Archive reading course

February 15, 2012 By

Words by Rhodri Clark

A course for members of the public to learn how to read and interpret historic documents has proved an instant hit.

The course, organised by Newport University and Gwent Archives, is being held over 12 weeks from 10 January. All 15 places on the Level 4-accredited course were booked quickly. By mid-January there was a waiting list of nine people, who hope the course will be repeated.

Course participants are attending weekly sessions at the new Gwent record office in Ebbw Vale, where deputy archivist Tony Hopkins provides an insight into handwriting and methods of transcription for documents dating from 1550 to 1900. The course also examines different types of documents, why they were produced and what they tell us today.

Bursaries were offered to course participants from the deprived Heads of the Valleys area, which includes Ebbw Vale. The course also attracted people from outside that area. Claire Syder, Newport University’s officer for community-based learning development, said: ‘We would like to repeat the course but we would have to staff it.’ She said the initial course had been possible because Mr Hopkins gave a morning each week to the venture.

 

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Last WWI service member dies aged 110

February 9, 2012 By

The world’s last known surviving First World War service member has died aged 110.

Florence Green died in her sleep at Briar House care home in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, last Saturday 4 February, just two weeks before her 111th birthday on 19 February. She was believed to be the last person alive who served in the war.

Florence Green, a great-grandmother, joined the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) as a 17-year-old in September 1918, two months before the end of the war, and served as an officer’s mess steward at Narborough Airfield and RAF Marham, both in Norfolk, until July 1919.

Born Florence Beatrice Patterson, her service was only officially recognised in 2010, after a researcher unearthed her records at The National Archives. Find out more here.

The world’s last known combat veteran of the First World War, Claude Choules, died in Australia aged 110 in May 2011.

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Canterbury Cathedral Archives

February 8, 2012 By

Findmypast.co.uk has been awarded a contract by Canterbury Cathedral Archives to publish online for the very first time historic records from the archive. The first phase of the Canterbury Collection project will see a browsable version of the parish registers of the historic Archdeaconry of Canterbury go online at findmypast.co.uk.

An estimated 270,000 images containing more than a million entries will be published on the website, covering parish churches from a wide expanse of East Kent, including the city of Canterbury; the towns of Faversham, Wye and Elham; Thanet; and towns along the east Kent coast stretching from Whitstable in the north round to Hythe in the south.

The launch has been timed to coincide with the temporary closure of Canterbury Cathedral Archives for refurbishment, which will reopen in autumn 2012.

In the second phase, findmypast.co.uk will start to transcribe the records, with a view to creating an index and making them fully searchable on the website later this year.

Findmypast.co.uk has also added 16,696 new London Docklands baptism records, and occupational records of 99,140 Thames watermen and lightermen are now on findmypast.co.uk, covering 1688-2010. Further details of the records contained in this collection can be found at www.findmypast.co.uk/search/other-records/thames-watermen.

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Legal documents of historical importance

February 8, 2012 By

Approximately 27,000 boxes of historic legal documents, some dating back to the 17th century, are being examined by archiving experts for historical importance.

The documents, kept in storage by the Law Society until now, originate from solicitors’ firms that no longer operate or exist. It is not always possible to repatriate these documents and they cannot be destroyed for legal reasons.

Contents range from property deeds and wills, which are hand written on vellum and stamped with the wax seal of Charles II, to personal diaries of society ladies from the early 19th century. These were originally stored in the solicitor’s offices but were never claimed by the clients.

As well as finding historical gems, the archivists also hope to repatriate some of the contents with any remaining legal owners – such as descendents of the original owners. This is a joint project with the Law Society and the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority). The two organisations are working with the Records Preservation Section of the British Records Association in order to sort out the documents of interest and loan them to public archives, on the basis that the documents could be retrieved should an owner come forward and ask for them.

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Store and share with Mocavo

February 8, 2012 By

Genealogy search engine Mocavo has announced several new product capabilities and content additions including free storage and sharing for historical records, iPhone and Android apps, and the new Discovery Stream.

With the Historical Record Storage and Sharing Platform, genealogists will have for the first time a platform to self-publish high-resolution documents that are automatically digitised using OCR and made searchable – all for free. Mocavo users will be able to upload historical records such as photos, books and documents to their accounts. Records can be uploaded in several different ways: via a web browser, Mocavo’s new smartphone apps, by email, or through the Dropbox service. Mocavo users retain full ownership of their records, can delete them at any time, and can control whether or not their records are shared with the public. Mocavo personnel are going to be religiously policing for copyrighted content and have dedicated support people for this purpose. Mocavo’s new iPhone and Android smartphone applications will enable users to take pictures of historical records, photographs – even entire books – and have them automatically uploaded to Mocavo’s historical record storage and sharing service. Users can also perform Mocavo searches and access their Mocavo accounts through the smartphone apps. Mocavo’s apps are in the process of being approved and will soon be available for download.

In addition to creating a powerful search engine for family history, Mocavo wants to connect and empower the social discoveries made by genealogists every day and aims to do this with Discovery Stream. The stream will deliver a constant source of new user-generated content in a fashion similar to the Facebook newsfeed or Pinterest. Whether users are uploading family trees and documents, or finding positive matches on the search engine, Mocavo wants to bring these interactions to light. ‘Our mission is to find the world’s family history records and make them easily accessible to the growing legions of genealogists and family historians,’ said Cliff Shaw, CEO of Mocavo. ‘… we want to work with every genealogy content creator, be they big or small, to help them bring their content online and make it searchable for free.’

Visit www.mocavo.com or www.mocavo.co.uk.

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