Introduction

Greetings to all readers of "Daltons in History!!"

Since I wrote my "Notes from the Chairman" for the April issue, another very busy month has passed. I have attended the Guild of One Name Studies Annual Conference, held over the weekend of 15-17 April, 2011 at Warrington in Cheshire. You will find a separate report on this below. Then from Warrington, I travelled to Hull, our venue for the DGS Gathering in Yorkshire in July 2012. Here I met with Howard Dalton who is assisting with the planning and organisation of this event and we were able to check the arrangements at the Ramada Hull Hotel and do some more detailed work on the programme. More about this will be found in another separate report below.

I am now looking forward to attending the Society of Genealogists Centenary Conference, a one day event in London on 7 May, 2011, and I will report on this next month.

We have also been progressing our work on the Dalton International DNA Project reports and, of course, dealing with bookings for the forthcoming AGM and our Salt Lake City Gathering. So 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.

Future DGS events

The DGS Annual General Meeting for 2011 will be held here in the UK on Saturday 18th June, 2011. This is to 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 received a number of booking forms and now, with just over a month to go before the date of the meeting, if you have not already done so, and if you plan to attend, please send in your completed application form as soon as possible and certainly no later than 31 May, 2011. We need 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 are able 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 now have all 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 and full details are now available for registration and booking, including the facility to make payments by PayPal. Please note that the final deadline for booking guaranteed hotel rooms is 30 June, 2011.

For the 2012 Gathering and AGM we are returning to Yorkshire over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 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 http://www.ramadajarvis.co.uk/hotels/hull.aspx?mckv=mkwid|stdl8vXAWRm|pcrid|50623303531|plid||kword|. 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 met in Hull in mid-April and you will find a report on this below.

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. 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 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 ones for genetic families B, C and D will be ready for publication soon. Further information on this programme will be found in a separate report below.

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 early July 2011, and he will welcome articles and other items for publication in the Journal. Any material for publication should be sent to him as soon as possible, and no later than the end of 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 June.

Thank you for your attention.

Yours very sincerely

Michael Neale Dalton

Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society

Our Chairman Michael Dalton attended the 32nd Annual Conference of the Guild of One Name Studies, held in Warrington, UK over the weekend of Friday 15th to Sunday 17th April 2011. Here he reports on this event.

The last Guild Annual Conference that I attended was held in Peterborough two years ago and, with happy memories of an enjoyable weekend then, I arrived in Warrington on the Friday afternoon looking forward to a stimulating time meeting old friends and making new acquaintances. Having played an active role in the local Guild group for Surrey and SW London during recent months, I now felt more directly involved with the Guild and the delegate list confirmed that there would be many familiar faces attending.

The conference was based at the De Vere Hotel at Daresbury Park, a few miles outside Warrington in Cheshire. The hotel was well appointed and equipped to accommodate a weekend conference with some 170 delegates. Following dinner on the Friday evening we enjoyed an entertaining talk by John Hanson entitled “Researching and Recording a Large One Name Study". Using a particular study to illustrate his theme, he touched on many of the issues that face the DGS and there was a familiar ring when he spoke about the organisational nightmare of where and how to store data; how to set about maintaining data both manually and electronically; how to publish material; and what does the future hold for a one name study. It was a thought provoking opener for all present. Following John’s talk there was a light hearted quiz – the team I was part of did not distinguish itself, but I’m glad to say we didn’t come last either! To round the evening off I was invited to join a group of fellow founder members of the Guild for a nightcap, and some enjoyable reminiscing back to those early days back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Well, we all have to be allowed to reminisce sometimes!

Saturday morning saw the more serious business commence with the Guild’s AGM. Kirsty Gray, as the new Chairman of the Guild (she was previously Guild Secretary) gave an extremely spirited and upbeat account of the past year, and made all present feel very confident that the Guild was in good hands with many achievements to its credit and worthwhile projects in hand.

