It’s taken me a while to write this sad update to the site; as always, they are an unavoidable element of any family history. With great sadness I’m recording the loss of my Aunt Ara (Barbara) MacAskill last year, aged just 76. Continue reading Updating the Family Tree – Farewell, Aunt Ara
A recent message on a Northern Irish family history group I’m a member of prompted this post, as it confirmed something I’ve long suspected, at least in my family and those of more distant relatives. Whenever we have a get-together, the number of repeating first names is notable; not so much for the last two generations, but the practice lingers on at least in mine; … Continue reading Traditional Naming Conventions That Can Assist Your Family Tree Research
This is a quick post to let you know that I’m overhauling the format of this site; the main navigation at the top of the page is the same, but I’ve streamlined the home page and moved some additional info to a new page – The Story So Far
I’m also working on updating the family tree chart, and I’m currently searching for software to upload the Gedcom export file from my Ancestry.co.uk family tree into a format I can share on this site. Continue reading Changes to the Site, And an Updated Family Tree
If you’re having no luck finding a birth/marriage/death record online, try widening the date parameters, even if you’re certain of the details Continue reading Researching Births – Have You Checked for Late Registrations?
I started my family history quest around 2009, and for the last twelve years I’ve gathered information working backwards from my parents and other family. I’ve subscribed to various family tree blogs and sites, and ordered duplicate birth, marriage and death certificates from public record offices, mainly PRONI – I’ve also visited record offices in Northern Ireland in person. I was also very lucky to … Continue reading Linking Us All Together – Newspaper Archives, DNA Testing and Ancestry Sites
Two and a half years ago I published this post about my aunt Hilda, the only Jamison sibling of my dad’s generation that I hadn’t traced. I didn’t even know for sure if she was still alive, as her last known address was in Ontario, Canada. House moves on both sides of the Atlantic meant the remaining family members had lost contact details. While working … Continue reading Updating The Family Tree – Farewell, Aunt Hilda
With the arrival of the third UK COVID lockdown, 2021 is offering unique opportunities to catch up with outstanding family history blog posts. One that’s been on my to-do list for quite a while is the timeline of my long-lived great-grandfather, William McDowell Jamison, compared with his namesake son William Jamison, who sadly died in 1935 aged just 37. William Senior outlived his son, dying … Continue reading A Tale of Two Williams – A Father & Son Who Died within 4 Years of Each Other
I first posted about my paternal grandmother being married twice a couple of years ago in this post – I now have a copy of her marriage certificate: Date of marriage: 23rd April 1924 Place of marriage: Bushmills Presbyterian Church, Presbytery of Route Marriage of: Samuel Murdock and Eliza McCurdy Purcell Age of groom: full (i.e. 21 years or older) Age of bride: 16 years, … Continue reading First Marriage of Eliza Purcell Jamison
In my last post I finally got round to writing about the place and circumstances of my great uncle Oswald’s birth– in this post I’m recording his sad demise at the young age of just seventeen. Oswald was born in 1895 in Cumbria to my great-grandmother Annie Hewer; at some point she moved to Northern Ireland and married my great-grandfather William McDowell Jamison (I have … Continue reading Death of Oswald Hewer Jamison Aged 17 – “Son of a Groom”
This post is long overdue; several years ago I received confirmation that my great uncle Oswald Hewer Jamison was born in northern England, but I didn’t get around to posting an update on here. The question of Oswald’s place of birth was first posed ten years ago by Nevin of the North Antrim Local Interest blog. Nevin had located an Oswald Hewer in an 1895 registry … Continue reading Oswald Hewer Jamison – Born in Cumbria 1895
The Jamisons of Co. Antrim & Co. Down, Northern Ireland 