A "Lost" Child - Henrietta Warrener

It isn't very often when I can discover a new close relative to add to my family tree. Today is one of those days.

While waiting for the January BIFHSGO monthly meeting to start I decided to pay attention to a hint on the FamilySearch one-world tree where it suggested that there may be a missing child for George Kaye Warrener and Henrietta Jane Whitfield McGregor, my great-grandparents. I've been researching my own tree for about 20 years and for the lines to my great-grandparents I thought I had everyone recorded but I figured, a quick check wouldn't hurt.

 

Looking at the family for George and Henrietta I have:

• Winifred Violet (1904-1983)
  
• Mary Adela (1906-1972)
  
• George (1908-1966)
  
• Ronald McGregor (1913-1943)
  
• Lillian Barbara (1916-1998)

You might notice that there is a larger gap between George and Ronald between 1908 and 1913 than between the other children. I also knew that George Kaye Warrener's family was residing in the Dalmuir area of Dumbartonshire, Scotland when the known children were born.

So it was off to do a quick check on ScotlandsPeople to see what might appears.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople of the Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

As you can see, my search is very simple, the last name of Warrener and the date range of 1908 to 1913.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

In the returned information there are 3 birth and 1 death record. Since the range included the birth years for George and Ronald I expected two records but not three. Since viewing the index return on ScotlandsPeople is free I clicked on the "view 3 records" to see what names appear.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory birth registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

 

 

The RD or registration district that encompasses Dalmuir is "Old or West Kilpatrick" so seeing George and Ronald McGregor make sense. But who the heck is this Henrietta born in 1911 and registered in that same district? Henrietta is the name of my great-grandmother so could it be a daughter of George Kaye and Henrietta Warrener?

Now is when I needed to shell out a pound or so to view the digitized image for the record of Henrietta Warrener to learn who her parents are.

 

Dumbartonshire, Scotland, "Statutory Births 1855-2009," 1911 Births in the Parish of Old Kilpatrick, p. 228, Henrietta Warrener; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland,  ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 9 Jan 2021).

This is when my jaw dropped. I had missed a child of George Kaye Warrener and Henrietta Jane Whitfield McGregor. I had never heard of this child from my grandmother Winifred or my Dad. She was born 24 May 1911 at 1 Shaftsbury Place in Dalmuir. I know of that address since it is same place many of the children of George Kaye and Henrietta Warrener were born.

There is also a single death record for that period.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory death registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

That looks to be the same person but the only way to be certain is to pay my 6 credits (£1.50) to view the digitized image of the death record.

 

Dumbartonshire, Scotland, "Statutory Deaths 1855-2009," 1912 Deaths in the Parish of Old Kilpatrick, p. 2, Henrietta Warrener; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland,  ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 9 Jan 2021).

And, unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective, it is the civil statutory death registration for Henrietta. She died on 31 Dec 1911 at about 11 p.m. from measles.

Why, until this time, was she missed by me and others?

One reason is that she was born just after the 1911 census of Scotland took place on 2 Apr 1911. If she had been born 2 months earlier then she would have appeared in that enumeration.

 

However, the main reason is on me. I just didn't pay attention to the several year gap between George and Ronald. It wasn't until FamilySearch prodded me that there may be missing child that I took the time to do a quick check.

So welcome to the family Henrietta. You are no longer lost to the sands of time and will now be remembered by generations to come.

My Top 10+ Free Genealogy Sites

 

In my post "My Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites" I limited myself to only 10 fee-based genealogy sites that I regularly depend upon in my research. However, in the case of the free genealogy sites, as I started making the list, it quickly got out of hand and I just couldn't keep the list at ten sites. So here is my top 10+ free genealogy sites that I regularly check. 

Remember, these are my top free genealogy sites and I've selected them based on the names, places and time periods that I'm researching. I am positive I'm missed at least one of your favourite sites.

There is one site I didn't put on the list since its focus isn't on genealogy. That site is Google. Often when I get stuck looking for information I will use Google to explore what is out there. Often I come across those genealogy and family history gems buried on page two or three of the returned results.

1. FamilySearch

With your free account you have access to millions indexed abstracts and images along with their one world tree where anyone can contribute or correct information FamilySearch is a key tool in my genealogy toolbox. Yet there is a whole bunch of images not indexed and once you get comfortable with using their catalogue what is available to you is phenomenal. Although some of the image collections may not be viewable from home once their Family History Centers reopen many more digitized records will be accessible.

2. Library and Archives Canada

If you are researching your ancestors that at any time settled in Canada then Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is a site to visit. You may be disappointed that a vast majority of their collections are not digitized but I've found that the real value from LAC is from their various subject matter pages such as Census and the Military Heritage pages. Those pages help point you to where you can find the information, whether at LAC in Ottawa or on partner sites. Also, much like with FamilySearch, once you become familiar with using the catalogue search system so much more can be found.

3. Internet Archive

I make use of the Internet Archive to locate those out of copyright books that are often referred to as sources in family history compilations or in online databases. But that's not all that there is on the site. Maybe you are looking for the Canada Gazette for 1898-1899, you can find it here and can even download it in PDF or even EPUB format for reading on your computer later. You just don't know what is available unless you look for it. The other reason I use the Internet Archive is the Wayback Machine. This is an archive of over 477 billion (and growing) web pages on the Internet. A number of times when a web site has disappeared from the Internet I've been able to find an older copy in the Wayback Machine's archive.

