Introduction

As always greetings to all readers of “Daltons in History” !!

My last “Notes from the Chairman” were written back in mid-February, just before Kate and I embarked on a three week visit to South East Asia. This was emphatically not a trip to research Dalton family history, but when we were in Laos, I stumbled across something of general interest to family historians and I have written a brief note of it, which you will find as a separate section below (2), in this issue of “Daltons in History”.

Whilst we were away on our travels, “Who do you think you are? Live” was held at Olympia in London and I understand that the event was a great success. The DGS played a small part in the proceedings with some publicity for us on the Federation of Family History Societies’ stand, where there was a rolling slide presentation giving details of all the affiliated societies. I submitted six slides giving brief details about the DGS, who we are and what we do. Now in its fifth year, “WDYTYA? Live" took place at the end of February and there are some photographs on the FFHS website at: www.ffhs.org.uk/events/wdytyal.php.

Also whilst we were away, the terrible earthquake struck Christchurch in New Zealand. As soon as we saw those pictures of the devastated cathedral, we were reminded of our visit two years ago when we were on our way to Orange in New South Wales, Australia for the DGS Gathering. We stayed at the Christchurch Club only a short distance from the cathedral, and have since learnt that the club suffered considerable damage as well. And then we heard by email from a DGS member who lives in one of the south east suburbs close to the epicentre. Fortunately she survived the earthquake but the story of the devastation and damage to her property and all around is truly harrowing. Our thoughts go out to all our New Zealand cousins at this time. It is hard to imagine what they are having to cope with in the aftermath of it all.

And of course, since our return home, there has been the massive earthquake in Japan, with the accompanying tsunami and the major nuclear power station catastrophe. We live on a very remarkable planet, full of so much heritage and natural beauty, a small part of which we so enjoyed on our recent travels; and yet mother nature is able to wreak such havoc with these shattering natural disasters. Sometimes it is hard to come to terms with these extremes, but the resilience shown by so many in adversity and their determination to recover is an example to us all.

Since returning from South East Asia, I have enjoyed a visit to the College of Arms in London – the last time I was there was over 40 years ago! You will find a brief note about the visit in another separate section below (3).

And then at the very end of March, I hosted a Guild of One Name Studies local meeting here in Reigate. This was an opportunity to share our experiences from 40 years of the DGS with fellow one-namers and some further details will be found in yet another separate section below (4).

Looking forward to the next few weeks, I will be attending the Guild of One Name Studies Annual Conference, being held over the weekend of 15-17 April 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 be good to see him again.

Then from Warrington, I will travel to Hull, our venue for the DGS Gathering in Yorkshire in July 2012. Here I am meeting with Howard Dalton who is assisting with the planning and organisation of this event and we will be checking the arrangements at the Ramada Hull Hotel and doing some more detailed work on the programme.

Finally, in early May the Society of Genealogists is holding its Centenary Conference, a one day event in London, and I hope to be able to attend, having been a member of this society since 1974.

I will be reporting on each of these in the coming issues of “Daltons in History”. As you can see the DGS is as busy as ever, and below you will find the latest information together with the usual updates to keep you fully informed about everything that the DGS is doing, but before that one more thing.

In January, I challenged all readers of “Daltons in History” to contribute something to our monthly web newsletter. Our editor, Dairne Irwin, tells me that she is still waiting to hear from you. The flow of material has dried up to barely a trickle and we continue to depend on our very small number of regular contributors. Please consider joining in with something of interest from your files – it does not have to be lengthy – how about something telling us what you like (and what you don’t like) in “Daltons in History”? We would truly like it to become your monthly magazine.

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. Geoffrey tells me that he has already received a small number of booking forms and, with just over two months to go before the date of the meeting, if you have not already done so, now is the time to send in your form. It will be of the greatest help to know the number of attendees to expect at the earliest opportunity. Geoffrey and I together with the other officers and committee members look forward to as many of you as possible joining us for what will be an informative and enjoyable day.

The DGS Annual Gathering for 2011 is being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 23rd/24th/25th September 2011. This very special event is being organised by our North American Secretary, Karen Dalton Preston. Karen 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 third of these newsletters is due to be published soon.

