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Introduction As always, greetings to all readers of "Daltons in History"!! I am writing these notes from La Planque, Langles near Villereal in Lot et Garonne, South West France which is the holiday home of Maureen Collins, our Australian Secretary, when she visits France. Kate and I are staying with Maureen here on our fifth visit to the area since 1997, the year she first invited us to join her at La Planque. We will shortly be visiting Martin Fitzgerald who is staying nearby. Martin will be uploading this edition of "Daltons in History" to the website. Apart from enjoying a visit to SW France, always a relaxing and delightful experience, I will have had the opportunity to interact face to face with both Maureen and Martin about a range of DGS matters – emails and telephone conversations are invaluable, but at the end of the day there is no substitute for a good old fashioned meeting! This issue of "Daltons in History" includes the minutes of the 2013 Annual General Meeting held in Dublin at the end of July, together with other news, and in particular information about the exciting development of our new website, which is now up and running and will be running alongside www.daltongensoc.com and the "Daltons in History" that you have known and loved since it was first introduced on the DGS website back in 1998. Various details about these developments follow in the paragraphs of these notes below. The new DGS website and the future of "Daltons in History" Following the discussions that have been under way during the past few months, led by our webmasters David Preston and Martin Fitzgerald, we are now in the process of launching a completely new and additional DGS website. This is in response to the suggestions that we need something more interactive and attractive to a wider readership, and at the same time we need to provide added value for the members of the Society. The new website is called "Daltons in History" or DiH2.0 for short. It has both an unrestricted presence available to all, and sections for DGS members only. It also includes enhanced use of social media – Facebook, Twitter etc. DiH2.0 is now being rolled out to the DGS membership worldwide, and recently our members in North America have been issued with usernames and passwords to enable them to access the restricted areas of the site. Very shortly we will be doing the same for the rest of the world, including the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and so all currently paid up members of the DGS worldwide, with email addresses registered with the Society, will have access. Most will have access shortly, and by the end of the year at the latest, every DGS member with access to the web and a current email address will be enjoying the substantial benefits that the new site will bring. Alongside this exciting new development, the main DGS website at www.daltongensoc.com, the Dalton Data Bank (www.daltondatabank.org), the Dalton Forum (http://daltonamericas.org/messageboard/) and the other North American DGS websites (accessed via www.daltonamericas.org) all continue, and remain with open access for all. Each month we will continue to bring you "Daltons in History" on the main DGS website, in a revised format and this will evolve over the next few months. It will include Chairman’s Notes and other news items and articles, taken from DiH2.0 and made available in the public domain. There are still a number of more detailed decisions to be made about this, as there are about DiH2.0 itself and we want to be as responsive to our membership as possible. Everyone is therefore invited to make observations and comments about the new website and thus contribute to its success. We want the site to serve our DGS members as well as it possibly can, and we also want to encourage more of those with an interest in Dalton family history to join the Society, and take advantage of what will be an ever growing and ever more valuable resource. Future DGS events An announcement was made at the Annual General Meeting in Dublin that the 2014 Gathering and AGM is to take place in East Anglia, UK over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 12/13/14 September. We have reserved accommodation and rooms for our meeting and dinner on the Saturday at the Park Farm Country Hotel which is at Hethersett in Norfolk, only a few miles outside Norwich. The theme of the weekend will be Dalton families from East Anglia, of which there are several, and the programme will include our 2014 AGM, talks about Dalton family history and visits to places connected with East Anglia Daltons. As usual we will hold our Annual DGS Dinner on the Saturday evening. I am most grateful to DGS Committee Member Mike F Dalton, who lives in Norfolk, for taking up the role of 2014 Gathering Organiser. Mike and I, together with DGS Secretary Pam Lynam and DGS Australian Secretary Maureen Collins, are meeting up in Norfolk in mid-November to visit the hotel and discuss the more detailed programme. Pam and Maureen both descend from a Norfolk Dalton family the study of which was a major element of the gathering based in Swaffham, Norfolk back in 1999. Full details about the weekend, the outline programme and a registration form will be available here in December 2013 and they will also be despatched to all DGS members with Volume 59 of the DGS Journal, when it is published at the end of the year. If in the meantime you have any questions please contact either Mike F Dalton, Gathering