YFT strikes again .....

[AnneM]

Hi folks

This mag, for which someone bought me a subscription at Christmas, once managed to expunge from history 3 out of 4 of Scotland's ancient universities, namely Glasgow , Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Now see the August edition at page 25 for a Cooks tour of the history of religious denominations in Scotland that manages to omit any mention of the Covenant or, even more surprising since the article deals with religious record keeping, the Great Disruption of 1843. I am no ecclesiastical historian but I feel another letter to the ed coming on.

I do wish that publications would either openly refrain from dealing with Scottish issues (which is a perfectly reasonable road to go down if the omission is acknowledged) or get someone who knows what they are talking about to write about them.

Anyone else feel strongly enough to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard?

Anne

PS hope this post does not count as advertising. If it does my fellow mods will sort me out.

[DavidWW]

Hi folks

This mag, for which someone bought me a subscription at Christmas, once managed to expunge from history 3 out of 4 of Scotland's ancient universities, namely Glasgow , Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Now see the August edition at page 25 for a Cooks tour of the history of religious denominations in Scotland that manages to omit any mention of the Covenant or, even more surprising since the article deals with religious record keeping, the Great Disruption of 1843. I am no ecclesiastical historian but I feel another letter to the ed coming on.

I can only encourage you !!, but remember that 90%+ of the readership isn't interested

I do wish that publications would either openly refrain from dealing with Scottish issues (which is a perfectly reasonable road to go down if the omission is acknowledged) or get someone who knows what they are talking about to write about them.

Exactly I have told the editor on many cases, but I get the feeling that I'm seen as the lone voice in the wilderness , and very easy to ignore in view of the above statistic, never mind, I fear, that I'm perceived as the "whining Scot" as the editor has made perfectly clear on a couple of occasions

Anyone else feel strongly enough to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard?

Anne

Given the choice, I'll take a new story

David

PS for anyone particularly interested in the very complicated siutation at the time I can only recommend Frances Dow's Cromwellian Scotland
dww

[AnneM]

Thanks David

I know the majority of the readership does not give a ..........! However it bugs me senseless that people pass themselves off as experts and get paid good? money for writing mince (rubbish for our transatlantic friends). What is worse, the GBP or more probably the GEP ends up paying good money for said mince. I don't think it's just my lawyer's pernickityness that feels that some nod in the direction of accuracy should be a basic minimum.

At least in my late 'lamented' story I did everything possible to try to ensure I did not make any serious historical bloomers (except the ones worn by the female characters). And I was neither being paid for that nor taking money for it.

Re a new story, there is one in the pipe line which is at the moment mostly in my head. Sadly work is very busy and quite exhausting. I've been away for this weekend till today taking husband, who just had a big birthday, off for a surprise stay at a posh hotel with the use of a Morgan for the day yesterday thrown in. This resulted in a couple of very fetching photies of me in a very smart green car. However I've actually spent some of this evening doing work that I brought home with me.

The new story features an ancestor or two of the female of the young American couple in the last episode of the Sarah stories. I quite took to her and decided that her family deserved a bit of their own story.

Anne

[scooter]

I noticed on another forum that the 'ed' of said magazine is attempting to persuade the GROS to release records outside of SP (primarily census returns).

(link removed as David has kindly reproduced the ed's letter below)

Cheers,

Scott

[LesleyB]

Hi Anne

I am no ecclesiastical historian but I feel another letter to the ed coming on.

Go for it! Hey, maybe if we all hassled them they would realise that there are more than two Scottish readers! And what's more, those readers are paying attention.

Best wishes
Lesley

[DavidWW]

Not only can't YFT properly address Scottish subjects, - see above, - but also there was the 100 hundred words of total nonsense presented on marriages in Scotland some issues ago in an article on marriage records in the UK, written by an English expert , - I'd include the letter to the editor from me which resulted, but the DG would catch fire , but the editor of YFT now appears to feel qualified to write to the Registrar General, as follows............

QUOTE

Hello. Below is a copy of a letter I've sent to the Registrar General for Scotland. I thought this might interest our forum users. If you want to support this idea you can write to him as well:

Duncan McNiven
Registrar General
General Register Office Scotland
Ladywell House
Ladywell Road
Edinburgh
EH12 7TF

-------------------------------
29/06/2006


Dear Mr McNiven,

I write to you as the editor of Your Family Tree magazine, a British genealogy title based in Bath. My concern is for readers of our magazine, and for anybody who is interested in tracing their family tree.