Later in the morning we were treated to a view from Dick Eastman, famous for his Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, of “The Family History World in 10 years time". Dick painted a framework of the development of genealogy in version numbers, with version 0.5 covering the period up to 1920, version 1.0 1920-1980, version 2.0 1980-2011 and version 3.0 just launched this year. Each version was discussed in the context of the supporting information technology, with today’s computers being described as “crystal balls". The further development of this technology means that over the next ten years:

• there will be many more records online;

• family historians will be online wherever they are, all the time and with ever improving software to support them;

• there will be a changing audience interested in family history.

This audience will become younger; it will be less interested in pedigree charts; and it will be more interested in family stories. This was a powerful insight into where family history is going in the future, and a subject to which we will be returning, both in the context of monitoring the developments and also ensuring that the DGS is in a position to take advantage of the many new opportunities that will arise. There was much food for thought here.

Saturday afternoon included two sessions of interest, the first of which was given by Patrick Hanks on “The UK Family Names Project". This is a research project being undertaken by the Bristol Centre for Linguistics at the University of the West of England. Its aim is to create a database explaining the origins of some 40,000 UK surnames, and it will become publicly available in 2015. Patrick is the lead researcher for the project and he explained how the project is resourced and the methodology for creating the database. This session was followed by Chris Pomery talking about “The Value of DNA Projects to One-Name Studies". Much of Chris’s material will be familiar to DGS members who are part of our own DNA project, but it was interesting to hear Chris speak in the wider context of one name studies generally.

On Saturday evening there was a reception followed by the Annual Guild Banquet, a splendid occasion where those attending from the Surrey and SW London group were able to share a table and enjoy each other’s company.

The Sunday programme of talks concentrated more on the theme of the conference “Northern Lights" and opened with a session given by Peter Park on “Problems in Research in Lancashire". Later there was a fascinating account from Paul Newman on “The Cheshire Tithe Maps Project". Paul is Senior Archivist at Cheshire Record Office and has managed a Heritage Lottery funded project to put all the county tithe maps online with the facility to place them side by side with modern Ordnance Survey maps to the same scale. This was demonstrated to the audience and was most impressive. Interspersed with these there was an entertaining talk on “Palaeography for One Name Studies" given by Dominic Johnson. We all look at old handwritten documents and try to read them, often with great difficulty. Dominic, in her inimitable way, shared some of the keys which can unlock the mysteries of these vital sources of data for the family historian, be they wills, inventories, state papers or accounting records. The conference concluded with a talk by John Marsden entitled “Online BMDs – A Great Northern Strength". John has been a leading light in the Manchester & Lancashire FHS for many years and more recently he has been the project leader to create Lancashire BMD, the online index of the registers of births, marriages and deaths held by the several register offices in the county, which extends to nearly 14 million records. This was followed by a similar project for Cumbria. Other examples of northern online records include ecclesiastical registers and probate indexes and there is a continuing programme to extend this work to other counties.

By teatime on Sunday, all delegates were able to look back over 48 hours filled with a mouth-watering menu of talks on a wide range of topics. Interspersed with these were the many opportunities to interact with other like-minded folk who share a common interest in one name studies. It had been an altogether worthwhile, successful and enjoyable weekend, and thanks go to the conference organisers, so ably led by Gordon Adshead, for their considerable efforts in arranging and running the whole event.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Guild of One Name Studies, a visit to their excellent website at www.one-name.org is recommended.

Chairman Michael Dalton and Gathering Organiser Howard Dalton visited Hull in mid- April and did some more detailed work on the programme for the 2012 DGS Gathering, which is to be held over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 27th/28th/ 29th July 2012. Here, Michael reports on their plans for this event.

Hull is an important location for Dalton family history, with known Dalton connections going back to the 15th century when members of the family worked in the wool trade with Europe. They were a prominent family in the city, and several Daltons were Lord Mayors of Hull during that period. So the focus of the weekend will be “The Dalton Heritage in Hull" and we plan to explore this theme with talks about Daltons of Hull, who they were and what they did; and with visits to local places of interest connected with Dalton family history. We hope that this will give delegates an understanding of the history of Hull and an insight into the part that Daltons have played during the past 600 years.

