Genealogy News - 30th October

TNA is currently promoting its latest project, namely, the digitisation of the WWI Military Service Tribunal records - see also here. And here's a related blog post.

The BBC's WWI 'special' may be of interest to you.

WDYTYA? Magazine is offering a free book for subscribers.

Gresham College, London, has unveiled its talks schedule for November (all free, and open to all).

The latest podcast from TNA can be found here.

A few useful leads from blogger Chris Paton:

• Special offer from Cassini Maps;
• Genealogy courses in Limerick;
• Kent and Northumberland records on FamilySearch.

There is some useful guidance on Poor Relief in Scotland from Kirsty Wilkinson, here.

Another reminder about one of the hazards of historical research: many institutions close for stocktaking towards the end of the calendar year. For example, Anglesey Archives is shutting up shop soon.

Here's an interesting problem for young researchers of the future.

Hey, and this is a great story - all about being descended from a serial killer.

In the never-ending quest for a world family tree, see this preview of the new 'Family Tree' concept which is due for release by FamilySearch in a few month's time.

I thought that some of you may find this book review on Scottish research useful.

Forthcoming events can be summarised thus:

• Saturday 3rd November - West Surrey FHS Open Day & Family History Fair, Woking;
• Saturday 3rd November - Quaker FHS Seminar/Conference, Durham (be quick, mind!);
• Saturday 3rd November - Devizes Book Fair;
• Saturday 3rd November - Surrey Military Book Fair;
• Saturday 3rd November - Haydock Park Book Fair;
• Sunday 4th November - Chelmsford Book Fair;
• Irish events 1;
• Irish events 2;
• Forthcoming Postcard Fairs (check with organisers before travelling a long way);
• The BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

More news items can be viewed via the BI-Gen Twitter feed. A reminder that you don't have to formally 'follow me' or even join Twitter to access the link. But a 'follow' would be nice!

Kindle (and even non-Kindle owners) please take note of the following. Please leave a review on the Amazon website if you can spare the time. Thanks!

Now available on Kindle:

Family & Local History Quiz Book

Dead End Hobby: Oddments from the World of Family History

In the News: the 1970s

Please leave some feedback on the Amazon website if you've bought a Kindle product of mine. 
BTW, you don't need a Kindle Reader to buy a Kindle version of a book - see here for the 'Kindle for PC' app ... it's what I use - Mick

Gentlemen, it seems that times have changed...

Jewellery for Men

Genealogy News - 26th October

First of all, here's a good read for you: the latest Lost Cousins Newsletter. Unmissable.

I see that Ancestry have thrown open the gates as regards access to their AncestryDNA testing service.

Ancestry's 'updates page' is worth a visit, too - especially if you have Warwickshire or London roots. More info on the former here; more on the latter here.

The return of the Find My Past TV show is imminent.

The FindMyPast website has added yet more records to their London Docklands collection.

And as for FindMyPast Ireland, here's more info on that recent release of Byrne's Irish Times Abstracts.

On the subject of Ireland, here are a few highlights from Claire Santry's 'Irish Genealogy News' blog:

• Tales of Medieval Dublin videos;
• Dublin exhibition/events;
• Latest episode of The Gathering - Homeward Bound.

Here are a couple of good spots by Chris Paton:

• New Family Tree comedy TV series;
• Discover My Past Scotland (& England) offers.

There's a useful post from Audrey Collins about the new GOV.UK website.

Derbyshire researchers will want to catch up on this item about their county's archives service.

There's more info about the WWI Family History Roadshow in Limerick on 5th November, here. And, prior to that, there is a similar WWI get-together at Banbury in Oxfordshire (see also here).

Latest from the BBC's HistoryExtra website:

• The week's 'History Headlines';
• Latest Podcast;
• Forthcoming history TV & radio.

More news snippets at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.

And don't forget to help out with e-Books4Charity! (thanks to those who have done so already, including spreading the word about the venture - please help if you can via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever).

From 'The Georgian Bawdyhouse'...

The Hasty Marriage

Genealogy News - 23rd October

A couple of posts have popped up on Dick Eastman's blog which are of some interest. The first concerns the buy-out of Ancestry (another version of the story can be found here) and the other relates to a new genealogy Q&A site (US biased, by the looks of it).

Here's news of the 'big one' - ticket news for February's WDYTYA? Fair.

The latest newsletter from the Scottish Council on Archives can be accessed here.

A new release from FindMyPast Ireland: Byrne's Irish Times Abstracts, 1859-1901.

