In the quaint Northumberland fishing town of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, a remarkable project has been unfolding over the past 11 years. Spearheaded by former MP Hilton Dawson, the community has created a massive family tree documenting “everyone who has ever lived here.”

The digital tree, hosted by MyHeritage, traces the lineage of almost 39,000 people, dating back to around the year 1200. The tree contains much more than just names: it includes around 9,000 photos and historical records as well as detailed biographies.

This past weekend, the tree was projected on the walls of the town’s community center as part of a five-day summer festival, stirring a great deal of interest. People came from as far as 100 miles away to learn about the history of this small town and discover their own heritage in the extensive family tree.

It all started when Hilton Dawson, 69, inherited the family tree his mother had started. Hilton had grown up in Newbiggin, but like many members of the younger generation, moved away after graduating school. “I’ve always considered that I had an idyllic childhood in Newbiggin, but by the end of childhood I was keenly determined to leave the place behind,” he says.

In 2012, he gave a talk in Newbiggin about his research, expecting hardly anyone to turn up — and was shocked when dozens of people turned out to hear him speak.

“There were lots of women who came with family bibles and beautiful records and photos, and a few men, some of whom had stuff scribbled on the back of a cigarette packet. It was extraordinary,” Hilton told The Times in a recent article about the project. “They had a visceral need to know where they came from and who they were related to. We started there and then, saying we would make a record of everybody who had ever lived in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.”

It would take many, many volumes to record a family tree of this magnitude on paper — but on MyHeritage, the community was able to easily add and document family relationships and connections as well as details about individuals, stories, and various media. A testament to the power of community collaboration, the project has revealed complex interconnections between families, painting a vivid picture of a close-knit community that has weathered centuries of change together.

You can read more in an article in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/08/this-old-fishing-town-built-a-massive-family-tree-dating-back-800-years-on-myheritage/.

The following is a press release issued by American Ancestors:

American Ancestors® and Collaborators Announce the Launch of "10 Million Names," a Project to Honor the Family Histories of African Americans Whose Ancestors Lived Under Slavery, with a Permanent, Free, Publicly Accessible Database at 10MillionNames.org

ABC News to Serve as Exclusive Media Partner of Historic 10 Million Names Project

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 3, 2023-- American Ancestors, a national center for family history, is partnering with family historians, leading African American scholars, and cultural institutions to recover the names of the 10 million people of African descent who were enslaved between the 1500s and 1865 in the territory that is now the United States of America. The project—10 Million Names—will centralize genealogical and historical information about enslaved people of African descent and their families on a free website.

ABC News will serve as the exclusive media partner of 10 Million Names. The year-long, network-wide initiative will feature the findings, research, and work of a collaborative network of genealogists, cultural organizations, and community-based family historians through impactful and informative storytelling and reporting across ABC News programs and platforms.

The project advisory board includes Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard scholar and host of the popular PBS Series Finding Your Roots, which often reveals surprising information to celebrity guests about their ancestors. Other members of the 10 Million Names Advisory Board are Richard Cellini, founder of the Georgetown Memory Project and a Research Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Gwill York, Advisory Board chair, entrepreneur, prominent business leader, and civic volunteer for more than thirty years, and Paula Williams Madison, author of Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem, and Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC and 88 Madison Media Works Inc

Dr. Gates and others associated with the project have described it as having the potential to connect millions of people with American history through genealogy in ways never possible before.

"For the first time ever, we have the means to accomplish a project of this importance and magnitude," said Cellini, the founding director of the 10 Million Names project. "The institutional will and the technology exist. We have a collective obligation as a nation to tell African American family stories."

Beginning in 2018, American Ancestors worked with Cellini to create a free, searchable public portal at GU272.AmericanAncestors.org that presented the family histories of more than 300 men, women, and children sold by the Jesuit priests of Georgetown University (then known as Georgetown College) in 1838 to Louisiana sugar plantations. When he first discovered the sale, Cellini, a Georgetown alumnus, created an independent non-profit dedicated to finding the people who were sold, and worked with American Ancestors to publish the results.

You can read more at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/project-recover-names-10-million-200300433.html. 

Some of the earliest and most significant pages recently added to The Scotsman online archive include coverage of the taking of The Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950.

From the taking of the Stone of Destiny to the long, winding path to devolution and the unimaginable events that make us remember exactly were we were when a certain news story broke, key moments in our life and modern times have been brought to the surface once more as nearly half a million pages of The Scotsman archive open up to the public.

The British Newspaper Archive- an online archive created by Findmypast and the British Library to publish their vast newspaper collection has extended its online collection of back copies of The Scotsman to cover the years 1951 to 2002 in an development which signals a massive digital update. A total of 456,410 new online pages drawn from 16,142 issues have been added.

These early accounts included a statement from Wendy Wood, prominent nationalist campaigner and artist, who said of the saga: “That is the best news I have heard in years. It is certainly the best start we could have to the new year.”

