OGA Causing a Stir

NEWS

Regular readers of this blog will be no strangers to the OGA - the Open Genealogy Alliance - who are campaigning for free (or at least cheaper) access to major online genealogical datasets.  For the full story, see their website.  Anyway, it seems that they are beginning to make an impact in the genealogical world, for the SoG blog has passed comment on the goings-on, here.  The SoG's blog is not one to feature much in the way of comment of this sort, so this story could get a good deal bigger in the coming months.

Spotted on Alan Stewart's blog is mention of an important addition to the British History Online website, here - big news indeed if you've got London ancestors pre-1700.  In case you just feel like skipping over this one, we're talking about (among other things) the Hearth Tax records for London, Westminster and Middlesex - wow!

WEBSITES

An interesting collection of facts on the 1911 Scottish Census can be found here.

The Europeana website has branched out with a sister site called Europeana Libraries - a two-year project to get 5million items from 19 continental repositories online.  Lovely.

ARTICLES

Blogger John Reid has also flagged this interesting BBC article about shortage of burial space in Wales.  Well, folk will keep dying.

MEDIA NEWS

Sorry, a bit late with this one.  TV & Radio stuff here.  If you've missed anything on the BBC, there's always the iPlayer, of course.

ON THIS DAY

Birth of...
William Wordsworth, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1770.

Death of...
Dick Turpin, highwayman - hung in York in 1739.

1827:  Inventor John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees sells the first friction matches.