FindMyPast also have a special post on the family history of celebrity Gabby Logan.

We should all take note of Audrey Collins' latest post on TNA's blog, The National Archives of... where, exactly?

There's a worldwide genealogy news round-up from GenealogyInTime, here.

Alan Stewart blogs about newly-available African & Caribbean telephone directories.

Some interesting comments and guidance about online published genealogical material can be found here.

Ruth Blair has a month's worth of tips on 'background research' for your family history.

A couple of new/revamped websites:

• Home Front History;
• The National Museum: Royal Navy.

History news/links round-up from the Two Nerdy History Girls.

Latest BBC HistoryExtra Podcast.

Fans of the Europeana website may wish to sample its proposed new portal.

Forthcoming events...

• Saturday 27th October - Swansea Museum Book Fair;
• Saturday 27th October - Lyme Regis Book Fair;
• Saturday 27th October - Uppingham Book Fair;
• Sunday 28th October - Northumberland History Fair, Woodhorn, nr Ashington;
• November timetable for SoG lectures, etc;
• Forthcoming talks by Scottish FHSs;
• Forthcoming Postcard Fairs (please check with organisers before travelling a long way);
• A little bit of advance warning about the National Library of Ireland's first in a series of WWI roadshows;
• The BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

And keep up-to-date with the latest news, etc, at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.

Thanks to @AbroadintheYard on Twitter for this...

1871 Census: what our ancestors thought of it.

Genealogy News - 19th October

First of all, a big THANK YOU to those who have sent me messages of support re. the new e-Books4Charity venture - especially those who have bought a book or two! Prospective e-book authors (as well as potential customers) please call in and have a look around.


The genealogy world has not exactly been overflowing with major headlines this week. Anyway, here's what I have for you...

FindMyPast and GenesReunited are offering free access to transcripts of the 1911 Census for England/Wales/Channel Islands/Isle of Man until 18th November. In addition to this they have also reduced the cost of viewing the original images.

DeceasedOnline have added Woolwich Cemetery records to their holdings.

If you want to catch up on this week's WDYTYA? episode, see here.

A few items from The National Archives:

• Celebrating diversity at TNA;
• New delegates sought for User Advisory Group;
• Latest Podcast.

Thanks to @scotsdiaspora on Twitter for pointing out next month's 'Scotland's History Festival'.

Here are a few (of the many) announcements from Claire Santry's Irish Genealogy News blog this week:

• Cork Historic Graves Project;
• Derry Census news;
• Maynooth Conference.

And from the BBC's HistoryExtra site:

• The week's 'History Headlines';
• Forthcoming history TV/radio.

The BI-Gen Twitter feed will bring you more news over the weekend. If I get any.

Now available on Kindle:

Family & Local History Quiz Book

Dead End Hobby: Oddments from the World of Family History

In the News: the 1970s

Please leave some feedback on the Amazon website if you've bought a Kindle product of mine. 
BTW, you don't need a Kindle Reader to buy a Kindle version of a book - see here for the 'Kindle for PC' app ... it's what I use - Mick


The 18th Century gay scene...

Molly Houses

e-Books4Charity Launch

OK, folks, here's the new venture.

It's taken me ages to get this sorted so I hope you will give it a glance and, perhaps, jump on board in some shape or form. I'll be pestering you to do so at every turn over the coming weeks, so best just get it out of the way now!

Please try to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, etc. ... and by old-fashioned word-of-mouth, even.

(Kindle lovers: please note the special offer on the Quiz Book)

All you need to know can be found at:

e-Books4Charity

Genealogy News - 16th October

An important news item from the British Library website concerning happenings in the House of Commons is worthy of note to us local and family historians. This is likely to make a big difference to what is made available online in future years, so fingers crossed.

The latest updates to the FamilySearch website can be found here (containing lots and lots of stuff for England and Wales!).

Ancestry have also added another batch of browse-only texts covering many areas of the UK & Ireland. Check out their 'updates page' for further details.

GenealogyInTime has provided a nice overview of recent global news from the genealogy world.

Blogger Claire Santry has provided some very useful reports from Ireland's 'Back To Our Past' Fair (Day One, Day Two & Day Three). Lots of family history news in there, so do have a read. See, also, Claire's report on the latest from the Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives.

I have been notified of two new books from Ireland, which will be of great interest to those with Westmeath and Sligo ancestry.

A new release from the Catholic FHS (Lancashire material).

I recently fell upon this news item about a website devoted to Methodist ancestors.

