Family History Fun: G for Gazetteers, Glossaries, Genuki & Geneabloggers

A-Z of Family History Sources & Stories

Join me on this A-Z journey to explore the fascinating records

that can enhance your family history research and writing.

GRAVESTONES - finding a gravestone of an ancestor has been made so much easier by the sterling efforts of local societies in recording and publishing monumental inscriptions - another reason to contact an archive centre or library relevant to your research.

Take a look to a Deceased Online - the central database for UK burials and cremations.

It can be a sad but heart warming way to discover or confirm an ancestor.. Perhaps most striking when we walk around graveyards or read monumental inscriptions is the number of childhood deaths, such as the three young sons aged 3, 6 and 9 years old who, within five days of each other in 1881, died of Scarlet Fever.

In contrast, we may come across a wonderful l epitaph that conveys so much about the character of an ancestor, such as this one in Earlston Parlish Church, Berwickshire which reads.

"Erected by former pupils and friends in grateful remembrance of "The Master" Daniel Aitkenhead, schoolmaster of Earlston (1856-1904), born at Cramond 6.5.1832, died at Earlston 6.10.1922, a scholar for whom the ancient classics were his delight, a teacher of rare merit, a man to all the country dear."

How many teachers today would be rewarded with such a tribute?

GAZETTEERS - Stuck in finding information about a place connected with your family? Then take a look at the Gazetter for Scotland. described as "a vast geographical encyclopaedia, featuring details of towns, villages, bens and glens from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles. it includes tourist attractions, industries and historical sites, together with histories of family names and clans, biographies of famous Scots and descriptions of historical events associated with Scotland."

The website also includes a digitized version of Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. First published in six volumes in 1882, it quickly became regarded as the definitive gazetteer of Scotland.

GENUKI (http://www.genuki.co.uk/) - are you trying to puzzle your way around the geography of Britain? Then this is the site for you. It was one of the first genealogy websites that I used and is a virtual reference library and source list of resources on parishes, towns, counties and countries that form the United Kingdom.

GLOSSARIES - Stuck on the meaning of some unusual Scottish words? The Scotland People's website HERE lists the meaning of usual and the more unusual words that you may well find in old documents. such as "Umquihile" meaning, "the late" or "the deceased" or "Glebe" referring to a parcel of land given to a Minister for his use, in addition to his stipend (salary in cash and/or kind) .

A similar glossary is featured on the website of the The Scottish Archive Network at SCAN.

GENEABLOGGERS (www.geneabloggers.com) - the network site that is "must see" viewing for anyone interested in writing about family history. I was recommended it in the early weeks of starting my blog in summer 2010. I fully expected to have run out of material for postings by now, but geneabloggers' prompts, plus the support of like-minded enthusiasts are so stimulating, I have never looked back. So if you haven't joined the site, take a look and sign up.

And not forgetting GOOGLE An extended branch of my family recalled a scandal where an ancestor Henry Lounds was in service in a large house and had married the heiress of the house, but kept the marriage secret for some time. A search on Google found confirmation of this, with links to two press reports after the revelation of their union. Of course it was a great help that I was searching for a distinctive name - and not a John Brown or an Hamish McDougall.

Two more popular sites for UK ancestry research are:
THE GENEALAOGIST (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) and
GENES REUNITED (www.genesreunited.co.uk):

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Onto H for Honour & Heroes, Humour and Heirlooms