Saturday, September 03, 2005

free genealogy databases for your ancestors

The Olive Tree Genealogysite is a very large complex undertaking. There are more than 1,700 pages (!!) full of free information to help you find your brick-wall ancestors
eg
Ontario Canada Census Records

Local history for Skjern

6900 Skjern
a really nice danish site but it needs a map

Danis census transcriptions

Kildeindtastninger

The Danish 1880 census is the next targeted indexing and transcription project

HTML: a great success

But has become a sort of Garden of Eden, with lots of Thou Shalt Nots in the form of guidelines

Accessibility guidelines
Usability guidelines
Internationalisation guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Device independence guidelines

etc, etc, etc

And these communities have all come to the HTML working group to ask for new facilities.
Steven Pemberton, W3C/ CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands pictures and maps

XHTML2: The next generation in the X/HTML family

Opera Browser Wiki :: The Opera 8 Web Browser and Internet Suite

the Welsh Ogre

ON-LINE GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH ENGINE: "Welcome to the On-line Genealogical Research Engine pilot project, which aims to provide a premier free service for on-line genealogical research.
The OGRE has grown out of a need to see an accessible, easy to use genealogical database which supports a generic data format for many different kinds of datasets, be it Baptisms, Census or War Memorial data. Whilst it is still in its infancy, it is the intention to make this one of the premier sources of Welsh genealogical data on the web. It is not the intention to compete with the likes of the I.G.I. (400 million records is quite a lot of typing), or the Free BMD project. It is also intended to be free to all researchers on the web, although some of the data sets are now available for sale to help with the running costs of the site."

status or stock taking

Now we are 102 listers Yahoo! Groups : WELSH FAMILIES
please make a first posting

list one brickwall (eg Mary Jones below)
or some surnames
or your special interests
(mine are one-name study LAPHAM
and JONES restricted to born or resident RAGLAN

or even better for example
your eight grandparents marriages
with details

Thomas Watkins
04 May 1821 Abergavenny
28 Mar 1879 Highmead Farm Llanfair Kilgeddin

= married at St.Davids, Llanarth ? speculative?

Margaret Bill
Bet. 28 Apr 1818 - 1822 Llanarth Mon (1891 Census)
11 Mar 1895 Ty Mawr farm Pontypool 11a 124

Edward Jones
Bef. Jan 1842 Raglan, Mon.
Abt. Jul 1900 Raglan, Mon.?

= 1 Mary Jones Mar 1869 Monmouth 11a 49 ?
1848 Llanvair Mon
Abt. May 1887 Raglan, Monmouthshire

= 2 Helen (Hellen or Ellen) Elizabeth Bliss
Abt. 1868 London or Penrose or ? Gt Tew, Oxford, England
aft 1901 probably London

"the step mother who drank up the family fortune"
and yes that is a good google string too

Alfred Lapham
23 FEB 1843 in Bristol [Somerset sic 1871 census] AMW BB child hand Grandpa,
AFT 1901.

= married 27 Sep 1868 St Andrew's church, Montpelier, Bristol Clifton 6a 190

Fanny Bartley Ball
BET 1836 AND 1837 in Pitchcombe Nr Stroud, Gloucestershire, England,
30 OCT 1920.

Philip Evans
ABT 1839 St Philips Bristol
AFT 1901

= married 06 May 1867 St Philip and St Jacob Parish Church number 499

Elizabeth Walker
born ABT 1842 St Philips Bristol
AFT 1901

I see I need to do more work on the welsh marriages too

still waiting for my suitcase taken in error to Wales from the track at BHX
when I flew home from Copenhagen

Friday, September 02, 2005

keeping up to date

I read ComputerWeekly.com and this story about XHTML caught my eye


IT Management HR & Skills
W3C's style sheet language can make life easier for web designers
by Nick Langley
Tuesday 23 August 2005
What is it?

Style sheets are used to define the presentation of HTML, XHTML and XML (Hot Skills, 9 August). HTML contains presentation elements, but these are being stripped out of XHTML2, so style sheet skills will be needed.

