MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 2000

EDITION 4

	The latest news about genealogy in the UK.
	This month Denise tells you how to get your own free and private family website in under three minutes.
	This month's in depth look at some of the best web sites for UK Genealogy research, reviews a site with over 500 church photographs.
	A Place in History features a place of historic interest. This month we concentrate on Saltaire a monument to one man's vision.
	Explore your Family's Past with the help of this newly published reference book published by Reader's Digest.
	Some of the new sites added to UK Genealogy.
	This month's guest articles feature The Scottish Criminal Justice System and an Introduction to the Workhouse

	British History Timeline Gives a summary of the political & economic history of Great Britain from the Civil War to the Twentieth Century, with an emphasis on the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. Lots of links to other useful sites.	UK Genealogy Books On-line genealogy bookshop, in association with Amazon.co.uk
	192.com If you are trying to trace living people - try this site. Every phone book, 400 electoral rolls, 55 million people, 2.7million companies, 17 million telephone numbers, 26 million addresses and takes 0.2 seconds to search. 20 free searches a month are allowed with the option to buy more .	Genuki Excellent resource for UK and Ireland genealogy.
	Parish Locator Upgrade   Parish Locator is a freeware program that enables you to locate any one of over 15,000 UK parishes. It will produce a list of parishes in any County or a list of parishes within a given radius of any other parish and also allows Import and Export via "csv" files. Version 1.9 is now available and includes various improvements and corrections.	Parish Locator Find the location of the place you are looking for
	Happy Christmas John, Denise and Bethany wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year, and thank you for your support and encouragement. Please note that due to the holiday period the next edition will be published in early January.	IGI Search the IGI on-line
UK Multi Map On line maps covering the whole UK	UK Genealogy Mission Statement UK Genealogy aims to provide a concise and relevant source of reference for anyone wishing to trace their UK ancestors. We respect every individual's right to decide the extent to which they pay others to further their research, and strive to maintain a balance between commercial and non-commercial material.	Freebies for Genealogists Free software useful to genealogists

A Place in History		FREEWARE
Saltaire "Bradford's Model Village" Very few places can trace their origins to one man - but Saltaire is one. The village was the brainchild of Sir Titus Salt, a 19th century Bradford mill owner. Salt was a very wealthy man with a number of mills in the area. In 1853 he built a large mill just outside Shipley, 3.5 miles north of Bradford and moved all of his production there. Salt's concern for the physical and spiritual well being of his staff were reflected in the design of the village. Salt built a community of 800 houses with a church and chapels , a school, a hospital and Institute with gym and library.He named it Saltaire , after himself and the River Aire on which it stands. Compact terraces of houses with modern sanitation and a large park by the river helped to make Saltaire an oasis in the 19th Century Yorkshire industrial landscape. The village is largely unchanged today; there is still nowhere allowed to sell alcohol in the village. Titus Salt was actively involved in politics. He became the second Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1848 and was elected to Parliament in 1859. His achievements were widely recognised and respected. Over 100000 people are thought to have witnessed his funeral in 1876 and in his obituary the editor of the Bradford Observer called Salt "perhaps the greatest captain of industry in England". Links for Saltaire   The Saltaire Village Society Salt's Mill Views of Saltaire   Prev ious places in history have featured Berwick upon Tweed , Caernarfon and Windsor . The next edition will feature Gretna Green where many eloping couples married . We welcome your requests or suggestions for future editions.		Your Family Tree Online! If you want to communicate regularly with family and friends then MyFamily.com is well worth a look In less than three minutes, you can create a free and private family website where you can : publish your family tree online Upload photos Share family news and gossip Keep track of anniversaries and birthdays. Your personal family website not for public viewing. Only people you invite will be able to access your site. Best of all, it's easy. No knowledge of HTML is required. Anyone can have their own MyFamily.com site. Denise Oyston Freebies for Genealogists  ". . . it's the only site that caters to the family historian with a family history message center and the capability to upload family trees."   -- Family PC, July 2000