Howard is keen to contact anyone in the Hull area with knowledge of local Dalton family history and, with this in mind, a press release was issued to the local newspapers in mid-March. This resulted in a short article appearing in the Hull Daily Mail, which has generated a number of contacts. Amongst these was BBC Radio Humberside and before we knew it, Howard and I received an invitation to be guests on Lara King’s Morning Show. At 10.30 am on Tuesday 19th April, there we were sitting in the studio talking live with Lara about the DGS and our plans for the Hull gathering next year. This gave us the opportunity to explain how the DGS came to be founded back in 1970, and to talk about the large international organisation that it is today. Howard emphasised the link between Daltons and the city of Hull and appealed to listeners to contact him with any information they may have, and of course to be in touch if they are interested in joining us at next year’s event.

Howard outside BBC Radio Humberside's offices
Howard and Michael ready themselves in the studio

The venue for our Gathering is to be the Hull Ramada Hotel. This is very pleasantly situated about 5 miles from the city centre, at Willerby just off the A164, which is the road to the west of Hull running from the Humber Bridge to Beverley. The original building of the hotel is a 19th century manor house set in 12 acres of gardens. This has been extended with modern wings for bedrooms and meeting rooms. Howard and I stayed there and it is comfortably appointed with excellent conference facilities to accommodate our Gathering, including talks, the AGM, a buffet dinner on the Friday, a buffet lunch on the Saturday and the DGS annual dinner on the Saturday evening.

Ramada Hull Hotel entrance
Ramada Hotel conference suite and garden

Whilst in Hull, we visited Holy Trinity Church, a magnificent building which is over 700 years old and a fine example of decorated and perpendicular styles of architecture. Within the church there are Dalton tombstones, including one for Thomas Dalton who was Mayor of Hull no less than three times and died in 1591. We also visited the recently opened Hull History Centre, which houses many important archives. Here we met Martin Taylor, the Hull City Archivist, who showed us a number of interesting original documents held by the Centre relating to Daltons. We plan to visit both Holy Trinity Church and the Hull History Centre during the weekend.

Holy Trinity Church, Hull
The recently opened Hull History Centre

We were also able to attend a meeting of the East Yorkshire Family History Society and heard a lecture entitled “Sex, violence and religion in Elizabethan Hull", given by Helen Good, a local historian who works for the University Hull History Department. This was a very lively and entertaining account of life in Hull in the second half of the 16th Century.

With a number of contacts made and key locations visit, Howard and I are now confident that we can construct an interesting and informative programme for our weekend in July next year and we will be providing you with full details over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any questions or wish to register your interest in joining us at the 2012 DGS Gathering as a delegate, please contact either Howard (howard.dalton@hotmail.co.uk), or myself (michaelndalton@aol.com).

Full details of the Dalton International DNA Project can be found on the “Dalton DNA Project" section of this website. (click on the link from the homepage). The most recent update was published in December 2010 and includes a comprehensive overview of the project. Here Michael Dalton, project administrator, gives a further update on the reports now being prepared for each individual genetic family.

The last DIDP Project Progress Report, prepared for us by our DNA consultant Chris Pomery, was Issue 3 published in October 2009. Since then we have started to put more emphasis on the identified individual genetic families, and a series of reports is now in preparation for these.

In December 2010, we published the first report for Genetic Family A, the Virginia Daltons, and distributed it by email to all members of the group. This is the largest genetic family in the project with 55 participants and the report has established a template for the further reports in the series. The structure of the report is as follows:

1. Genetic Origins of the Dalton Surname

2. The Dalton Genetic Families

Table 1: Research Coordinators of the Dalton Genetic Families

Table 2: Geographical Locations associated with the Dalton Genetic Families

3. Profile of the Virginia Daltons

Chart 1: A 37-marker Phylogenetic Chart for the Genetic Family

Table 3: Currently documented Geographical Origins & Oldest Ancestors

4. Next Steps

Appendix 1: A Quick Explanation of the DNA Matching & Analysis Process

Appendix 2: Table of Marker Differences within Genetic Family A

Originally we envisaged publishing separate reports for every identified genetic family. Chris Pomery has reviewed this with Karen Preston and myself and we have agreed to publish further separate reports for Genetic Families B, C and D. However the remaining smaller genetic families and singletons will now be aggregated into two reports, one covering the remaining R1b1 Haplogroup participants, and the other for non-R1b1 participants. We feel that this will be more beneficial for these participants, as they will see a substantially larger population of participants in their specific report. It also, of course, reduces the burden of maintaining a large number of different reports with each one covering only a very small number of participants.

