19th century haying at Inveraray Castle near the Glenaray.
Family history is on line and the past is available like never before. However the past is not free.
by Tom Thorne
“We look at the present through a rearview mirror. We march backwards into the future.” - Marshall McLuhan
Imagine a society without access to its past. Even if it has built large paper or even clay tablet archives of the past, they were largely accessed only by bureaucrats, registrars, specialized scholars and professionals. Long before computers the Church of Latter Day Saints (CLS) began to archive births marriages and death information of the world amplified by a religious conviction they hold about saving souls of past relatives. They collected or put it all on microfilms. Their diligent work to index and put on microfilm millions of records was a major contribution to family history study and remains so to this day.
When computers came on the scene the CLS quickly adapted their files to the new medium and created an on line index which is often the first place to look to find an ancestor before either getting the original archived record or its image on analogue film or going on line for it from venders. These films are available at Church of Latter Day Saints family research centres at no cost and also on line for no charge. The CLS Family Centre I use is a few kilometers away. At Salt Lake City are also now working to digitize the primary records for on line use. Laudable work.
Their analogue microfilm rolls 1041007, 1041009 contains most of my Scottish family living in Argyllshire from the 17th Century through to the 19th Century. When this film was indexed on a computer database it opened up a vast resource that I can access on my personal computer and iPad before going to the centre to see the original file or ordering it in my case from Scotland’s People the Scottish Government’s web site for family history.
One of the best experiences I have had researching my own family history was getting access to the 1779 Duke of Argyll’s Census (DAC). My ancestors are listed in this secondary document transcribed and published by the Scottish Genealogical Society. For about a year I kept seeing it crop up as a source in people’s discussions on line. Then I found it was available and was indexed in my nearby CLS office.
It seemed like a mysterious document because no one had really seen the entire volume in the flesh. It was not widely available and hard copies of it seemed hard to get. Probably a small select print run made it a rare book. None of our local university libraries had a copy. However the Robart’s Research Library at the University of Toronto over 200 kilometers from my home had one on their shelves. I opted for the CLS film.
I asked my local CLS family research office if they had it. No, they didn’t, but they would gladly bring it in from Salt Lake City. When it arrived I received a call to come in and use it.
It turned out to be a revelation about who was who on the Duke of Argyll’s lands in 1779-80 and it contained so many Munros that I had to set about learning about them. It also listed all their children and provided the maiden names of their wives. It was in a word useful. I provided part of it in an earlier story still on this blog in the June 2012 story: Family history: The Duke of Argyll's 1779 Census (DAC) of his properties provides insight into 18th Century Argyllshire and my family's origins.
The first problem was that we had the DAC microfilm for 10 days so I asked if I could photograph relevant pages for future reference. The prospect of writing out these pages was daunting and because their laser printer was on the fritz they agreed.
I photographed the entire document taking particular attention to the Argyll farms with Munros that were concentrated in the Glenaray and down Loch Fyne to Auchindrain Farm which is now a museum devoted to presenting the life on these collective family farms. I also focused on the Roseneath pages which records McCunns and McFarlanes that are also part of my family’s story.
So there it is. If this material was not indexed and on line no one would know about it. The fact that is now available means that family history studies are personalized and no longer the province of archivists and experts.
The Scotland’s People site has become a money maker for the Scottish government and their devotion to bring more and more material on line is endless. The following Census material is now available: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and recently 1901 and 1911. However, their fees to access and download images of primary documents I find expensive.
That is why I use the free Church of Latter Day Saints indices on line. They have posted Census index files to 1891. This index tells a relevant file exists to pay for if you need to see it. A useful service.
Family history is becoming a business with venders such as Ancestry.com. However many times these services provide local library public subscriptions that enable researchers to check files that you may want for free. One can get the original image in my the case from, Scotland’s People. I have a policy that once I have a digital file of a primary document I make it available to other researchers and this policy is reciprocated by my contacts.
This policy pays dividends in knowledge. A good example of this was a recent Australian contact who is related to me from the 18th and early 19th Centuries, provided me with the Inveraray Glenaray record of John and Mary Munro’s marriage in 1789. I was pleased to see that this file stated clearly that John Munro was “in Drimfern” which confirms the Glenaray farm that John Munro is found on in the Duke of Argyll’s 1779 Census (DAC).
However, there was a further payoff on the page of about 12 other marriages in 1788-1789 registry. The payoff is provided by this entry. “1788 Munro and McKeller: Finlay Munro in this parish (Inveraray and Glenaray) Janet McKeller in the parish of Strachur (just across Loch Fyne from Inveraray) gave in their names and were married April 21 at Inveraray.”
Finlay Munro is the younger brother of John Munro married in 1789. By a quirk of fate both their marriages are found on the same page of this primary document from Scotland’s People. Finlay is also found on Drimfern farm in the 1779 Duke of Argyll Census.
Discovering why certain stubborn facts keep emerging in index systems can only be solved by seeing the primary document. One of the children of the John and Mary Munro mentioned above, was Grizel Munro born in 1793. She married Alexander Crawford in 1816. We can find this marriage with no difficulty and Census files thereafter from 1841 on also with no problem.
However there is a reference with the correct parents in all indices to a Grizel Munro whose birth was registered in 1822. Is it the same Grizel? It turns out it is because somehow her parents didn’t register her birth in 1793 and did so in 1822.
So the Register was opened to the pages for 1793 and the following was inserted in 1822: “Munro: Grizel lawful daughter of John Munro in Drimfern and Mary Munro his spouse was born 15 July 1793 and Baptized on the same date 1793 years”. Grizel perhaps rectified this herself as she began to have her own family. Her first son Neil Crawford was also born in 1822. This adventurous lad went to South Australia in1839 resulting in the people I am in contact with today.
An upcoming story in this space will deal with the costs of accessing primary documents from governments and private venders and the counterpoint to those costs offered by collective organizations such FreeCen at their website: http://www.freecen.org.uk/
© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment