"Scottish Parish Records" with FTM - content?

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:58 pm

I was in a well-known large PC shop today and whilst browsing the software section I noticed that a version of Family Tree Maker 2005 (UK version) which comes with four data CDs, includes a data CD called "Scottish Parish Records".

A good look at the sealed box revealed no more clues as to the actual content of this CD. Does anyone have this version of FTM and can enlighten me as to what exactly the "Scottish Parish Records" consist of?

Best wishes
Lesley

pinkshoes · Post by **pinkshoes** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:14 pm

Hi Lesley - I have the version of FTM that came with this CD and a few relating to English.
It's got this on it (apparently)

England, Scotland, Ireland: Musgrave's Obituaries Prior to 1800, parts 1 & 2 (Compiled By Sir William Musgrave, 6th Bart., of Hayton Castle, Co. Cumberland, , and Where some Account of their Character is to be Found.)

Scotland : Director of Land Ownership 1770
Records of the Ancient Privileges of the Canongate
The Binns Papers, 1320-1864
Protocol Book of Mark Carruthers, 1531 - 1561
The Parishes of Medieval Scotland
Family Papers of the Hunters of Hunterston
Inventory of Pitfirrane Writs, 1230-1794.
The Faculty of Advocates in Scotland. 1532-1943.
Scottish Society of Friends "Quakers." Register of Births Proposal of Marriages Marriages and Deaths. 1647-1878
Calendar of Writs of Munro of Foulis 1299-1823

I haven't found much use for it on a daily basis as yet, but you never know. Lets put it this way - if it's of any use to anyone I will happily donate it for the price of a delivery address.

Best wishes

Pinkshoes

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:17 pm

Hi Lesleyl

Nope...don't have that software nor know anyone who is using it or can describe the added disk of Scottish Parish Records. However your question intrigued me enough to go googling

and if you check out this site

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 91-7874324

you can read some customer responses.....looks like the jury is still out as to just how useful the addtional disks are. Hopefully someone will come along and give us all a first hand report

Well looky here...someone just did!!! Thanks pinkshoes!!

Best wishes
Jean

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:16 pm

Hi Pinkshoes and Jean
Thanks for the list of contents Pinkshoes - very interesting. It seems a bit of a mixed bag - I have no idea what kind of information some of these records would hold, so I'm not sure how useful they would be at all.... looks like if you have landed gentry in your tree and you can trace back to the 1600s and beyond then you might find something useful but, if you have ground to a halt around 1700

and the majority of your tree is shored up by ag.labs then it doesn't look, on the surface, that there would be much to be found....but I may be wrong!

Best wishes
Lesley

Rab · Post by **Rab** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:45 pm

I've got that disk, somewhere. Luckily I bought the one with the additional 4 CDs that my wife allowed me too and not the one with the additional 12 (I think) CDs my wife gave me the the look for contemplating. I installed the Scottish one had a browse and put it back in the box where it has stayed for the past 5 months.

If anyone thinks there might be information on this disk, or the other 3 disks, that may be of use to them then let me know and I'll have a search through them again.

pinkshoes · Post by **pinkshoes** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:28 pm

Lesley I think you've summed up the contents quite well - no sign of ag labs, dom servs or coal miners as far as I can see. For me, chocolate and fireguard come to mind, and I gave the other three discs to English friend - no whoops of joy from her either

Still, if anyone is off better stock than me ... ...

On a positive note, I've no complaints about the actual programme - does everything I want it to, even sorting out complicated relationships caused by cousins marrying cousins, brothers and sisters marrying other brothers and sisters and concluding that one lady is both my 3xggrandmother and 4xggm. That was worth twenty quid in itself

Regards
Pinkshoes

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:51 pm

Hi all
Ah well, it was just that the version of FTM was slashed in price from £39.99 to £19.99 which seemed a resonable reduction and I wondered if that made the data CD an interesting proposition. Not really interested in FTM itself (though I know the charts are supposed to be superior!) - I'm a Legacy user.

Best wishes
Lesley

gzmcwherter · Post by **gzmcwherter** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:21 am

Hello,
I purchased the Scottish Parish Records: Scotland (General) CD because I was interested in the Quaker records. I found some entries that led me to contact the Quaker Library in London from which I was able to obtain copies of the originals.
Seeing some discrepancies and being the compulsive sort I ordered the microfilm from the local LDS to compare the two. The CD entries were apparently OCR generated from what turned out to be a typescript extract. Some errors in the CD version are typical of OCR generation, e.g., grocer becomes orocer. However, the worst error was original to the extract: e.g., original entry of 12 May 1869 is probably jotted down as 12/05/1869 and becomes 05 Dec 1869 in the typed extract and the CD. I've concluded that the person doing the typing was probably an American.
Brings to mind the old saying about "two peoples separated by the same language"... or in this case dating conventions

Regards,
Gina

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:13 pm

Hi Gina
Good to hear you were able to find some useful information on the disk, but...

original entry of 12 May 1869 is probably jotted down as 12/05/1869 and becomes 05 Dec 1869 in the typed extract and the CD

I suppose this sort of thing happens all the time when records are digitised and just underlines the importance of seeing the original documents where possible. But you do begin to wonder how many potentially interesting leads we just don't see due to similar errors....

s

Best wishes
Lesley

sporran · Post by **sporran** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:57 pm

Hello all,

Gina's posting was an excellent example of "understand the process, understand the problems", which I mention regularly. It was drummed into me at university that scientific research is only as good as the accuracy of the measurements. A couple of years in a statistics department also taught me the perils in the interpretation of data, whether measured or gathered through surveys.

Moonwatcher's "The Informant" (a classic of modern literature) can be found in new, improved, re-formatted style at http://www.tachras.com/journal/articles ... atterM.htm . There is no better example of the task facing family historians.

Regards,

John

TalkingScot.com

"Scottish Parish Records" with FTM - content?

"Scottish Parish Records" with FTM - content?

Re: errors