Organiser (mfdalton@btconnect.com) or Michael N Dalton, DGS Chairman and Gathering Coordinator (michaelndalton@aol.com). We hope to return to the United States and visit Virginia in 2015. It has also been proposed that we return to South Wales, UK in 2016. The DGS committee is actively taking these plans forward and we will be making further more detailed announcements in the coming months about locations and dates. So watch this space! And, as we like to plan ahead and explore other options for our annual gathering events, 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) Our DNA project continues to attract considerable interest with a regular stream of enquiries about joining being received by myself and Karen Dalton Preston as administrators of the project. In September 2012 we published a DIDP Update and this can be found in the “Dalton DNA Project” section of this website. Click here. This includes an up to date list of genetic family coordinators and details of the new report that we will be publishing during 2013. Chris Pomery has produced a draft of this for us and we have now agreed how best to supplement and disseminate the information that it contains to all project participants. The full report is now being finalised and it is planned that it will be published and distributed to all project participants that are paid up members of the DGS by mid-November. In order to strengthen the management of DIDP we have agreed that Melanie Crain, Mike Dalton, myself and Karen Preston as the coordinators of Genetic Families A, B, C and D respectively will form a DGS DNA Project Sub-Committee with Chris Pomery continuing to act as the project consultant. For the successful progression of the project, we think we now need:
The sub-committee will work to put plans in place to achieve the above and will monitor the development of the project more closely with the remit of each of us extending outside the boundaries of our individual genetic family. It will be our aim to ensure that we cover the interests of and the enquiries from all participants in the project, and in the list of genetic family coordinators you will see that each of us already look after additional groups in the project. Those relatively few participants without a coordinator are invited to contact either Karen or myself in the first instance and we will involve others to assist as appropriate. We are indebted to Chris Pomery for all his assistance with the project over the past seven years, which includes the preparation of three issues of the very comprehensive project progress report, and more recently a series of six reports covering individual genetic families. He has also given informative presentations at our annual gatherings on several occasions. We now have some 180 participants in the project, and well over 80% are members of one of the 15 identified genetic families. The DGS Journal Volume 58 of the DGS Journal for June 2013 was printed and distributed to members in July. All members, both in the UK and overseas, should have received their copies a while back, but if not please contact your local DGS secretary. As always this latest volume of our award winning Journal contains much of interest. If you are not a DGS member, please think about joining the Society. This will entitle you to receive the Journal regularly, and much more. Full details are in the "Join the DGS" section of this website, or just click here. John Dalton, our Editor, always welcomes articles and other items for publication in the Journal, and material for publication should be sent to him as early as possible. This will enable him to plan the content of the next and future issues. The deadline for contributions for Volume 59 of the DGS Journal, due for publication by the end of December 2013, will be 15 November 2013. 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 58 and the full synopses will be uploaded in due course. Copies of all back numbers are available for purchase and these can be obtained through your local secretary using the order form that you will find on the link above. Details of prices, including postage and packing, will be found there as well. We are most grateful to DGS member Mrs Pat Robinson, who holds stocks of back numbers for the Society and arranges for their distribution in response to requests from the local secretaries (address: Mallards, 3 High Street, The Green, Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5QX, UK email: gandprobinson@waitrose.com.) The DGS in Ireland We have already welcomed Bernie Walsh as our new DGS Irish Secretary. Bernie is planning an active campaign in the Republic of Ireland, and in the Province of Northern Ireland, to recruit more Daltons and Dalton descendants with an interest in Dalton family history into the DGS. This is of particular importance to those DGS members now living outside Ireland with known Irish Dalton descent, of whom there are many. Bernie will be at the Back to Our Past Show, a three day event featuring a full lecture programme on family history topics and a large number of exhibitors. This is the third year for this show and it has become the premier annual family history event in Ireland. It takes place in the Industries Hall at The Royal Dublin Society, near the centre of Dublin on Fri/Sat/Sun 18/19/20 October 2013. Full details are available at www.backtoourpast.com. Bernie will be on Stand 5 in the exhibition and she will be promoting the DGS alongside her family history research and facilitating