Remembrance

NEWS

In addition to the free WWI material currently available at Ancestry (see yesterday's post), a few other military bits and pieces are popping up on the Internet - which is to be expected at this time of year. TNA has a special post on the topic here, which provides a few research pointers. And Lost Cousins have produced a special issue of their newsletter which has a distinctly military air to it - see here (plenty of other news in there, too, of course!). If anything else surfaces in the next day or two I'll let you know.

Before we leave Ancestry behind completely, overseas readers may be interested in their competition to 'Follow Your Roots to Europe'.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I think not, so here goes. Chris Paton has spotted a really interesting series of talks and events concerning Ballymena.

The British Library launches a new exhibition today, which runs until March next year - it's entitled Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination. Not of much relevance to genealogists, but worth a look if you're passing the place.

The next item concerns the West Yorkshire Archives Service and, more specifically, plans for their 'Leeds branch'. The text which follows comes via the FFHS and their 'informant', Jackie Depelle:

This is to provide you with some preliminary information on our plans for the service. I would be grateful if you would share it with others in your organisation who may be interested.

The Archive Service has been working with Leeds City Council to provide improved accommodation for and access to the irreplaceable archive collections relating to Leeds District. We have explored several options for potential sites and partnerships and have costed remedial work to the Art Deco Sheepscar building. The Sheepscar building has a number of problems related to its age and construction and the National Archives has declared it no longer fit for purpose. Having explored a range of other options, none of which proved to be workable or affordable, we have now received approval from the Executive Board of Leeds CC to move out of the Sheepscar building and convert space for storage and public access at the Joint Services HQ complex at Gildersome. This option provides the best storage and access we can achieve at a reasonable cost in the immediate future. It also means that the collections currently held at Sheepscar will be located at the same site as those Leeds collections currently housed in our modern outstore at Joint Services HQ. For the first time, nearly two-thirds of Leeds archives will be accommodated on the same site.

This project will provide:

• Much improved storage conditions for collections, ensuring their preservation
• Much improved security for collections, staff and customers
• Fully-accessible, modern, customer accommodation
• Free customer parking

We are planning for the new facilities to be ready in the third quarter of 2012. There will need to be a short time when the service cannot provide a public service, while the collections are in transit. We will make information available as soon as the timetable is finalised and keep that time to a minimum.

I am pleased to be able to assure you that, in spite of the problems the building gives us, no collections have been damaged. The staff and Conservation Team continue their vigilance and interventions and will ensure that archives remain safe until we can effect the move.

Katy Goodrum

Head of Archives

ARTICLES

Back to 'Remembrance' with a nice article on 'A History of Poppy Day' from Ros Bott.

And check out the BBC HistoryExtra website for their usual Friday offerings, with its heavy military bias this time around ('History Headlines', various blogs, and their latest Podcast - oh, and the December issue of their magazine is now out).

MEDIA NEWS

TV & Radio for the week ahead can be found here - as you can imagine, lots of military stuff to come. In addition to all those programmes listed, please see Chris Paton's post about the US WDYTYA? TV show (begins 16th).

OTHER STUFF

There are a couple of votes/surveys on the go at the HistoryToday website which may interest you (most important history book/historian of the past 60 years).