Introduction

Greetings to all readers of “Daltons in History”!

I start by sending to all of you particular good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I trust that each of you will enjoy this holiday period with family and friends and that you will look forward to 2010 in anticipation of a good year ahead. It is hard to believe that a decade will have gone by since the turn of the millennium and perhaps even harder to believe that in 2010 the DGS will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary! More of that below.

Also below you will find the other usual updates to keep you fully informed about all our various DGS activities.

Future DGS events

As everyone will be aware, 2010 marks the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Dalton Genealogical Society and we are holding a special Gathering and Annual General Meeting in Surrey, England over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 30th/31st July/1st August 2010. Arrangements have been made for the main events on the Saturday to take place at the Surrey National Golf Club, Chaldon, Surrey. These will include our conference during the day and a splendid celebratory dinner in the evening. The conference programme will include guest speakers and our AGM, and there will also be entertainment in the evening. The theme of the weekend will be Daltons in Surrey and there will be a programme of activities and visits for the Friday and the Sunday. Accommodation will be available locally. The Surrey National Golf Club is beautifully situated and has a modern clubhouse with excellent conference and dining facilities. Further information may be found at www.surreynational.co.uk.

More details and booking information for this 40th Anniversary celebration will be found in the “Forthcoming Gatherings” section of this website and they will be included as a separate flyer with the next issue of the DGS Journal (Volume 51). Please make sure that you reserve the dates in your diary now. It would be very helpful to have the earliest possible indication of numbers attending and, if you have not already sent one, I would appreciate a short email (to michaelndalton@aol.com) as soon as possible, and ahead of your booking form and deposit, if you are planning to come. Thank you to those who have already been in touch. This information will enable us to ensure that we reserve enough accommodation and it will help with the planning and organisation of the various events and activities over the weekend. We look forward to many members and their families joining us for this very special gathering, and we anticipate that overseas members will use it as an opportunity to visit other parts of the UK as well.

For 2011 we have arranged for the DGS Annual Gathering to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 14th/15th/16th October 2011. This will be another very special event and the gathering organiser will be our North American Secretary, Karen Dalton Preston. Karen and her team are now putting the more detailed plans in place. Initial details are on the “Forthcoming Gatherings” section of this website and further announcements will be made during the coming year.

The DGS Annual General Meeting for 2011 will be held in the UK earlier in the year and an announcement about that will be made later.

For 2012 and beyond we have a number of suggestions already. 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)

During October Issue 3 of the Dalton International DNA Project Progress Report was published. This includes all the new participants who have joined the project up to January 2009. There were 99 participants included in Issue 2 of the report published in January 2008 and Issue 3 has 126 sets of markers recorded and analysed. This represents an impressive expansion of the project. Additionally, many participants have extended their number of markers and this adds considerably to the value of the database as a whole to our Dalton family history researches.

The report is a landmark document and extends to 54 pages. The number of separately identifiable genetic families has increased from 10 to 13. The number of singletons has increased by just three, from 18 to 21. This reflects the high success rate that we are achieving, with nearly all new project participants finding matches with existing project members.

All members of the project have been circulated by email and invited to request their copy of the full report. If, as a project participant, you still wish to receive the report but have not advised me, please contact me by email immediately. We do ask that those who receive the report are current members of the DGS. The subscription contributes towards the cost of retaining our consultant and, of course, brings many other benefits as well.

In early November, Family Tree DNA announced a special offer for a Y-DNA 37 marker at $119.00, a saving of $30.00 on the normal price. This is available until 31 December 2009 and full details can be found on “Dalton International DNA Project” pages of this website. Here you will also find extracts from Issue 3 of the report giving a summary of the main conclusions; the foreword to the report, which includes a history of the project; and a description of the DNA process and how it assists the family historian.

We have a number of further participants who have joined the project during the past few months and there are now approaching 140 sets of markers in our database. DIDP is one of the largest and most respected projects of its type internationally, but we still need to expand it further, particularly with individuals who have documented ancestral lines that take them back to known English or Irish Dalton origins. The strength of the database as a family history research tool lies in its size, and its continued growth is of paramount importance to us all. So, if you are a Dalton male please do think about joining this well established and exciting project – preferably before 31 December 2009 to take advantage of the Family Tree DNA special offer.

