Saturday, April 26, 2008

Family Tree Maker 2008

Family Tree Maker 2008 by Ancestry.com: "Service Pack 2 contains critical stability and performance enhancements. We strongly urge you to install this service pack at your earliest convenience."

If your Family Tree Maker 2008 version number is lower than 17.0.0.559 you will need to install Service Pack 2. To check your Family Tree Maker 2008 version number:

  1. Open Family Tree Maker 2008
  2. Click the "Help" menu item at the top of the program
  3. Click "About Family Tree Maker…"
  4. On the Product Information tab there is a version number. If the version number is lower than 17.0.0.559 you need to install Service Pack 2.

Birmingham Central Library

Birmingham Central Library - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is within my reach now

Wills and Admons index from 1858, many Street Directories

Birmingham Central Library: "Strike action - 23 and 24 April 2008
Birmingham Central Library will be open on Thursday 24 April
from 9am to 5pm offering a limited service in the lower part of the building.
Please note - There will be no internet access today."

The 'Archives of Soho' Project: "We are pleased to inform you that the Archives of Soho collection (Matthew Boulton Papers, Papers of James Watt and Family and Boulton & Watt) are once again open for research following their re-arrangement under the Archives of Soho Project.

Summaries of the new arrangement and many of the finished lists are now available in the Research Room and the remaining catalogues, including completed itineraries for Matthew Boulton, James Watt, James Watt Jr., Gregory Watt and Matthew Robinson Boulton, and the Guides to Persons and Firms, will be available by the end of the project."

Birmingham Archives and Heritage Service: "is a fusion of Birmingham City Archives and the former
Local Studies and History service. We now offer improved access to archival material and resources
for researching local and family history.
The combined service is on Floor 6 of Birmingham Central Library."

Friday, April 25, 2008

Blitz veteran apology to Bath

BBC NEWS | UK | Blitz veteran apology to Bath: "A German WW2 veteran Willy Schloodecker has made an emotional return to Bath, the city he bombed 66 years ago."

the video is precedced by a commercial

Warhammer Historical Wargames

The Warhammer Historical Wargames Blog: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE LIVE: "Keeping with the main theme of the event these game sessions will use the new Great War rule set, where you can take command and fight at engagements during the battles of Cambrai or Verdun.
We will also be running a simple World War One trench raid campaign over the course of the 3 days, where your actions will affect the overall result so come and join in on the fun.
We will also talk about other areas of table top wargaming with some particular examples such as Ancients and Pirates.

Each game session will have the following format and last around an hour.
Setting- the history, choices and the pleasure of wargaming
Basic training- the rules and how to play
Arming for battle- collecting and painting
Recon- where to find clubs and opponents
Debrief- any other questions about the hobby and where to buy today!"

Thursday, April 24, 2008

a poet to remember

The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography: "WATKINS, VERNON [PHILLIPS] (1906-1967), poet; b. 27 June 1906, at Maesteg, Glam., only son and second child of William Watkins (a native of Taff's Well), manager of Lloyd's Bank, and Sarah Watkins (née Phillips) of Sarnau, Carms. Before Vernon was six the family had moved to Bridgend, to Llanelli and finally to Swansea."

"The Welsh Biography Online presents the lives of eminent Welsh people who died before 1971 and have made a significant contribution to Welsh life. It is an electronic version of the volumes published by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.

This is the first phase of an exciting project to enhance and develop the Welsh Biography Online website."

another great piece of work from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru - National Library of Wales : Croeso - Welcome

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

WorldVitalRecords

WorldVitalRecords Blog » 70 New Databases From Godfrey Memorial Library

This week’s Wonderbase at WorldVitalRecords.com includes70 family histories and pedigrees from Godfrey Memorial Library. These databases will be launched throughout the week. Search from over 48,000 names in The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, Volume 1. Do you have ancestors in the United Kingdom? Search for them, and at the same time learn more about English day-to-day life in The Brights of Suffolk, England.

