Introduction

As always greetings to all readers of "Daltons in History"!!

During February, there has been plenty of opportunity to work on family history and it has been another busy month for the DGS. We have continued to make arrangements for future Gatherings and work on our DNA project, and below you will find the latest information about these together with the usual updates to keep you fully informed about everything that the DGS is doing. Before that here are a few other items of interest.

I am now a regular attender at Guild of One Name Studies local meetings, which are organised by Jan Cooper, our local regional coordinator and also the Guild’s secretary. Jan has been very enterprising and has encouraged local one-namers, myself included, to share ideas and hear how others run their studies. Examples of topics covered are finding information about family members who emigrate, the use of computers in our work, and identifying and dating photographs with particular reference to the clothes worn and the fashion of the period – all very interesting and we each learn something new, or make a new contact at every meeting. I am due to host the next meeting at the end of March, when the topics will be organising a gathering and running a DNA project. It will be good to share some of our DGS experience with others.

In April I will be attending the Guild of One Name Studies Annual Conference, this year being held at Warrington in Cheshire. The theme of the conference is "Northern Lights", and it promises to be an enlightening weekend, particularly as so many Daltons hail from the North of England. Also, Chris Pomery is speaking on the value of DNA projects to one name studies and it will good to see him again.

As a longstanding member of the Society of Genealogists, I have for the past three or four years been on their Fund Raising Working Group, which meets about four times a year. With the marketing experience gained during my working career, I am able to assist with identifying fund raising opportunities and advising on more effective methods. Recently we have been looking at how we might work with City livery companies and Oxford and Cambridge colleges. It is an interesting time for the Society of Genealogists which celebrates its centenary this year and I enjoy my involvement in their work.

Finally I will mention the Federation of Family History Societies, to which the DGS has been affiliated since 1975. The Federation will have a stand at the "Who do you think you are? Live" event, which is being held at Olympia, London at the end of February. On their stand they will have a large plasma screen with a rolling slide presentation giving details about all the societies affiliated to them. As I write, I have just submitted the slides about the DGS. By the time you read this the show will be over, but you can find more information about the whole event by going to www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk. I will report further next month on how it has gone.

My involvement with the wider family history community is an interesting and stimulating addition to the work I do for the DGS. And, such is the pace of change in the world of family history that, I strongly believe we all need to keep ourselves as informed and as up to date as possible. I hope that what I learn from the activities that I have outlined above reflects back into keeping the DGS at the forefront among one name societies.

Future DGS events

The DGS Annual General Meeting for 2011 will be held here in the UK on Saturday 18th June. This will be a one day event hosted by Geoffrey and Jane Dalton at their home in Catherington, Hampshire. Some of you will remember that the 2006 AGM was hosted by Geoffrey and Jane on a glorious summer’s day and we hope that, five years later, the weather will be as kind! The AGM will be held in the morning, a buffet lunch will be served and there will be a talk in the afternoon by DGS member, Martin Griffiths, who will speak to us on his Dalton family, the Church Lawford Daltons, about whom he has written articles in DGS Journals Vol 48 (Jun 08), Vol 52 (Jun 10) and Vol 53 (Dec 10). The detailed programme for the day, together with a booking form, will be found in the "Forthcoming Gatherings" section of this website, and a flyer with all the details, was enclosed with Volume 53 of the DGS Journal. Click here for the link.

The DGS Annual Gathering for 2011 is to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 23rd/24th/25th September 2011. This will be a very special event and the gathering organiser is our North American Secretary, Karen Dalton Preston. At the 40th Anniversary Gathering and AGM, Karen gave us a taster of what is in store, and her team have now put the detailed plans in place. Information can be found in the "Forthcoming Gatherings" section of this website. Just click here for the link. If you haven’t already done so, you can sign up for a regular email newsletter to keep you informed as further details become available for registration, booking and paying your deposit. The second of these newsletters has now been published.

For the 2012 Gathering and AGM it is planned that we will return to Yorkshire over the weekend of 27th/28th/29th July 2012. We have now identified the venue for this event, which will be the Ramada Hull Hotel. This hotel is very accessible and is ideally situated between Hull, which has a number of interesting Dalton connections, and Beverley with its Minster and an excellent Record Office. More details of the hotel, a 19th Century manor house set in 12 acres of gardens, can be found at www.ramadajarvis.co.uk/hotels/hull.aspx. I am most grateful to Howard Dalton of Pickering for his assistance with making these arrangements and he and I will now be working together on the programme for the weekend. Howard is a past DGS Treasurer and well known to many DGS members. He organised previous DGS Gatherings in Scarborough in 1992 and in Pickering in 2002. Watch this space over the coming months for further details of the 2012 event.