4. Canadiana Héritage

First of all, this is not exactly your usual friendly genealogy web site. If you think of it as a collection of digitized microfilms that may or may not be name indexed or even fully catalogued then you will have set your expectations appropriately. Yet this has become an important site for my Canadian research. Many of the "C", "H", and "T" microfilms from Library and Archives Canada may be found here. In these often frustrating COVID-19 times where we can't get to an archive to review a microfilm, having any digitized microfilms can be wonderful. You will even find parish records from some churches in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba.

5. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

I wish all provinces were like New Brunswick when it comes to the free availability of indexed vital statistics records with images. It isn't just those birth, marriage, and death records that make the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) site so invaluable in my research. You will find indexes to land petitions and grants, very early port returns from 1816-1838, marriage bonds between 1810-1932, Daniel F. Johnson's Newspaper Vital Statistics collection, and a lot of information contributed by Wallace Hale in the Fort Havoc pages concerning the Loyalists in New Brunswick. Those are just a few of the highlights on this site. If you have New Brunswick ancestors you really need to visit the PANB site.

6. BC Archives Genealogy Collection at the Royal BC Museum

It seems that in the various branches of my family tree sooner or later a group goes to British Columbia to live. Ancestry may have their British Columbia birth, marriage, or death indexed but the BC Archives Genealogy collection hosted by the Royal BC Museum has the births (1854-1903), marriages (1871-1944), deaths (1872-1999), colonial marriages (1859-1872) and baptisms (1836-1888) index is searchable with many of the records having images of the documents available for you to save to your computer.

7. WorldCat

WorldCat is one of those site that doesn't provide the records that we are so often looking for in our research. Instead it can help us find those sometimes hard to find books that have those transcriptions in libraries, archives, and museums. I remember one time looking for a book on the family of Simon Baxter and learned that the Canadian Museum of History had a copy in their reference library. I didn't even know that they had a reference library. A few days later I was able to review that book and learn more about that line on my family tree.

8. Commonwealth War Graves Commission

When researching one of those 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who gave their lives in the First and Second World War then a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site is a requirement. There you will learn where the person is buried or memorialized, their service number (so important to later research), unit, and possibly other personal information. There may be additional documents such as what was to be recorded on the marker or panel.

9. Find A Grave

Find A Grave is one of those sites I either really love or hate depending on what I find and my mood. I love it when I comes across a memorial page that has the image of the marker that is readable or at least correctly transcribed. I hate it when there is no marker image but someone has created a memorial and they haven't stated where they got their facts. So I have learned to treat Find A Grave like a user contributed tree on Ancestry, don't trust but verity everything. That said, those memorials with images have helped me considerably in my own research. Even those without images have been handy as possible pointers to find the key records.

10. Public Libraries [Ottawa Public Library in my case]

Many of public libraries have genealogy databases available to anyone. These databases are often specific to the area and help point the way to find documents in the library. For example, if you have ancestors in the Belleville area of Ontario, Canada then checking out the Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes from the Belleville Intelligencer might be a really good idea. In these COVID-19 times many of the libraries, courtesy of Ancestry and ProQuest, have made available the library version of Ancestry to use from the safety and comfort of your home. Some libraries will even help you locate a copy of an obituary in the local newspaper as long as you provide the key details. As always, be polite when asking for help.

 

The next set didn't make my top 10 list of free resources but I couldn't leave them out. So here is the "+" list.

Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics

If you have ancestors from Nova Scotia and you are trying to find their birth, marriage, or death registration then you need to visit this site. It is free to search and view the various registrations. However, unlike PANB or the BC Archives Genealogy Collection, you need to pay to download the registrations. So be prepared to create your own abstracts unless you want to spend the money to have an electronic copy of the record.

Archives of Ontario

The Archives of Ontario don't have the birth, marriage, and death records on their site (go to FamilySearch or Ancestry instead) but where the Archives of Ontario shines for genealogists and family historians is in their research guides. Are you trying to find a divorce record in Ontario, then you need to read Research Guide 210. Looking for a birth registration and you don't know if has been released to the Archives of Ontario then Research Guides 202, 203, and 204 probably need to be read. Are you trying to figure out the districts and counties in Ontario over time? Then a visit to "A Guide to Boundaries, Names and Regional Governments" page is a good place to start. Did your immigrant ancestor come through the Toronto Emigrant Office between 1865 and 1883? Check out the Toronto Emigrant Office Assisted Immigration Registers.

WikiTree

I've been using and periodically contributing to WikiTree for about a year. This is a "one world" family tree much like what is found on FamilySearch. With a free account you can add people and update existing entries. What sets WikiTree apart from other trees is in their encouraging of making sure the information in a person's profile is sourced. This allows you to locate new sources of information in your own research.

IrishGenealogy.ie

The Irish Genealogy site should be one of your go to sites if you have ancestors that were in Ireland. They have the civil registrations for births (1864-1919), marriages (1845-1944), and deaths (1871-1969) in addition to church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials for a number of counties in Ireland.

The Ancestor Hunt

If you are looking for free archives of newspapers, yearbooks, or city directories for Canada and the United States then dropping my The Ancestor Hunt will make your search a lot easier.

The Ontario Name Index (TONI)

Courtesy of Ontario Ancestors (also known as Ontario Genealogical Society), TONI is one of those databases that can help you out in your Ontario research. As a name index it is important to realize that the database itself is just an index and will point you to where you can find the information. Most of the resources that TONI has indexed are documents held by the various branches but there are pointers to records from from other sites.

Bower-McBurney Genealogy

In addition to TONI, the Bower-McBurney Genealogy site has become an invaluable resource for my Ontario research. It isn't because I have any relatives related to that family but Wayne Bower has made available the images from the Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register and also the digitized microfilm index pages for the Ontario Birth Registers for 1914-1917.

Trove

Trove is just that, a treasure trove for those researching their relatives in Australia. There are digital copies of newspapers, government gazettes, maps, magazines, and newsletters. The newspapers and gazettes, especially the family notices in the various papers, are often where we as genealogy researchers head to first but don't forget to search the other collections for other nuggets.

Papers Past

Much like Trove for Australia, Papers Past is the source for New Zealand newspapers, magazines and journals, letters and diaries, and parliamentary papers. I don't have many distant relatives in New Zealand but for the branch that did settle there the newspapers have helped answer questions about their lives.

FreeBMD

FreeBMD is a searchable database of the birth, marriage, and death civil registration indexes for England and Wales. Even though fee-based sites may have this index, often from FreeBMD itself, this is the free version. Where I often find it of value is being able to see the original image of the index page and also to learn what places are within a registration district. Combined with the General Register Office (GRO) site for ordering the registrations I've been able to discover "missing" children that were born and died between census enumerations.

CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project

Much like Find A Grave, the CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project is a free and searchable listing of cemeteries. However, it is focused only on Canadian cemeteries. If I can't find the image of a marker that is in a Canadian cemetery in Find A Grave I always head to this site to see if a volunteer has photographed and placed the picture of the marker here.

JewishGen

One of my connected American branches has Jewish roots and the JewishGen site has been useful in providing clues about the family. The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry even has images of some of the markers along with providing location details about the cemetery.

National Library of Scotland

Along with ScotlandsPeople, the National Library of Scotland is one of those must use sites if you have Scottish ancestors. There are two items that I often use are the Maps and the Scottish Post Office Directories. However, there is much more to be found on this site.

 

There are many other free sites that I use in my research so this is really just my highlights list. I'm certain that I've not mentioned one of your favourite free genealogy sites. If so, leave a note in the comments since I'm always looking for new resources to help break down my various brick walls.

My Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

We all have genealogy sites that are our go-to places when doing any of our research. It has been a long time since I've listed mine so I figured I'd take a stab at it today. There will be two separate posts. The first, that of my top ten fee-based sites, and the second, to be published later, will be the list of my top free genealogy sites that I use often.

As with any top ten list there will be disagreements as to the order or why a site is included or missing. These are my top ten sites that I turn to regularly in my research. Your favourite site might not have made the cut due to various factors such as it was number 11 (or 12 or 13...) or I haven't had a subscription to it in the past year. A two sites that I make use of periodically that didn't make the top ten cut for me are Fold3¹ and MyHeritage³.Yes, they are useful but not vitally so over this past year.

Counting down from number ten...

10. The New York Times TimesMachine

In my research of a branch of my extended family that originally settled in New York City in the late 1800s the ability to read the death notices and even a few marriage announcements has answered a quite of few questions when trying to locate the next generation. As long as I've had the death date from a death index or registration more often than not I've been able to find a notice in The New York Times fairly quickly.

9. American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society

I don't have a current subscription but when they have had their free access periods their databases have shed light on a number of my early European settlers in the United States. Even their free databases have been useful to point me to documents I need to find and read at a later time.

8. Genealogy Quebec²

If you have ancestors that resided in Quebec then this site needs to be in your genealogy toolkit. They are constantly adding new images from various parishes in Quebec that you probably won't find any where else. They are also the home of the Drouin Collection Records. Yes, the Drouin Collection is available on other sites but Genealogy Quebec I consider the master source and all others will be behind the times when it comes to new additions. The site also has The LAFRANCE collection with early Quebec parish records starting from 1621. There is also a large obituary collection and a notarized documents collection. If that's not enough they have a collection of marriage and deaths records recorded in Quebec between 1926 and 1997 collected by the provincial health services.

7. The National Archives at Kew, England

The National Archives (TNA) in England (not to be confused with the other national archives around the world) has both free and fee based access to records. With the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 The National Archives has opened up their digital record downloads for free when normally some of these records could only be retrieved for free at their site or by paying a nominal fee. That is why they are in this list and not in my top ten free list. That said, this site is an important one for my British Isles and early Canadian research. Why Canadian? Prior to Confederation, many of the records headed back to England for government use and storage and thus ended in TNA. If you have come across WO or AO record mentions in your Loyalist research, those are collections originally held by The National Archives. Some of those collections are also held by Library and Archives Canada but it is always good to check the TNA site too.

6. General Register Office of England and Wales

We are all probably familiar with the various England and Wales birth, marriage, and death (BMD) indexes available on many genealogy sites. However, in order to make sure you have the right person you really need to order the certificate and, for England and Wales, this is the place to do it. It isn't inexpensive, £11 for a BMD certificate sent by post, but they do offer £7 for a PDF of a birth (1837-1919) or death certificate (1837-1957) sent by e-mail. One new feature is when you search the birth index on the GRO site the mother's maiden surname is now provided in the results. This can save you money or even provide a clue that helps you in your research without paying a penny.

5. GenealogyBank

This newspaper site is invaluable if you have branches of your tree that lived in the United States of America. This site has digitized newspapers that can't be found on other sites. In addition to digitized newspapers, some going back to the early 1700s, the site has a searchable copy of the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), an obituary collection from modern newspapers, some digitized books, and census records. All searchable by name, keywords, date ranges, and location (where applicable).

4. Newspapers.com¹ Publisher Extra subscription

Edging out GenealogyBank for newspaper collections is Newspapers.com with the additional Publisher Extra add-on. Much like GenealogyBank, the primary focus is on US newspapers but with the addition of the Publisher Extra add-on one has access to a number of Canadian newspapers too. The Canadian newspapers are heavy on the western side of Canada especially British Columbia but any indexed and searchable Canadian newspaper collection is a good thing in my books. Newspapers.com also has newspapers from Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Panama, Scotland, and Wales in their collection. 

3. ScotlandsPeople

If you have any Scottish roots this is the one site you need to visit to locate the images of birth, marriage, and death statutory (civil) registrations, census returns, and parish registers that can't be found elsewhere online from home. Many sites will have the indexes of those records but not the images. Unlike many other fee-based genealogy sites that are subscription based ScotlandsPeople is credit based. For £7.50 you get a 30 credit voucher. The price for viewing and downloading, if you so chose to do so, is 6 credits for statutory BMD registrations, census returns, and church registers. Other records can be had for between 2 credits and 40 credits, depending on the collection.

2. Findmypast

Findmypast continues to be one of my primary research sites especially for the UK branches of my family. It isn't just because of their wonderful census, parish collections, immigration, and military collections that covers the British Isles and select parts of the world but also for their newspaper collections. With Findmypast I have access to English, Irish, and US newspapers from various other sites. There are also a number of Canadian newspapers buried in their collection.

1. Ancestry¹

There is probably no surprise that Ancestry is at the top of my list of fee-based genealogy sites. Combined with their record collections and DNA testing they have been my go-to site for many years. My primary cousin-bait tree is hosted on that site and I make use of the good...and not so good...user created trees to provide me with clues as to where to possibly look next for records in my research when I hit a stumbling block.

 

These are my top ten fee-based sites and they probably differ from yours. I'd be interested in hearing from you as to your favourites (and why) that I didn't include.

Stay tuned in the coming week or so for a list of my favourite free genealogy sites.

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Full disclosure

1. As a member of the Ancestry Canada Advisory Board this year I have been provided a free subscription to Ancestry, Newspapers.com with Publisher Extra, and Fold3. However, prior to this year I either held my own subscriptions or made use of those sites via other venues such as at my local Family History Center or a genealogy conference.

2. I was provided with a one year subscription to Genealogy Quebec last year. The subscription has since lapsed but my to-do list for that site is growing for the day when I can access those records at my local library.

3. In July this year I won a subscription to MyHeritage when I attended a Facebook presentation hosted by MyHeritage. I had a subscription in previous years but had let it lapse.

Did William Innes marry a Murdoch or Shaw?

A number of years ago I first came across the name William Innes, brother-in-law, as an informant for the death of John Smith Murdoch, my second great-granduncle. The name was a curiosity and I wondered which side of the family he was on. Since John Smith Murdoch had a sister, Margaret, did William Innes marry her or was William connected to Ellen/Helen Shaw, John's wife, side of the family?

Burgh of Glasgow, Scotland, "Statutory Deaths," 1858 Deaths in the Central District, p. 38, John Smith Murdoch; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 20 Jun 2009).

At that time and after a bit of researching I realized I would have to order some records from ScotlandsPeople to answer the question. However, I had more important records to purchase first so I put this question on the back burner.

Jump forward to the present day and I was filling in the gaps in my records using the Scottish Civil BMD Registrations found on FamilySearch and available for viewing at the Family History Centers and their affiliates and what did I see recorded as the informant of David Murduch, John Smith Murdoch's son, birth? You guessed it...William Innes, David's uncle.

Scotland Registrar General,  Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh), 1858 Births in the Central District in the Burgh of Glasgow: 30, 90, David Murdoch; FHL microfilm 280,518.

This is where it gets into hazardous territory to a genealogy and family history researcher. Do I take the time to find out the connection or not. Since I'm writing about this you can well imagine the course I took. Time to set out and find how William Innes is connected to the Murdoch family. I did set one limit on my exploration: I could only spent time and not money to research William's connection.

I started off with a few assumptions about William Innes:

• He was about the same age as John Smith Murdoch, plus 15 or minus 5 years¹
• He married either a Murdoch or Shaw²
• He resided in Glasgow itself or in Lanarkshire around 1858³
• He resided in Glasgow or at least in Lanarkshire in the 1851 census⁴

Of course, these are only assumptions and might have to be re-evaluated as possible facts are presented.

I did come across a William Innes married to a Janet in the 1851 census of Scotland residing at 97 Saltmarket Street in Glasgow.

1851 census of Scotland, Royal Burgh of Glasgow, Parish of St. Andrews, enumeration district (ED) 15, page 1, schedule no. 1, William Innes; FHL microfilm 1,042,436.

• William appears to have been born about 1815 making him 13 years older than John Smith Murdoch.
• He resides in Glasgow in 1851
• It isn't a Margaret but this Janet could be a Shaw.

From this census I do have an address, 97 Saltmarket Street, and the statement that William is a spirit dealer. Might I be able to find details about the birth of his daughter Janet? Will it list her mother's maide surname? Also, is William recorded in a city directory of Glasgow?

William's daughter, Janet, was born before civil registration started so I have to rely on the Old Parish Registers available on ScotlandsPeople and also on FamilySearch. Since I'm being frugal it was back to my local Family History Center to look up the record.

Parish of Glasgow (Lanarkshire, Scotland), "Registration District 644," baptism of Janet Innes, 28 Sep 1845; FHL microfilm 102,921.

This looks to be the right person and look...her mother is Janet Shaw! This looks promising.

This is where luck is very, very important. I searched for Janet Innes on ScotlandPeople to learn when she died⁵. Assuming she is Helen Shaw's sister then I already know that Helen's parents are John Shaw and Janet White/Whyte.

Screen capture from ScotlandPeople for a search of the death of a Janet Innes started from 1851 with a birth year 1819 +/- 5 years.

Now not all the returned results include the mother's maiden surname but note the first result...Whyte. Even better, the death is in the time frame where I can view records for free from a Family History Centre or affiliate.

Scotland Registrar General,  Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh), Registration District 644/04, 1856 Deaths in the District of Calton in the Burgh of Glasgow: 54, 162, Janet Innes; FHL microfilm 252,432.

This looks to be the right Janet Innes. She is a wife of a spirit merchant and the daughter of John Shaw and Janet Whyte. However, she died at 93 Saltmarket Street. That's only 2 doors down from the address in the 1851 census.

This is where the Scottish Post Office Directories becomes your friend. I started with the 1851-52 post-office directory for Glasgow and looked for Saltmarket Street.

Post-Office Glasgow, Post-Office Glasgow Directory for 1851-1852, 444; digital images, National Library of Scotland (digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/ : accessed 6 Dec 2019); Saltmarket Street odd numbers 3-95.

If you look at the second last line in the directory you will see that Wm. Innes, a spirit dealer, had the properties at 93, 95, and 97 Saltmarket Street.

What about a possible marriage for William Innes and Janet Shaw? That, as they say, is problematic. I've found an 1840 marriage for a Janet Shaw to a William James or Innes within the FamilySearch indexes for the OPRs and the image confirms that it might be James or Innes for William's surname but his occupation is a baker. Unfortunately the church register doesn't record the names of her parents.

I did come across the death of a William Innes, a spirit merchant, on 13 Jul 1858 at 93 Saltmarket Street. If I had been willing to spend a few pounds I could have viewed the documents pertaining to his will and administration on ScotlandsPeople. Additionally, I might have checked out the "Scotland, Lanark, Glasgow, Glasgow Sheriff Court, probate records" collection at my local Family History Center⁶.

Assuming that my research is good⁷ then it appears that William Innes didn't marry Margaret Murdoch but a Janet Shaw. Too bad that the line I'm researching is the Murdoch line. At least this is one mystery resolved.

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1. Why 15 years? Why not? If William married Margaret Murdoch (born about 1826) he could be older than Margaret by a decade or more. 15 years just sounded right as a starting point.
2. To be a brother-in-law and an uncle to the same family William had to have married either Margaret Murdoch, John Smith Murdoch's older sister, or a sister of Helen Shaw.
3. Since he is an informant he probably lived near to the John Smith Murdoch family and they resided in Glasgow.
4. This is a stretch but I had to limit the scope of my searching somehow. Helen Shaw and Margaret Murdoch were both born in the Glasgow area so I figured they were married there also.
5. I know, I'm not supposed to spend money on this research endeavor. However, searching ScotlandsPeople is free. It is only getting the images that costs you money.
6. That is for the new year I think.
7. I haven't recorded all the paths I took to get here in order to eliminate other possible people.

Scottish Civil BMD Registrations on FamilySearch

In Scottish Census and OPRs on FamilySearch I covered the available census returns and Old Parish Registers on FamilySearch. In this post I'm going to look another collection of Scottish records on FamilySearch, the civil registrations.

For civil registrations of births, marriages, and deaths in Scotland I had almost always made use of ScotlandsPeople. That was until I came across "Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956" on FamilySearch. Now this collection only has the years 1855-1875, 1881, and 1891 but any time I can save a pound or two in my research I will gladly take it. Researcher beware, it does take a multi-step process to find the correct images and it is not as straight forward as just clicking a button, paying your 6 credits, and viewing the record. So patience and some practice will be needed. Like the other FamilySearch Scottish collections I mentioned in Scottish Census and OPRs on FamilySearch, you will need to visit your local Family History Center to do the work.

The Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956 is composed of two parts, indexes and registrations. The indexes are broken down by year and the registrations are broken down by parish/registration district number and year. Depending on the year, the indexes are also broken down along gender lines. Some of the districts and years have been indexed by FamilySearch but most haven't so you will probably have to follow these steps.

Screen capture of McKinlay in Males, A-Z 1855 index in Scotland, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); FHL 103244.

Here is an example of an index entry for a number of McKinlay births from the Males A-Z, 1855 index. The one of particular interest for me is that of James McKinlay registered in Paisley (High), number 387.

To make use of this index I first need to translate the registration parish from "Paisley (High)" into a number. To do that, go to the National Records of Scotland Registration Districts page and download the Parishes and Registration Districts of Scotland by name guide. Next, look through the name guide under the "RD Name" or "Registration District" column for the parish.

Screen capture for Paisley from the Parishes and Registration Districts of Scotland by name guide from the National Records of Scotland Registration Districts web page.

As you can see, there are a number of Paisley registration districts. However, in this example we are looking for the period starting from 1855 for one that has "High" in it. It looks to be number 573/1 since we want the district number as it was known back then. We also know that it is in the "County or Burgh" of Renfrew.

I could also have searched for James McKinlay on ScotlandsPeople. The searching on ScotlandsPeople is free but it will cost you money to view the images.

Screen capture of ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk for a search of the 1855 birth of James McKinlay.

Here it gives us the same information as found on the index on FamilySearch but without having to translate the registration district name into a number. The reference is broken down into two parts, the registration district, 573/1, followed by the number of the registration, 387.

We can head back to FamilySearch and the Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956 to look for the digitized microfilm that has the parish/registration district holding the births we are interested in.

Screen capture of births for Scotland, Renfrew County, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); FamilySearch Catalog 79310.

Just a heads up, the parish/registration microfilms aren't in alphabetical order but in numeric order by registration district/parish number. As you can see, the parish numbers for this part of Renfrew County follow the numbers from Buteshire. But don't let that confuse you too much.

For the 1855 birth registrations in parish/registration number 573/1 which can be found in Renfrewshire we will need to click on the camera icon for film 103367 (DGS 8045422). If you are trying to do this from home you probably have a key icon just above the camera icon. This means that you need to go to your local Family History Center to view the images.

Screen capture of births for Scotland, Renfrew County, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); DGS 8045422.

Once you can view the digitized microfilms you will need to scan through the various images to locate the start of the parish/registration district you are interested in. Fortunately it isn't very hard to do and, once you get used to doing it, the microfilm pages with the district names and numbers will almost pop out for you. Next you need to find the page with number 387 on it.

In the case of James McKinlay I was very lucky to have him born in that year. When the civil registrations started in 1855 they used two pages to ask for the information. This meant I got a bit more important information about his parents that I wouldn't get in following years. But it also means I need to stitch together two microfilm images...but that process was already covered in my post Genealogy and Microfilm ICE.

You can do the same sort of searching for marriages and deaths that were registered between 1855 and 1875 along with the decennial census years 1881 and 1891.

One drawback of what is available on FamilySearch in this collection is that the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) is not available. These are the documents referred to in a birth, marriage, or death registration that has corrections or updates to the registration. If there is a marginal note to a RCE then you definitely want to view that document. If that happens you will need to use ScotlandsPeople and pay to view the record.

I certainly hope that this helps you out in researching your Scottish ancestors.

Scottish Census Returns and OPRs on FamilySearch

I was recently wanting to retrieve census returns along with baptism, birth, and marriage registrations for several potentially connected branches of my Murdoch and McKinlay family that resided in Scotland. Normally I would head over to ScotlandsPeople and pay a few pounds to quickly access those records from the comfort of my home. However, being on a tight research budget for my own genealogy and family history, I was feeling a bit frugal and decided to see what FamilySearch had available.

First of all, the fine folks at FamilySearch have digitized the census returns of Scotland for the following decennial enumerations:

1841	Residence on 6 Jun 1841. Enumerators were instructed to round down the ages of persons 15 years and over to the nearest five years. Hence a given age of 28 would be recorded as 25, one of 63 as 60 and so on. If a person lied about their age, this, combined with the rounding down, could severely distort the actual age. You will find instances where enumerators did not adhere to this instruction on age and inserted the given age.
1851	Residence on 30 Mar 1851.
1861	Residence on 7 Apr 1861.
1871	Residence on 2 Apr 1871.
1881	Residence on 3 Apr 1881.
1891	Residence on 5 Apr 1891.

Due to the efforts of many volunteers the census returns have been indexed to make our lives a bit easier when trying to find our ancestors. Unfortunately the images of those records aren't available from home. Yet that's not too much of a problem for me since there is a Family History Center in Ottawa that isn't too far from where I live, even if I use public transit.

Once at the Family History Center I was able to search for the people I wanted to find in those census years. Then, by clicking on the image presented, I quickly viewed and saved the pages from the census returns to a USB stick. Of course I also made sure I saved the pages that described the enumeration districts in question.