A good spot by Chris Paton: the new website of the Scottish Council on Archives.

A little bit of Northants news from the FFHS website.

London theatre forms the subject matter of the latest TNA Podcast.

Here's your weekly round-up of history links from the Two Nerdy History Girls.

Food for thought from blogger John D Reid about errors in our research.

The latest history crossword from HistoryToday magazine is now available.

And here's your round-up of forthcoming events:

• Saturday 20th October - Suffolk FH Fair & AGM, Needham Market;
• Saturday 20th October - Catholic FHS Conference, London;
• Saturday 20th October - Edinburgh Book Fair;
• Saturday 20th October - Folkestone Book Fair;
• Saturday 20th October - Military History Conference, IWM (be quick!);
• Sunday 21st October - Poole Book Fair;
• Sunday 21st October - Warlingham Heritage Showcase, Surrey;
• Sunday 21st October - Storrington FH Day, West Sussex;
• Wednesday 24th October - Welsh Archive Day (but where? Aberystwyth?) - you may wish to chase this up if you're interested;
• London researchers may wish to browse the 'events page' of the Archives for London website;
• Forthcoming Postcard Fairs (please check with organisers before travelling a long distance);
• The BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

Do keep in touch with other various going-on via the BI-Gen Twitter Feed.

Oh, and I shall be releasing full details about my 'eBooks for Charity' venture tomorrow, so do drop by to see if you can help out in some way - either as a contributor or customer, or both!

Genealogy News - 12th October

First of all may I offer my apologies for any disruption to your digital world caused by the recent (and, indeed, on-going) redesign of the blog. Not a great deal has changed content-wise, and I'm still in the process of clearing out the dead links in the tabbed sections above. Also trying to get the 'e-books for charity' idea up and running, too - more on that next week. OK, let's get on with it...

DeceasedOnline have now uploaded all records for their 'Greenwich Cemetery Collection' spanning 1856-1902.

FindMyPast have added 56 million new Australian & New Zealand records.

Episode 11 of 'The Family History Show' is now available online (Hertfordshire researchers take note!).

Little bit of a run of activity at the WDYTYA? website:

• More info on the Celia Imrie WDYTYA? episode;
• Records pertaining to British activity in the Gulf;
• November issue of WDYTYA? Magazine.

I think I should give the SoG's Open Day another mention (Monday 15th October).

The latest edition of Ireland's Genealogical Gazette is available here.

And Irish folk may be interested in the new genea-based TV show, The Gathering: Homeward Bound - see here and here (thanks Chris and Claire)

Here's a new '1930s Britain' resource from TNA.

Thanks to blogger Claire Santry for highlighting this series of lectures in Belfast.

Family historians who use both Ancestry and Facebook may be interested in this announcement.

The folks at Your Family Tree Magazine have details of their latest issue, here, + free downloads, here.

A new issue of History Today magazine has also been released.

From the BBC's HistoryExtra website:

• The week's 'History Headlines';
• Latest Podcast;
• Latest issue of BBC History Magazine;
• Forthcoming history TV/radio.

More news, etc., at the BI-Gen Twitter feed.

Civilised servants?!...

The Changing Nature of Servants

Blog Revamp

As you will have noticed, I am in the process of redesigning the layout of the blog. This will take some time to complete, so please bear with me (some bits of the site may disappear, then re-appear, etc!). I will also be making an important announcement about a new area I will be venturing into soon, so do keep calling in...

Mick.

Genealogy News - 9th October

Towards the end of the calendar year a lot of archives and record offices close temporarily for stock-taking and the like, so always take a little extra care if travelling a long distance to do a bit of research. One especially noticeable closure is that involving the Dorset History Centre - see here.

GenesReunited have announced some new features on their website - see here and here.

The latest Parish Chest eNewsletter is now available - remember to scroll down for all the latest releases.

Irish researchers may wish to check out the latest Eneclann eNewsletter.

Good news for Warwickshire researchers from TNA.

Thanks to James McLaren for pointing out this appeal to help save the archives of Ruskin College, Oxford.

Tips on using the DeceasedOnline database can be found here.

Some interesting questions are posed by this article, entitled When Branches Tangle in a Stepfamily Tree (thanks to @MyHeritage on Twitter)

This forthcoming TV show looks like it may be interesting to us genealogists (thanks to @DebbieKennett on Twitter).

If you're interested in the AncestryDNA service, then take a look at this post on the Ancestry blog. Take note of the second-last paragraph.