Some databases feature the movers and shakers of 18th and 19th-century United States of America, including former presidents and military men. You may know the way they changed the shape of world history, but through our offerings you can also learn about their personal and family lives. Get to know Benjamin Franklin by reading Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1706 - 1790 (1844). Discover new things about Andrew Jackson with Life and Public Services of Gen. Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States and The Great Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States.

Stonewall Jackson’s contribution to American history is undoubtedly significant. Read about it in Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (Volumes 1 and 2). Our ancestors could be great even if they are not famous throughout the world. The Descendants of John Brockett, One of the Original Founders of New Haven Colony shows that even without fame or money, people could be great, and forever change the lives of their descendants and community.

eogen

eogen - Encyclopedia of Genealogy: "The Encyclopedia of Genealogy serves as a compendium of genealogical tools and techniques. It provides reference information about everything in genealogy except people. Look to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy to provide explanations of how to look up your family tree, explanations of terms found in genealogy research, including obsolete medical and legal terms. It will describe locations where records may be found. It also will describe how to research Italian, German, Polish, French-Canadian, Jewish, Black, Indian and other ancestors.

In short, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy will serve as your standard genealogy reference manual."

RootsBooks.com: Your one-stop shopping site for genealogy books, software and more. NEW! Check the Children's Book Section!

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: "This Newsletter is Sponsored by Footnote, Inc."

RootsBooks.co.uk: Welcome to RootsBooks.co.uk, your one-stop shopping site for genealogy books, CD-ROM disks, software, and more.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

FTM 2008 SP3

Ancestry.com Blog - » News about SP3: "I have seen a number of questions about the Family Tree Maker 2008 SP3 update over the past few days. I know that the development team is closing in on finalizing this patch. I’ve delivered three versions of the patch to both our alpha and beta teams. The input has been very positive. A fourth SP3 candidate will also likely be delivered to both groups. I apologize that some of my initial estimates of release dates for SP3 were off.

The development team is taking the necessary time to ensure a stable and meaningful patch release."

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: Commentary About Social Security Numbers in the SSDI

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: Commentary About Social Security Numbers in the SSDI: "In my opinion, any bank that got scammed by this woman deserves what they got. Any bank or credit card company that is too stupid or too incompetent to use an up-to-date list of known dead people to maintain their customer databases deserves to suffer the financial consequences.

Of course, what can we expect from companies that still use one's mother's maiden name for “security purposes?” They presently use publicly-available information (birth records) improperly and then don't use other publicly-available records (the SSDI) to protect their customers' security. Dumb!"

Private archives in Denmark

Danmarks Nationale Privatarkivdatabase

Danmarks Nationale Privatarkivdatabase. Her kan du søge registreringer
over privatarkiver, som opbevares i lokalarkiverne, Statens Arkiver, Det Kongelige Bibliotek samt forskellige specialsamlinger som f. eks. Det Danske Udvandrerarkiv, Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv, Dansk Folkemindesamling . .

Danish private archives from a variety of persons, societies, organizations, institutions, businesses, shops etc. are collected and preserved by a great number of cultural institutions. This ensures fairly comprehensive coverage at the collecting stage, but may make it more difficult for users quickly to get a general view of the existing material and to identify the institution(s) in possession of the required material.

The Private Archives Committee, founded by the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs, has established as a high priority its desire to promote access to this valuable accumulation of knowledge within multiple repositories documenting private organizations and lives in Denmark.

A special appropriation by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs has, in 1999, enabled the Private Archives Committee to prepare DANPA, DAnmarks Nationale PrivatArkivdatabase. DANPA is national in scope. The database contains search capabilities for descriptive records representing approximately 80,000 private archives in Denmark. These bibliographic records are available to the public via the Internet. See Om arkiverne (About the archives) for a list of contributing archival institutions and the numerous private archives' repositories (currently only available in Danish).

Monday, April 21, 2008

1911 Census for England and Wales - Home Page

The latest 1911 census project news

RG78 series complete
12/12/2007
Scotland Online is delighted to announce that the scanning of the RG78 series - Enumerators’ Summary Books - is now complete. Some 570,000 images have been produced. Transcription of these images is now well underway and due for completion by the end of Dec 2007.




