Sunday 24 April 2011

UK, GB, BI ... etc.

ARTICLES

Even though I'm a UK-based researcher, I am still occasionally caught out by questions concerning which bits of the British Isles go where.  What exactly is the 'United Kingdom'? Or the 'British Isles'? You know the sort of thing.  Well, with the passing of St.George's Day (yesterday), I was reminded of the problem by Audrey Collins on her always-interesting 'The Family Recorder' blog - see here.  Audrey's piece merely touches on the issue, of course, but I always find the famous Euler diagram useful:-


For those who wish to confuse themselves further, take a look at the Wikipedia article from which the diagram was taken, here.  There are several subtly different versions of the above illustration on the Internet, but I reckon the one shown is near enough correct ... unless someone thinks differently!?

On another topic entirely, MyHeritage discuss supercentenarians on their blog, here.  A short piece, but with one or two useful links to further information.

NEWS

The GOONS has issued a reminder about its forthcoming Mining Seminar to be held in Northumberland on Saturday 21st May - so I'm assuming that there are still places available!

OK, so it's not British/Irish news, but Ancestry are offering free access to their Canadian marriages during 22nd-30th April - to add to the existent offer for their England/Wales marriage indexes.  See here for more information.

ON THIS DAY

1916:  Easter Rising begins in Ireland.  More than 250 civilians are killed and 2,000+ injured in the week-long revolt against British rule in Ireland.

6 comments:

  1. The diagram looks pretty good to me (and aesthetically quite pleasing too). Thanks for the kind comment about my blog, and for the link.

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  2. Mick - found your blog through the GeneaBloggers website. My family comes from the London area, but my mother-in-law is from Yorkshire (Thurlstone, Penistone, etc). Do you research in this area?

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  3. Hi Cindy - I have some genealogical interests in the London area, but nothing going back very far. Ironically, though, most of my surviving close cousins live in the capital. My grandmother came from Sheffield (surname Richards), but I haven't done much in the way of research in the area. Otherwise it's mainly NE England, the West Midlands and Cumbria.

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  4. Nice job! But to be a slight pedant this omits the RoI's minor islands, so we could argue the chart would be enhanced by an extra red circle outside "Ireland". "Ireland's islands" perhaps?

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    1. Isn't there a doubt as to whether Great Britain includes the many small islands around these shores?

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  5. Pretty good, apart from "British Islands" - I've not heard that anywhere (British Isles exluding the Republic of Ireland).

    It would also be instructive (although complex) to indicate EU membership (all of the above minus IoM and CI).

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