In the past month we have initiated an exciting collaboration with the Dalton America DNA Project, also hosted by Family Tree DNA. This is of particular importance to members of Genetic Family A and Karen Preston, as coordinator of that group gives further details in her notes below.

The DGS Journal

John Dalton, Editor of the DGS Journal, is always pleased to receive further contributions of material for the Journal. Volume 51 (for December 2009) is due to be published at the turn of the year.

Back issues of the DGS Journal continue to be available. On this website you can access the DGS Journal Index from the homepage. 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 available for Volumes 42 to 50 and the full synopses will be available 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 at the beginning of January 2010.

Thank you for your attention and again, my best wishes to you all for Christmas and the New Year.

Yours very sincerely

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

From Mike Dalton of Portland, Oregon, USA

The following is an exact wording of the obituary that appeared on the front page of the Miami Republican Newspaper of Paola, Kansas, dated November 4, 1910:

JOSEPH DALTON DEAD

Joseph Dalton died suddenly Saturday evening, October 29, at his home on his farm in Osage Township. Although he had been in failing health the past two years, he was able to be about his home and do the chores and his death was quite sudden. Thursday he was seemingly as well as usual, and Friday morning he was taken with severe pains in his bowels and stomach. His death is attributed to stomach trouble.

Mr. Dalton was a native of Ireland, and at his death was about 83 years of age. When a young man he removed with his parents to Canada, from where he went to Richmond, Indiana, in 1852, and was married there in 1854 to his surviving wife, whose maiden name was Hanna Cunningham, a sister of Michael Cunningham of Osage Township. After his marriage he went to the Lake Superior Country at Ishpeming, Marquette County, Michigan, from where he removed with his family to Osage Township and purchased a 160 acre farm, where he happily spent his remaining years.

Mr. Dalton was a hard working, kind hearted man and a good citizen. He was a member of the Catholic church all his life. With his wife he is survived by a family of eleven children, Margaret Wolfe of Osage, Mary Dalton of Pittsburg, Kansas, Jack and Jennie Dalton at Seattle, Washington, James, Charles, Daniel, Michael and Sarah Dalton, Mrs. Anna Moran and Kittie Dalton, all of Osage. His son Jack* for many years has been in the State of Washington and the Klondike Country, and was the discoverer of the famous Dalton trail in the Klondike.

The funeral services, conducted by Father Burk, were held from the Catholic church in Paola Tuesday morning and were largely attended. The remains were buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.

*The Will of Jack Dalton who died in San Francisco, California in 1944, will be in the next newsletter. Research is ongoing to prove and confirm the ancestry of Joseph Dalton.

Here is a comment concerning "Lucky Luke" from Mary Dalton, Chicago, USA:

I saw the note about Lucky Luke and "Les Daltons" in the latest "Daltons in History".

I studied in France in 1972 and loved this series (I bought and still have two of the books). I've scanned the covers of the books I own. I LOVE Ma Dalton!

Thanks for bringing up this subject. It brings back great memories!

I have two books so I scanned the front covers of those two and the back cover which is the same on all the books I believe. Here's info on the series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke

The translation of the title of the one book is something like: The Cure of the Daltons, or The Daltons' Cure. In the books, the Dalton boys are named Joe, William, Jack and Averell.

Back Cover of all books

In French, Lucky Luke is pronounced like: Luke - ee Luke!

From Gerry Dalton, Australia

The National Library of Australia have a digitisation project on the go and these are the latest newspapers to be added. It's FREE to access. The old newspapers contain many items of interest to Family Historians and include birth and death notices as well as shipping intelligence, law court reports, crop exports, goods imported to the colony as well as news of epidemics and illness that plagues the Colony. I've cut some info out of the email I received this morning. Info on the website etc., are at the end of the page.

1. Sydney Morning Herald

The first digitised issues of the Sydney Morning Herald are now available. We have started from the first issue 1831 and are making our way forwards to 1954.

The first 20 years (18,000 pages) are now available as follows:

Sydney Herald 1831-1842
Sydney Morning Herald 1842-1852

Issues from 1852 - 1954 will be made available each week from now on through til early 2010. In early 2010 The Sunday Herald 1949-1953 will also become available.