Chris has now drafted the five further reports (B, C, D, Other R1b1, non-R1b1) and these are in the process of being checked by myself, Karen and the respective genetic family coordinators. We want to make each report as comprehensive as possible, particularly the table that includes currently documented geographical origins and oldest ancestors. This really is the key to informing the most relevant areas for further traditional research work and we are asking the genetic family coordinators to contact individual participants where this information has not yet been supplied. If you fall into this category, please do respond promptly to your coordinator when you are asked. We anticipate that the reports will be published over the coming few weeks and it is our intention to meet the original target of having them all completed by the end of June.

In the meantime, there continues to be a steady trickle of new participants joining the project and we continue to look for individual Daltons who have known documented ancestral lines that take them back to English or Irish Dalton origins. If you are interested in joining the project, or you would like further information, please do contact either Karen Dalton Preston (karen@golden-hills.com) or myself (michaelndalton@aol.com).

From Mike Dalton, Portland, Oregon, USA

On April 8, 2011 the American Television NBC aired the season finale of the genealogy themed show, "Who Do You Think You Are?" with the celebrity Ashley Judd as the featured subject. Ashley’s mother Wyonna and her sister Naomi are widely known in American Country Western music circles. It was revealed that her paternal grandmother was one Mary Bernadine Dalton whose ancestry traces back to David Dalton of Albermarle, Virginia.

The following is mostly from a website which was uploaded on April 12, 2011 with more than 1.4 million views according to the website counter. Dowling websites.

Ashley is the daughter of Michael Ciminella and Naomi Judd. Michael Ciminella is the son of Michael Lawrence Ciminella, who died May 7, 1997 in Boyd County Kentucky and Mary Bernadine Dalton who died November 15, 1987 in Boyd County Kentucky. Ashley would spend summers with her grandmother Mary Bernadine and Mary Bernadine’s mother Effie Copley during her childhood years.

Mary Bernadine Dalton was born February 12, 1916 in Martin County, Kentucky to William Henry Dalton and Effie Copley.

William Henry Dalton was born October 25, 1873 in Martin County, Kentucky to Thomas Jefferson Dalton and Mary Malinda Crum.

Thomas Jefferson Dalton was born June, 1848 in Virginia to Martin Allen Dalton and Rebecca Brewster (a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims from England who settled in America circa 1620). The TV show focused on tracing Rebecca’s ancestry back to England with the help of various genealogical experts.

Martin Allen Dalton was born 1821 in Tazewell County, Virginia and died 1864 in Logan County, West Virginia. He was the son of James Dalton and Mary Adams.

James Dalton was born October 26, 1770 in Virginia and died 1860 in Wayne County, West Virginia. He was the son of David Dalton, Jr. and Judith_____.

David Dalton Jr. was born 1752 in Albemare County, Virginia and died 1821 in Henderson County, North Carolina. He was the son of David Dalton and Hannah Goad.

David Dalton Sr. was born 1732 in Hanover County, Virginia and died 1802 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He was the son of Timothy Dalton and Elizabeth Talbot.

Timothy Dalton was born March 24, 1690 in Virginia to William Dalton and Margaret Newman Brockenbrough who was born 1667 in Gloucester County, Virginia.

William Dalton was born 1666 in Yorkshire, England and died 1727 in Fairfax County, Virginia.

From Maureen Collins, Secretary for Australia and New Zealand

The following has been sent to me by the co-ordinator of our English research group at the Society of Australian Genealogists:

The TNA have issued a new help site for visitors detailing "how to find" and more. This can be found on their site at http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/quick-animated-guides.htm.

This may be useful for overseas visitors to London.