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) agrees the specifications for style sheets, which are...continues

XHMTL2

Bath 73,078 Births 170,201 Marriages

Bath Births Marriages & Deaths: "The Register Office in the district of Bath and North East Somerset, England, holds records of local births, marriages and deaths back to the start of civil registration in 1837.
Independent volunteers, are collaborating with the local Registration Service to make the indexes to these records freely searchable via the Internet.
Although the indexes are not yet complete for all years and districts, the database will eventually cover Bath and North East Somerset births, marriages and deaths for the years 1837 to 2004 and beyond. "

from usenet:
Just to let you all know that update 10 (the marriage part of it) has been added to the web site www.bathbmd.org.uk . This COMPLETES all marriages.
An addition of over 41,000 births will now be added and should be available in the next couple of days
Ros Portsmouth in the City of Bath

Simply brilliant work by volunteers

thank you all and well done

Thursday, September 01, 2005

The Glamorgan Mailing List

The Glamorgan Mailing List
with links to
Neighbouring Lists are:- Dyfed Cardiganshire Pembroke Powys Breconshire and Monmouthshire Useful Links

lost records and strays

Maritime Archives & Library | Tracing Seafaring Ancestors in the Merchant Navy: "After 1860, the volume of these documents was so great that the National Archives felt unable to justify preserving them all, and in 1970 the crew agreements were divided between a number of repositories:"

Guide to National Archives of Ireland: "Ireland is unusual among developed countries in having few census returns pre-dating the twentieth century, the great bulk of such records having been destroyed either as a result of war or of government order."

news from virtual Wales

Welsh Families : monfh2 is going well member number 100 just signed in today
For genealogy and help with family history in Wales, and even across the borders into Gloucestershire, and Mercia.

South Wales is of particular interest from Pembrokeshire and with the tide all along the Severn Channel, and up the Severn estuary and River Severn as far as the Severn Bore rolls.
Brecon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, Pembroke and Radnor with the Forest of Dean side of Gloucestershire

The parent group was down to 5 members after a spring clean with over 400 unsubscribed and now after a week or so with 33 serious researchers


Monmouthshire Family History. : monfh

For the discussion and research of Family History in the County of Monmouthshire where you can Post Messages, Chat, upload and download Pics & files,
There are Family History Website Links in Bookmarks, Place your F.H enquiries in the Database section. This is your Website so use it freely. for more information see below Group Email address.

MONMOUTHSHIRE Family History is Mike,s site being reconstructed using Dream Waeaver he told us.

snaps blogging again

new pictures on the snaps blog
Sorry there has been a bit of a gap

I was done in by Walking 6 kilometer = 3 3/4 miles
it really took me a week to recover

And then I couldn't get some pictures out of my old camera-phone and I had to learn the new

My danish friend particularly requested pictures of England so I better go for a walk anyway - oh and get weighed too :-)
guaranteed plus 3 kg I bet.

Tring to delete the blogged pictures but the Sony software crashed my desk top so must reboot next

Re: Family Tree Maker 2006

TWR Computing - software and data CDs for family historians and genealogists just caught Trevor Rix on the phone when placing my order for the update at a very fair price

I heard some very useful advice on quality of census images on CDs - he sells three different brands - so when you ring in with an order ask which he recommends.

Roots Magic 3 is being released soon - but I am sticking with FTM

scroll down to : "ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BLOCK OF CENSUS CDs FROM ARCHIVE CD BOOKS ARE VERY HIGH
QUALITY SCANNED IMAGES AND INCLUDE COMPREHENSIVE PLACE INDEXES
1861 Bedfordshire Census -- CDs £28.95
1841 Cambridgeshire Census -- CDs £18.45
1861 Cambridgeshire Census -- CDs £24.95
1861 Cheshire Census -- CDs £46.95
1841 Cornwall Census -- CDs £34.95
1861 Cornwall Census -- CDs £34.95
1871 Cornwall Census -- CDs £34.95
1881 Cornwall Census - St Austell registration district RG11 2299-2305 -- CD £6.
and lots and lots more further down


ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BLOCK OF CENSUS IMAGES FROM ANCESTRY.COM ARE FULLY INDEXED AND ARE
SEARCHABLE BY FORENAME, SURNAME, COUNTY, PARISH, DISTRICT, GENDER, AGE,
BIRTHPLACE COUNTY, BIRTHPLACE PARISH, PIECE, FOLIO AND PAGE
The coverage is the whole of the 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 Census of England, Wales & Channel Islands.

