Wednesday 29 February 2012

News from the Fair & Further Afield


As reports from Saturday's WDYTYA? Fair begin to appear online, more news of current and forthcoming developments in the family history world are coming to the fore. A good place to start is the SoG report on proceedings from the keyboard of Else Churchill, who (among other things) assures us of the future of the WDYTYA? Fair and TV show - read her report here.

British GENES blog-master, Chris Paton, a highly active member of the genealogical world, has provided a string of reports on the event - the highlight of which is his 'news summary', here. There is mention in one of the 'comments' to Chris's post of the pending demise of Family History Monthly - which is indeed the case, with the last issue being, I understand, the April edition. Over 200 issues have been produced over the years. Strangely, the magazine's website doesn't give much away.

Away from the fair, another important and interesting get-together recently took place at Kingston University, namely the 'Archives, Digitisation and Heritage Tourism Workshop'. Many issues were discussed and debated - see the FFHS's report on proceedings.

The folk at Mocavo (the genealogy search engine) are currently promoting a special 'half price offer' for potential subscribers to their 'Mocavo Plus annual package'. Certainly worth a look - check it out here.

You may wish to take in the first episode of The Story of Wales on the BBC iPlayer (available until Monday 2nd April). More leads from the programme can be followed here.

Here are some interesting statistics about library use over the last few years.

The British Library has a new exhibition for literature fans entitled Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands (though it doesn't begin until May).

And the MyHeritage blog has a little tribute to Alex Haley of Roots fame, here. For my own 'tribute' (of sorts) see here.

From Twitter:




More from the 1816 census of Rothbury, Northumberland, and it's opinionated clergyman...

Robert Telford, aged 86, and his wife, who is much younger, and a son of 19 [?] who has long been sinking under a consumption ... a rude disagreeable youth. They have two Bibles and are Presbyterian.

George Arkle, aged 70, and his wife, 69, have a Bible and a Prayer book. Their cottage is as clean as could be expected under an open roof which is covered with cobwebs.

George Orde and his wife have two sons and a daughter, besides two who are out in service, the oldest 21. The house is clean, the people civil but Presbyterian. They have three Bibles.

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