The latest Lost Cousins newsletter has plenty to say about the GRO and its fees system. Peter Calver, with his background in economics, suggests that the folk in charge have missed a trick and should be looking to reduce the cost of certified copies of BMD certificates. There is, of course, plenty more on offer in the bulletin, including news of free access to the Lost Cousins website over the festive period. Read all about it here.
The BritishGENES blog has picked up an important piece of news for those of you with Jewish ancestry.
TNA has issued another Podcast - this one's entitled Untold Histories: black Britons during the period of the British slave trade, c.1660-1807.
Two items from the British Library: firstly, a new sculpture by Antony Gormley has been unveiled (in these especially tough times for our branch libraries I trust it didn't cost too much?); and there's a new Victorian Christmas iPad app available for purchase.
And for all you Europhiles, here's the December newsletter from Europeana.
WEBSITES
Two useful and interesting online resources have been doing the rounds of late - and The Family Recorder blog does as good a job as any of explaining them to us: firstly, there's a post relating to the 'Locating London's Past' website; and secondly there's an introduction to the 'Edible Archive'.
ARTICLES
Having, as I do, an interest in the early days of organised football, I was intrigued by Christine Woodcock's post on the subject of pioneer women's football. Those early press reports make extraordinary reading. Oh, and have you seen my own footie book, here? (couldn't miss a chance like that to mention it, now, could I?).
MEDIA NEWS
Thursday night's Find My Past TV show can be previewed here (main website here.).
And one or two other TV programmes can be found here.
Please do not get me started about GRO...
ReplyDeleteI had the misfortune to lose my dad a few months ago. He spent the last twenty years of his life in France, so when it came to claiming on his insurance policy, the insurers demanded copies of various BM&D certificates. For French people this is no issue - in France access to certificates is a constitutional right and it costs nothing. But the British certificates cost upwards of £50...
Anyone up for storming Smedley Hydro next 14 July?
Sorry to hear about your loss, James. And very, very interesting to learn about the BMD certs set-up in France. 'Constitutional right', eh? Makes total sense when you think about it...
ReplyDelete