business, Daulten Quaile Genealogy (www.daultenquailegenealogy.ie). If you are in Dublin 18-20 October, do not miss the opportunity to visit the show and meet up with Bernie. She’ll be looking out for you! You will be hearing more from Bernie over the coming months and we look forward to working with her on the further development of the DGS in Ireland. Membership and subscriptions We have been conscious for a while that it has been difficult for DGS members in countries other than the UK, the USA and Canada to pay their annual subscriptions to the DGS without either they or the DGS incurring substantial currency conversion charges. For the past few years, the DGS in North America has had a PayPal account to facilitate payments being made from members in the USA and Canada. We are now in the process of setting up a PayPal account linked to the bank account for the DGS here in the UK, and very soon there will be a PayPal link on the membership page through which the rest of the world will be able to pay their dues. Watch out for a further announcement about this. Conclusion Enjoy this issue of "Daltons in History", your regular update on everything that is happening in the world of Dalton family history. We will be back again in November. Thank you for your attention and please do send your articles, notes and snippets of information for publication in "Daltons in History" to me (email: michaelndalton@aol.com) Yours very sincerely Michael Neale Dalton Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society |
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Our North American members who are members in good standing have now been using the new members-only web site for about a month. The response has been very positive, and members have been posting their own information, announcements and family data to the site. We also have a separate private area for members to post their family trees so that they are password-protected. We hope the new web services will make it easier for members to share data and family research with other members. And, hopefully some of us will find some long lost Dalton cousins. If you are a DGS member in the US or Canada, and haven't received your log-in ID and password, I may not have your current email address, or your membership may have expired. Please send me a message at karen@golden-hills.com, I'll help with your access to the site. With best wishes, Karen Dalton Preston |
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A new book, "Legendary Locals of Salem" co-written by Dorothy V Malcolm (a Dalton descendant and a member of the DGS) and Jerome Curley has just been published. In the Military and Public Service chapter two DALTONs have lengthy entries: Adjutant General Samuel Dalton and Ralph E Dalton. Salem, in Massachusetts, USA has many Daltons living there and when Dorothy has not been researching and writing this book, she has been trying to locate possible "family members" in our Dalton ancestry. The book is available on Amazon.com and the book launch party is on Wednesday 23 October from 6-9 pm in Salem's historic Hawthorne Hotel where Dorothy and co-author Jerome will be signing their book. The event is free and open to the public, and everyone is welcome. Dorothy Malcolm has been an enthusiastic member of the DGS for many years. She attended the 2006 DGS Gathering held in New Hampshire, USA in October that year. This was the first American DGS Gathering, so ably organised by Millicent Craig and her family. |
| This has come to the DGS from the Federation of Family History Societies and you may wish to express your view. The following message has been received by the FFHS from Ian Cope, Director of Population and Demography Directorate, Office of National Statistics - I am writing to tell you that we are launching today, 23rd September 2013, a public consultation on ‘The Census and future provision of population statistics in England and Wales’. You may be aware that our ‘Beyond 2011’ programme has been reviewing all of the options. Our research has resulted in a clear view that there are two possible approaches to census-taking in the future:
Both approaches would provide annual statistics about the size of the population, nationally and for local authorities, as we do currently. A census using existing data and annual surveys would provide statistics about population characteristics every year. An online census would provide more detailed statistics but only once a decade. Different users will have different views on the approaches, depending on how they use the data, and we welcome views from anyone. The consultation will run for 12 weeks to 13th December 2013. We have arranged a number of events to support the consultation, listed in the link below. You may wish to be represented. Please feel free to circulate this email to anyone who you think may have an interest. You can find the consultation document and a link to the online questionnaire at: www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/get-involved/consultations/consultations/beyond-2011-consultation. I very much hope that you or your organisation will be able to respond, and we would be very happy to provide further information or to discuss any issues with you direct. Please contact us at beyond2011@ons.gov.uk if you have any questions or wish to discuss further. |
