Twisted Thistles 2020 Source-a-Thon Chat

Question

Welcome to the Twisted Thistles chat page for the 2020 Source-a-thon for members of the Twisted Thistles team, and anyone else who would like to cheer on the team.

Please visit our Twisted Thistles Team Page and let us know what you'll be working on, and if you have any helpful tips or good resources please share them.

If you'd like to start a thread here, please do - just add an answer and join the conversation. All -thon related questions are welcome!

Looking forward to working with all of our Scotland team members and anyone else who'd like to join in the fun.

Bobbie & Sarah

Comments

Looks like the Team Tally page is up and ready to go. You should be able to track your progress here:

Team & User Tracking

When you've added a source to a profile, be certain to remove the Unsourced tag, as that is what triggers the 'count.'

If you find a valid source: Edit the profile to add the source, according to our Sources guide. Remove the {{Unsourced}} Research Note Box tag. Save the profile and click the Challenge Tracker button. On the Challenge Tracker, select the Source-a-Thon checkbox.

Go  Thistles!!

---

Will be focusing on Dumfriesshire unsourced profiles 1600-1800, many here with my family Surname. Best of luck to all!

---

I am getting along fine with the mining community of East Lothian and Midlothian.

My biggest problem is that the majority of the profiles I have sourced have the wrong LNAB as they come from GEDCom imports. I have noted these on the profiles.

---

I'll be mainly on Ayrshire, and when I get bored I'll wander into Medieval.

---

I'm working mostly on any Sinclair, Douglas and MacDonald unsourced profiles in my tree

---

Congrats, Amy Gilpin for winning the last prize!

---

Thanks everyone!  I'm pretty excited!  I never win anything, so this is supper cool 

---

Bobbie, I have been working steadily most of the day, but my work is not showing up on the Team Tally page.  I did check to see that I was following the directions.  Any suggestions?

---

Hi Virginia, 

After you save a record, you will see a Black Challenge Tracker button in the Green Changes Saved box at the Top. You have to select that Challenge Tracker, then on next page add a comments and save it. Are you doing that, too?

---

You have 12 so far logged, are you sure you've got the right year? This is the page for this year:

https://wikitree.sdms.si/Challenges/SourceAThon/2021/TeamAndUser.htm

---

As soon as I logged off I realized I was on the wrong year.  I do apologize for inconveniencing you at a time when you are very busy.

---

No problem at all Virginia, I'm glad you got it figured out!

Answer 1

We've got a lot of great work going on! We're a small team, but aren't we mighty? Well done everyone!

Answer 2

We at Nor'Easters wish you the best of luck in the 2020 Source-a-thon. Just over 8 hours to go before we kick it into high gear. And remember, HAVE FUN!!!!!

Answer 3

Coffee is on... battery is charged... It's almost GO Time!  Thank you, to everyone who stepped up and joined the Twisted Thistles team   I'm looking forward to working with all of you! 

Answer 4

Is a link to a scotlandspeople search a decent enough source if I can't find them on familysearch or ancestry?  The year and parents match, but I don't really want to spend credits to confirm the DOB (also, it's pre-1855 so the record might only have the baptism date)

Comments

Hi Andy,

It should be a full citation based on what's found in the index (you certainly don't need to buy any records!) There are a couple of examples for Scotland's People on the Tartan Trail page:

Example Citations Specific to Scotland

Such as:

 "Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Banns and Marriages" database, National Records of Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/: accessed 27 May 2020), John Dove and Isobel Simson, 28 October 1732, Leuchars; citing Parish Number 445, Reference Number: 10 358.

or 

[http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk ''Scotland Census, 1881''] > County: Dunbarton > District: Bonhill > Adam Kennedy > Reference: 593/ 9/ 7; National Records of Scotland, 3 West Register Street, New Register House, Edinburgh, EH1 3YT.

Those provide the reference data that we'd need to find the record again. Does that help?

---

it does, thank you!

---

I seem to remember when I was in the Profile Improvement project some time ago they stated the original record that was used should always be quoted even if it was behind a  paywall. So that certainly agrees with the advice above.

Answer 5

I'll be in Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland... and pre-1500 on occasion 

Answer 6

I've been wandering all over the country looking at pre-1700 profiles 

Answer 7

Just out of curiosity, why *Twisted* Thisles? 

Is someone a fan of Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid. 