We would like to acknowledge the financial contribution of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation who have given $1 million dollars towards the digitisation of this title.

2. The Argus (Melbourne)

The Argus (and its previous title the Melbourne Argus) from 1846 - 1945 are now completed and available. The remaining 10 years (1945-1954) of the Argus will be made available in 2010 (mid to end of year).

Please circulate this message or its contents wherever appropriate.

To access the Australian Newspapers service:

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home

From Gerry Dalton, Australia

The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954), Thursday 1 April 1852, page 3

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12935578

ORANGE.

MARCH 28. - At the termination of the races on Friday, 19th, a rather dexterous trick was successfully played on one of our storekeepers, in passing off a bad £10 note. In the midst of the heavy rain which fell about nightfall, a man rode up to Dalton's store and asked for two pounds of tobacco, which was served to him by yeung Dalton ; he handed a purse to the lad, and told him there were two ten pound notes in it, to take one and give him the change. Dalton did so, and preferring one not so much torn as the other, gave the man nine pounds four shillings in change.

Some time after this, the district constable, wanting some change, went to Dalton's, when the lad gave Fitzpatrick the ten-pound note, and it was only when the district constable was endeavouring to get change for it that the forgery was found out, and instead of it being a ten, it was only a one pound note of the Union Bank of Australia. Many parties here took the note, and would have cashed it had they sufficient change, and so cleverly was the fraud accomplished, that it was only by holding it to the light you could discover it. From some information, the district constable apprehended a man, at Guyong, on Wednesday last, and from certain circumstances, especially a cheque for £4 being found on his person, and this being part of the change given by young Dalton, there is every reason to believe the bird is caught. He has been brought before the Bench, and remanded for the attendance of some witnesses.

Another of those melancholy instances of loss of life, from the abuse of spirituous liquors, unfortunately too prevalent, occurred in this district on Wednesday night last. A man named Francis Atkinson, better known as "Scruffy Frank", called at the residence of Samuel Dixon, at the Heifer Station, about six miles form this township, near midnight. Dixon having known the man previously, let him in, and prepared a bed and some supper for him, the latter, however.he partook of but sparingly, and was very much the worse of drink ; he had a bottle with rum in it, and two kegs of the same, in a bag across his horse's saddle. Dixon took a glass of rum with him, and then helped him to bed. In the morning Dixon went to call him, and found him lying on his face quite dead. On the afternoon of that day, an inquiry was held by John Arkins, Esq., J.P., at the residence of Dixon, when the foregoing facts were deposed to. Dr. Bell being sworn, stated there were no external appliances which would lead him to account for the death of deceased ; by a post mortem examination, he found the liver, lungs, and heart greatly engorged with dark grumous blood, and from those appearances, together with the history of the case, was of opinion deceased came by his death from suffocation while in a state of helpless drunkenness.

For the last four or five days the weather has been very warm. This day about noon, we were visited with a severe thunder and rain storm from the north-west, with hurricane gusts of wind, which lasted about two hours.

From Maureen Collins, Secretary for Australia and New Zealand

Society of Australian Genealogists Seminar “Lost in Black Sheep” held at Orange, NSW, on 7 and 8 November 2009

As a member of the SAG I attended this seminar in Orange, as did Suzanne Burrows, DGS member in Sydney. The week-end was literally bursting with information given by officers of the SAG on a variety of subjects such as bankruptcy records and the Sydney Benevolent Asylum who helped homeless, destitute, pregnant, poor and abandoned ancestors.

Other speakers included the manager of public access to State Records NSW speaking on the history of asylums in NSW plus industrial schools and training ships. We were given a guided tour of Bloomfield Hospital and its slightly gruesome museum as methods in treating mental illness have changed vastly since the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, this hospital was begun by members of the Quaker fraternity and run in a most enlightened and benevolent way even in early times.

One way and another it was a fascinating seminar and included an eye-opening talk by the former records manager in the NSW Corrective Services about the use of gaol and prison records where they had been saved from total destruction by others who had no interest in preserving them for family history searchers.

The Society hold excellent seminars regularly but it was the first time this type of meeting had been held outside of Sydney and it was pure coincidence that it was held in Orange so soon after our DGS gathering in March this year.