| The following information has been provided to the DGS by the Federation of Family History Societies. A visit to this website is recommended. The Cymru’n Cofio Wales Remembers 1914-1918 website has now gone live. We would appreciate your help in raising awareness of the site by providing a link from your organisation’s website to the Cymru’n Cofio site. Cymru’n Cofio Wales Remembers 1914-1918 (www.walesremembers.org) is the official site for information on how Wales will mark the centenary of the First World War in Wales. It provides a focal point for information on the latest news, projects, events and signposting services for the programme of commemoration which will take place in Wales from 2014 to 2018. We know that there were Daltons from Wales who fought in the First World War. It will be interesting to use the occasion of the centenary of WWI, when there will be more focus on WWI records, to find out more about those Daltons who served their country and then to record the details here in “Daltons in History”. |
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The DGS Annual General Meeting for 2013 was held in Dublin, Republic of Ireland in July. The minutes of the meeting are published here. These will also appear in the DGS Journal, Volume 59 for December 2013. THE DALTON GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY Minutes of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held at The Ashling Hotel, Dublin, Republic of Ireland 1) Welcome and opening remarks by the Chairman Michael Neale Dalton welcomed all delegates, both members and friends, to the meeting. These included a large contingent from the USA and also delegates from Australia, Newfoundland, Ireland and the UK. He looked forward to an interesting weekend with talks by Mike Dalton and Bernie Walsh, the annual DGS dinner and visits to Kildalton College and Kilkenny. 2) Apologies for absence Apologies were received from Sir Geoffrey and Lady Dalton; Ciaran and Collette Dalton; Eric Dalton; Raymond and Cheryl Dalton; Margaret Deyes; Mel and Dairne Irwin; Cecelia and Jerry Lange; Pam and Dave Lynam; Gerald and Margaret Milner; Alicia Riley and Alan Green; Jilly Warren and a number of other members. 3) Minutes of the 2012 Annual General Meeting and matters arising These were accepted unanimously, and the Chairman signed them as a true record. There were no matters arising. 4) Chairman’s report Michael Neale Dalton referred to the most enjoyable 2012 Gathering held in Hull, Yorkshire, and organised by Howard Dalton, and he reported on a successful year since. He highlighted the interest shown by members with Irish Dalton ancestry in the present Gathering. He looked forward to the presentations on Irish Dalton family history and was pleased to welcome Dalton families from Dublin at the meeting. He paid tribute to the dedicated work of Mel and Dairne Irwin, who were standing down as Treasurer and Editor of “Daltons in History” respectively. Mel had been in post from 2006 and Dairne since 2007, and tribute was paid to their outstanding work on behalf of the Society. Successors were yet to be appointed. The Chairman also thanked all of the present committee members, who had worked as a stable and committed team over several years. He then extended special thanks to David Preston, Chris Pomery, and Martin Fitzgerald, all of whom had contributed greatly to the success of the Society in their respective consultant capacities. 5) Treasurer’s Report This was not yet available but the Chairman reported that the finances were in a healthy state, with income and expenditure more or less in balance as in the previous year. Details would be published in due course on the website, and also included in the next edition of the Journal. He thanked Mel Irwin for his work on behalf of the Society during his period in office. 6) Secretary’s Report In the absence of Pam Lynam the Chairman reported that the total membership of the Society at present stood at 234. Of these 85 are UK members and 8 in the Republic of Ireland. The Secretary reported that she had dealt with queries, but there were no new UK members and just one resignation. She wished everyone a successful gathering and regretted that she was unable to attend. Finally she made a plea for members to advise any change of address and email. The Chairman thanked Pam for her continued dedication. 7) Election of officers and committee With the exception of Dairne and Mel Irwin, the present officers and committee had all offered themselves for re-election with no additional nominations received. A re-election en-bloc was proposed by Wendy Fleming, seconded by Karen Dalton Preston and carried unanimously. The Chairman then announced that he was extremely grateful to past treasurer Howard Dalton for agreeing to serve as Acting Treasurer for a limited period until a replacement was found. 8) Reports by the Editors of the DGS Journal and of “Daltons in History” John Dalton, Editor of the Journal, commended the publication as a positive way of furthering family history enquiries. He hoped that it was proving enjoyable to readers and made a plea for more genealogy from members for publication. Articles could be short, or longer, and special mention was made of the Miscellaneous Notes and Queries section which was proving popular. It was also possible to include illustrations. He urged members to put pen to paper and stressed the fact that the Society was best placed to help others if there was a steady stream of communication from members for inclusion in the Journal. The Chairman thanked John for his hard work on behalf of the Society. He also paid tribute again to Dairne Irwin for her dedicated period as Editor of “Daltons in History”. He then referred to the plans under discussion within the committee for taking “Daltons in History” forward, and foreshadowed the more detailed report due from David Preston under agenda item 10. 