Hugh MacDiarmid, excerpt from “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” from Selected Poetry. Copyright © 1992 by Alan Riach and Michael Grieve. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Comments

It was a late brainstorming night and 4 of us were playing with words. It just was a fun alliteration that struck us all as appropriate for our crazy group and had no connection to anything really.

---

Great name. And seems very appropriate! :-D

Answer 8

Congratulations to Amy for winning one of the prizes!

Comments

Thanks, Mary 

Answer 9

Do you think we will make the thousand?

I have been having loads of fun and I hope everyone else is too.  I'm going to take a break now with sources added to 251 profiles.

 It has been a weird journey as I have stayed on the same extended family group from East Lothian and Midlothian but started with coalminers and have now reached the Cadell Barons of Tranent Massacre notoriety and the Sydeserff Barons of Ruchlaw - just shows how closely we are all connected.

I could have added many more sources, but last time I was working on USA profiles from Family Search and just pasted in the results as my team captains Julie and Eowyn had demonstrated on the video. This time I've also been trying to clean up the profiles while I am there.  I've also been using ScotlandsPeople, sometimes the indexes, but often original documents. Sometimes the writing can be difficult to read but it certainly beats trying to decipher old charters in Latin which is sure to give you a headache!

Have fun and keep sourcing!

Comments

16 hours to go - maybe we can break the 1k mark! It is a lot of fun, isn't it? And rewarding to the whole project.

---

Way to go, Mary!  And thank you for taking the time to clean up as you go.  I've been doing the same, so my numbers may be low, but the overall improvement to Scottish profiles makes it worth the extra time it takes to clean up!

---

I am calling it a night! This was fun! There are some that I need to revisit because they are a mess :(  Will clean up, make corrections and source tomorrow but not before 8 am EST.  I just checked the tracker and we have hit the 1000 mark!! Great job everyone!

Answer 10

Help!!! I have a pre-1500 profile that I am not able to source for obvious reasons lol not pre-1500 qualified, nor should I be. My question is I found a few sources that mention the name and connections forJanet Barbour Bruce, Barbour-327. There is a source on her husbands page Rober Bruce Bruce-2679, but when further investigated it wasn't a viable source. My real question is I found Complete Peerage by G.E. Cokayne that lists them and I am not sure if this is even a good source to hand on to someone who can fix these two. Also found the Book of Bruce by Lyman Horas Weeks. If neither of these are good some help in fixing these two would be appreciated, I don't have many Scotland resources here at home.

Thanks!

Comments

Hi Julia,

Not a recommended source, but she is mentioned on this site.

https://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I51011&tree=CC

The Complete Peerage, which you have already consulted, is available on archive.org. Like many old documents they can be very valuable sources but can often contain many errors. I'm afraid I haven't used this one before so am not sure how reliable it is.

Good luck!

https://archive.org/details/completepeerage02cokahrish/page/n1/mode/2up

---

Mary,

Yes that is where if found the Peerage at! Thanks for adding a link for others!

Julie

---

Mary the other link leads to the place where I was told that it was not a viable source! Thanks!

Julie

---

This the link for the Peerage, it is also found at FamilySearch in the Book section.

https://sites.google.com/site/cochoit/home/complete-peerage

---

In addition to Cokayne's Complete Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul's Scots Peerage is a favourite source and quite reliable. There is a set of quick links available here on Wikipedia, and the last volume is the index.

Answer 11

Great job everybody!

Answer 12

Well done everyone who participated! We cleared nearly 1200 profiles from the unsourced lists, which is a wonderful accomplishment. Thank you to all of you. 

If you enjoyed the Source-a-thon and like to do this on an on-going basis, there is a monthly Sourcerers' Challenge as well. This month's challenge is here: Sourcerers' Challenge (October 2020). 

Again, many thanks to everyone who helped the cause!

Bobbie & Sarah

Twisted Thistles co-captains

Answer 13

I will be working on Aberdeenshire profiles.  As this is my inaugural visit, I plan to work on the easy ones, 1845+.

Virginia Kline-1865

Comments

That's perfect, Virginia. It's great to work on things you're most familiar & comfortable with during your first 'rodeo.' Notice that if you find a marriage record, or a census record, you have a source for more than one person. One way to log a few extras if the other profiles are also unsourced.

---

You may want to switch over to the 2021 G2G here, though ;)