1. From Helen Walker

My name is Helen. I am trying to find out all about my great grandfather Ernest Dalton. His son..my grandfather was Cecil Ernest Dalton..born 1890. He was Ernest's illegitimate son to a Mary Jane Chick. My family have told me they were from Orange. Mary was a maid in one of the Dalton's mansions in Orange. Ernest and Mary fell in love and when she found out about the pregnancy she left and had my grandad Cecil. She eventually married and had another son Tommy who passed away at a young age. My great grandfather Ernest apparently visited my grandfather many times and even saw him off to the first world war from Perth. When my grandfather was alive he told me. I want to visit Orange and would love to find out about Ernest. I have done some research and cannot find an Ernest Dalton from Orange..only in Singleton there was an Ernest who ended up in Westen Australia in 1898. It means so much to me to find out about his story. Can you help me? I would so appreciate your help...was Ernest the nickname or middle name of the famous Dalton's from Orange?..or a cousin?

Please email me with any information: hmaywalker@hotmail.com

Thank you.

2. From Hermina Williams

I am researching my son-in-law's Scott family in NSW Australia and to get right to the point, I came across his 5 generations back grandparent's obituary in The Leader, Orange Newspaper of Saturday, May 9, 1914.

"Death of Mr. Robert Scott J.P."

Quote, "The death occurred yesterday morning of one of the pioneers of the Orange district in Mr. Robert Scott, of Mount Esk, Cave Creek. He complained of being ill some days ago and came into Orange to consult the medical adviser, who ordered him to bed. Feeling well yesterday morning he got up, but immediately collapsed and died shortly afterwards. Mr Scott was at once one of the oldest identities of the Orange district, and when he arrived in Orange followed the calling of a stonemason, at which trade he was considered an expert. Enpassant, He laid the foundation of Mr. J. Dalton's mansion, "Duntryleague". Subsequently tiring of his trade he acquired land on Cave Creek, where he undertook farming pursuits with a large measure of success. He was of a generous disposition, one of his latest acts of charity being the donation of L.sd. (old Pound) 28 to the Orange Hospital. The deceased left a family of grown-up sons and daughters, his wife having predeceased him several years ago." unquote.

and so my research brought me to a DGS Daltons in History Volume 11 No 6 June 2008 article containing this other excerpt;

DGS Meeting at Orange, NSW, Australia - 13-15 March 2009 - Description of Duntryleague

James Dalton arrived in Sydney on the convict Barque Hive on the 11 December 1835, having been deported from County Limerick, Ireland to serve a 7 year term in the Colony. He was granted his freedom in 1842 and by 1848 he had established a general store in Summerhill, some 5 miles from what is now the City of Orange [named after the Prince of Orange, it is generally accepted, rather than the growing of oranges]. In 1849 James Dalton’s 15 year old son James joined his father, who was then living at Bathurst, NSW.

In 1876, James Dalton the younger built Duntryleague, a mansion with magnificent views of the surrounding countryside. The mansion was sold to Orange Golf Club in 1935 when an eighteen hole championship golf course was established. The house itself is used as a club house with some guest house accommodation.

Robert arrived in Australia from Midlothian (Edinburgh) Scotland, already married with a daughter and extended his family with a son at Little Lithgow Village NSW in 1867. The descendant of Robert, John Tennant Scott who carries the line to our son-in-law Paul Scott was born at Mt Esk, by way of Orange in 1875.

I thank you for your time to indulge me to share this information found and wonder if there is any document, contract, paysheet, book or mention of another that Robert may have been working for or that 'call for a stonemason' that may have been preserved in you family relevant to the Scott family that may shed more light on Roberts involvement in history.

In any case thank you.

Little quirks in history...Robert was in the building trade and went into Agriculture whereas Paul was in Agriculture and has now re-trained in carpentry.

It is testament to Robert's mentioned 'expert' trade skills that the foundation of Duntryleague has kept it standing until today at least.

It would be lovely to hear from you.

Email address: hermum@hotmail.com

Thanks again.

I hope that all of you are enjoying lovely Spring weather!

