Thought-Provoking Articles

ARTICLES

Well, nothing too taxing for your brain for a Monday, but I came across the following three pieces over the weekend which all set me thinking.

Firstly there's a shockingly sad (and just plain unlucky) article about an unsuspecting couple from South Africa who, when preparing for their wedding and the birth of their first child, discovered that they were rather closely related - see here. Raises the often carefully avoided subject of incest in our family trees, whether deliberate or accidental.

Another piece, flagged by Claire Santry, concerns a worthy photographic project from Ireland - but one with a rather more serious backdrop concerning the Catholic Church's extravagant exploits at an otherwise difficult period in the country's history. Catch the piece via Claire's blog post, here.

On a lighter note, there's an interesting look at why we study our family history at the MyHeritage site.

NEWS

A little bit of catch-up from John Reid's excellent Anglo-Celtic Connections blog now, where we are notified of the addition of more records to the FamilySearch site for both Norfolk and the Isle of Man. There's also a reminder about forthcoming Pharos courses.

A couple more items from Claire Santry's Irish Genealogy News blog next. More forthcoming talks and events have been pulled together, here; and Claire notifies us of the availability of some useful historical maps for Northern Ireland, here. Many of you will be familiar with these famous Alan Godfrey maps, of course, but now seems a good time to educate those of you who are not to have a look when you have a moment - with the official website to be found here.

The latest Parish Chest newsletter is now available, with its usual round-up of new releases from the world of genealogy.

Here's a handy listing of forthcoming events/workshops/courses on the Community Archives & Heritage Group's website.

And finally, here's a little bit of old (but still very relevant) advice from the IPS about how to avoid being ripped off when on the look-out for copies of B, M & D certificates. The advice applies to all certificates, of course, including historic ones from way back. [Thanks to the FFHS's Roger Lewry for this pointer].