This one's been kicking around for a few days, but you may have missed it - and that is the General Register Office Survey. OK, it might not seem like major news, but judging by the tone of some of the questions it seems as if the authorities may be flirting with the possibility of a partnership with one of the genealogical big boys. Seems like a good opportunity, too, to tell them to introduce a watered down info service for us genealogists (rather than forking out for full certificates all the time).
Some advance warning about the London History Festival at Kensington Central Library and Waterstones Kensington during 14th-24th November - see the dedicated websites, here and here (not sure if it's all happening in Kensington or if the festival is a city-wide occasion). I'll give you another reminder nearer the time, by which time more information may have come to light. Oh, I've just spotted this pdf, too.
Another Podcast from TNA is available here (Out of the Way of Mischief).
I've noticed a couple of GENUKI county pages have been updated of late - Devon and Lincolnshire.
And I was quite taken by the release of an interesting piece of software, namely, Personal Historian 2. OK, so it'll be all North American and all that entails, but it's an interesting concept and made me wonder if there's anything similar on the UK market. If anyone can help me out - or has experience of the US package - do get in touch.
ARTICLES
In a similar vein, check out this (again, North American) news feature on the release of the new Kindle line-up. Now I haven't got one yet, and it'll be interesting to see if e-books really do take off like The Armchair Genealogist predicts. Though I think we're a wee bit behind the US on that score (as with most other things!)
MEDIA NEWS
There's a little background information to last night's WDYTYA? episode on the BBC to be found here.
And there's also a couple of other items of note on the same website: forthcoming TV/Radio, and the BBC's Turn Back Time programme are looking for participants for their next series.
OH, ALMOST FORGOT...
Two Irish events:
- Friday 30th September - Celebrating Cork Past Exhibition;
- Saturday 1st October - Dublin City Library & Archive Local History Day (might be too late for this one, but give them a ring - you may be able to secure a place).
Mick, the article about Kindles is really rather interesting. It misses two things: one is that while a proper physical Kindle still costs £100-odd, a software version to run on my laptop costs me nothing.
ReplyDeleteBut the other thing is that many small family history societies could conceivably find it a godsend. We (the CIFHS in Jersey) have produced book indexes to five censuses, and printing costs are a major issue (to get a reasonable price needs a decent print run, but that then means we have a hefty overhead of leftover books; on top of this the cost of postage often more than doubles prices to our more distant members. This could be a sizeable step forward...
Thanks James. I suppose that like everything else, e-books and e-book readers will find a 'level' in the market. Maybe it will take a new generation of genealogists to come through for them to really take off on the family history scene - and us oldies will be stuck with our musty old books!
ReplyDeleteHey the article is quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteNice one...keep updating.
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