1855.

These records indicate for each person admitted to the Almshouse the name of the ship they sailed on, the port of departure and a year of admission. Sometimes an exact date of arrival is noted. The Almshouse records from 1819-1855 include Age, Place of Birth, Ship Name, Where From, Captain's Name and Owner's Name.

For individuals recorded in Almshouse Records 1855-1858 the information includes ship name, date of sailing, and ports of departure and arrival.

Ships From Canada to New York Project is underway to organize the names by ship name and port of departure. Check back often as this project is updated frequently.

Filling in the Gaps: Partial Ships Passenger Lists 1850-1857

Olive Tree Genealogy added more free data in June to help you find your ancestors:

* Added Filling in the Gaps: Partial Ships Passenger Lists 1850-1857 with Names of Individuals in the New York Almshouse who arrived in Canada before going on to New York (includes name of ship, date of arrival and more)

51 ships arriving in Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were added today. The individuals listed were admitted to the New York Almshouse where they gave details of their immigration. Most were from Ireland, some were from England.

Canadian Ships Passenger Lists 1865-1935 to be Digitized & Indexed

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Ancestry.ca will focus on indexing the Quebec City passenger lists from 1870 - 1900, which comprise more than 750,000 names. The digital images of these and other Canadian ships passenger lists are already available on the LAC website but can only be searched by ship name or date of arrival. There is currently no nominal index

The index for Quebec City will be available free of charge on LAC as well as on Ancestry.ca. LAC and Ancestry.ca will continue to work together to ensure that eventually the entire Canadian passenger list collection from 1865 to 1935, which includes ports in Halifax, St. John, Vancouver, Victoria and North Sydney, is digitized and indexed.

Canada has a rich heritage of immigration and ethnicities such as French, English, Irish, Scottish, Russian, Italian and Chinese. Passenger list records reveal significant information such as the name, age, country of origin, occupation and destination of each passenger, retelling remarkable stories of sacrifice and success that embody Canada's immigrant ancestors. The records also account for other travelers such as crew members, vacationers, business people and more.

In addition to the Canadian passenger list collection, later this year Ancestry.ca and LAC will also make available border crossings records from the United States to Canada that took place between 1908 and 1935, and other Canadian immigration forms later this year.

These additions will add to Ancestry.ca's current online Canadian Border Crossing Collection, which already includes more than 4 million names of individuals who crossed the Canadian-U.S. border between 1895 and 1956.

For more Canadian Passenger List Resources, visit Olive Tree Genealogyand Ships Lists Online

Civil War NARA Records Available online

Through its partnership with the National Archives (NARA) Footnote.com has been able to digitize and index records including Confederate Soldiers Service Records, the Southern Claims Commission Records, and the Lincoln Assassination Trial Papers. Each of these titles features information and details that few have had the opportunity to view.

Footnote.com brings to life these stories within millions of original Civil War documents, most of which have never been available before on the internet.

Footnote plans to eventually create the largest Civil War community on the web with additional options. Visitors to Footnote.com are encouraged to highlight and discuss what they’ve found. Members are also able to upload their own photos and documents and create their own footnotes by annotating and commenting on the records.

Milwaukee County Wisconsin Almshouse & Poor Farm Cemeteries List of Burials

The Milwaukee County Farm Cemetery (a.k.a. Potter's Field) was used during the years 1872-1974. This cemetery was used for the poorhouse inmates and also for burial of other indigent people and transients for whom no funds were available for burial.

There are nearly 6,400 names in the burial register book the names of the deceased and these are now online starting in 1872 at Milwaukee County Wisconsin Almshouse & Poor Farm Cemeteries List of Burials

Search other Almshouse records for Canada, USA & England on Olive Tree Genealogy

Getting Real with Naming Patterns

I've been following some genealogy discussions on mailing lists recently and noticed that many genealogists fall into the trap of taking sides on a question - sides that are emphatically one way or another, with no middle ground or room for a "Maybe...."

One of the discussions started over a seemingly simple question -- were there naming patterns for children in the 1800s in [fill in blank with any country].

Subscribers began to jump in with their opinions - all either YES or NO with reasons or rationale or examples to support their YES or NO stance.

But no one jumped in with "MAYBE.... SOMETIMES... YES BUT...."

Let's get real! Naming patterns existed.

Were they identical in all cultures? No

Were they identical in all centuries? No.

Were they always used? No.

It's easy to forget that our ancestors were living breathing people, just as we are. They fought, they loved, they cried, they laughed, they had good days, they had bad days, and so on.

Even if there are established naming patterns that are used 99.9% of the time (as is the case with the Dutch who settled New Netherland, now New York in 1600s) --- as researchers we must keep an open mind as to whether or not the customs might not have been followed

Maybe *your* ancestor fought with his father or mother and vowed to never name a child after him or her.

Maybe *your* ancestor was a free spirit and loved the name Lancelot even though the first born male in her family had been called James for the last 10 generations

Maybe your ancestor wanted to cozy up to his rich great uncle so he named his first born son after that person instead of his father.... and gave his second born his father's name.

If you find 7 children in a family and 6 are named after known family members (paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles...) then there is a good chance that the 7th was also named after a family member - but it's not guaranteed, they might have named that child after a good friend - or an important contemporary person or a benefector.

On the opposite side of the fence, you may be trying to find parents' names. You spot what looks like a naming pattern of children which fits with the parents you are fairly confident are the correct parents. But one parent's name is missing from the pattern... That's not the time to toss out your theory! There may be a missing child, one whose existence you aren't aware of, or who died. And that child may be the missing link, named after that one parent who is missing from the pattern.

So, use Naming Patterns as a guide. That's all it is, it is not a set of rules set in stone