From Maureen Collins, Secretary for Australia and New Zealand

King James’s Irish Army List (1689)

On a visit to the NSW State Library this week I noticed in the library of the family history section a book on the shelf in Irish Publications and picked it up out of curiosity:

King James’s Irish Army List (1689) by John D’Alton, Esq., Barrister, was published by the author in 1855. I am sure that Irish DGS members and readers of our website will know about this but it was new to me. John D’Alton’s address on 29 October 1855 was 48 Summer-hill, Dublin.

In the list of subscribers for copies (amongst others) were:

Messrs. William and Frederick D’Alton, Montreal, (?Canada) – 25 copies;

Mr D’Alton, Liverpool, England;

Richard D’Alton, Esq., Tipperary, Ireland – 3 copies.

Does anyone claim any of these people in their family tree?

From Maureen Collins, Secretary for Australia and New Zealand

Jilly Warren and I have been puzzling over the origins of this interesting family. Millicent Craig wrote about them and their early days as potters in Volume 6 of the DGS Journal in April 2003. None of us so far has been able to trace the family back earlier than 1815 in Lambeth, which at that time was in the County of Surrey. It is of particular interest to Jilly as a letter written by the brother of one of her Dalton forebears in 1803 to Lord Hobart requesting permission to travel with his brother Richard on HMS “Experiment 2” to New South Wales mentions John Dalton, Stationer, at No. 5 Church Street, Lambeth (now known as Lambeth Road), as a referee. She would like to know if there is a connection between her Dalton family and the Doulton family of potters of Lambeth. The firm did not become “Royal Doulton” until after Henry Doulton was knighted in 1901 by King Edward VII.

This is an appeal to anyone who has any possible information about this family. We do not know when it was decided to change the name to Doulton but then, perhaps they didn’t so that’s another query? It is always great fun to be researching any sort of mystery, family history or otherwise, so where do we start?

Joint Venture with the Dalton America Project!

I am pleased to announce a cooperative effort between the DIDP and the Dalton America DNA projects.

The Dalton America DNA Project is focused on the ancestry of Daltons who settled in Virginia in the early 1700's. These Dalton families settled the areas of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and later some descendants also moved further west. This group of Daltons shares the same ancestry with DIDP Genetic Family A. There are already several members of Group A that are also members of the Dalton America project. Group A is the largest of the DIDP Genetic Families, with nearly 50 participants.

Melanie Crain, of Dalton America, and I have been working to share the DNA information of our respective testees. We have invited our respective members to join both projects, so that members of both projects may benefit from the DNA testing of our participants. The greatest value of genetic genealogy is achieved through evaluating the largest possible group of testees. Melanie and I hope that we can accomplish this with our cooperation.

Invitations were emailed in November, inviting our respective participants to join the other DNA project. I am pleased to announce that we have had 5 members of Dalton America who have joined the DIDP!

I would like to thank Melanie for her spirit of cooperation, and for working with me to bring the members of both projects together. I look forward to continuing to work with her to learn more about what the DNA testing can tell us.

The Holiday Season is fast approaching!

I have some great gift suggestions for the genealogist on your gift list:

- Give the gift of a DGS membership! It is a wonderful way to get a family member more involved in Dalton family history. And, David has created a beautiful gift certificate to announce your gift.

- A DNA test kit would make a wonderful gift for that family member "who has everything", or has considered testing, but just hasn't gotten around to ordering yet. For a limited time, our testing company, Family Tree DNA, is offering special pricing on the most popular test kits for participation in our Dalton International DNA Project:

* Y-DNA37 – promotional price $119 (reg. price $149)

* Y-DNA67 – promotional price $209 (reg. price $239)

Orders for the above tests need to be placed and paid for by December 31, 2009 to receive the sale price.

Tuite-Dalton Article Triggers a Response

The article on the Tuite-Daltons by Rodney Dalton, which was posted to the Dalton Data Bank last month, prompted a member of the Tuite-Dalton family in England to respond. A Google alert for any new information on the surname brought Rodney's article to the attention of Philip Tuite Dalton.

Philip kindly provided additional information on the surname and on his ancestors. One of the more famous members of the Tuire-Daltons includes Edward Tuite Dalton (1815 - 1880), who wrote “The Descriptive Ethnology Of Bengal 1872” - “Tribal history of Eastern India”.

