Names of Foreign Places

 Hello all,

Last year, Michael Dindinger made an excellent post on place names. Mostly, the rules he cites are valid for foreign and domestic places. That post may be reviewed, here. Later in the year, Steve Averill made a presentation on place names. That post is here - the slides discussing place are 14 through 34. During the presentation, Diane Carter made the excellent point that different lineage societies have different requirements about how to record place names. Notes and detail comments can accommodate these differing requirements without confusing people looking at the family history.

Today, we take a look at a specific example of foreign place names - in this case, Sweden. The same principles would apply to Czech or English or Norwegian place names. In particular, I look at the case of Anna Eleonora Eriksdotter (American name was Anna Elenora Erickson and later, Anna Norland).

Which Germany Did YOUR Ancestors Come From?

Part 1 - Who was Where

The notion of Germany as a Sovereign Nation is a fairly recent concept. Depending on when they came, German ancestors may have come from Germany, or they might have come from one of many entities that made up the German Language Area. As an example, at the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the German Confederation was made up of lots of pieces ranging from City States like Hamburg, to various Principalities and Duchies such as Saxe-Coburg, to Luxembourg (one of 6 Grand Duchies), Prussia (one of 6 Kingdoms), and Austria (Empire). All of this was under the leadership of the Austrian Emperor's delegate; sort of. 

Yorkish Ancestry

Our last meeting minutes, from September,  cited "– British based info" with no further explanation. On the theory that it is as well to be shot as a murderer as a thief, I make a SECOND post about things in England. Specifically, this is about the political history of the part of England known as Yorkshire.

Historic Yorkshire, in the North of England

Welsh Ancestors?

by Michael W. Dindinger, via email on October 20, 2019
FAMILY HISTORY LEARNING MOMENT

Michael's main sources for this post:

Sunny Morton in a FamilySearch blog suggested sources

The Family History Guide has a lot on finding Welsh sources.

In the blog, “Discover Your Welsh Ancestry in These 3 Key Sources,” Sunny suggests starting your Welsh family research with what she calls the three C’s: censuses, civil registrations, and church records. Censuses of genealogical help began in 1841 and were taken every 10 years thereafter. The 1921 census will be released in 2021. Civil registrations (births, marriages, and deaths) began in Wales in July 1837. Sunny explains the two-step process to obtain these certificates. Church records, some beginning in 1538, consist of baptism, marriage, and burial records. However, these three record types are just the beginning.

County Donegal in Ireland - and Places to Search for Ancestors

There's a bit o' Irish in a lot of us. In the UK portion of the North of Ireland, there are the mostly Protestant SIX Counties. Those include: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. A little LESS well known is the OTHER Northern Irish County of Donegal.

Czech These Out

Michael Dindinger outlined some basics for researching your Czech ancestor, here. We followed up, with some Czech Ancestor Research videos, here. However, there is MUCH MORE than these. For one example, Facebook has many Czech Genealogy special interest groups. While I don't personally have any (known) Czech ancestry, you might want to look into Facebook. A search of "facebook czech genealogy" reveals the following:

Michael Dindinger Talks about Ireland

by Michael W. Dindinger, via email on September 17, 2019

FAMILY HISTORY LEARNING MOMENT

SOURCES: The Family History Guide 

Goal 1: Learn about research in Ireland
Choice A:  Get started with Irish research

1. Learn the basics of Irish research in these videos

Czech Videos for Genealogy

In addition to the items in Michael Dindinger's post, here, you might find the two videos below to be helpful

Michael Dindinger Looks at Czech Ancestor Research

by Michael W. Dindinger, via email on September 17, 2019

FAMILY HISTORY LEARNING MOMENT

Michael's Main Source for this Post: The Family History Guide


Goal 1: Learn about research in the Czech Republic and its antecedents
Choice A:  Learn the basics of online Czech research

Sweden Didn't Use a Census

Annotated Snippet from Swedish Record Book

BEFORE WE START: Keep in mind that if you want to research Swedish ancestors, it pays to do a little homework up front. One great place to start is the Family History Guide, with its Swedish page here. You will also find yourself translating pages. FamilySearch has a good starting place here, with their translation cheatsheet here.

British Census Handy Info

United Kingdom
The census records which have been published relate to the occupants of each household on the date given below. These have useful information for genealogists for the censuses between 1841 (first one to keep names & places) and 1911, as well as the registration act. Earlier censuses just mainly kept "how many where" kind of info. In truth, the Census was separate for each part of the UK, meaning there was an "England and Wales" Census, an "Ireland" Census, and a "Scotland" Census.

• United Kingdom Census 1841 - Sunday, 6 June
• United Kingdom Census 1851 - Sunday, 30 March
• United Kingdom Census 1861 - Sunday, 7 April
• United Kingdom Census 1871 - Sunday, 2 April
• United Kingdom Census 1881 - Sunday, 3 April
• United Kingdom Census 1891 - Sunday, 5 April
• United Kingdom Census 1901 - Sunday, 31 March
• United Kingdom Census 1911 - Sunday, 2 April
• National Registration Act 1939 - Friday, 29 September Second World War (Published 2 Nov 2015)