For 2013 we are considering returning to Ireland and for 2014 and beyond we have a number of suggestions already. But, if you have any particular thoughts about where you might like to meet, or a particular Dalton theme you think we should incorporate, we would really like to hear from you with your ideas.

The Dalton International DNA Project (DIDP)

We are indebted to our DNA consultant, Chris Pomery for all his assistance with the project over the past five years, which includes the preparation of three issues of the very comprehensive project progress report, and most informative presentations at our annual gatherings on two occasions. We now have approaching 170 participants in the project, and well over 80% of these are members of one of the 15 identified genetic families. There are just 31 participants who are singletons. The emphasis is now on providing updated reports for each individual genetic family. The first of these, for genetic family A, was published in December and, with the template for these reports now established, the remainder will follow during the first half of 2011. The one for genetic family B is about to be published. The latest DIDP news and a full DIDP update were published in December 2010, and these can be found in the "Dalton DNA Project" section of this website, or simply click here for the link.

The DGS Journal

Volume 53 of the DGS Journal for December 2010 was posted out to DGS members back in January. If you have not received your copy please be in contact with your local DGS secretary, who will advise you further.

John welcomes articles and other items for publication in the Journal. Any material for publication should be sent to him as early as possible, so that he can plan the content of future issues. John is happy to advise and assist contributors and, if you have any questions or need help, please contact him by email at johndalton78@hotmail.com.

Back issues of the DGS Journal continue to be available. On this website you can access the "DGS Journal Index" from the homepage or by clicking here. Here you will find a full synopsis of the contents of the Journal of the Dalton Genealogical Society commencing with Volume 1 published back in 1970 through to Volume 41 published in December 2004. Lists of contents are given for Volumes 42 to 53 and the full synopses will be uploaded in due course. Copies of all back numbers are available for purchase and these can be obtained from DGS member, Mrs Pat Robinson (address: Mallards, 3 High Street, The Green, Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5QX, UK email: gandprobinson@waitrose.com.) Details of prices, including postage and packing, will be found with the index.

Conclusion

Enjoy this month’s issue of "Daltons in History", your regular monthly update on everything that is happening in the world of Dalton family history. We will be back again in April.

Thank you for your attention.

Yours very sincerely

Michael Neale Dalton
Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society

The sixth instalment of this personal account of the history of the Dalton Genealogical Society by Michael Dalton was published here in "Daltons in History" last month. In this seventh instalment, Michael tells the story of the DGS in 1989 and 1990.

After all the excitement of 1988, there was no way that the pace of that year was going to be maintained. A sense of realism had to prevail, given that the DGS was being run by volunteers and each of us could give only a limited amount of time with all our other commitments. The committee therefore decided to prioritise maintaining the publication of the Journal and, for 1989, I agreed to host a one day gathering event at our home in Reigate. There was plenty to write about from our 1988 programme and this necessitated an extra issue of the Journal, Volume 17 No 3, which appeared in May 1989 with full coverage of our 1988 Yorkshire Gathering and the DGS presence at the Congress in Sydney. These events were also displayed at the meeting as the photographs below show.

The 1989 DGS Meeting & AGM held in Reigate, Surrey in September 1989

Lucy Slater looks at the "Daltons down under" display of material from the DGS presence in Sydney, October 1988	A section of the display about the Yorkshire Gathering, September 1988

At the 1989 meeting we announced more ambitious plans for 1990, our twentieth year, and John Dalton of Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, and his wife Sheila agreed to host a weekend gathering with the theme of Daltons of Oldham. Lucy and John had identified their common ancestor from Oldham and the strong connection of the family with the cotton trade, so this provided the perfect subject for us all to study. Let the photographs tell the story.

The 1990 Gathering & AGM held at Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in September 1990

Group photograph outside John & Sheila’s house

Lucy Slater with her large chart showing all the Daltons of Oldham	Members of the group viewing the original parish registers in St Mary's Church, Oldham

Alicia & Brendan Riley, Sheila, Lucy, John, Sidney Dalton (John’s father), Mabel & Tom Dalton. Alicia, Lucy, John, Sidney and Tom are all direct descendants from the Dalton of Oldham line

Howard Dalton, David and Pam Lynam and Joyce Parker among the many enjoying the Saturday night dinner	Over the weekend we also visited Hoghton Tower. John with Sir Bernard de Hoghton in the banqueting hall

The 1990 Gathering was a very full weekend, starting with the visit to Hoghton Tower on the Friday afternoon. Kate and I had visited Hoghton before – the de Hoghton family married into the Daltons of Thurnham line. Sir Bernard had undertaken a major restoration programme in order to open the historic buildings to the public and it was good to see what had been achieved. Over Saturday and Sunday we concentrated on the Daltons of Oldham and then on Monday, Morag had arranged a visit to Bispham Old Hall, near Billinge, where another restoration programme was under way. Altogether a most stimulating event and certainly the most ambitious programme mounted to date by the DGS. At the AGM we were sad to see Dorothy Dyke retire as a committee member, and we were delighted that John agreed to join in her place. This was the start of John’s long association with the running of the Society and you will all know him now as the Editor of the DGS Journal.