Back in England

Getting to know AOL: Back in England 0531 am sunrise

Not going to move it because it is partly AOL stuff anyway

Getting to know AOL that blog there should have been here

Met Office: Webcams

Met Office: Webcams: "Here are webcam images for a number of sites around the UK. Click on the numbers on the map, or the thumbnails below to see panoramic views from the webcams. The local observations can also be seen in graphical form"

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

updated DE LOPHAM

WorldConnect Project -- Connecting the World One GEDCOM at Time look at the timing of the previous post to see how long it takes
RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project User Setup/Edit
5 yearsof work safe
started family Tree Maker, exported as GEDCOM uploaded

RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: all LAPHAM

This database is currently being updated. It should be back online in a few minutes. Please wait for the screen to refresh with the updated information. - Indexing as a whole in about 24 hours
Done

GENEALOGE

Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Pages: WATKINS and LAPHAM of Monmouthshire and Bristol UK and my address and phone number

going off line now
if not back on tonight in Birmingham

It may be via the library computers later

one more update to RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: all LAPHAM to do

in case this old laptop gets lost stolen - or strays.
RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: WATKINS LAPHAM 2005 and RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Jones of Raglan Monmouthshire Wales were done last night

and RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Slægtstavler is driving me to the CPH aiport in 2 hours
-- THANKS

fridge cleaned up
coffee machine descaled

now shower, eat, last minute packing. Hugh W

Genlias - Zoek uw stamboom uit

Genlias - Zoek uw stamboom uit

The information in Genlias is taken directly from the Civil Register, the most important Dutch source for genealogical research covering the period since 1811.

Genlias - Research your Dutch genealogy: "Have you always wanted to know from whom you are descended? Genlias gives you a quick way to find your Dutch forebears from as far back as 1780. Your search is in the most accurate source for Dutch genealogy,
the Civil Register. And it is not difficult!"

Announcement
From September 12 until 15, Genlias will be offline to add and correct many records.


Genlias is a joint product of the regional history centres and state archives in the Netherlands.




Web Standards

W3 schools: "Web developers are often struggling with time-consuming double-coding to solve problems with different browsers versions. This situation will get much worse when new hardware (like mobile telephones and other handheld devices) and new software (like micro-browsers) start browsing the Web.
To make the Web a better place, for both developers and end-users, it is of paramount importance that both browser vendors and site developers follow standards when they develop new applications"

WEB ACCESS RESOURCE LIST

Arts and Disability Center: "Designing Accessible Web Pages for the Internet: The following resources provide information for artists and arts organizations on how to design accessible web pages for persons with disabilities. It addresses the following topics: Why Make a Web Site Accessible; How to Create an Accessible Web Site, Evaluating Your Sites Accessibility; Access in Action: Examples from the Arts. The list of resources is provided for information purposes only and does not denote endorsement by the NADC."

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND

Tools for Web Page Assessment

Some of the tools for validating or assessing web pages are listed below in alphabetical order. Each tool has its strengths, so it is worthwhile to read about each of them before deciding which one(s) to use. Some tools are free, while others are not. Regardless of the tool(s) you use to assess your web pages, keep in mind that no tool can replace human judgment or feedback from site visitors with disabilities. Accessibility assessment tools can only help to pinpoint where there might be problems with a site. Take a look at the following list of validators and other tools to get you started:

AccMonitor, AccRepair, and AccVerify
A-Prompt Project
Bobby WorldWide 3.2
HTML Tidy
InFocus and InSight software
PageScreamer Suite of Products
W3C HTML Validation Service
The Wave

Monday, August 29, 2005

Jones of Raglan Monmouthshire Wales

RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: Jones of Raglan Monmouthshire Wales
A one-name study for JONES would be impossibly big, so this is limited to one-place RAGLAN
this is the first draft and a work in progress not a final authority
please check all data against original sources.

In memory of my dear granny Blanche Eveline Jones - I badly need more reports of marriages in Raglan or of Raglanders

Hurricane hits Internet

from my email
Hurricane Katrina is already impacting the web, and it will probably get
worse before it gets better as routers not directly affected by the storm
are overloaded with diverted traffic. Packet loss is currently running at
15%, and you'll probably notice anything over 4 or 5%. You can check the
current status at Details for North America /// Internet Traffic Report

Birmingham is England's second city

airport Home back in BRUM tomorrow evening SK2535 CPH > BHX 1815

Archive related to danish mills and millers

"Den Møllehistoriske Samling" - Google Search

Den Møllehistoriske Samling,
Holme Møllevej 21,
8260 Viby J. no home page yet

Lokalarkiver more localarchives in Denmark

Velkommen til Dansk Mølledag: "Søndag den 19. juni 2005"
98 mills open to the public on one day.

