Rick Aindow Genealogy

17/06/2026

FamilySearch just added 102 million new chances to find your ancestors. With records from 22 countries, one of them could hold the answers you're looking for.

Search through nearly 88 million vital, church, and probate records from the United Kingdom, nearly 12 million civil and church records from Mexico, and more than a million civil and church records from both Belgium and the Philippines. Plus, even more additions from Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the United States.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/new-records-june-2026?cid=SO-00061635

Which country are you hoping to find records from?

17/06/2026

17/06/2026

Church of England parish registers containing baptisms, marriages, and burials that took place in the county of Cumbria from 1538 to 1990. Records may include: name, parents, spouse, father's occupation, residence, date of birth, date of marriage, burial date and place and much more depending on the record type ⤵️
🔗 - https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/3154704?cid=SO-00060522

16/06/2026

16/06/2026

Here's a truth that took me years to accept: sometimes the best research doesn't end in a breakthrough. It ends in an honest answer about what the records can and can't tell you. That's not failure. That's the Genealogical Proof Standard doing its job.

In Episode 41, I couldn't find my subject in the 1880 census. The resolution wasn't triumphant. I found his wife listed as a widow, and the record told me he was gone, even though no death record survives. I followed the evidence to where it actually led, not where I wished it would.

The method that gives this kind of research its best chance is the FAN club: Family, Associates, and Neighbors. You don't research the ancestor alone. You research everyone in their social orbit, because the people around them left records that touch them. Identify the former enslaver, research everyone enslaved on that same property, trace the witnesses on a contract. The cluster is where the answers live.

AI makes that wide-net work feasible for one person at a kitchen table in a way it simply wasn't before. But it's still your judgment, your verification, your conclusion.

15/06/2026

Spotlight on Society: East of London FHS
East of London FHS cover part of Middlesex and Essex. These are now in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering. If you have ancestors from these areas please join them to find out more. They hold in person talks in London and Essex as well as some meetings on Zoom. To find out more and how to join please go to https://www.eolfhs.org.uk

15/06/2026

Planning is well underway for the Auckland Family History Expo 2026. This year the Expo sees a fabulous new venue, new dates, more exhibitors, better facilities and more opportunities.

Keep up-to-date on our website https://genealogy.org.nz/Auckland-Family-History-Expo/11491/ and follow the Auckland Family History Expo on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AFHExpo

15/06/2026

📜 Ragman Rolls — Part 2: Medieval Names Do Not Behave

This is one of the biggest lessons in medieval genealogy:

Do not search only one modern surname.

In records like the Ragman Rolls, a family may appear under a land name, title, spelling variant, lordship, office, or cadet branch.

A man may not be written under the surname we expect today.

For example, a modern researcher may search only:

Murray

But in medieval records, the name may appear in older forms such as:

de Moravia
Moravia
Moray
of Moray
Murray
Murref
Murreve

That is because de Moravia means “of Moray.”

So the clue may not be under the modern surname at all. It may be under the older land-name form.

You may also find people identified by estate or territorial connection, such as:

William de Moravia of Tullibardine

That tells us more than just a surname. It gives us a land clue, a family identifier, and a place to search next.

The same lesson applies to cadet lines and land-based names.

A Colquhoun researcher should not only search:

Colquhoun

They should also watch connected lands and spellings such as:

Luss
Ardencaple
Ardincaple
Ardencappel
Ardancaple
Ardancappell
Camstradden
Lennox
Kilpatrick
Dumbartonshire

One example from the Colquhoun / Luss / Ardencaple research cluster is:

Maurice de Ardencaple

You may also see or search for forms such as:

Mauricius de Ardencaple
Maurice of Ardencaple
Ardincaple
Ardencappel
Ardancappell

This is why medieval genealogy cannot be done by surname alone.

A younger son may be identified by the land he held.
A cadet branch may carry the name of an estate.
A witness list may preserve the family connection better than a later pedigree.
A Latin clerk may spell the name differently than we expect.

So when using the Ragman Rolls, do not treat the index like a modern phone book.

Search the surname.
Search the land.
Search the title.
Search the spelling variants.
Search the people standing around them.

These are only sample examples for teaching how the source works.

Anyone who wants the full source can download it free from Internet Archive by searching:

Ragman Rolls Bannatyne Club 1834

The ancestors left receipts.

We just have to learn how to read them.