The stone's theft rekindled the debate on Scotland's constitutional settlement – a debate in which The Scotsman played a prominent role over the next decades.

You can read more in an article by Alison Campsie published in the Scotsman web site at: https://t.ly/Dh0Y6.

From the MyHeritage Blog:

Here at MyHeritage, we are dedicated to helping you uncover your family’s unique story, and part of that includes our efforts to continually grow our collection of historical records. To help you stay informed of these ongoing updates, we recently started a new Facebook Live series. In these biweekly sessions taking place on the first and third Tuesday of every month on the MyHeritage Facebook page, our directors of content, Mike Mansfield and Myko Clelland, showcase our newest additions and share useful tips for exploring your family’s past.

In a recent session, Myko shared several valuable tips on making the most of the wealth of historical records available on MyHeritage. Here’s what he suggested:

The lengthy list of tips may be found at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/08/6-tips-for-searching-historical-records-on-myheritage/. 

The following announcement was written by the organizers of the FHF Really Useful Family History Show (in England):

The FHF Family History Show ONLINE is Back for 2023!

Friday 17th November 10am-10pm and Saturday 18th November 10am-6pm

The Family History Federation’s Really Useful Family History Show has evolved and is lining up to be the best yet!  Announcing this year’s show, FHF Chairman, Steve Manning said...this event has become two shows in one!

On Friday 17th the show focuses on family history exhibitors. The Exhibition Hall will be open.  There will be dozens of expert short talks covering a variety of local, regional and specialist topics. This is also a great opportunity to chat with the many stallholders offering personalised help and advice.  Don’t miss it!

On Saturday 18th the show will follow the well-established pattern of previous years, with popular interactive workshops being supplemented with a generous sprinkling of presentations by well-known popular speakers. 

Who? What? When? and How Much?

More details of the whole two-day programme together with details of presenters will be announced from 1st September onwards. In some cases, booking will be essential!

Keep checking the website - www.fhf-reallyuseful.com  

All these opportunities are all included in the show ticket price.

This online extravaganza costs just £15!!  All-inclusive tickets and can be booked at the show website.  www.fhf-reallyuseful.com  Plus, there are offers available through some member societies of the Federation for their own members.  

Discounted £12 tickets are available until 31st August with Checkout Code: DEN2023

Check it out on the website:  www.fhf-reallyuseful.com

www.familyhistoryfederation.com

Postal address: FHF, PO Box 62, Sheringham NR26 9AR

‘Family History Federation’ is the operating name of the Federation of Family History Societies Registered Charity Number 1038721.   

 FFHS Services Ltd is a company limited by guarantee, company number 2930189 (England & Wales), VAT No: 616 2149 59. 

Registered Office: 2 Primrose Avenue, Urmston, Manchester M41 OTY

The following announcement was written by the Augusta, Georgia Genealogical Society:

A recent study has discovered new evidence that could help explain the mystery of how Native Americans came to be in America thousands of years ago.

The study, which examined mitochondrial DNA, found evidence of two migrations between the Americasand China and Japan.

The migrations took place during the last ice age and during the melt period that followed that, so a very long time ago.

The team behind the study tracked a rare Native American founder lineage through continents and through time, studying the mitochondrial DNA passed down through the female line.

Studying 100,000 samples from the present day, as well as 15,000 samples from ancient times, the team successfully identified 216 contemporary and 39 ancient individuals that had that shared lineage.

You can read much more in an article by Tom Wood published in the unilad.com web site at: https://www.unilad.com/news/science-native-americans-dna-ancestry-mystery-105219-20230731. 

Genealogical.com has posted an advertisement for a book written by Brian Mitchell that will interest many genealogists with Irish ancestry. The advertisement states:

"The vast majority of Irish census records prior to 1901 no longer exist. Consequently, as Brian Mitchell explains in his New Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy, census substitutes are of great importance to Irish researchers. Perhaps the most important, and certainly the most famous, substitute is Griffith’s Primary Valuation. Conducted between 1848 and 1864, the Valuation provides the amount of rates each household had to pay towards the support of the poor within their poor law union. Each Valuation names every head of household and occupier of land in Ireland, versus a townland or street address in Ireland. Griffith’s Valuation thus details the land occupier’s name; the landlord’s name; description of property; size of farm (if applicable); and ratable valuation of any buildings  and land."

To read more, go to https://genealogical.com/2023/07/31/new-pocket-guide-to-irish-genealogy-explains-griffiths-valuation/ and then click on “View: New Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy."

The book costs $17.95 (as an ebook) or $26.50 (as a paperback). 

As stated in the advertisement: "Enriched by the author’s experience as a professional geographer and leading Irish genealogical researcher, the New Pocket Guide to Irish Genealogy is an invaluable tool for all those seeking Irish ancestors."

The following are added and/or updated collections on Ancestry added in the past month: