Tag Archives: documents

Not Highly Rated

The aim of this blog is to provide some background material relating to the issues raised in Episode 26 of my video series, Setting The Record Straight. The video and this accompanying blog take a look at an online database … Continue reading

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Outrageous … and must be utterly rejected

RESPONSE TO OPEN CONSULTATION:STORAGE AND RETENTION OF ORIGINAL WILL DOCUMENTSPublished 15 December 2023 Introduction I have a number of significant concerns about the proposals outlined in the consultation paper. These concerns and my opinions regarding the proposals are based on … Continue reading

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Wills Consultation Paper

On 15 December 2023, the UK government published a consultation paper on the ‘Storage and retention of original will documents’. The paper can be accessed online here. At the same time, the government issued a press release backed up by … Continue reading

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Remembered Always

Two years ago, I set myself the challenge of writing about an ancestor who died in military conflict, with the aim of publishing a Remembrance Day blog post to mark their life. In November 2022, I duly published the story … Continue reading

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A tale of the unexpected

On 27 November 1826, the brothers, Robert, Walter, John and Alexander Robertson, presented an inventory of the personal estate of their father at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The brothers were described in the document as: Robert Robertson Herd at Bronsley, … Continue reading

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Our Ancestral Places

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I’ve embarked on a virtual journey this year, tracking down the places connected with my ancestors’ lives (I’ve ‘borrowed’ my wife’s as well) and I’ve been tweeting about a … Continue reading

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Welcome to the family

Margaret Howland was born on 9 August 1906 at 46 Brunswick Street, Edinburgh, just off Leith Walk but south of the border with the ancient Burgh of Leith. Margaret was my grandma and one of the nicest and kindest people … Continue reading

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A Moving Tale

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I spent a day in London last week, pounding the streets in search of ancestors. Over the course of a long day, I visited four ‘live’ archives: the Bank … Continue reading

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But which parish was it in…?

About a year ago I was looking at my Edinburgh-Irish Flynn ancestors and trying to fill in some gaps in the story by looking at all the birth and death records relating to the family. One of the certificates that … Continue reading

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Transcripts and indexes

The release of the 1921 census returns for England and Wales earlier this year led to some (fairly heated) discussion on social media regarding the quality of the transcription provided by Findmypast, the National Archives’ commercial partners in the online … Continue reading

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