For the 2012 Gathering and AGM we are returning to Yorkshire over the weekend of 27th/28th/29th July 2012. The venue for this event 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, which is 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. 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. As already mentioned above, Howard and I have a visit to Hull planned for mid-April, when we will be working together on the programme for the weekend. So, watch this space next month 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 will be published soon. 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 published and distributed in January. Our editor, John Dalton, is now working on Volume 54, due to appear in June 2011, and he will welcome articles and other items for publication in the Journal. Any material for publication should be sent to him as early as possible, and no later than mid-May if it is appear in Volume 54. 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 May.

Thank you for your attention.

Yours very sincerely

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

Earlier this year the Chairman and his wife spent three weeks in South East Asia. During their travels they stayed in Luang Prabang, the old capital city of Laos, situated in the north of the country on the banks of the Mekong River and surrounded by mountains. Michael picks up the story.

This trip was not expected to be a quest for Dalton family history and indeed it did not turn into one. However when Kate and I were in Laos, I stumbled across something of general interest to family historians and immediately I thought here is an item for “Daltons in History”. Luang Prabang is a place you must visit if you are travelling in S E Asia. It is a wonderful old city and the ancient royal capital of Laos; unspoilt by any modern development, it is still very much as it was hundreds of years ago with its old Buddhist temples, monks in their saffron robes and beautiful surrounding scenery. We were fortunate enough to have four days there as part of our tour, which also included Vietnam and Cambodia. This corner of the world has, of course, been ravaged by war, strife and turmoil not just in recent times, but throughout history. Somehow though Laos, and Luang Prabang in particular, have escaped much of the worst of it all, and the peace and tranquillity of Luang Prabang was a very pleasant surprise.

During our stay we visited the beautiful old Royal Palace and a number of the numerous Buddhist temples; we took part in the Baci ceremony of welcome, wishing us good health, prosperity, happiness and a safe journey; we witnessed the early morning ritual of almsgiving to the monks; we enjoyed a cruise up the Mekong River to Pak Ou caves filled with thousands of Buddhas; and we visited the nearby Kwang Si waterfalls, with their dramatic cascades and turquoise coloured pools.

But I digress – what I really want to tell you about is the visit we made to the Traditional Arts & Ethnology Centre (TAEC) in Luang Prabang. Here there was some fascinating information about the ethnic groups in Laos and their origins. TAEC was founded in 2006 as a private, non-profit institution dedicated to preserving and communicating the cultural resources of Laos. It provides information about the ethnic peoples of Laos and their traditional arts.

One particular ethnic group is known as the Akha. They originated from Yunnan in Southern China, or from Tibet, and migrated southwards to settle in Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand and Vietnam within the last two hundred years. In the absence of a written script, many Akha men are able to recite their genealogies back through 60 generations to Sm Mi O, the Akha originator. This strong oral tradition has sustained Akha identity and history linking clans scattered over five nations. What a remarkable ability! 60 generations takes you back at least 1,500 years and to know your family line off by heart that far back – it almost defies belief. Most of us would consider we are doing well to manage six generations, and if we are lucky enough to know our ancestry further back we would almost certainly need to refer to the documented tree. So the Akha are certainly setting an example to us family historians in the western world!

The Akha in Laos have settled in the northern most part of the country on the borders with Myanmar and China. Unfortunately we were therefore unable to visit an Akha village as it was too far to travel from Luang Prabang. But at TAEC we were able to read about the traditional Akha way of life and see some illustrations of this. The Akha villages are easily recognised by their village gates and large village swings. The gate is believed to protect the village from bandits, wild animals and diseases, and is a mythological separation between the human and spiritual worlds. These gates should never be touched by visitors. The swing is used during a celebration in August or September marking the end of the difficult work of weeding the rice fields, and the preparation for the harvest.

If ever I am fortunate enough to visit Laos again, I shall make sure that I have the opportunity to visit an Akha village and learn more about these fascinating people whose family history is so central to their culture.