9) Report on the Dalton International DNA Project Karen Dalton Preston and Michael Neale Dalton had dealt with a steady stream of DNA enquiries and test reports in the past year. There was still a need to encourage further testees, with the added advantage of special prices now available from Family Tree DNA. The Chairman looked forward to the presentation by Michael F Dalton following the meeting on the exciting recent discoveries made about Irish Dalton ancestry. 10) Report on the DGS websites David Preston reported a most successful year with a record number of visits to the Dalton Databank website, and growing interest in the DGS on Facebook and on YouTube. Detailed statistics were presented as follows:
He then outlined his ideas for the future of the website. With the ending of the free Google advertising programme there would inevitably be a reduction in the number of visitors to the websites. He and Martin Fitzgerald had been working together to produce a format which could encourage an increase in membership by keeping up with the latest resources, and also restrict some elements to a “members only” access, because of the exchange of family history and personal information. It was hoped to have several persons in place to act as “moderators” in order for this process to succeed. The Chairman thanked David Preston for his keen and detailed involvement, and looked forward to these ideas coming to fruition. 11) Australian Secretary’s report Exciting plans for the formation of a museum in Orange, New South Wales, would include a Dalton exhibition in November, and there is the intention of holding another DGS Australian Meeting in the future. She had received email enquiries from members on possible Irish connections and hoped to further her research during her Dublin visit. The Chairman thanked Maureen Collins for everything she is doing for the DGS in Australia. 12) North American Secretary’s report Karen Dalton Preston reported to the meeting as follows: Facebook - Recognizing the value of social media, there is now a DGS presence on Facebook. It is hoped that this will put the Society in front of a younger audience and help to attract new members. There are currently Facebook pages for the DGS, for DGS North America and for the Dalton Data Bank. There are also two very active Facebook group pages for descendants of specific Dalton family lines. Membership - As at July 2013, there are 90 North American members (85 in the US, 5 in Canada). Of these, 30 US members submit their dues by PayPal and 11 members have opted to renew automatically via a PayPal annual subscription. 8 new memberships have been received in the past 12 months. However several new members who joined in the previous year failed to renew their membership. Those members who were sent renewal notices, but who failed to renew their memberships have had their membership status changed in the Member Database and have been noted as "cancelled for non-payment of dues". Corporate Entity & Tax-exempt Status - DGS North America continues to be a non-profit corporation, registered in Nevada, and a tax exempt 501(c) 3 entity under US IRS tax code. Our Corporate Registration was renewed in December 2012, and we are in good standing through to December 2013, when our annual renewal fees will again be due. Financial Report - As at 15 July 2013, cash in hand in the DGS North America bank account was US$3,265.97, and there was balance of $716.43 in the PayPal account. A balance of $2,500 must be maintained in the DGS North America bank account to continue qualifying for all monthly account maintenance fees to be waived. On 15 July 2013, the total cash balance stood at $3,982.40 and DGS North America continues to be a 501(c) 3 tax exempt non-profit entity in good standing with the IRS. The Chairman thanked Karen Dalton Preston for her most comprehensive report. 13) Irish Secretary’s report No report submitted. [Note subsequent to the meeting: Ciaran Dalton advised that he wished to stand down as Irish Secretary and Bernie Walsh accepted an invitation to take over this post. The DGS thanks Ciaran for his work as Irish Secretary and in particular for the very successful and much enjoyed DGS Gathering held in Birr, Co Offaly in 2008. Ciaran will remain as the Clan Chieftain of Clan Dalton, which continues to be registered with The Clans of Ireland.] 14) Forthcoming gatherings and AGMs It was announced that the 2014 gathering will take place over the weekend of Fri/Sat/Sun 12/13/14 September in Norfolk, and will be based at the Park Farm Country Hotel near Norwich. Further details will be published on the website and in the next issue of the DGS Journal. It is planned that the 2015 gathering will be held in Virginia, USA, probably in September; and that there will be a return to South Wales in 2016. 15) Any other business Michael Neale Dalton highlighted a new book entitled ‘Memories of my Native Sod’ by Michael Dalton from Co Roscommon, which described life on farms in the west of Ireland in early days. [Note: 10 copies of this book were purchased by members following the meeting.] He looked forward to the Annual Dinner to be held in the Liffey Suite in the Ashling Hotel that evening. 16) Close There being no further business the meeting was formally closed at 11.10 am. |