New Genealogy Website

A new website is available for searches of the UK Census Returns & BMDs 1837-2005 - see an overview of the site here (later note: this link now appears to be broken - go direct, here), Though I haven't looked at it in any great detail myself, it appears that you can only really get anything out of it by committing to a subscription (my attempts at the 'free search' feature brought me nothing). Still, though, looks promising - keep an eye out for other online mentions/reviews of the same.

I see Ancestry.com has reached the 2 million subscriber mark.

Blogger Alan Stewart has spotted this offer from Origin.net concerning a free wills search on 4th July.

Recent posts on the splendid Public Libraries News blog have featured several items concerning the future of our libraries - among them, recent utterances by Ed Vaizey MP (the guy responsible for the country's libraries) and an announcement by CILIP regarding the use of volunteers in the sector.

What about events for the next few days? Well, there's not much happening! As far as I can tell, this is it...

• Saturday 7th July - Alnwick Book Fair;
• Postcard Fairs at Exeter (7th), Haywards Heath (7th), Chichester (7th) & Birmingham (8th) - see here. Please check with organisers before travelling any great distance.
• BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

There are a few news items to catch up with at the Irish Genealogy News blog. I shall not pinch Claire's stories - so if you're interested in Cork, Kilkenny, the RootsIreland website, forthcoming Irish events for July, or the Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives, then you need to click on the link above! Thanks Claire.

Blogger Ruth Blair has flagged an interesting venture: the Mapping Memories to Women in Scotland project - see her post here. Ruth is also planning a research trip / tour of Ireland for North American genealogists!

Check out the BI-Gen Twitter feed for more news (though it's been a bit quiet lately!).

M.I. from Somerset:

Here lies Tommy Montague,

Whose love for angling daily grew;

He died, regretted, while late out,

To make a capture of a trout.