During our visit we were able to visit a number of other villages in both Laos and Cambodia, and witness the traditional ways of life that are maintained much as they would have been hundreds of years ago, altogether a most fascinating experience. South East Asia has so much of interest to see and we enjoyed it all, but perhaps this is not the forum for this particular travelogue!

This chart shows where the different ethnic groups settled in Laos

(The Akha are shown in dark blue in the northern areas bordering Myanmar and China)

The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre Luang Prabang, Laos

Towards the end of March the Chairman had the opportunity to visit the College of Arms in London. Here he recounts the details of a most informative evening, and some points of interest relating to researching family history and the right to bear arms.

This visit to the College of Arms was arranged by the investment club to which I belong and it enabled a party of 16 people to enjoy a private tour of the College, hosted by the Somerset Herald, Mr David White. The College of Arms was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1484, and a second charter was granted in 1555 at the time of the move to the present location in Queen Victoria Street just to the south of St Paul’s Cathedral. The original College was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and a new building was erected on the same site in the 1670s which survives, with additions and alterations, to the present day. Thus, for over 500 years, the College has been the authority for the granting of coats of arms to individuals and to corporate bodies. Entitlement to bear arms is passed strictly from father to son, and the College requires full supporting evidence of descent from the original bearer in the form of family history, family trees and records. In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, the Heralds of the College carried out regular visitations throughout the land to record family pedigrees. The original copies of these visitations are held in the record room at the College. Also in the record room are the copies of all the grants of arms made by the College. Somerset Herald showed our party many examples of these documents, all beautifully handwritten with the arms painted in full colour by the artists of the College. The documents are inscribed onto vellum and bound into large volumes kept on shelves in the record room. This is of course a priceless collection of original records.

I had not visited the College of Arms since the early 1970s, when research was undertaken by the College to try and establish a link between the Daltons of Lancashire and the Daltons of Yorkshire. At that time, we were assisted by the then Richmond Herald, John Brooke-Little, who later became Norroy & Ulster King of Arms. Through John Brooke-Little and the work of Stella Colwell, one of the College’s genealogists, we learnt more about the history of these families, but not enough to demonstrate a definite connection, although it is reasonable to suppose that one might exist. There is a summary of this work in DGSJ Vol 1 pp 5-8 (1970) and it was followed up by a series of articles, researched and written by Dick Hamilton, and entitled “The Missing Link” (DGSJ Vol 14 No 1 pp 7-51 (1985), Vol 15 No 1 pp 15-38 (1986) & Vol 16 No 1 pp 21-44 (1987)). Despite all this considerable research, there is still insufficient conclusive evidence to support or disprove a link.

I was able to discuss this situation briefly with Somerset Herald during our visit and he informed me that the original visitation records held by the College often contain more detail than the printed copies published by record societies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As far as I am aware, our source has been the version of the Visitation of Yorkshire in 1563-4 by William Flower, Norroy King of Arms, which was published by the Harleian Society in Volume XVI of their publications pp 84-89, a copy of which is held in the DGS records. It was therefore recommended that I should apply to the College to see the original visitation records, and this is something I propose to follow up in due course.

I had the privilege of meeting John Brooke-Little several times in connection with the work to try and establish this link, which coincided with the formation of the DGS in 1970. I was delighted when he accepted my invitation to become an honorary member of the DGS, and he most kindly wrote an article about the College of Arms for the Journal (DGSJ Vol 2 pp 9-11 (1971)). So it was a special pleasure for me to revisit the College and make the acquaintance of one of today’s heralds.

For more information about the College of Arms, its history and its work today, visit www.college-of-arms.gov.uk.

The Royal Coat of Arms together with the arms of the College over the entrance

The Earl Marshal's Court, the principal and finest room with gallery, panelling and throne

On Wednesday 30 March 2011 the Chairman hosted a meeting of the Surrey & West London regional group of the Guild of One Name Studies at his home in Reigate, Surrey. This is a flourishing group which now meets at least six times a year for informal sessions to share experience of running one name studies. The group owes its success to the indefatigable regional representative, Jan Cooper, who started the group about two years ago. Jan is also the Secretary of the Guild, a post she took up last year. Here Michael reports on the evening.