Salt Lake City Gathering News

It looks like the DGS won't be the only genealogy group visiting Salt Lake City this September!

Family Tree Magazine and "Ancestor Seekers", a genealogy research company, have a week-long research trip scheduled in September that overlaps with the dates of our Gathering, and this event has already sold-out. They will also be at the Plaza Hotel in Salt Lake City.

I had a call from the hotel to let me know that space in the hotel is booking up fast, and to ask if we will be requiring all of the hotel rooms in our reserved block.

I want to alert members who may be planning to attend the Gathering, but who have not yet registered and reserved space. Our contract with the hotel holds our rooms until 30th June, 2011 only. Since the hotel is already quite full, I cannot guarantee space after 30th June, 2011. After that date, we must release unbooked rooms to the hotel, and we will only be able to book rooms on a first-come basis, if space permits.

We don't want anyone to be disappointed! Please get your registrations in as soon as possible.

New Members:

Howard Dalton, Enon, Ohio - Howard's Daltons are from West Virginia

Dalton Data Bank Update and Web Site Statistics:

Web Sites Update:

For the period from 1 April to 23 April 2011

Addition to the Data Bank:

16 April, 2011:

County Limerick - Added Abbeyfele Baptisms & Marriages Contributed by Mike Dalton, Norfolk, UK

DDB Web Site Usage Statistics:

20,161 visits came from 160 Countries / Territories

Map showing April DDB visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. UK – 5,171
2. United States – 3,505
3. India – 2,027!
4. Pakistan – 1,419 !
5. South Africa – 805 !
6. Australia – 626!
7. Ireland – 513!
8. Canada – 484
9. Colombia – 334
10. Argentina – 315

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. Northern Ireland
9. South Africa
10. Scotland

Comparatives:

DDB Comparison Chart

Dalton Forum:

There are a total of 226 Posts in 137 Topics by 291 Members.

During the reporting period, there was 1 new topic added, 3 new posts and 7 new members added.

DGS Web Site Usage Statistics:

1,264 Visits from 62 Countries / Territories

Map showing DGS visitor distribution

Top 10 Countries by Visits:

1. United States – 618
2. UK – 277
3. Ireland – 71
4. Australia – 66
5. Canada – 53
6. India – 26
7. Pakistan – 21
8. South Africa – 12
9. New Zealand – 11
10. Netherlands – 9

Top 10 Pages Visited:

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

Comparatives:

DGS Comparatives

Membership Page Tracking:

There were a total of 231 visits to the Membership page. 203 Visitors (94%) were as a result of links from the DDB “Become a Member!” pop-up box and the Google Ad Campaign. The remaining 28 Visitors (6%) were generated from within the DGS site.

The graph below depicts the flow of Visitors to the Membership Page:

Membership Page Graphics

Google Ad Campaigns:

Dalton Data Bank Site:

10,490 Visitors reached the Data Bank by clicking on one of the 1,151,504 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

DGS Site:

184 Visitors reached the DGS site by clicking on one of the 61,138 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

Google Ads for new memberships:

This Ad Campaign generated 2 visits to the Membership information from 2,919 Google Ads served during the reporting period.

Wishing you continued success in your family history search.

If you are coming to Salt Lake City for the Gathering BOOK NOW!!

With Best regards,

Karen Dalton Preston
North American Secretary

Thank you to all who have contributed to the May 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 and, in anycase by 31 May, 2011. Email: gandt@daltons.eclipse.co.uk or click this link.

Salt Lake City gets ever nearer! Click this link for details. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE HOTEL IS FILLING UP VERY QUICKLY AND THEY ARE ASKING ABOUT OUR ROOMS WHICH ARE CURRENTLY RESERVED. IF YOU ARE GOING TO SALT LAKE CITY BOOK SOON!!

Due to time constraints the Lucy Slater Archives and The DGS 40 Years On do not appear this month but will be back in June 2011. Also the next part of Bill Dalton's family history will be back in June 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 June 2011 issue need to be with me no later than 25th May 2011. (e-mail: dairneirwin@ntlworld.com).