Those with research interests in Clerkenwell, London, will want to have a look at this blog post.

Here's your weekly dose of history links, etc., from the Two Nerdy History Girls.

OK, it's from an American angle, but I still found this post of 'Top 10 Genealogy Tools' interesting.

Forthcoming events...

• Friday 12th to Sunday 14th October - 'Back To Our Past' FH Fair, Dublin (see also here);
• Saturday 13th October - Glamorgan FHS FH Fair, Merthyr Tydfil;
• Saturday 13th October - Border History Group Fair, Burslem;
• Saturday 13th October - Andover FH Roadshow;
• Saturday 13th October - Bury St.Edmunds Book Fair;
• Saturday 13th October - 'Further Steps in Family History' day course, Birmingham (need to book);
• Sunday 14th October - Hastings & Rother FHS FH Fair, Hastings;
• Forthcoming Postcard Fairs (please check with organisers before travelling a long distance);
• The BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

More news, etc., available via the BI-Gen Twitter feed.

Genealogy News - 5th October

Another edition of the Lost Cousins newsletter is now available - please don't miss out, as it's another good 'un.

The latest issue of the free Irish Lives Remembered is available, too.

More Irish stuff (forthcoming events) here.

Essex Record Office's latest e-bulletin can be found here.

Military enthusiasts will want to check out the latest news from Warfare.

Here's an event for tomorrow in Northern Ireland which I'd overlooked.

A new index/register of English stillbirths is on the way.

I see WikiTree seems to be getting back into the swing of things - see here.

Here's a 'free entry' ticket for next week's 'Back To Our Past' fair in Dublin.

Some of you may be interested in these forthcoming courses from the Institute of Heraldic & Genealogical Studies.

Time for another mention of the regular online newsletter from Electric Scotland.

A couple of recent posts on the 'Mad About Genealogy' blog are worthy of mention:

• Hampshire records on Ancestry;
• Home Guard records on Forces War Records site.

If you can be bothered to follow the 'Ancestry buy-out' rumours, then you'll want to take in the latest here. And there's been another addition to the Ancestry 'team' with their purchase of 1000memories.

Strange piece about the woman who married her own father - accidentally, that is. (thanks to @DebbieKennett on Twitter).

And here's a thought-provoking piece about how the Internet is helping to make us immortal.

News from the British Library Document Supply Service.

From the BBC HistoryExtra website:

• 'History headlines';
• Latest Podcast;
• TV/radio for the coming week.

And the BI-Gen Twitter feed can be followed here.

Genealogy News - 2nd October

Quite a few e-newsletters up for grabs. First up is the September e-zine from the FFHS.

The latest e-newsletter from the National Library of Ireland is now available.

And here's the latest similar offering from the National Library of Scotland.

The CWGC has also published its October e-newsletter.

Here's an interesting (and, on the face of it, quite shocking) story about how one local authority has taken to raising funds - see here.

The latest about the demise of the Women's Library can be found here.

Some useful advice for Catholic research.

Social history goings-on in Wales can be examined here.

Welsh researchers may also wish to follow up this story about Welsh PRs (have not done so myself, admittedly)

Here's news of some Roscommon records.

Ancestry has issued another lengthy list of digitised publications.

Here's an announcement about Ancestry's 'World Archives Project'.

Nicola Elsom has been playing catch-up with her blog with a series of WDYTYA?-inspired posts - see here, and scroll down.

The weekly round-up of history stuff from the Two Nerdy History Girls can be found here.

This looks like a cracking (if naughty) read.

The latest BBC HistoryExtra Podcast is up for grabs here.

Forthcoming events:

• Saturday 6th October - Oxfordshire FHS Open Day, nr Woodstock;
• Saturday 6th October - Surrey History Centre Open Day;
• Saturday 6th October - Sherborne Book Fair;
• Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th October - Dublin Book Fair;
• 12th to 14th October - Back To Our Past FH Fair, Dublin;
• Monday 15th October - SoG's Annual Autumn Open Day;
• Saturday 20th October - Catholic FHS Day Conference, London;
• Something for folk in the SW of England - click here, and see entry for 29th September;
• Upcoming Postcard Fairs can be found here (please check with organisers before travelling a long distance);
• BBC's 'Things To Do' page.

A couple of little reminders:

• The BI-Gen Twitter feed;
• Saturday's special 'appeal'. I've already had a few messages of support - can you offer anything?

Think I'll recommend this website/blog of unusual historical stories, with their latest round-up of oddities...

Bizarre History