A dozen members of the group found their way to Harewood Close, Reigate and the meeting provided an opportunity for me to share some of the particular experiences of the DGS with those attending. The notice of the meeting put out by Jan suggested gatherings, websites and DNA as possible topics for discussion.

I chose to open the evening by using the slides that I had prepared for the FFHS stand at WDYTYA? Live, held in London at the end of February. This gave me the opportunity to introduce the DGS and give a brief overview of the Society, who we are and what we do. This immediately started some lively discussions about websites and running gatherings. I was able to demonstrate the Dalton Data Bank online and show the volume of data that we have accumulated in the 10 years since its inception. I was also able to give a brief account of some of our very successful gatherings held over the past few years. But it was DNA that really grabbed the attention of those present and I was asked to spend the second half of the evening going into much more detail about the Dalton International DNA Project (DIDP).

The experience of those attending ranged from having no experience or knowledge of the use of DNA in family history through to having established up and running projects, and looking for advice and guidance on how to expand the project further and, most importantly, how to interpret the results from individual tests. The all important question of matches and genetic distance were uppermost in people’s minds. I was able to go online to the Family Tree DNA website and demonstrate the facilities available to the project administrator. This provided an excellent platform to talk about the many aspects of running a DNA project as part of a one name study and it generated many questions and a lively discussion. Coincidentally, it gave me the opportunity to catch up with the most recent results posted for DIDP on the FTDNA website, and use these as examples of how to identify whether a new project participant fits into an already identified genetic family.

Before we knew it, it was 10.30 pm and Jan had to draw the evening to a close. I hope that everyone attending learnt something new. I certainly did, and it was a pleasure to be able to share some of the experience accumulated by the DGS over the past 40 years with like-minded one-namers.

Amongst the one-namers at the meeting where Sonia Turner,

Howard Benbrook and Jan Cooper

Some of the DGS material on display at the meeting

The seventh 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 eighth instalment, Michael tells the story of the DGS in the early 1990s.

At the conclusion of Part 7, I left readers at the end of 1990 with a note of uncertainty about my future following being made redundant. Inevitably this had an impact on the DGS with my immediate priorities lying elsewhere, and the amount of time that I was able to devote to the Society over the succeeding three years was severely limited. It was very fortunate that the DGS committee was strong and experienced, and Morag, Lucy and Dick willingly took on additional responsibilities, ably assisted by Joyce Parker, Pamela Richards, Howard and John.

In September 1991, Joyce kindly hosted the third gathering to be held at her home in Brighton – the previous ones were in 1981 and 1987. As always Joyce opened up her whole house which was full of Dalton memorabilia and we all had a most enjoyable day looking at the many items on display, partaking in an excellent lunch before the annual general meeting and afternoon tea to follow. Never let it be said that Daltons go hungry! The attendance at this meeting was very good with about 30 present in total, including a number of newer members. The photographs tell the story.

The 1991 Gathering & AGM held at Brighton, Sussex in September 1991

Mary Dalton (mother of Michael), Penny Barltrop, Jane and Geoffrey Dalton enjoy a drink together before lunch	Joyce oversees Sheila and Kate preparing lunch in the kitchen

Lunch is served!!

Going round the table from the left Jean and Leslie Dalton from London, Joan Dalton from Essex,

Terry and Richard Dalton from Hampshire, Charles Dow from Brazil, Dorothy Dyke from Norfolk

and Rosemary Dow from Brazil

Again, from the left Pamela and David Lynam from Hertfordshire, Betty Penny from Hampshire

and Mary Dalton from Surrey

And, once more from the left Dorothy Dyke from Norfolk, Rosemary Dow from Brazil,

Jack and Pamela Richards from Hertfordshire and Lucy Slater from Cambridge

Michael opens the meeting	Morag in discussion with Joan Dalton

Lucy enjoys a discussion with Charles Dow	New DGS member Terry Dalton and his brother Richard with Penny Barltrop