Online publishing of the 1911 Census for England and Wales - Home Page: "Over the past five years The National Archives has embarked on an ambitious and successful programme to digitise over 90 per cent of the most popular documents in its largely paper-based collection.

It is aiming to digitise over 100 million pages by 2012. These range from Domesday Book (now available digitally at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday), through to the censuses, prisoner of war records, ancient petitions, war service and medal records.


Working with partners in the private sector, The National Archives has made records such as lists of emigrating passengers and the 1841 -1891 censuses available for research, through similar partnerships. The National Archives has also launched a digitisation-on-demand programme which makes the majority of its collection accessible to researchers from anywhere across the globe."

Historical Directories

Historical Directories project does not attempt to publish every directory available between 1750 and 1919. Under our funding scheme, the project focuses upon England and Wales only.

If you are unable to find a city or town within a given county, it is worth remembering that we classify locations according to their historical position whenever possible.

Some original directories contain large, fragile and folded maps. We have omitted most of these during the digitisation process, as they are unsuitable for scanning.

Archive Quest - Document Imaging and content management for the Digital Library

Life & Times of Chaucer on CD-ROM.Primary Source Media
Life & Times of Chaucer Multimedia CD-ROM.
British Library Maps Catalogue on CD-ROM. Primary Source Media
British Library Maps CatalogueUK MARC conversion into a fielded, indexed search environment on CD-ROM.
Illustrated Incunabula Short Title Catalogue on CD-ROM. Primary Source Media
IISTC - Illustrated Incunabula Short Title CatalogueScanning, cataloguing, into a fielded indexed search environment on CD-ROM.
Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive Online. Primary Source Media
Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archivehttp://www.tls.psmedia.com
British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service. Southampton Uni.
BOPCRIS - British Official Publications  Collaborative Reader Information Servicehttp://www.bopcris.ac.uk
Times Digital Archive Online. Thomson Gale
Times Digital Archivehttp://www.galegroup.com/Times
Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland. Southampton University
EPPI - Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Irelandhttp://www.eppi.ac.uk
Early Irish Language Dictionary. Ulster University
Early Irish Language DictionaryScanned from bound volumes to create XML text.
Historical Directories Online. Leicester University & New Opportunity Fund
Historical Directorieshttp://www.historicaldirectories.org
History to Her Story Online. West Yorkshire Archive Services
History to Her Storyhttp://www.historytoherstory.org.uk
Moving Here - 200 years of migration to England. West Yorkshire Archive Services
Moving Here - 200 years of migration to Englandhttp://www.movinghere.org.uk

see also:-

UK Data Archive (UKDA) is an internationally-renowned centre of expertise in data acquisition, preservation, dissemination and promotion; and is curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. The UKDA provides resource discovery and support for secondary use of quantitative and qualitative data in research, teaching and learning as a lead partner of the Economic and Social Data Service.


The UKDA houses the History Data Service and Census.ac.uk and supports the National Centre for e-Social Science.
The UKDA promotes access to research data at an international level via membership of Council of European Social Science Data Archives
and Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, provides preservation services for other data organisations,
and is a designated place of deposit for The National Archives.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Genealogy Forum on AOL

Amazon.com: The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide: George G. Morgan: Books: "Book Description
America Online's Genealogy Forum is one of the world's most important and respected online genealogical resources. Those unfamiliar with this resource, however, often find it a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, Forum senior staffer and content developer and programmer George Morgan has taken the time to author a comprehensive guide book!

The Genealogy Forum on America Online Official Users Guide will help beginning to advanced genealogists utilize all the Forum has to offer. Morgan's straight-forward instructions and liberal use of screen captures remove all the guesswork in navigating this invaluable Internet tool. You'll learn how to make the most of the Forum's how-to guides, in-depth articles, message boards, libraries, chat-rooms, lectures and more!"

written in 1998 it describes a lost world of AOL genealogy destroyed by AOL administrators a few year s ago

laurencestephenson - The Good Doctor and his Family

laurencestephenson - The Good Doctor and his Family: "Dr Richard Stephenson LS.A Lond 1884 arrived in Melbourne sometime in 1856. Why he came we can only guess, how he arrived is also a mystery, but arrive he did. Some time after arriving he married Anne Butcher a lady of quality and moved with his new wife to Berwick, with the unbound vision of a young couple they planned to settle and raise a family in this small farming community.

