Scottish Catholic Records

Military Chaplaincy Registers

The eagerly awaited digitisation of the Military Chaplains registers is now complete, special thanks to the team for all their hard work.

These are available to search and view on the Members Area of the Catholic Family History Society website  https://catholicfhs.online/index.php

Family Tree Live 2020

The Catholic Family History Society are delighted to announce we will have a stall at Family Tree Live 2020, why not join us there.

 

Family Tree Live

New Book – Tracing Your Roman Catholic Ancestors

Stuart A. Raymond has completed his new book ‘Tracing your Roman Catholic Ancestors’, published by Pen & Sword.

The book can be purchased online here

A 25% discount for CFHS members is being offered, to obtain this, quote discount code CFHS25

 

 

 

Family Tree Live Show

A reminder about Family Tree Live. The CFHS will be hosting a stall on the day, why not join us there?

All Hallows Archives Online

All Hallows College, Dublin was a Catholic Seminary which trained Priests for dioceses across the world.

The College was opened in 1842, and from 1892 was run by the Vincentians, like most seminaries, the decline in vocations in the second half of the 20th century led to its demise, from 2008 the College became part of Dublin University.

The College archives have now been digitised and are available online through their website, these include photographic records of former students, and copies of the College Magazine, these will be of tremendous help to genealogists tracing their ancestors who were educated here.

The archive can be viewed here

 

Family Tree Live 2019

In April 2019 the Catholic Family History Society will be hosting a stall at Family Tree Live at Alexandra Palace, why not join us there!

 

DNA Testing – Is it worth it?

Having been researching my family history since my teenage years, largely through Ancestry.com I decided in March, after much deliberation, to undertake a DNA test. The popularity of these tests for genealogical purposes has become very popular lately, particular as a result of television advertising

After paying my fee of £79, I received my DNA kit in the post, the test involves filling a test tube with saliva, I sent the test-tube back on 12 March and had the results within a month.

The results have three main areas.

1. DNA Story

This is supposed to pinpoint which parts of the world your DNA markers originate from. The results however are in my view slightly spurious, they undertake this test by sampling a couple of thousand individuals with long proven family backgrounds in different regions of the world, then match your DNA makers to theirs. Although this may seem like a very small sample base for a world population of more than 7 billion, apparently Ancestry has the largest sample base of any of the DNA companies.

Having traced all lines of my ancestry back to at least the 1700s (and many much further), I have found my background to be a quarter Irish and three quarters English.

These are my results from the Ancestry DNA story, the 27% Irish being as expected, however 65% from Western Europe, and only 5% from England, came as something of a surprise, I have found no European ancestry, only English so far, this is presumably suggesting that almost every single one of my English ancestral lines originated in Europe, a fact that I find unlikely.

2. DNA Matches

This section matches you up to other people who have taken the test and who share DNA markers with you, delineated by siblings, 1^stcousins, 2^ndcousins, 3^rdcousins etc.

It is in this area that for me the DNA test has been worthwhile, it connected me with four 3^rdcousins (meaning we share a great grandparent). I contacted all four of these people, the first two I found were descendants of my father’s paternal grandmother’s siblings, including a line I had previously been unable to work out. The third was a granddaughter of my Mother’s maternal grandmother’s elder sister who had emigrated to America in the 1910s and the family had lost contact with – the family live in Buffalo on the banks of Lake Eerie, the final 3^rdcousin turned out to be granddaughter of the illegitimate son of my father’s paternal grandfather’s brother, the discovery of this line has solved many mysteries in both our families.

The downside of this is that your shared matches have made their family trees private, as many people have, it is very difficult to work out family connections.

3. DNA Circles

These it seems are linking you with distant cousins around a particular shared ancestor. I am still waiting for these to develop.

In conclusion, while I treat the DNA story with some dubiousness, for me the DNA matches have made the whole process worthwhile, after only a month I have made contact with distant cousins and have filled out some unknown lines of my family tree, and for this purpose I would recommend it.

Family History Research Conference

Catholic Family History Society

NW Region

 Family History Research Conference

 

Would you like to have some help in finding your ancestors?

Please come and join us Saturday, May 12^th2018, 2pm-6pm

Venue – Holy Cross Parish Hall,

370 Liverpool Rd. Patricroft, Eccles, Manchester M30 8QD

Programme

2pm     Coffee & Registration

2.30     Introduction followed by

How to start your search and carry on further

Presentation by Dr. Brenda Hustler

3.30     Discuss your own research problems with Brenda

Other help desks also available

4pm     Afternoon Tea

4.30      How to use the Margaret Higgins Database

(275,000 Catholics in England 1607 – 1840)

Speaker,  David Hustler

5-6 pm   Return to the search

 

                             Book with Mrs Jean Smith,

                  10 Irving Close, Woodsmoor, Stockport SK2 7DX

                               jeansmith1934@talktalk.net

                                    (Tel:  0161-483-9199)

                    Cost for conference p.p  £12.00 payable in advance

                  Cheques made payable please to:  CFHS (N.W.Region)