Carmel's Corner

Monday, 5 April 2021

Downloading Documents - AJCP

Decisions concerning downloads

So far in this series of posts we have just browsed for items of interest. Once found there are choices to be made when saving to one's own collection.

Here is the Probate of a will found in the Doncaster Archive. To see the extent of the file one would choose the green Browse this collection button. There are 6 pages displayed, not just the 2p. listed.

Browse, Cite and Download

Choices for downloading are PDF or JPG

For a multi-page document, check the box next to Select A Range Of Images To Download

Download options

There is no charge for downloading records.

Keeping track of records

Each page/record/image has an individual URL. The breadcrumb trail shows exactly where one is within the collection.

The next post will examine the options for and limitations of searching for records rather than browsing.

Previous posts in this series

A - About the AJCP | B -Browsing the Board of Trade | C - County Record Offices

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Saturday, 3 April 2021

County Record Offices and Archives - AJCP

Browsing County records in the M Series of the AJCP

Access to original historical records forms the basis of research for historians and genealogists. Through the AJCP we can visit some of the records of the various counties across the UK, free and from the comfort of our homes.

Be sure to look for your County of interest in the M series Read the Guide for the County then browse the records to discover the gems within.

Here are some of the Counties that have records digitised in the AJCP and start with the letter C.

Cambridgeshire Record Office - Cambridge, Huntingdon

Cheshire Record Office

Cleveland County Archives

Cornwall County Record Office

Cumbria Record Office

Cornwall

The description of the records filmed at the Cornwall County Record Office include:

"journals of voyages from Melbourne to America, Plymouth to Melbourne and Adelaide to Gravesend; correspondence and legal documents of families including the Victor Family, the Adams Family, the Carlyon Family; emigration lists; mining records; memoirs of Hannah Glasson and papers relating to the Bonython Family."

Some examples

From the Diary of Capt. John T Short of St Ives comes this excerpt from a list of people who left the Parish of St Ives and emigrated to Australia in 1854.

View the complete list at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1042988855/view

The 35 page Memoirs of Mrs Hannah Glasson contains a wealth of material for the family historian not just for her descendants but also a picture of life in colonial America across a wide variety of American counties.

It details a trip back to her parents' native Cornwall when she was 14 in 1859, then their voyage on the "Donald McKay" to Sydney. She wrote about her life in NSW, her subsequent marriage and life in New Zealand and NSW.

View the whole memoir at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1043011450/view

How lucky are you if your ancestor was Richard Perry of Crowan? His journals kept on the steamship Northumberland from Plymouth to Melbourne and Adelaide in 1873, and on the Lady Jocelyn from Adelaide to Gravesend in 1876, are written in a beautifully clear hand and expressed in rhyming verse. Many pages include his signature, a precious find for the family historian.

Excerpt from https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1043016789/view

All of the above are from just one County - Cornwall

A miscellany of examples of records in other Counties

Cumbria Archive - Scrapbook of photographs and press cuttings
Cleveland County Archive - 1958 Letter of Hungarian refugee Elizabeth Kevi
Cheshire Record Office - The costs of travelling around the world in 1889
Cambridgeshire Record Office - List of emigrants to Victoria from Cambridgeshire 1840 -1870

Browse the M Series list for the wide variety of County and Archive Records, a rich source of material to add background and context to our family stories.

Have you considered writing your life story and contributing it to a local archive for your future descendants?

Previous posts in this series

A - About the AJCP | B -Browsing the Board of Trade

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Friday, 2 April 2021

Browsing the Board of Trade - AJCP

B for Browsing

B for Browsing, a starting point for examining how the records are presented and arranged.

What to choose for B?

In PRO series of the AJCP

Board of Customs
Board of Longitude
Board of Trade
British Transport Commission

In the M Series

The choice ranges from records of the British Museum to the company of Bryant and May. Perhaps you may be interested in the records of the Bedfordshire or Berkshire Record Offices or the Brynmor Jones Library or one of the dozens of other Bs listed.

Let's jump into the records of the Board Of Trade from the PRO records.

The first thing seen is a Finding Aid or Guide for the available online records. On the left is a Table of Contents and the right side of the screen lists the contents of each digitised microfilm in further detail.

Additional historical information is often provided here in the guides.

These records range from 1784 - 1952. The majority of these records are handwritten, no OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been applied. Browsing this collection however may reveal some details about our ancestors.

Finding Aid - Board of Trade

I have chosen to open the Fonds: Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1826 - 1921, Under this heading I find:

Certificates of registration of vessels registered at ports in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Prince of Wales Island. Certificates are grouped by year and then by port of registration
Registers of certificates of competency. Masters and mates: colonial trade, 1870 - 1921 (issued to masters and mates employed on colonial vessels) as well as
Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. Registers of certificates of competency. Engineers: colonial, 1877 - 1921

Scroll down to see the list of films

Choose the icon to the left of the file name to display the microfilm images. They will be displayed on the right of the screen.
Choose any image to view in full detail.
On the image now displayed there are options to magnify, go to full screen and navigate to the next image
The option to Go Up a Level provides a Browse button that then displays the first 20 images on a microfilm

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-743616214

Finding your ancestor

If you had an ancestor who was a seaman perhaps you will find him in the Certificates of Competency where details include place and year of birth as well as the place and date of the granting of the appropriate certificate.

He may not have migrated to Australia or New Zealand but his certificate of competency may be in these records.

Some examples clipped from the hundreds of pages available.