RootsChat.Com

I have mixed feelings about the issue of privacy.  I agree that privacy must be maintained for the "living".  I also know that access to records that have been most valuable and meeting 'cousins', however distant along the tree or geographically based, has been as a direct result of open records, open forum, open trees etc etc etc.  This makes privacy problematic.  The platform we are seeking must then reflect the boundaries that we are willing to agree to as a collective, not as an individual.  Things like do we use our real names, are we obliged to do look ups or research for fellow members in our own locale, what is the cost of maintaining the site, what are the rules for sharing information that we consider 'personal', how do we decide who can join, who is willing to moderate (decide the difference between a good or bad controversy and/or flaming) or or give tech support.  Most importantly, what is our goal or philosophy: to trudge the paths of our ancestors in an effort to link ourselves to family and to history and to flesh out the stories, documents and photos to be shared with future generations.

Speaking for myself, I have been a member of both paid and unpaid sites for many years.  Most of the "information and the "contacts", I have enjoyed have been through ancestry.ca and .uk, roots, LDS Family History Library, Griffiths, PRONI, etc

For my nickle, I would like to see how we could use sites *like* ancestry because they are user-friendly and willing to expand the genre.  Let's face this fact, as new records become available, genealogy sites like ancestry will provide the technology to let patrons add-to, link and cross link the records.  Moreover, anyone 'new' researching is going to hit the big sites at one time or another for a free trial and it will be our duty to bring them into the fold for general Pentland intro, exchange, education and to support them in their search because... eventually one individual's energy and their family search will pull the final thread between Ireland and Scotland.

The other best nickle I have spent is taking online course(s) through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies in partnership with the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada).  The basic course support analysis, record keeping, electronic and paper sources, methodology, but most important to me it stresses the need for proper sourcing.  Sourcing allows other people to review the record and to decide for themselves whether it has merit.  Hey, I am an anthropologist so truths to me are subjective!! Further sourcing gives proper attention to those who did the work or those who maintain the right to certain original property such as family photos etc.

Hey Roxanna:  I noted several references to Alexander Pentland/Pentleton.

remember at this time "freeholder" meant you could vote

Barony of O'Neiland-West-Registered Freeholders - Page 39
No 1819
Freeholder Pentleton, Alexander
Place of Abode Ballyworkin
Name of Landlord Mr. Bennison [my note that there is a Bennison Pentland later on in this place]
Names and Lives or other Tenure:  Alexander, John & George Pentleton
Date of Registry 19 Novr 1818
---
1826
Elector's Name Pendleton, Alexander
Place of Abode Ballyworkin
Parish Drumcree
Observations:  [note: much is illegible to me, but] "No registry or certificate produced although required [note:if you could not produce this you could not vote] and that ----- asked for whom he voted he stated Brownlow not withstanding ---- his vote is ---- for Mr Verner  ... rejected [note: his vote was, in any case, rejected]
---
Application to Register Freehold - June 1829
No 785
Alex Pentland
Ballyworkan
[does not show whether it was registered or rejected]
----
I am not sure how my Thomas Pentland got his land in Ballyworkan, but I know that one of his son's , Jeremiah, inherited from his Uncle William Gibson.  I am still looking for "where" & "when" father Thomas and kids includ Jeremiah were born, just assuming all the kids were born in Ballyworkan since their mom and dad were married there.  So I am following the Ballyworkan trail and found the early reference to Alexander, John & George.

Here is a photo of the long view of two Pentland plots in Mullavilly with the marker of which I was speaking for William of 1863 and for Jessie of 1973 in the background (the light gray site).  The darker site, in the foreground is also Pentland of Ballyworkan, but with more recent dates (John S. died 1999 age 66; Annie died 1950 age 46; and Thomas Henry died 1983 age 91).  Also in between there is a floral urn for Frederick in memoriam, but no dates.

In another site there is a marker for Ann Pentland died 1876 age 45 and George her husband who died at Ballylisk in 1873 at 64 and son W.H. who died in in action in 1916 at age 45 (also names of Whiteside & Redpath).

There may be more markers at Mullavilly, but my sister lost her photo disk !!

Arthur:  I am sure that somehow we are then related as Ballyworkan is a very small place.  Did you know that in Ballyworkan there is a rural road called Harcourt's Hill upon which my gg grandfather lived?  I took a picture of it and the abandoned house when I visited there in 2002.

My gg paternal grandmother was Martha Gibson, born around 1832 and perhaps we could speculate was a sister to Jane?  She married Thomas Pentland and their children were Maggie Anne, John, Elizabeth Mary, Jane, Martha and Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah Pentland was my gg, born in 1863, and who also lived and raised his family in Ballyworkan just down the road from Thomas.  Many of the Pentlands were buried in Drumcree or Seagoe Church cemetaries, but I regret not making time to see, or bumping into, any Gibson graves.  I am trying to piece together 'where' the families were in proximity to each other in order through various online records.  I found that there was another spelling for Ballyworkan, like many places, but this was well before the Battle of the Boyne. After the process of elimination using the Pender's Census of Ireland from 1659, I believe the spelling was then Bollymurhan in the Oneyland Cones.  According to this census, there were (but likely not including servants) 20 people on the 'land' of Bollymurhan, 10 being English or Scotts and 10 being Irish.  The tituladoe named was Mr Amlett OBoyns.
Alison ps I am in Canada

Piecing together these documents if fun, but time consuming.