At the AGM the officers and committee were all re-elected unopposed. The minutes record Morag pointing out that the average age of the committee was increasing as each year went by, and that it was important to encourage younger DGS members to come forward and serve on the committee in the future. This was of concern to me, particularly in terms of my ongoing roles as Chairman, Secretary and Editor of the Journal. I knew on the one hand that my personal situation, with Kate and I having set up our own marketing services business, meant that I would have less and less time to devote to the DGS; but on the other hand, it was unrealistic to expect Morag, Lucy, Dick and Joyce to shoulder too much of the load. The ongoing production of the Journal was the biggest problem – Vol 19 No 2 for 1990 did not appear until April 1991, and then there was a long gap until September 1992 when Vol 20 No 1, the last issue that I edited, finally appeared.

In June 1992 I took up the post of Bursar and Clerk to the Governors at de Stafford School in Caterham, Surrey. Immediately prior to this, the 1992 AGM and Gathering took place at the end of May based at the Royal Court Hotel in Scarborough, Yorkshire and ably organised by Howard. Unfortunately I was stricken down with a very nasty flu bug and prevented from attending – my first absence from a DGS meeting! Dick was also ill and unable to attend, and Joyce had sent her apologies. It therefore fell to Morag to chair the meeting and she proposed that Lucy be appointed Joint Secretary to assist me, and Pamela Lynam was also elected to the committee to take over from Dick as minutes secretary. Those attending the weekend gathering had an enjoyable and interesting time, which included a civic reception at the town hall by the Mayor, followed by a tour, and later after the AGM a talk by local historian Marie Belfitt about Scarborough Daltons, several of whom had been in the lifeboat service. The annual dinner was held at the Royal Court Hotel on the Saturday evening and on Sunday the group went to Garton on the Wolds, the village where Howard’s Dalton ancestors lived. They visited the church and inspected Dalton gravestones in the churchyard. They also went to the farm where Howard’s ancestor, Robert Dalton, a blacksmith, lived and worked, and then lunched in the local inn. Fortunately Lucy wrote an account of all this in the Journal and I had hoped to include some photographs from my files, but I cannot find the ones that I am sure I was sent. So, if anyone has any I would appreciate some copies.

For 1993, Lucy volunteered to arrange the gathering and AGM to take place in Cambridge and we all stayed at Lucy Cavendish College, a University of Cambridge college for graduate women founded in 1965. The theme for the weekend was the Cambridgeshire Daltons about whom Lucy had written several articles in the DGS Journal. Again, I am going to let some photographs tell the story.

The 1993 Gathering & AGM held at Cambridge in August 1993

Maureen Collins meets Pamela and Jack Richards	Dick Hamilton talks to Pat Roinson, while Howard J Dalton meets Faith and Bill Keymer

Dinner is enjoyed by

From the left Ian Simpson from Leeds, Howard Dalton and Jenny Redpath From Scarborough,

Joyce Parker from Brighton, nearly hidden by Maureen Collins and Dick Hamilton in the foreground

Main entrance to Fulbourn House	Outside the house, Fulbourn Church in the background

Fulbourn Church lych gate	Little Abingdon Church

Fulbourn and Little Abington are two of several villages we visited on Lucy’s Sunday tour. All have a connection with the Cambridgeshire Daltons, starting with Thomas Dalton of Hildersham born in 1544, father of Michael Dalton, the famous lawyer. This family was the subject of a long article by Lucy entitled “The Unprofitable Servant of God” (DGSJ Vol 14 No 22 pp 16-47 (1985)) and Lucy gave us a most interesting talk at the conclusion of the AGM.

Amongst my memories of the weekend are meeting Maureen Collins, now well known to us all as our longstanding Australian secretary, for the first time; and also welcoming Howard J Dalton from Poole, Dorset (not to be confused with then committee member Howard) as a new member. Howard J is of course now our minutes secretary. I also recall that Lucy persuaded me to take the group on a walking tour of Cambridge. I did spend four years as an undergraduate at the University and so, according to Lucy, I knew my way round. Well I did manage to remember most of it from 25 years earlier and we had an enjoyable tour of the colleges and the Backs.