Time does not permit me to continue into 1991 this time, so that will follow in part 8 next month. I leave you by recording that in December 1990 my life was turned upside down when I was made redundant by ICL, after 22 years of service, as part of their restructuring following the takeover by the Japanese company, Fujitsu. For a while this had a profound impact on the DGS as I will reveal.

THE DALTON GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY MEETING HELD ON SATURDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2011 AT 1/11 MORUBEN ROAD, MOSMAN, NSW

Present at the meeting were Maureen Collins (in the chair); Suzanne Burrows; Jeff Dalton; Tom Dalton and Jill Dalton; Margaret Dalton; Peter Dalton; Virginia Higgins; Jilly Warren.

Apologies were received from various members and Michael Neale Dalton, Chairman of the Society, had sent best wishes.

There are meetings that have to be run and those that just run themselves. The Australian DGS meeting on the 19th February, 2011 was of the latter variety. Very little reference was made to the formal agenda but lively and useful discussions took place throughout the day. Of course we started with tea and coffee in relays from 10.00 am as more members arrived and this and the sun shining across the water in the distance added to the informality of the occasion. It was an extremely hot day but the breeze from the ocean kept the room reasonably cool.

Mention was made of the excellent article written by Jeff Dalton, with the help of his relative Dalton Neville, about his second Great Grandfather Charles Dalton, a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. Jeff is keen to research his family further.

One particularly animated exchange of ideas centred on the information obtainable from the Land Titles Office and from maps available. Jilly Warren was able to give many research ideas from her own experiences and this was invaluable and encouraging to all. Maureen asked about the Kingswood archives in Sydney and Jill Dalton said that it was the original Birth, Death and Marriage records plus other archives which had been moved from the Rocks area of the city. Members agreed it was a very useful place for research.

A break for lunch at 12.30 pm hardly broke the conversations as we availed ourselves of delicious contributions to the meal provided by all in attendance. Members were also able to browse the publications held on behalf of the DGS by the Secretary in a small display.

In the afternoon there was a discussion on the "Dalton DNA Project" and DNA testing. It was agreed that it is not at all an easy subject to understand and Peter Dalton was sceptical about its usefulness. However, in general it was felt that it is a very valuable tool to research and that we are fortunate to have the services of Chris Pomery to help us. It was also agreed that the more testees who join the DGS DNA Project the more likely one is to find a link and the less "Singletons" there might be. Mention was also made on the plea from Chris Pomery for paper research facts to help him in evaluating the DNA testing. In other words, both areas of research are needed to be of sufficient use in research.

The meeting stopped for afternoon tea at 3.30 pm and those able to stay on continued discussions until it was time to leave at 5.00 pm.

Altogether the meeting was a good opportunity to exchange ideas, to meet new members and to renew earlier friendships.

Maureen Collins
DGS Secretary
Australia/New Zealand

1) From Anne Fogarty in Australia

I found my father's name on a list of descendants of Matthew William Dalton. 1885 - Thomas Dalton plus names of his brothers. I would like to know something about Matthew William Dalton if anyone can oblige.

If anybody can help please email Anne: anne.fogarty@bigpond.com. Thank you.

2) From George Tiernan in Australia

My name is George Tiernan and I live in Hunter Valley where I'm researching my family history. My enquiry is about my great grandfather Joseph Tiernan he came to Australia in 1854 from Drogheda in Ireland via Liverpool as an unassisted immigrant at the age of 24 years.

He worked for John Dalton in Newcastle. It is rumoured the he had a family connection with the Dalton Family (Sister, Cousin, aunty or distant female Tiernan had married to a Dalton). I am interested to check this out. Can anybody help me with this?

If anybody has any information which may help please email George: tiernan@hunterlink.net.au. Thank you.

Registration for the Salt Lake City Gathering is now Online!

We now have an online "store" where you can register to attend the 2011 Gathering and book your hotel room. This is hosted on a secure site, and works much the same way as any other on-line shopping website. If you missed the second edition of the Gathering newsletter, which included the link to the on-line store, here is the direct link: http://www.daltonamericas.org/zen/

For those members who are outside of the US, the on-line store is set up to accept foreign currency transactions to make payment easier.

If you prefer not to use the on-line registration, there is also a PDF Registration form at http://www.daltonamericas.org/form.php. This is an electronic brochure for the 2011 Gathering. If you click on "Registration Form" at the bottom of the first page of the brochure, this will take you directly to the Registration Form at the end of the brochure. Fill out all of the required information (the areas in red), and the end of the last page, click "Print", and mail the completed form with your deposit in US DOLLARS ONLY, PLEASE to:

Karen Dalton Preston
2777 Turtle Head Peak Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89135
USA

Don't forget to "Save" the completed form to your computer!

A word about hotel bookings - the deadline for booking with the hotel is June 30, 2011. I realize that this may seem a bit early, and that many members wait until closer to the event to register and book their travel. This is the date imposed by the Plaza Hotel, and is a hard and fast date. After this date they will release the rooms that are being held for the DGS, and we will NOT be able to guarantee availability or our discounted room rate. So, please keep this date in mind and book soon!

Other Gathering News

The second edition of the Gathering newsletter was emailed in mid-February, and we now have 55 subscribers! We already have 2 people that have registered for the Gathering at the on-line store, and a number of members have already emailed me to say that they are planning to attend.

If you haven't received the February 2011 edition of the Gathering newsletter, you can read it at the following address at your leisure: http://www.daltonamericas.org/gathering/February2011.htm. At the end of the newsletter is a link to register to receive automatically.

Join Family Tree DNA on Facebook

The following announcement comes from Family Tree DNA, our testing service for the Dalton International DNA Project:

"If you have a Facebook account and have not added Family Tree DNA, then you are missing out! With the launch of our new Facebook group, we have had two Facebook-only sales since December. Visit our Facebook group and click “Like” on our page. Notice of other upcoming sales and announcements will now appear on your Facebook home page."

Use this link to go the FTDNA Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FamilyTreeDNA

Dalton Data Bank News and Statistics

Web Sites Update:

For the period from 1 February to 25 February 2011

Additions to the Data Bank:

14 February, 2011:

County Limerick - Added Newcastle West RC Marriages Contributed by Mike Dalton, Norfolk, UK

14 February, 2011:

County Limerick - Added Athea & Ardagh RC Marriages Contributed by Mike Dalton, Norfolk, UK

11 February, 2011:

Dalton Chronicles - Henry (Harry) Dalton - Utah Pioneer Contributed by Rodney Dalton, Utah

DDB Web Site Usage Statistics:

29,522 visits came from 170 Countries / Territories

Map showing February DDB visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. UK – 9,504
2. United States – 5,395
3. Pakistan – 2,840
4. India – 2,472
5. South Africa – 1,181
6. Australia – 1,015
7. Canada – 759
8. Ireland – 634
9. Colombia – 352
10. Spain – 267

Top 10 Pages Visited:

1. Home Page
2. Join Us (Pop up on Home Page)
3. England
4. USA
5. Australia
6. Republic of Ireland
7. Canada
8. South America
9. Scotland
10. Northern Ireland

Comparatives:

DDB Comparison Chart

DGS Web Site Usage Statistics:

1,605 Visits from 72 Countries / Territories

Map showing DGS visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. United States – 717
2. UK – 359
3. Australia – 129
4. Ireland – 74
5. Canada – 60
6. Pakistan – 42
7. India – 33
8. South Africa – 23
9. New Zealand – 17
10. Philippines – 10

Top 10 Pages Visited:

1. Home
2. Memberships
3. Daltons in History Index
4. Daltons in History Newsletter
5. Daltons in History Archive
6. Clan Dalton
7. Dalton DNA Project
8. Photo / Video Gallery
9. DGS Journal Index
10. Daltons in History (January 2011)

Comparatives:

DGS Comparatives

Dalton Forum:

There are a total of 217 Posts in 131 Topics by 281 Members.

During the reporting period, there was 1 new topic added, 1 new post and 12 new members added.

Google Ad Campaigns:

Dalton Data Bank:

16,150 Visitors reached the Data Bank by clicking on one of the 1,976,022 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

DGS Site:

26 Visitors reached the DGS site by clicking on one of the 20,599 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

Google Ads for new memberships:

This Ad Campaign generated 4 visits to the Membership information from 5,172 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City!

Best regards,
Karen Dalton Preston
North American Secretary

Thank you to all who have contributed to the March 2011 issue of "Daltons in History".

Due to time constraints the Lucy Slater Archives do not appear this month but will be back next month together with a new serial article from Bill Dalton about his family - a follow-on from the Minnie Dalton series.

Please send me any ideas you may have for future articles or areas of research we could look at. New ideas are still needed!!

Please consider contributing a short description of any Dalton-related travels you may have undertaken anywhere in the world. Also members who are travelling to do research, visit a Dalton-connected site, or have made a connection to a distant cousin through the DGS. might be interested in letting other members know what they are doing through "Daltons in History". Photos from your travels would be appreciated. Also, it would be a way of helping members get to know each other a little better, and might help members who are widely dispersed geographically to feel a bit more connected.

Contributions for the April 2011 issue need to be with me no later than 25th March 2011. (e-mail: dairneirwin@ntlworld.com).