1871 census of Scotland, Lanarkshire, Blythwood, Civil Parish of Barony, enumeration district (ED) 10, Description of enumeration district; FHL microfilm 104,026, image 465.

FamilySearch also has a number of the Old Parish Registers or OPRs searchable on their site. Again the images are only viewable from your Family History Center. But they are searchable on FamilySearch.

Other than expending time to save some money why would you want to use FamilySearch and not ScotlandsPeople to look through the census returns and Old Parish Registers?

On ScotlandsPeople there are 14 recorded Church of Scotland marriages in the Parish of Eastwood in Renfrewshire for people with the last name of McKinlay. To view all of those images it would require me to purchase 84 credits on ScotlandsPeople. That works out to be 2.8 packs of 30 credits. Since I can't purchase fractions of credit packs I would have to buy 3 bundles of 30 credits for a total of £22.5 or about $38 Canadian.

Instead I can copy the list from ScotlandsPeople into a spreadsheet to create a to do list for my visit to my local Family History Center. A check on FamilySearch reveals that the Parish registers for Eastwood, 1674-1854 are digitized and indexed. However, yet again the images are available for viewing only at the Family History Center. With this collection being indexed I can search FamilySearch from home using film number 001041057 to also create a to do list for my next visit.

Of course, the Family History Centers are only open on specific days and times and they do frown upon you wearing your pyjamas at their computers. Yet if you have a number of these records to review the necessity of having to get dressed and visiting your local Family History Center may just outweigh this inconvenience.

Next time I will write about some of the Scottish civil birth, marriage, and death registrations that are freely available on FamilySearch and how you can find them.

This hobby of ours can get quite expensive at times so finding ways to save money can be a big win.

My Top 10 Other Genealogy Web Sites for 2014

I covered my personal top favourite 100% free or Canadian owned genealogy research related web site at My Top 10 Canadian Genealogy Web Sites for 2014 but there are other sites I also use on an almost daily basis when doing research. Since I deal in researching not only ancestors in Canada but also in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and the United States of America I have many sites I consult. Some are free while others need a subscription or are pay as you go.

Be warned that this is just a very, very small selection of sites I use but they are my initial "go to" places I probably couldn't live without. Often I will start with them and then move on to the more obscure or specialized web sites to find additional details. Once again, I'm certain I've omitted your favourite site that you can't live without so tell me about it in the comments.

In no particular order here are my other top 10 research sites not mentioned in My Top 10 Canadian Genealogy Web Sites for 2014 list:

Ancestry ($$$), whether it is .com, .ca, .co.uk, .com.au, etc, is my go to place due to the number of indexed records that they have available and the coverage of the areas I research. I have their world subscription and it is worth every nickel (pennies aren't made in Canada anymore). However, the one complaint I have is that their transcriptions can sometimes be just a little wacky.

• Since I do a lot of Ontario research, the Ontario, Canada Vital Records: Births, Marriages and Deaths collection is of key importance. It covers Ontario births between 1869-1913, marriages 1801-1298 (a little spotty before 1869), and deaths 1869-1938 along with deaths overseas between 1939-1947.
• The 1921 census of Canada is also hosted on Ancestry.ca and is supposed to be freely available to Canadians residing in Canada.
• For tracking those elusive US relatives the U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 is very useful for those times between the various census enumerations.

FamilySearch.org is free and is the next place I visit when doing my research. Not all of the collections are indexed but that is just fine with me. Going through the images page by page is just a digital way of scrolling through a microfilm. Even then, most of those collections have some sort of finding aid to speed up the process. If I can't find the record or index on Ancestry I'm fairly certain I will find it here. Some of my personal favourites are:

• The various collections that make of the births and marriages collections from Scotland I've mentioned in Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople.
• Those researching their New Brunswick ancestors need to consult their New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1930 collection. It is not indexed but I brief talk about using that collection in Expecting only Deeds and Mortgages? How About a Will?
• When I'm having a challenge locating records I always head over to the FamilySearch Research Wiki to find the answer. This part of FamilySearch has been created with the help of fellow researchers like yourself and is always being updated with new information.

If you are doing any researching of ancestors in Scotland then ScotlandsPeople.go.uk ($$$) is a must use site. It makes use of a pay as you go model where to see the results of a search you typically need to pay 1 credit and to see a record it costs 5 credits. An overview of the charges can be found here. Only here will you see the images from births, marriages, deaths, and censuses along with valuation rolls and other documents. Yes you can fly to Scotland to do the research (I highly recommend it and if you are thinking of going then talk to Christine Woodcock of Genealogy Tours of Scotland) but for the price of the airfare and hotel you can get a whole lot of records downloaded to your computer.

Findmypast ($$$) (.co.uk, ie, or .com.uk) is another site I find very useful especially for my English ancestors. But it also includes quite a number of newspaper collections that help fill in the gaps in their lives. You can either purchase a subscription or pay as you go to access images of the records. For my research I purchased the world subscription and it has been invaluable.

For finding my Australian cousins the Trove newspaper collection is the site I couldn't live without. Here you may find immigration lists, birth, marriage, and death announcements in newspapers. Even better, the site is free and you can easily make corrections to the OCR transcriptions of the articles to make them easier to find for the next researcher (always nice to give back a little).

