Thursday 2 February 2012

National Libraries Day


Many of you will be aware of the fact that it's National Libraries Day on Saturday 4th February. As a family/local historian I trust that you yourself don't need any encouragement to offer support to your local institution, but perhaps you can persuade your friends and family to show a bit of interest in the subject matter and get them involved in whatever's going on in your neck of the woods this weekend. The dedicated website is here, and do check out your own locality for events, and the like.

Talking of libraries, here's the National Library of Ireland's February E-Newsletter. I especially like the new online 'Events Archive' (direct link here).

FindMyPast's latest record release is the Thames Watermen and Lightermen records, 1688-2010 (almost 100,000 records).

Thanks to the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog for pointing out that the FreeBMD website has recently been updated - see the relevant blog post here. FreeBMD site here.

And thanks again to the same source for pointing out Family Tree Magazine's helpful 'hints' page - see John's post here.

In a similar vein, Ruth Blair has a neat list of daily research tips on the theme of 'organisation'.

Several sources mention an interesting online discussion/interview on the topic of 'History in the Digital Age' from the University of Warwick.

Map enthusiasts may wish to check out Ordnance Survey's recent blog post on the subject of their 'KnowledgeBase' page.

There's a 10% off deal for new subscribers to HistoryToday Magazine.

And I have one addition to make to this weekend's 'events listing', namely a Postcard Fair (+ cigarette cards & stamps) at County Hall, Durham, on Saturday 4th February (10am-3pm). Contact info: Gareth Burgess on (01368) 860365.

From Twitter:




From the Sunday Reporter of 20th October 1805:

Oct.7th. At Alstonfield in Staffs, Mr Wm Billinge, aged 85, [married] to Miss Hannah Wheldon, aged 15. The happy couple on that morning walked 15 miles in three hours and a half.

(thanks to Freda Zoeteweij)

For more such archival nonsense, see Dead End Hobby at the top-right of this blog.

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