BOOKS	NEW ADDITIONS
Explore Your Family's Past review ed by Deni se Oyston If you are just starting researching your British family history, or you want a good general guide, grab a copy of the newly published Explore Your Family's Past from Reader's Digest. With a list of contributor's that reads like a Genealogical Who's Who, this book is a highly readable, beautifully presented and comprehensive reference guide. The book is presented in eight sections, covering topics from starting out, through to Military and Poor Law Records, and Mediaeval Research and Heraldry. Every section shows where the most important records for the topic can be found, including Internet links. Details of how to do further research in each subject is also included. The text assumes no prior knowledge, and includes handy tips on record-keeping and note taking, together with lists of commonly used abbreviations. On the downside, for information on the widely used Chapman County codes, rather than giving a list of frequently used codes or providing an Internet link, it refers you to a chapter of another book. The language is simple, straight forward and jargon free, with good explanations of technical terms. The many pictures and photographs, illustrate the topics being discussed, and pictures of documents such as census returns and civil registers are clearly shown. The photographs graphically portray rare glimpses of past lives, such as little boys in dour uniforms, playing on a seesaw at Crumpsall Workhouse. This book emphasises that Genealogy is not just about names and dates, but also about the way people lived and worked. Education, crime, punishment and migration are discussed not only for the wealth of records they provide, but also in the context of people's lives. At the back, a comprehensive directory of sources gives names, addresses, telephone and Internet sites of all record and information sources mentioned in the book. However, this is the one part of the book that could soon be out of date, as the Internet is a very volatile resource and addresses and telephone numbers are always subject to change. A Dictionary Of Surnames is also included with their origins and meanings. Don't expect to find out what your more unusual surnames mean. Of all the names I am researching the Dictionary only includes two. Overall, a good general guide for both beginners and more experienced family historians. The Directory of Sources on its own is invaluable for most researchers. Explore Your Family's Past Editorial Consultant Mark Herber RRP £26.99 Published By Reader's Digest October 2000 Hardcover 360 pages ISBN Number 0276424468	War Memorials of Warwickshire This site contains information and some history of many of the servicemen and women and also civilians killed in various wars including the Boer War, First World War and Second World War and commerated on War Memorials in the Parishes of Warwickshire.
	SITE REVIEW
	Richard's Church Albums Here you will find a selection of church photographs covering the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucester, Northampton, Somerset, and the City of Bristol. Most of the photos include a description and/or history. The size of the photographs has been kept to a minimum, however a larger photograph can be viewed by clicking on the photograph. Dorchester St Peter's by Richard A Derrick With over five hundred photos this site is well worth a visit if you are researching in South West England.

SNIPPET CORNER
In 2001 all members of Carmarthenshire FHS will receive a CDROM (PC Format only) containing over 3500 pages of indexes and information.	Recent improvements to Multimap now allow searches by street name as well as postcode.	The postcard collection of the Somerset Archive and Record Service contains over 1200 photographs arranged by parish
Fife Family History Society have recently released the Pre 1855 Fife Deaths Index CD-ROM which includes over 250,000 entries.	Monmouthshire Genweb has moved the new URL is http://www.rootsweb.com/~wlsmon/ please update your bookmarks	Write to us if you would like your news including in future editions.

