Reduced Prices on 1841, 1851, 1861 Census Transcriptions at Borders Family History Society and Northumberland & Durham Family History Society

There was little welfare available before the 20th century, so people had to find work and that might have entailed moving.

Agricultural workers were usually hired at a hiring fair for 6 months, re-hiring by the same farmer could not be relied upon.

Workers might hear that a different farmer was a better employer or they might discover that the parish they lived in was an ungenerous provider of welfare so it made sense to move, if they could.

If you have ancestors in Berwick or North Northumberland, they may well have lived or worked in Scotland, too, most probably in the Scottish Borders, with Berwickshire and Roxburghshire being the most likely counties.

Borders Family History Society have a special offer on most of the 1841, 1851, 1861 Census Transcription booklets they sell but extremely limited stocks at the special offer reduced prices.

More details on their Publications Sales List.

Northumberland & Durham Family History Society are also advertising special offers on Northumberland and County Durham Census Indexes.

Are you a Riddell and Interested in Your Family Tree ?

A lady in New Zealand named Gail Riddell and an apparently unrelated Jim Riddell in America are joint administrators for the Riddell/Riddle/Ridley/Ruddell DNA project with an American based firm called FamilyTree DNA. .

Gail's family were mostly from the Roxburghshire area but were also in Berwickshire and Lanarkshire (not to mention all through the Lothian area), depending on the lands they purchased/versus where their money was "made". Jim's forebears were from Lanarkshire in the late 16th Century and are thought to have left at the time of the Covenanters.

Gail wrote "I have many men from New Zealand, Australia, USA, one from South Africa and a few from UK who have been excited by what they have learned as a result of testing their Y-Chromosome.  They have worked hard in order to raise sufficient funds for me to be able to offer totally free, a number of  Y-37 tests for any man living in Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, Yorkshire or lowland Scotland who has this surname and who has a family tree of his paternal ancestry back to around 1800 or earlier.

The bottom line is to extend and "prove" our genealogy in a way that paper trails have been unable.  By that, I mean if we go back into history, especially the 1600s (as an example) and look at the deaths, followed by pestilence, followed by famines and we soon begin to realise that not everyone who bears a particular surname is actually of that stock.  I say this because many young women with wee ones to feed were made widows and frequently joined up with a "protector" who thus gave his name to those
wee ones.

For those who are anxious about DNA testing - the medical genes are not considered in the test that I am offering as a "freebie".  The test itself needs just two separate cheek swabs.  "

If you're a Riddle (whatever the spelling), and you've got a family tree on the paternal side back to 1800, and you would be willing to take the test, please contact Gail at the email address below.

If you want help building your family tree, there are still a few family history surgeries available (booking essential) on our Berwick 900 Family History Day on Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Find out about Family Members in Scotland with free credits on ScotlandsPeople

Have you got Scottish ancestry or family members in Scotland ?

If you have ancestors that lived on the English side of the Border with Scotland or in the Berwick area, it's quite likely that you had family members that lived or worked in the Scottish Borders, or possibly just got married in Scotland or on one of the bridges over the River Tweed; the bridge between Cornhill and Coldstream was famous for such marriages.

My thanks to Marjorie Gavin for spotting that you can get 20 free credits on ScotlandsPeople worth £4.50 with an offer valid until 30 April.

Register at ScotlandsPeople if you are a new user, or log in, if you already have an account.

When you're logged in, click on 'Buy more credits' at the top of the page on the right.

You will be taken to a page where you should enter the promotional code.

Under 'Do you have a voucher code?', enter the promotional code:
scotlandnow

You should then receive 20 free credits worth £4.50.

Berwick-upon-Tweed’s Fascinating Food History

If you had lived in the Scottish Borders in the 1840s and had a modest income as most people did, your diet would have been mostly oatmeal and potatoes with the addition of milk (and in a few parishes cheese) and garden vegetables. Bread was occasionally used, but butcher-meat very rarely. In the Scottish Borders, the most common meat was pork (or bacon or ham), the labouring classes rarely saw beef or mutton, except for dead or diseased sheep, though I suspect many may have eaten fish or rabbit.

Borders Family History Society's next meeting is on Sunday, 27th April, at 2.30pm in Coldingham Village Hall, Coldingham, TD14 5NL, when Derek Sharman will talk about Berwick-upon-Tweed’s fascinating food history. 

The Victorian period was a period of change and innovation in farming, fishing and the producing, processing and selling of food and drink.  It was also the heyday for Berwick’s trade in barley, herring and salmon. The town is full of reminders of its food-producing heritage - old salmon fishing shiels, ice-houses, herring yards, smokehouses, breweries, granaries and maltings. This talk offers fascinating glimpses into that time through a selection of extracts from local newspapers and photographs from the Berwick Record Office collection. 

I think you'll find this a very interesting talk whether you're interested in family history, local or social history and you're welcome to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.

Doors open at 2pm; the meeting begins at 2.30pm. It’s free to come in.

They'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of their volunteers.