Margaret Drabble

The Writing Life: Margaret Drabble - washingtonpost.com: "Writers of a certain age are tempted by the art of memoir. Memoir, or life-writing, is a seductive genre. We all have had a life, of sorts, so we all think we have a story to tell. But the difficulties have always seemed to me to outweigh the advantages.

It's the problem of all those other people -- those husbands, wives, siblings, children, grandchildren, rivals, enemies, friends. (Parents, by this stage, are almost invariably dead, although that does not mean that they are quiet in their graves.) The living have their own version, their own secrets, and the dead have a right to privacy.

Considering these issues, I decided it would be unwise to write a memoir. I had written a novel ('The Peppered Moth') in which I had lightly fictionalized my mother's life, and that had caused trouble enough. So I decided: no memoir and, for the time being, no more fiction."

ProQuest will be down 27 September 2009

ProQuest Search for "Newspapers", results 1-15: "829 results for 'Newspapers'

ProQuest - ProQuest Historical Newspapers ProQuest Electronic
This database offers full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 19th century. For most titles, the collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files. This ongoing project already includes: The New York Times,"

The next ProQuest platform maintenance window will be on 27^th September, 2009. A 12 hour maintenance window will take place for infrastructure maintenance and to install an exciting new enhancement. The window will take place from Sunday, 27^th September, 2009 at 2:00 Greenwich Mean Time to Sunday, 27^th September, 2009 at 14:00 Greenwich Mean Time. See below for a more complete list of times and time zones.

We are pleased to announce the following enhancement:

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2005) with Index (1851-1993): A subject term browsing feature has been added to this database. With the addition of a topic browse tab, users can access more than 3 million historical subject terms just as they appeared in the print version of The New York Times Index from 1851-1993.

The following products will be unavailable during these windows:

• ProQuest platform products, ProQuest Historical Newspapers (traditional and graphical K12 interface), American Periodicals Series, ProQuest Obituaries
• Chadwyck-Healey products only in North America
• ProQuest Illumina products such as ProQuest Technology Research Database,ProQuest Illustrata: Natural Sciences, and ProQuest Sociological Abstracts
• K-12 products
• COS products
• UMI products including online dissertation products

union catalogue for the libraries in Wales

library.wales.org::
"Ask Cymru
Ask a question of a trained librarian...
Cat Cymru
Search every library across Wales - in one click..."

Ireland 1926 census

The Ireland Funds - A comparative review of international diaspora strategies: "The Irish diaspora is quite staggering in size and depth. In addition to over 34 million Irish Americans registered in the 2000 census, not including 5 million who claimed to be Scots Irish, there are also 3.8 million Irish Canadians, 1.9 million Irish Australians and 500,000 Argentineans of Irish heritage.3 Add to that 800,000 Irish-born people living overseas and an estimated 6 million people in Britain having a close Irish relative and the sheer scale of this diaspora becomes both impressive and daunting.
There are now 3.1 million Irish citizens living outside the country and this number is increasing, with 72,000 passports issued in 2007 alone.4 There is also a growing next generation, with more than 10 million Irish Americans under the age of 18.5 Although Ireland itself has only a population of approximately 4.4 million and constitutes just 1 per cent of the total population of the EU, when looking through the lens of the diaspora, we are in fact a highly globalised country with over 70 million members in our transnational community."

Following on from the main article published in the September issue of 'Ireland's Genealogical Gazette' - the monthly newsletter of the Genealogical Society of Ireland – available at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10652119 you may like to read the report from The Ireland Funds. The report - A Comparative Review of International Diaspora Strategies is downloadable, free of charge, in pdf format and makes for very interesting reading. Click on http://www.irlfunds.org/news/ffund/diaspora.asp to download a copy. Indeed, this Society's campaign to have the Statistics Act, 1993 amended to allow for a 'special heritage status' to be applied to the 1926 Census of Ireland and thus permitting its release to the public through the National Archives of Ireland would most certainly be a significant contribution to The Ireland Funds' strategy of promoting an awareness, appreciation and knowledge of Ireland amongst her Diaspora.

2010 - Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE!

Feb. 26 to 28, 2010 - Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE! - Google Search

so to go or not to go?

2010 - Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE! - Google Search: "Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE has been running for 3 years with the fourth event being held in February 2010. This is the biggest event of its kind in the ..."

WorldCat

WorldCat [OCLC - Home]
the world’s most comprehensive database of library materials. Updated at a rate of nearly one new record every second, WorldCat contains bibliographic records and holdings contributed by more than 11,000 libraries around the world.

WorldCat logo

Number of records

144,475,649


Number of holdings

1,465,611,129

Numbers are updated weekly and reflect only records contributed by libraries.
Article-level metadata is not included.

1911 census subscriptions

1911census.co.uk blog:
"The 1911 Census has not been included within findmypast.com’s existing Explorer subscription. If you want comprehensive access to findmypast.com’s records, you can buy the Explorer and 1911 Census subscriptions together at a special introductory price, for a limited time. These discounted prices will be available for at least a month after the launch of the subscription:

* 12 months ‘Explorer and 1911′: £119.95 - a saving of 20%
* 6 months ‘Explorer and 1911′: £74.95 - a saving of 20%

Existing findmypast.com subscribers will be able to upgrade to the new combined subscription using their loyalty discount (currently 20%) at any time - if you decide to upgrade, we will automatically refund the remaining days of your current subscription at a daily rate and deduct this from the price of your new upgraded subscription. Existing findmypast.com subscribers will also get exclusive early access to the 1911 Census before it is made available to the general public.

The 1911 Census will be available as a subscription on findmypast.com no later than October 21st - to receive updates on the launch date, make sure you have opted in to receive newsletters from 1911census.co.uk or findmypast.com."

Cyndi's List - Wales / Cymru - Glamorgan

Cyndi's List - Wales / Cymru - Glamorgan: "conditions"

History & Culture

• The Blue Books of 1847 ~ Wales
  The 1847 Government Report on Education is important for social historians of mid nineteenth century Wales because of the wealth of information contained in it on not only the appalling state of the education system in the country, but also on everyday life and work in both the industrialised & rural areas. Genealogists can use these reports to learn the conditions of the schools, literacy rates, prevailing wages & social structure of parishes of interest. It also contains direct comment on the religious and moral standing of the people of Wales. But the blue-covered report is infamously remembered for the furore and agitation it caused in Wales because of the remarks of the three non-Welsh speaking Anglican commissioners regarding the Welsh language, Nonconformity and the morals of the Welsh people in general. Complete scanned images of the printed report from the National Library of Wales.
  • Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales - Part 1: Carmarthen, Glamorgan and Pembroke
    • Reports of hundreds, parishes and schools (Glamorganshire)
• A Brief History of the Port of Cardiff
• Butetown History & Arts Centre
• The Merthyr Rising 1831
• Swansea History Web
• Victorian Pontypridd
  A look at the history of the Pontypridd South Wales during Victorian times.

and lots more thanks to Cyndi

poor service from FMP and 1911 census continues

from usenet mail:-

I've just spent a fascinating day with members of a family that intertwines with one branch of mine, leaving me wanting to look things up. However there's still no sign of a subscription service to the 1911 - just vague hints "later in 2009" which I believe have been there since it was first released.   I don't want to subscribe to anywhere else to look at earlier census returns (which I'd like to do for the above story) as I really need to be able to go through an entire village in 1911 (my interest in it is local, as well as family, history as anyone who has heard my moaning here already will probably recall), so am saving my coppers for that.   Does anyone think we are ever going to get the subscription service, or should I just find a quiet day and hit Kew, and try to cram it in there? I'm looking at a village of 391 people, so I MIGHT be able to do what I want...?  Yours in gouty Colonel mode,
just like a silly librarian only charging you to search and read one page of a book  at a timw

impossible to do serious research in local history for example

I certainly will not be renewing my subscription to  Family Tree, Family History, Find Your Past, UK | Findmypast.com  and Welcome to the official 1911 Census website remains useless

also from usenet:-

According to an FMP representative at yesterday's National Family
History Fair at Gateshead Stadium, FMP will take over the 1911
census from 1911census.co.uk in October. They will then introduce
a "1911 census only" subscription of around £39, and existing
"Explorer" subscribers will be able to pay an additional fee of
around £30 to upgrade their subscription to include the 1911
census.