At the 1993 AGM I announced that I was stepping down as editor of the Journal and handing over to Lucy and Morag as joint editors. Lucy and Morag had decided that the Journal should revert to appearing annually. Lucy also took over from me as secretary and Morag continued as treasurer. John became membership secretary and Pam Lynam was confirmed as minutes secretary with Joyce, Dick, Pamela Richards, Howard and Jill Warren continuing as committee members. I was honoured to be appointed Honorary Life President of the Society after 22 years of service to the DGS since I founded it in 1970. So, with this reorganisation of responsibilities, the Society entered a new phase in its existence. I was relieved to feel that we now had a team which was going to be capable of taking things forward, still under my leadership, but with a significant reduction in my workload. This was to enable me to concentrate on my still relatively new role at de Stafford School and to have a more appropriate balance between work, family history and my other commitments.

The period from the end of 1990 through to the summer of 1993 had been a difficult one, but the DGS survived it with three very enjoyable gatherings and a journal that continued to be published, albeit less frequently. In Part 9 next month I will describe how the Society progressed to its celebration of its silver jubilee in 1995.

From Maureen Collins, Australian and New Zealand Secretary

Here are a couple of photographs from the meeting held in Sydney in February this year - see article in last month's "Daltons in History" - DGS Australian Meeting.

Jeff and Peter Dalton

Left to Right Back: Jeff Dalton with Margaret and Peter Dalton

Left to Right Front: Virginia Higgins and Jilly Warren

And here are a couple of photographs taken at Wilberforce when Howard and Jenny Dalton were over.

Left to Right: Ralph and Jilly Warren with Howard and Jenny Dalton

Jilly Warren and Howard Dalton

Based on information given by Bill Dalton of Gig Harbour, Washington, USA with additional information from the Editor

John Dalton was born in Ireland circa 1819, possibly in or near Dublin. He married Susannah Dalton on an unknown date. It is thought that their marriage took place in Ireland as their first son Robert J. Dalton was born in Dublin, Ireland in January 1847. Susannah was born c. 1817 in Ireland and according to the birth certificate of her third son John, her maiden name was Dalton. It is not known if she was a relative of her husband.

Peter, their second son, was born in either May or November 1850 whilst they were living in Duncormick, County Wexford, in South East Ireland.

Duncormick is situated on the Bannow Peninsula on the south coast of Wexford. Nearby is the historic buried city of Bannow, the site of the first Norman landing in Ireland on 1169.

When their third son John was born in 1860 the father’s occupation was given as a labourer working in an iron works. The 1861 Welsh census for the parish of Cwmdare, Aberdare near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales states that John Dalton and family were living at 7 Club Row. He was head of the household, 42 years of age with an estimated year of birth in Ireland of 1819. He was working as a “patch labourer”. Living with him was his wife Susannah, aged 44, born in Ireland c. 1817, his son Robert, aged 15, born c. 1846 also in Ireland, the latter was working as a haulier at an iron forge. Also living with them were, son Peter, a scholar aged 10, born 1851 in Ireland, daughter Mary, aged 1 year, born in Aberdare and their youngest son John aged 7 months also born in Aberdare.

They share their home with another Irish family the Cokeb/lys – Michael, Margaret and infant son James. Michael also works as a patch labourer. The majority of families’ wage earners in Club Row worked either as coal miners or at the iron forge. The Daltons and Cokeb/lys were the only Irish families living in the neighbourhood.

Slater’s Commercial Directory 1858-9 states: “Aberdare is a market town, in the populous parish of its name, in the same county as Methyr, 4 miles west of that town – pleasantly situated on the Taff Vale and South Wales railways, in connexion with the Great Western and North of England. The vale of Neath has also a station, about a mile east of that town. Few towns in South Wales, exhibit more improvement in the last ten years than Aberdare. It is situated in a beautiful vale, in the midst of rich coal and iron mines, which furnish ample employment to its fast increasing population. The town has a neat church, erected nearby in its centre, with a tower and finely pointed spire, containing a peel of toned bells. The market is held on Saturday. In 1841 it had 6471 inhabitants, and in 1851 14,908 and its now nearly double that numbers.”

