UK wide resources

Scottish BMDs typically have more information than their English & Welsh counterparts. The following is a description of what details are available online to download from Scotland's People (You can click on the sample images to see them full size).

Births: 1855 birth records were very detailed and are a boon to the family historian. In addition to details about the child (date, place and time of birth, full name, sex), the parents' names (including maiden surname of mother), father's occupation, name of informant and relationship to child, an 1855 birth certificate also contains information on siblings, the ages and birthplaces of both parents, their usual residence and the date and place of their marriage. Such detail proved difficult to sustain and entries were modified from 1856. Information on siblings was removed, as were ages and birthplaces of parents and date and place of parents' marriage. In birth certificates since 1861 however, the date and place of the parents' marriage was reinstated.
Sample 1855 Marriage Entry (only 3 entries shown as it is a double page spread of the register)

Marriages: 1855 marriage records give full name, age, marital status, occupation, usual residence, date and place of marriage, name and occupation of father, name and maiden name of mother, and names of witnesses and the officiating clergy. They also include the birthplace and number of former marriages of each spouse (plus the number of children by those marriages). Birthplaces and previous marriage details were dropped after 1855, but the former was restored from 1972.
Sample 1855 Marriage Entry (again only 3 entries shown as it is a double page spread of the register)

Deaths : 1855 death records show the date, time and place of death, deceased's name, sex, marital status, age and occupation, cause of death, duration of last illness, doctor's name and details of the informant. In addition, they show the usual residence, the deceased's place of birth, spouse's name, parents' names, occupations and whether they were deceased, names and ages of children or age and year of death if the child pre-deceased the parent. Up to 1860, the place of burial, the name of the undertaker and when the doctor last saw the deceased alive, were also included. As with births and marriages, this amount of detail had proved difficult to maintain. The deceased's birthplace was removed from 1856, as were the names of any children. The spouses name was also not required from 1856, but was reinstated in 1861.
Sample 1855 Death Entry (again only 3 entries shown as it is a double page spread of the register)

 

There is a ScottishHandwriting.com site which has online tutorials about Secretary Hand and other forms of writing. This may well be useful to people outside Scotland too as Secretary Hand wasn't just a Scottish handwriting system.

The Scottish Handwriting site even has several test quiz where you can read an old letter and try out your skills in reading the missing words.

 

Does anyone know the iAnnounce site? I just came across it. It says it has family announcements from UK newspapers for the recent past. I'm not sure how far back it goes and haven't been able to find out except in searching there are some 2008 entries. However I can't find mention of a "cousin" who died in 2010. It appears to cover regional newspapers. Since her death was listed in the Telegraph, I would have thought she would have been in the local press as well. She was aged 100.
It looks as if it should be useful so wondering if anyone has found it so.

 

Yes I noticed that. You can put a date in as a search term along with a name - or use Google and do a site search I suppose.

 

I had a look at this site, Heilan Lass, by puttiung in two very unusual surnames from my family tree. In both cases I knew from London's People, the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) site and Ancestry that there were several members of these families who had been sentenced (and more than once) to hard labour in Kent, Surrey and London, but neither of my names came up on this site. Perhaps it is still growing. It all goes to show that we should leave no stone unturned!

 

It didn't take me very long to discover that every record I looked at related to Bedford prison, so I suspect it's just a copy of the Bedford Gaol index (which is mentioned on the Bedfordshire Resources page) though prettier and with photos.

This is the sort of thing that the person posting the link needs to find out before recommending a site - saying "by no means complete yet I suspect" doesn't let you off the hook.

Please note that there are guidelines for posting links in the New Members area of the forum.

 

Well I guess a 30th isn't the time for giving details of identity.
I've just been reading old obits today from Newspapers on findmypast (same as on British Newspapers). One from 1919 confirming my suspicion that a young relative died of flu and one from 1940 giving a summary of his life and a lovely list of relatives attending the funeral including where they lived and where his two sisters who couldn't be there were living.

 

While answer a question about Royal staff I came across a list of Office Holders in Modern Britain on the Institute of Historic Research site