From Dick Eastman's Blog

Announcing the Launch of the Journal of Genealogy & Family History


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A new, scholarly genealogy journal is about to be published by the Register of Qualified Genealogists, based in the United Kingdom. Here is the announcement:
Launching in April 2017, the new Journal of Genealogy and Family History (JGFH) will address the current need for a high quality, peer reviewed publication, covering broad scholarly research in genealogy and family history in a 21st century online format. The journal will be offered to readers and contributors for free, on an open-access, non-commercial basis, with content available under a Creative Commons Attribution License. The scope of the journal will include any field or academic discipline associated with genealogy or family history research such as heraldry, demography, education and record conservation.
Articles will offer the reader insights into current thinking and practice and provide an outlet for theoretical and speculative ideas within genealogy and family history. Topics will be wide ranging, and include for example:

• Family histories which demonstrate new and innovative approaches and analytic techniques;
• Locational studies
• The use of new technologies
• Software applications and databases
• The use of DNA analyses to better understand kinship
• Ancestry and populations
• Micro histories which may focus on personal, local, community and social histories.
• Ethical and legal issues surrounding the practice of genealogy

The journal will attract authors from around the world who wish to have their genealogical and family history work published in a credible form and made available to anyone who chooses to read it. All articles submitted for publication will undergo anonymous peer review, which will provide a rigorous and robust process of close scrutiny.
The Editor, Jessica Feinstein, says: “I am very excited to be part of the great team involved in this venture, and look forward to enabling authors in our field to publish academic articles that will advance genealogical research in many areas.”
The editorial board will include prominent individuals from within the field of genealogy and family history as well as associated disciplines. The Journal of Genealogy and Family History is registered at the British Library with ISSN 2399-2964.
The journal was initiated and designed by the Register of Qualified Genealogists and will be published via their website at: http://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/jgfh.

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From Stewart McLoughlin - Preston Branch






A new-look website of historic local photographs/postcards/newspapers and other archive material has been launched this month by the Lancashire County Council. 

The “Red Rose Collections” image archive will be available to search for people, places and events and will replace the current “Lancashire Lantern” website.

Go to:- https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/home?WINID=1486766193770 for full tour around the site.

Be aware that there may be charges for some of the images you request.

From Dick Eastman

Findmypast launches Catholic Heritage Archive


Findmypast has announced immediate availability of millions of exclusive Catholic records published online with more coming soon. The records are from the United States, Britain and Ireland.

Thursday 9th February 2017
Leading family history website, Findmypast, today announced the creation of the Roman Catholic Heritage Archive, a ground breaking initiative that aims to digitize the historic records of the Catholic Church in the United States, Britain and Ireland.

Findmypast is today releasing over 3 million exclusive records including sacramental registers for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1757 to 1916 as well as for the British Archdioceses of Westminster and Birmingham from 1657 onwards.

This builds on last year’s publication of more than 10 million Irish Catholic parish registers.

The Catholic Church holds some of the oldest and best preserved genealogical records ever created. However, as many of these documents memorialize important religious sacraments such as baptism, marriage and burial, their privacy has long been protected and access to original copies has traditionally been hard to come by.

In collaboration with various Archdioceses of the Catholic Church, Findmypast is helping to bring these records online in one unified collection for the first time ever.
​Exclusively available on Findmypast, images of original documents will be completely free to view in many cases.

Fully searchable transcripts will also be included, providing family historians from the around the world with easy access to these once closely guarded records.
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The next phase of the Catholic Heritage Archive will include records from the archdioceses of New York and Baltimore as well as additional records from Philadelphia. There are over 30 million records in just these three dioceses. The digitization of the whole archive is a monumental undertaking and, when complete, will contain hundreds of millions of records for the USA alone.

From Lost Cousins Newsletter 10/2/2017
http://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/feb17news.html
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GRO's PDF Pilot Phase 2 has closed

Phase 2 of the General Register Office's PDF trial has now closed - I don't suppose any LostCousins members used the £45 same-day service, which clearly wasn't aimed at family historians (I certainly didn't!).
 
Phase 3 is much more likely to be of interest to us - this will provide PDF copies of register entries that have yet to be digitised at a price of £8. Whilst this is only a small saving in cost compared to a paper certificate (£9.25), it's potentially a big saving in time for those who live overseas.
 
The start date hasn't been revealed - the GRO website currently states "Details of the commencement of phase 3 of the PDF pilot (PDF copies of our non-digitised records) will be published here shortly". If the launch date is announced before the next issue of this newsletter I'll add the information to the Stop Press below.
 
I understand that Phase 3 will run for 4 weeks or until 40,000 orders have been placed. Because the GRO only has online indexes for events which have been digitised you'll need to source the references at FreeBMD (or one of the other sites that has indexed the entries) and input them during the ordering process.

WE ARE ON THE MOVE






JOIN US AT OUR
NEW MEETING VENUE
 

ACCRINGTON & DISTRICT BLIND SOCIETY
32 BANK STREET, ACCRINGTON, BB5 1HP
 
 
OUR NEW MEETING DAY IS THE
SECOND THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
~~~~~~~~~~    &    ~~~~~~~~~~
 
OUR NEXT MEETING IS
 
THURSDAY 9TH FEBRUARY
7.15 pm for a 7.30 start
“VILLAGE SIGNS”
by
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