Where would we be without Find A Grave to help us locate and then see the markers of where our relatives, distant or not, were supposedly buried? Remember that just because someone is supposedly buried in one place that they didn't die in another. As always, what is written on grave markers need to be taken with a grain of salt (or is that chunk of marble?) when it comes to their accuracy. But they do offer a starting point as to the time frame for when our ancestors were living

Speaking of death ... one of my first stops when trying to locate a death record in the United States is the Online Searchable Death Indexes & Record site. Here you will find links to sites hosting indexes, records and/or obituaries in the United States of America.

Often I will come across a book mentioned as a source in an online family tree. Since I prefer seeing the source myself and if the book is out of copyright I head on over to the Internet Archive to see if it has been digitized and placed in their collection. But I also use the Internet Archive to check out websites that may have disappeared from the Internet. Their Wayback Machine is a great tool to see those lost web sites or pages.

The National Archives ($$$ or free) located at Kew is yet another go to place when I'm doing any UK research. Many times I will come across a reference to a WO, ADM, FO, HO or AO record in an index. Since you really need to see the source record and not just rely on the index for details this means I need to search The National Archives site. Some of the collections have been digitized and placed on line there or through one of their partners. Other times you will need to pay for the digitization and have them send you the documents in question. It is still cheaper than flying over there, staying for a day, and then flying back!

Where would we be without the FreeBMD site holding transcriptions of the civil registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales? Yes, Ancestry and Findmypast both have copies of these civil registration indexes but when I can't find the entries on those sites I immediately head over to FreeBMD.

Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople

Several years ago I decided to document the various lines of my McKinlay family that came to Thornliebank, Renfrewshire, Scotland sometime between 1838 and 1841. That meant I would need to make use of ScotlandsPeople to locate the images of birth, marriage, death, and census records. I won't divulge exactly how much I spent looking up records but it was less than a one week trip to Scotland ... although not by much. Yet ScotlandsPeople is still one of the more affordable sites that charge you to get and see images of the records. However, I did learn some lessons on how to save money when searching ScotlandsPeople.

Census Records

For the 1841 to 1891 decennial census records you can make use of FamilySearch to locate individual family members. However, much of the information on the census has not been transcribed. If the person wasn’t born in Scotland then the birth location may have been left blank. Additionally the index doesn’t have all the family members listed in the transcription so it makes it very difficult to make sure it is the right person based on their family. Also the specific details on what page to find the record in ScotlandsPeople are not in the index.

If you have a subscription to Ancestry or have access to a library or archive with the Institution/Library version of Ancestry you can access transcriptions of the 1841 to 1901 decennial census records. The index includes all the people in that household. The transcriptions have all the information from the census and the index includes the parish number, enumeration district, page and line number so you can easily find the record on ScotlandPeople.

Findmypast is much like Ancestry except that the results don’t place the person in question in context within the household. This makes it difficult to transcribe the household in the correct order.

ScotlandsPeople is the gold standard since it includes all the available decennial census records (1841-1911) and the associated images. If you can find them in Ancestry or Findmypast then you know they can be found on ScotlandsPeople. However, unlike Ancestry and Findmypast where you have a subscription, on ScotlandsPeople you pay for each image that you haven't viewed previously.

Birth & Baptism Records

FamilySearch has transcriptions for both statutory and old parochial registers in the "—Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950" collection. The statutory registers cover the period between 1855 to 1875 plus 1881 and 1891. There are also some records outside of those years. You can also order microfilms to view the documents to verify the transcriptions. As a plus, you can look for people in the statutory records based on the names of parents. This feature is not readily available on ScotlandsPeople. Even better … FamilySearch is free.

Search for people using FamilySearch and then, by knowing all the details from the search results, you can focus in on the right person on ScotlandsPeople using much fewer credits than just using ScotlandsPeople by itself.

Marriages

The Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910 collection on FamilySearch has both the old parachial and statutory registers covering the same years as the birth and baptism collection. FamilySearch allows you to search the OPR marriages on the name of the father. This is not readily available on ScotlandsPeople. However, not all parish records have the father’s name included in the transcription. Not everything on the original record has been transcribed by FamilySearch so looking at the image on ScotlandsPeople is critical.

Deaths

Only ScotlandsPeople have the death records available. There are no other sites with transcriptions of all the death records.

Tip When Using ScotlandsPeople

If you search on a surname, a date range, and a district/parish you will probably get a very long list. However, that list can save you money over time. Copy and pasting the results into Word or Excel gives you a useful checklist as part of your research log and to do list. Since ScotlandsPeople keeps track of your searches you can also refer to that search under the "Previous Searches" tab and click on the names of the people found to view the images. It won't save you a lot of money but a credit here and a credit there may mean you save enough to view another image.

Talk: "Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople"

As part of this month's BIFHSGO's Scottish Genealogy Group meeting I will be giving a brief presentation titled "Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople". I will be talking about some of the tips and tricks I use to wisely spend my money when researching my Scottish ancestors.

The meeting is taking place between 10:00 a.m and noon on Saturday, October 19th, 2013 in room 226 of the City of Ottawa Archives located at 100 Tallwood Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.