There were 4 Iron Founders in the Merhyr Tydfil district – owned by Thomas Chevers, David and Richard Lewis and John Matthews and William Williams. There were also 10 iron masters.

The family, with the exception of Robert Dalton, the eldest son, have not been found after the 1861 census. It is possible that they left for another country before the 1871 census of Wales. In the 1871 census Robert has married Gwenllian and is living with his infant son John at the home of his in-laws still in the Aberdare area.

Bill has found no matches for a Susannah, born in Ireland with the approximate birth year of 1817 on the 1881 England, Canadian or US census. He did however find a Susan on the 1880 census in Pennsylvania, USA.

From Maureen Collins, Australian and New Zealand Secretary

Census Exhibition

Now that we in the UK have all filled in our census schedules neatly and accurately, we can pop to the British Library to view their exhibition on the subject, which will be open (free of charge) until 29th May, 2011.

Courtesy of the IHGS newsletter plus the following:

Scottish 1911 Census

The above was released on 6th April, 2011. This is excellent news for Scottish research, especially for those interested in service men and women in WWI. Index entries cost 1 credit and pages 5 credits at Scotland’s People - £7 provides 30 credits to use over 90 days.

Irish Archives Resource

This portal allows searching its database for relevant archival collections, including council archives and one collection of Cork deeds dating back to 16th Century. It then gives links and access information, including for offline resources.

Strand Union Workhouse is Listed

This Georgian London workhouse, believed to have inspired Charles Dickens, has been saved on the brink of demolition by a Grade II listing. Supposed to be the best preserved workhouse of its era and built in 1778, it will not be taken down for the erection of modern flats. The Cleveland Street Workhouse Group were the major campaigners in the rescue.

I hope that you are starting to feel the warmth of Spring where you live! In Las Vegas, we've had a whole year's worth of weather in 1 month: rain, wind, sun, cold and heat! March definitely came in like a lion.

Salt Lake City Gathering News

It is now less than 6 months until the Gathering in September!

Registrations for the conference are already coming in, and we are looking forward to a wonderful weekend in Salt Lake City. We are pleased to see that many of you are using the new on-line registration facility, and we have 9 paid registrations. There are dozens of members that have emailed to say that they plan to attend, but have not yet registered. I want to encourage you to complete your registration soon!

We now have 56 Newsletter subscribers! Please watch your in-box for the next edition!

A few of you have reported difficulties with the in-line registration facility when logging in from AOL. This seems to be an issue with AOL, not the registration site. If you will use Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome, etc., this will solve the problem.

Mocavo - A New Search Engine for Genealogy Searches

an excerpt for Dick Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter, 15 March, 2011

I thought that DGS members might find this new search engine site of interest. The new site, mocavo.com, is dedicated to finding search results that are are specific to genealogy research. Here is Dick Eastman's announcement for the site:

"I suggest you remember this web site: Mocavo.com. I bet you are going to hear a lot about it in the next few weeks and months. In fact, I'd suggest you try it right now. I've been using the site for a while during its testing and have been very impressed. This thing actually works! Today, Mocavo.com went public and is now available to everyone.

Mocavo.com is a genealogy search engine that is available to you at no charge. It searches hundreds of thousands of genealogy web sites, looking for the words that you specify. Web sites searched include thousands of genealogy message boards, society web pages, genealogy pages uploaded by individuals, state historical societies, family societies, Find-A-Grave, the Internet Archive (mostly scanned genealogy books from the Allen County Public Library), the Library of Congress, several sites containing scanned images of old photographs, and tens of thousands of distinct sites sites that contain various transcribed records of genealogical interest.