For the past few years, there has been a veritable monopoly operating when it comes to viewing records for Scotland online. ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk is the only website where our readers can search for and view census page documents online. One company, Ancestry.co.uk (part of MyFamily.com Inc), has recently put a searchable transcription of the 1841 Census for Scotland on its site. I understand that they would like to license the page images from your Office but have not had a reply to their requests. I also understand that in the past other companies have made similar enquiries which have fallen on deaf ears.

I would agree that the GROS and National Archives of Scotland have done a very good job of making records available online. And the ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk website is very well done in my opinion. However, it is considerably more expensive to research Scottish roots online than it is with English records and there is no choice for researchers.

In England, The National Archives (formerly the PRO) have licensed the content to a whole range of competing companies, and consumers have a choice in how they perform their research, which site they use, and how much they pay for the content and service they receive. It seems unfair to me that one must pay more to view Scottish census pages than English ones. From your own point of view, it’s quite possible your Office could earn more revenue if a greater range companies were allowed to make the data available. I’m certain more people would use it.

I would urge you to open the market up and allow other companies to license Scottish census page images, and other records for that matter. Please give consideration to the requests before you for Scottish census page images and grant companies the opportunity to make these documents available. I believe this would be of great benefit to family historians in the UK, and overseas, who have Scottish blood and wish to know more about their roots.

Yours sincerely,

Garrick Webster
Editor, Your Family Tree

ENDQUOTE

I'd comment on the fact that he can't even get Duncan's surname spelling correct, except that I seem to recall doing the same

David

[DavidWW]

Thanks David

I know the majority of the readership does not give a ..........! However it bugs me senseless that people pass themselves off as experts and get paid good? money for writing mince (rubbish for our transatlantic friends). What is worse, the GBP or more probably the GEP ends up paying good money for said mince. I don't think it's just my lawyer's pernickityness that feels that some nod in the direction of accuracy should be a basic minimum.

See comment above re using an English expert to write complete "mince" in the box in his otherwise good article in relation to England, as related to the Scottish situation.

Very sadly, all the UK genmags are guilty to a greater or lesser extent of (understandably) concentrating on England to the exclusion of Scotland, but, very sadly, very often giving at least the impression that "if that's the way that it was in England, then obviously it had to be the same in Scotland, surely "

Until and unless there's a genmag dealing purely with Scottish interests, we just have to grin an bear it

There's a definite worldwide market for such a genmag, but the problem will always be accessing the potential readers over such a wide range and size of disparate markets ....................

At least in my late 'lamented' story I did everything possible to try to ensure I did not make any serious historical bloomers (except the ones worn by the female characters). And I was neither being paid for that nor taking money for it.

I'd expect nothing less

Re a new story, there is one in the pipe line which is at the moment mostly in my head. Sadly work is very busy and quite exhausting. I've been away for this weekend till today taking husband, who just had a big birthday, off for a surprise stay at a posh hotel with the use of a Morgan for the day yesterday thrown in. This resulted in a couple of very fetching photies of me in a very smart green car. However I've actually spent some of this evening doing work that I brought home with me.

The new story features an ancestor or two of the female of the young American couple in the last episode of the Sarah stories. I quite took to her and decided that her family deserved a bit of their own story.

Anne

Sounds good

David

[joette]

Drives me to distraction too & I am sure I am blacklisted on several publications as that "mad Scot".
With all the discussion over nationhood & Britishness I am heartily sick off having to defend my Country of birth & of heart.
Without being too political I am partly amused& partly incensed that the only way the media can "knock" the best Chancellor this Country has had is the fact that he is "Scottish" & therefore would be unable to be a Prime Minister of United Kingdom???????????Why?????.Does this mean that only English men need apply like David CAMERON????
YES ANNE please more on the Yanks please I really liked the characters & I could see some mileage in their tales.

[scooter]

Hi David,

Thanks for quoting the letter, I wasn't sure if I would get into trouble doing that!

I take it that they haven't asked you to contribute anything of late? Your past articles have been invaluable.

I suspect that even if there was a solely Scottish gen mag, it would be lampooned for neglecting it's southern neighbours!

Joette - I agree, the whole thing surrounding Mr Brown is just stupid, just as it was last week with the Scottish tennis player. Football tournaments bring out the worst in the British media!

Cheers,

Scott

[Davie]

Oops doubed up on my message here.
Or that should read, doubled on my whisky.
This was due to the fact I am in a pub on a lap top in Sauchiehall Strret.
That's ma excuse and ah'm stickin' tae it.
An eejit.