GUEST ARTICLES
Scottish Criminal Justice by Diane Baptie
The Scottish system of criminal justice and procedure differs widely from that of the rest of the United Kingdom. In England, a court reaches a decision on the basis of facts alleged and proved by the prosecuting and defence lawyers which takes the form of a contest. In contrast, in Scotland the onus lies entirely on the Advocate Depute, acting for the Lord Advocate’s Department, to prove the case. Prior to a trial, when someone is suspected of committing a crime by the police, a file is passed to the Procurator Fiscal of a district and he decides whether the case should proceed. If he does decide that there is a case, he continues to investigate it by taking statements, known an Precognitions. The case is then reported to the Crown counsel who decide what the charge should be and whether the case should be tried in the Sheriff Court or the High Court of Justiciary. The High Court of Justiciary is the highest criminal court in Scotland and there is no appeal from it to the House of Lords. The Court itself acts as an Appeal Court. The judges of this court are known as Lord Commissioners of Justiciary. The court deals with serious crimes committed throughout Scotland, but has exclusive jurisdiction over treason, murder, rape, deforcement of messengers of the court and breach of duty by magistrates. The Sheriff Court is presided over by the Sheriff of a district who is a qualified judge. The court has two procedures, solemn and summary. In solemn procedure, an indictment is drawn up, listing the nature of the crime and the case is then heard by a jury, while in summary procedure only the Sheriff presides. The sentencing powers of a Sheriff are limited and so it follows that less serious crimes are heard before this court. A jury in Scotland consists of 15 people and there are three verdicts they can give - guilty, not guilty and not proven. The verdicts of not guilty and not proven can be reached by a simple majority, but a guilty verdict can only be reached if at least eight members of the jury are in favour of it.	Records held by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) Records of the Advocate's Department Procurator Fiscal - the NAS holds those of Banff, Shetland and Edinburgh only Precognitions - few survive before 1812. The NAS has a card index arranged alphabetically of Precognitions between 1812 and 1900 which lead to the actual papers in AD14. Records of the High Court of Justiciary The court went on circuit and so, if you are looking for a case involving a crime which occurred outwith Edinburgh, you need to decide where the case would have been heard. There were three circuits - North, South and West. There are circuit minute books (JC10-14) which give a brief account of the trial and from there you go to the Processes (JC26) which are the actual papers of the trial. Obviously, a certain amount of detail will have already appeared in the Precognition. Records of the Sheriff Courts Again, you need to know the area in which the crime took place. Once you have decided on the correct Sheriff Court, you will need to look at the handlist (SC) of that court to see what criminal records there are. Records of Prisoners Prison registers are in the records of the Home and Health Department (HH21). They can also be found in the Sheriff Court records. A fairly common sentence was transportation, abolished as a punishment in 1857. The NAS has microfilm of convict transportation registers 1787-1870 (RH4/160) held in the Home Office records at the PRO in London. The Scots prisoners appear at the end of convicts on each ship
Useful printed sources Tracing your Ancestors in the Scottish Record Office by Cecil Sinclair (published by HMSO) (this has recently been updated, as the Scottish Record Office has changed its name to the National Archives of Scotland) You and Your Rights, An A to Z Guide to the Law in Scotland - Reader’s Digest The Legal System in Scotland (published by HMSO)
Diane Baptie is the author of 'A Lairdship Lost', an account of a 17th century landed family in Scotland, published by Tuckwell Press . She has recently compiled a list of registers of Secession churches to be published by the Scottish Association of Family History Societies .
The Workhouse by Peter Higginbottom The Oxford Dictionary's first record of the word workhouse dates back to 1652 in Exeter — 'The said house to bee converted for a workhouse for the poore of this cittye and also a house of correction for the vagrant and disorderly people within this cittye.' In the 17th and 18th centuries, the parish workhouse was a place where - often in return for board and lodging - employment was provided for the destitute. In some cases, the poor were "farmed" - a private contractor undertook to look after a parish's poor for a fixed annual sum; the paupers' work could be a useful way of boosting the contractor's income. The workhouse was not, however, necessarily regarded as place of punishment, or even privation. Indeed, conditions could be pleasant enough to earn some institutions the soubriquet of "Pauper Palaces". In addition to the workhouse, much parish poor relief was through payments in money or in food to those living in their own homes. By the start of the nineteenth century, the cost of such "out-relief", which in some areas had become linked to the price of bread, was beginning to spiral. It was also held in some quarters, that parish relief had come to be seen as an easy option by those who did not want to work. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act proposed that all 15,000 parishes in England and Wales form into Poor Law Unions, each with its own workhouse and supervised by a local Board of Guardians. In 1838, a similar scheme was introduced in Ireland.    Under the new Act, the threat of the workhouse was intended to act as a deterrent to the able-bodied pauper. This was a principle enshrined in the "workhouse test" - poor relief would only be granted to those desperate enough to face entering the repugnant conditions of the workhouse. In fact, the majority of those forced into the workhouse were not the work-shy, but the old, the infirm, the orphaned, and the physically or mentally ill. For the next century, the Union Workhouse was in many localities one of the largest and most significant buildings in the area. Entering its harsh regime and spartan conditions was considered the ultimate degradation. The workhouse era ended, officially at least, on 1st April 1930; the 643 Boards of Guardians were abolished and their responsibilities passed to local authorities. Some workhouse buildings were just demolished or fell into disuse. Others were renamed and adapted for other use such as hospitals or homes for the elderly. For many inmates of these institutions, however, the name was all that did change, and life improved relatively little during the 1930s and 40s. Even after the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, things improved only slowly. Relatively little now remain of these once great and gloomy edifices. What does survive often passes unnoticed. But even now, over seventy years after their official abolition, the mere mention of the workhouse can still send a shiver through those old enough to remember its existence.
Peter Higginbottom is webmaster for the History of the Workhouse site , which has much more information on this fascinating subject.
Past editions of UK Genealogy News If you like this newsletter and want to see earlier editions you can read them online
Edition 1 - September 2000 Edition 2 - October 2000 Edition 3 - November 2000

Visit UK Genealogy , our easy to navigate site. Lots of links, maps and other information.

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