Unlike other search engines, Mocavo.com limits its searches solely to genealogy sites. That makes a big difference to many of us who are searching for names that also are common words or corporate names. For instance, if I search for my own surname, Eastman, on most any other search engine, I receive hundreds of thousands of "hits" from photography sites and other sites that have nothing to do with genealogy. Performing a search for "Eastman" on Mocavo.com returns thousands of "hits," all of them from genealogy sites and with very few references to photography. Even the few that refer to the Eastman Kodak Company were references found on genealogy sites. A search for my own surname did return a "hit" for one page about the "Eastman Sea Rover airplane," something I had never heard of previously. Even that one "hit" was from a genealogy message board, providing information about the ancestry of the airplane's designer. Regardless of your search terms, Mocavo.com always returns information found on web sites that contain significant genealogy information.

I suspect you will always have better luck searching for your own surnames of interest on Mocavo.com than on any other search engine."

To read the full test of Dick Eastman's article, go to http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/03/mocavocom-a-genealogy-search-engine.html

New Members:

Carrie Ann Vickers, Omaha, NE - Carrie Ann has just submitted her father's DNA for the DIDP. She has traced her Daltons back to Glen, County Limerick.

Eric Allen Dalton, Bella Vista, AR - Eric has been away from genealogy and the DGS for a few years and just rejoined. He is a member of Genetic Family A.

Dalton Data Bank Update and Web Site Statistics:

Web Sites Update:

For the period from 1 March to 25 March 2011

Addition to the Data Bank:

8 March, 2011:

Dalton Chronicles - Edward Dalton Contributed by Rodney Dalton, Utah

DDB Web Site Usage Statistics:

24,131 visits came from 155 Countries / Territories

Map showing March DDB visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. UK – 7,823
2. United States – 4,233
3. India – 2,085
4. Pakistan – 1,419
5. South Africa – 1,081
6. Australia – 702
7. Ireland – 583
8. Canada – 529
9. Colombia – 436
10. Argentina – 323

Top 10 Pages Visited:

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

Comparatives:

DDB Comparison Chart

DGS Web Site Usage Statistics:

1,410 Visits from 70 Countries / Territories

Map showing DGS visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. United States – 662
2. UK – 268
3. Australia – 122
4. Canada – 62
5. Ireland – 60
6. South Africa – 25
7. India – 24
8. Pakistan – 23
9. New Zealand – 13
10. Philippines – 10

Top 10 Pages Visited:

1. Home
2. Daltons in History
3. Membership
4. Daltons in History (March)
5. Clan Dalton
6. Daltons in History Index
7. Photo / Video Gallery
8. DNA Project
9. Forthcoming Gatherings
10. Journal Index

Comparatives:

DGS Comparatives

Dalton Forum:

There are a total of 223 Posts in 136 Topics by 286 Members.

During the reporting period, there was 4 new topics added, 5 new posts and 8 new members added.

Google Ad Campaigns:

Dalton Data Bank:

12,357 Visitors reached the Data Bank by clicking on one of the 1,467,001 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

DGS Site:

10 Visitors reached the DGS site by clicking on one of the 12,292 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

Google Ads for new memberships:

This Ad Campaign generated 1 visit to the Membership information from 3,941 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

New Tracking of the Membership Page:

As of Mid-March, we have set up a special filter to track all of the visits to the Membership page in order to more-accurately gauge the number of visitors to the
page, and their path to the Membership page.

From March 13 through March 25, there were a total of 156 visits to the Membership page. Of those 156 visits, 8% (21) were generated by visitors from within the DGS
site. The remaining 92% (135) were as a result of links from the DDB “Become a Member!” pop-up box and the Google Ad Campaign.

Wishing you all a lovely Easter, and warm, delightful Spring!

Best regards,

Karen Dalton Preston
North American Secretary

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

If you are coming to the DGS AGM on 18 June, 2011 please let Geoffrey and Jane Dalton know as soon as you can. Email: gandt@daltons.eclipse.co.uk or click this link.

Salt Lake City gets ever nearer! Click this link for details.

Due to time constraints the Lucy Slater Archives do not appear this month but will be back in May 2011.

Please send me any ideas you may have for future articles or areas of research we could look at. New ideas are 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 May 2011 issue need to be with me no later than 25th April 2011. (e-mail: dairneirwin@ntlworld.com).