Alas not all things go as planned and soon Richard discovered the people of Berwick could not support his fledgling family. He turned his hand to part time teaching at Narre Warren North and private tuition in surveying. This was not enough to keep the family, so he bought a practice at Donny Brook (now Kalkallo). In a short time this business failed and the good doctor was declared insolvent.

They lived on at Donnybrook for a time but in 1867 Richard succumbed to T.B. and died leaving his family destitute. Annie along with her young family returned to Berwick where she had many friends. She was welcomed back and the locals built them a small cottage on land adjoining the old Mechanics Institute in Irby Street (now known as Rutland Road) With work cleaning the local church and organizing the Mechanics Institute Library the family was once again secure.

Disclaimer

I remind everyone that this site is only as good as the information I am given.

A good percentage of information on this site is as yet untested and can only be taken as a guide.

"

EPIC Census Privacy Page

EPIC Census Privacy Page: "United Kingdom

A recent example of abuse from abroad can be found in the United Kingdom. It recently has reached the public view that compulsory transfers were considered in Northern Ireland in 1972. A UK government top-secret memo has surfaced describing a plan to relocate Irish Catholics. The plan was written with census data. Although never implemented, the use of census data for non-statistical purposes has caused great concern in Europe.

* Kathleen Cahill, When Catholics Were 'to Be Removed', Washington Post, Jan. 12, 2003.
* Northern Ireland: Contingency Planning, Document reference: PREM 15/1010, July 22, 1972."

Germany

Germany has a contrasting history in census reporting. The most extreme example of census abuse is Hitler's use of the census to track minorities for extermination during the NAZI regime. Although this example remains perhaps the most horrifying abuse of the census, Germany's modern use of the census is exactly the opposite. In the aftermath of World War II, privacy protections were placed in the German Constitution. In the 1980s, the German Government instituted a law requiring more information to be provided on the national census. After a public outcry, the law was challenged in court. The issue was brought before the German Federal Constitutional Court by representatives who had been instrumental in the passage of the first German Data Protection Act during the 1970s. The court found the census law unconstitutional based upon what the court termed a fundamental right to informational self-determination implicit in the German Constitution.

After the court decision, the legislature amended the German Data Protection Act in 1990 to include the right of informational self-determination regarding government uses of information as well as information use in the private sector. By including private uses as well, Germany created one of the most broadly reaching privacy protections relating to the census.

European privacy concerns over the census have appeared in strong numbers. Mayer reports on several surveys taken in the 1970's regarding risks over privacy of census reports. In particular England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Northern Ireland reportedly protested in large numbers against the census' undermining of information privacy.

  • Kent Walker, Where Everybody Knows Your Name: A Pragmatic Look at the Costs of Privacy and the Benefits of Information Exchange, 1 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 106 (2000)(citing Jerry M. Rosenberg, The Death Of Privacy 1 (1969)).
  • Mayer, Thomas S. "Privacy and Confidentiality Research and the US Census Bureau: Recommendations Based on a Review of the Literature". Research Report Series (Survey Methodology #2002-01) Statistical Research Division, US Bureau of the Census, Feb. 7, 2002, Statistical Review of public and interviewer perceptions.
  • Richard Sobel. The Demeaning of Identity and Personhood in the National Identification Systems,15 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 319 (2002).
  • Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Privacy and the Law: A Symposium, No Choice: Trans-Atlantic Information Privacy Legislation and Rational Choice Theory, 67 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1309 (1999).
  • Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation (Crown Publishers 2002).
  • Commission belge de la Protection de la Vie Privée, Avis d'initiative No. 37/2001 of October 8, 2001 concernant l'enquête socio-économique 2001. (Belgian Data Protection Authority's opinion on the compatibility of the 2001 ten-yearly census survey with Belgian privacy regulations.)