MarpleCat Genealogy

27/03/2025

If you have Liverpool ancestors, take a look at the latest issue of the RQG Journal of Genealogy & Family History.

New article in Journal of Genealogy and Family History, featuring Liverpool's Upper Frederick Street burial ground https://doi.org/10.24240/23992964.2025.1234548

17/03/2025

☘️☘️☘️ Happy St Patrick's Day. ☘️☘️☘️

For the past five years I've loved being able to celebrate St Patrick's Day as an Irish citizen. It was a bit of genealogical challenge to achieve but I got there in the end. I wrote about in my often neglected blog.

I live in Scotland and have always held a UK passport. However, towards the end of last year, I also became an Irish passport holder. Its arrival marked the end of a research journey that’s spanned more than a decade. But, in many ways, this story has been much longer in the making than the time i...

16/02/2025

Enjoyed a lovely walk on the Isle of Bute this weekend. Rothesay, the only town on Bute, often pops up when I’m researching the ancestors of clients in the 19th century, from families visiting relatives to hotel workers.

Getting the ferry to Rothesay is like taking a trip back in time. The scale of the combined Victorian train station and ferry terminal on the mainland at Wemyss Bay hints at just how popular a holiday destination Rothesay was in Victorian times.

Rothesay’s Victorian grandeur has faded but there’s a few lovely relics. One of my favourites is the gent’s “public conveniences” which are a bit of a historic treat. The ladies has long since been modernised but Mr MarpleCat was dispatched to take pictures of the surviving original features in the gents.

15/01/2025

This was going to be a BlueSky post on the trouble with finding some Scottish birth records, beyond the tips available from Scotland's People, but 300 characters just wasn't enough. So I've written about in a blog post on my website instead. https://www.marplecat.com/post/uncovering-the-mystery-tips-for-finding-elusive-ancestor-birth-records

23/12/2024

If you’re near Edinburgh tomorrow, Christmas Eve, Scotland’s People are offering a free session 9am - 1pm in their search room in Register House. Walk in only.

Merry Christmas! We're offering customers the chance to use our search room free of charge on Christmas Eve morning.

The Reid search room will be open between 9 am and 1 pm on 24 December.

Seats can’t be booked, and will be available on a first come, first served basis.

15/09/2024

Tomorrow evening I’m giving a talk on zoom to Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society about the Lost Streets & Disappearing Communities of Glasgow. To find out more and register click here

When researching our family history, we often want to see, and even visit, the streets our ancestors lived on. But between the late 19th century and early 20th century, considerable numbers of Glasgow street names were changed making finding them more challenging. Then in the late 20th century, many...

04/08/2024

Meet our student member Mandy Geary who has recently been approved as an independent researcher at the National Archives (Kew). Mandy's genealogical research specialisms include military, merchant navy, legal records post-1730, criminals and immigration/naturalisation.

30/04/2024

Honoured to be appointed. New and exciting challenges ahead.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of two new RQG Directors Ciara Chivers Shamrock Roots & Catriona Haine MarpleCat Genealogy

18/01/2024

The RQG conference is open to anyone interested in family history and not just professional genealogists or members of RQG

Join us on 20 April 2024 at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for our Family History Conference ‘Sharing Memories: Uncovering your Family History through Storytelling’ programme and timings available on our website https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/2024-conference/rqg-conference-speakers

12/01/2024

Join RQG member Catriona Haine for her talk on The Disappearing Streets & Lost Communities of Glasgow 13 January, visit https://www.scottishindexes.com/conference.aspx

11/01/2024

The Ministery of Justice are proposing to digitise wills and destroy all originals more than 25 years old. Digitising of records is great from an accessibility point of view. Destruction of original records is terrible on so many levels. We need this petition to get to 10k signatures to get a government response. If you’re a UK National, please sign and share it.

Please ! The MoJ proposes to digitise and then allow the destruction of original wills after 25 years. We call for the original wills to be preserved in perpetuity in line with current legislation. Do not agree to legislative changes that would allow the destruction of these documents.