You can read Rodney's article at:

http://www.daltondatabank.org/Chronicles/Tuite-Dalton.htm

National Library of Wales - 190,000 Welsh Wills Online

If you have Dalton roots in Wales, you might be interested in the following announcement on the availability of Welsh wills online through the National Library of Wales. I did a quick search on the site, using just "Dalton" for the search, and found a will from 1707 for Charles Dalton of Pen-bre, Carmarthen. The actual will is available as digital images of the pages. There were several other Daltons listed, as well. Here is the full announcement:

Welsh Wills Online

The BBC recently published an article about the end of a five-year project to make 190,000 wills available online has been completed. The project is complete and the wills are available now. About 800,000 pages of documents have been placed on the National Library of Wales' website.

The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth said the wills dated from the 14th Century until 1858, when civil probate was introduced, and 1,000 of them were written in Welsh.

It said the project was "good news for family historians, social historians…and the inquisitive."

You can read more at the BBC web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/8316533.stm

and on the National Library of Wales web site at http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=1514&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2640&tx_ttnews[backPid]=2&cHash=adbaf61688

The wills are available at http://cat.llgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon?skin=profeb&lng=en.

New Members:

Harold Dalton - Little Catalina, NL, Canada

Lindsey Dalton Wolfgang - Mifflinburg, PA, USA

Melanie Crain - Durham, NC, USA

Dalton Data Bank

There were two major updates in October: The Alaska page was completely revised and the Ontario Canada Deaths and Inscriptions information was added. In total, these two updates represent an additional 1,200+ records. Our thanks to Mike Dalton for his tremendous contributions!

23 November, 2009

Canada - Added Ontario Cemetery Inscriptions Contributed by Mike Dalton, Oregon

18 November, 2009

Canada - Added Ontario Deaths Database Contributed by Mike Dalton, Oregon

17 November, 2009

Dalton Chronicles - Updated "The Tuite-Dalton Family" Revised by Rodney Dalton & Philip Tuite Dalton

16 November, 2009

Alaska - Entire State Updated Contributed by Mike Dalton, Oregon

13 November, 2009

Alaska - Added Yukon Territory Contributed by Mike Dalton, Oregon

DDB Usage statistics November 1st thru 29, 2009:

3,530 Visitors from 42 Countries (up 65.6% from October).

USA - 42.5 % (unchanged from October)
UK - 31.2% (down .7% from October)
Ireland - 6.0% (down 1.5% from October)
Australia - 4.4% (unchanged from October)
South Africa - 3.2% (down 1.7% from October)
Brazil & Argentina - 2.9% (up .5% from October)
Spain - 2.1% (New Country statistic)
Canada - 2.1% (up .6% from October)
Rest of the World - 5.6%

78.3% were New Visitors

22 Visitors came from the old Databank site

Google AdWords Campaign:

2,652 Visitors clicked on one of the Ads, which were displayed 433,185 times (.61% Click Thru Ratio). This represents a 56.3% rise in Visitors to the site as compared to October, 2009.

With warm wishes for a Wonderful Holiday Season!

Karen Dalton Preston
Secretary for North America

Thank you to all who have contributed to the December 2009 issue of “Daltons in History”.

2009 has almost gone and it has been a very busy year with considerable contributions from various parts of the world. Please continue to send me any ideas you may have for future articles or areas of research we could look at.

Some of you may like to 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 the travels would be nice, too. It would also 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.

2010 will be an exciting year with our 40th Anniversary to celebrate in Surrey. Don't forget the dates - Fri/Sat/Sun 30th/31st July/1st August 2010.

Mel and I would like to wish all members of the D.G.S. at home and overseas a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Contributions for the January 2010 issue need to be with me no later than 20th December 2008. (e-mail: dairneirwin@ntlworld.com).

To end the year here is a completely different contribution from Gerry Dalton via an anonymous source:

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess
He asked if I'd been 'computering',
And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my bum,
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my good work.

I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops - I found
A real absorbing site
That I got SO way into it -
I was into it all night.

So nothing's changed except my mouse.
It's as shiny as the sun.
I guess my house will stay a mess.....
While I sit here on my bum.

Thank you for being my e-mail buddy and friend!