Custodians of Our Past

Ancestry.com - Custodians of Our Past
Maureen A. Taylor

I love research trips--the musty smell of old books and manuscripts, the whir of microfilm machines and the chats with fellow researchers.

Leaving my computer for a day, a week or even a few hours revitalizes me. So, when’s the last time you visited a historical society, library, or archive for genealogical gold?

The number of family historians using online sources of information continues to increase while some “brick and mortar” institutions are reporting a decline in users.
I’ve made plenty of new discoveries searching online databases, but that doesn’t make the collections located in public and private repositories obsolete. Let’s get a few things straight. Online databases have changed the nature of genealogical searching by making more resources available with a mouse click, but historical societies, archives and libraries aren’t defunct. They still play a very valuable role. These organizations are caretakers, custodians, and guardians of the past. While lots of material is added to the web everyday, it will be a long time (or possibly never) before all the unpublished manuscripts and photographs end up online.

I’m lucky enough to live in a state with two of the oldest historical entities in the United States--the Massachusetts Historical Society (founded 1791), the first historical society in the United States and the New England Historic Genealogical Society (established 1845), the first genealogical research organization. While both places have expanded their online holdings, their in-house collections have also grown thanks to generous individuals willing to donate collections and funds. Without these repositories and others like them, our past would be lost.

If you haven’t stopped by a facility that owns unpublished original documents relating to your ancestors, make use of the waning days of summer to pay them a visit. All of these research repositories share a common purpose--to preserve, provide and protect materials for their users. You can find a library, archive, or historical society either on the state, county or town level in places your ancestors resided or near your home by using one of these resources.

Directory of Historical Organizations in the United States and Canada (American Association of State and Local History and Altamira Press, 2002)

Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book, Revised Second Edition. (Ancestry, 2003)

Cyndislist.com category of “Libraries, Archives and Museums Index”

It’s so easy to sit at my computer and click through links or hits related to my family, but it’s also a cinch to find new information at an archive or library. My love affair with searching in the stacks began as a child and continued as an adult. I spent years working for a variety of non-profits and learned to spot a successful researcher. They had a sense of purpose and well-organized notes. They asked simple direct questions and made it a point to prepare ahead of a visit. Whether it’s your first time using a research library or your hundredth, there are things you can do to help staff assist you.

Contact them in advance of your visit to find out their hours and fees.
Ask about the type of material in their collection and access to it. If they don’t have information related to your topic of inquiry, they might know of another agency in the area that does.

Organize your research. Neat print-outs, lists of questions and clear pedigree charts will go a long way to make your research visit productive.
Their staff can help you in the search for new data.
They know their collections, how to use them, and what’s not in the card or online catalog. They probably even know of other nearby collections because of networking with colleagues.

Just keep in mind that most organizations are short-staffed and have a lot of patrons that need their attention.

I have a nightmare that genealogists will forget the reason for visiting a real research library, forsaking the thrill of books for the ease of a mouse click.

Let’s not let these valuable organizations fade from view through disuse.

Here’s how you can help:

Use research libraries. Boost their statistics by visiting as often as you can.
If you live near an archive, library or historical society and have few spare hours a month or might be available for special events, ask about volunteer opportunities.
They might need someone with your particular job skills or person to answer phones when it’s lunchtime.

When you make a discovery using the facilities at a privately supported organization, say thank you by making a small donation.

Thank the staff for their assistance.

Donate your family papers to an appropriate institution and ask staff for their assistance with this process.

Online research has a place in genealogy, but so does old fashioned searching through unpublished and non-digitized collections.
Perhaps I’m a romantic. There is something about an old document or photograph that makes all the people on my family tree real.
I’ll use the web resources when I can, but I’ll never give up searching through boxes looking for ancestral pen scratches.

Maureen is the author of
Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs (Family Tree Books, 2005)
and Preserving Your Family Photographs
(Betterway, 2001).
Email Maureen at mtaylor@taylorandstrong.com.
Copyright 2005, MyFamily.com. and Ancestry Daily News

me again

Overskrift - RSS Feed Postings (GENEALOGE) fun to find oneself on the net LOL

Sunday, August 28, 2005

The Black Sheep Index

The Black Sheep Index: "Villains (and some nice people) from various sources
(some surprising ones)
including court cases and inquests 1860 - 1920 approx
Murder * Suicide * Assault * Accident * Divorce * Disaster * Fraud
Probate * Cruelty * Theft "

On not having false teeth