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From: "Rob Thompson" <>
Subject: Family History News No 40
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 17:29:47 -0000


Family History News
No 40

21st January 2001

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 40th issue of Family History News. Again
plenty of information for you to read this week, including news of new
software and plenty more updates to GENUKI.

The Lothian Family History Society now has a new web site. It can be found
at http://www.btinternet.com/~mmgene/lfhs/
and I will be reviewing this in more detail in the next few weeks

New Books

I received this week the following press release from TWR Computers with
regards to the National Burial Index
“NATIONAL BURIAL INDEX
The National Burial Index is £30 inclusive
Order now from TWR Computing on 01284 828271
(International +44 1284 828271)


TWR Computing are taking orders for the forthcoming National Burial Index,
due to be released on CD by the Federation of Family History Societies
during the FFHS weekend conference on 20th-22nd April 2001.

The price of the 2-3 CD set is only £30 including delivery to the UK, or
airmail to anywhere in the world. Place your order with us now to secure the
best possible place in the queue. Demand is sure to be very high so place
your order soon. We will not charge your card, or verify and bank your
cheque, until dispatch is imminent.

This very important data, never published before, indexes more than 5.3
million burials in England and Wales from 1538 onwards. It is not a complete
index to all burials, but represents an enormous effort by Family History
Societies and Groups to make available a large amount of information easily
searchable in your own home. The National Burial Index, known as the NBI, is
quality British data at an affordable price.

The information provided in the National Burial Index, taken from parish,
non-conformist, Roman Catholic and cemetery registers, includes where
available

County of burial
Parish or cemetery where the event of burial was recorded
Date of burial
Forename(s) of the deceased
Surname of the deceased
Age
The society or group that transcribed the record

This information is displayed in a table, which may be sorted on any column.
Records may be tagged and exported to other applications. The NBI does not
contain full transcriptions of the burial records - it is simply an
abbreviated finding-aid based on records that were sometimes difficult to
read. As with the IGI, searchers are therefore discouraged from accepting
the details of an entry at face value and should check the original source
record.

Also included is mapping software that interacts with the data. The maps
display :
Parishes covered by the National Burial Index including a table of Counties,
Places/Parishes, Church/Chapel, and date range covered.

The columns in the table may be sorted as desired.
Parishes that match as a result of your last search Regions
A bar graph is provided showing the count of people included in the Index
for each year from 1538 to 2000. The programmer of the NBI is Stephen
Archer, so a very high standard of product is assured.

Using the program supplied on the CDROM, the searcher can interrogate the
database by a number of methods: a standard surname and forename synonym
dictionary, a list of uniquely-occurring surname spelling variants, or by
using 'wildcards'. The search can be refined by specifying date ranges or
locations.

To date, over 50 Family History Societies or Groups are involved with the
project. Each appoints a co-ordinator who recruits inputters, checkers and
correctors. Wherever possible, transcriptions are made from original source
records but where this is not feasible other sources, such as microfiche
transcriptions or printed registers, are used.

The number of burial entries included in the NBI per county, rounded to the
nearest 1000, are:

Bedfordshire 52000
Berkshire 51000
Buckinghamshire 81000
Cambridgeshire 97000
Cardiganshire 6000
Cheshire 25000
Derbyshire 29000
Dorset 1000
Durham 170000
Essex 22000
Glamorganshire 249000
Gloucestershire 151000
Herefordshire 42000
Hertfordshire 79000
Huntingdonshire 58000
Kent 16000
Lancashire 29000
Leicestershire <1000
Lincolnshire 609000
Middlesex 11000
Monmouthshire <1000
Norfolk 73000
Northamptonshire 79000
Northumberland 106000
Oxfordshire 256000
Radnorshire 4000
Shropshire 85000
Staffordshire 14000
Suffolk 436000
Surrey 120000
Warwickshire 470000
Wiltshire 146000
Worcestershire 490000
Yorkshire 19000
Yorkshire East Riding 29000
Yorkshire North Riding 308000
Yorkshire West Riding 674000
TOTAL over 5.3 million entries

The minimum requirements are a PC with Pentium processor or higher, running
Windows 95/98/NT/2000 or ME with suggested minimum of 8Mb RAM. For screen
resolution VGA (640 x 480) should work but SVGA (800 x 600) and above is
recommended.

The National Burial Index is £30 inclusive
For countries outside the EU the price is also £30 including airmail
delivery (the extra amount for airmail and the amount deducted for VAT
cancel themselves out)

Order now from TWR Computing on 01284 828271
(International +44 1284 828271)

All prices include VAT for deliveries to EU countries”

Webpage reviews

http://www.schoolphotos.f2s.com/
Did you ever have a school photo with your family history and spend hours
poring over the faces? Or have you ever found out that your grandfather
attended a school and wondered what it looked like? Well this site is for
both sides of the story. School Photos is an admirable project that aims to
collect, and put on line photos of schools, and indeed schoolchildren from
all over the UK. At present the site is fairly lightweight, the project
having only just started, but still I personally enjoyed a good browse
through the various sections. The site itself is well designed, simple and
easy to use which is ideal. Obviously there are some quite large graphics
but it did not seem to delay my download too long and was well worth the
wait. Counties are split into parishes in the index and any parish with an
entry is hyperlinked. The project, and indeed the website, will take a
little while to take off but deserves our support, so if you have an old
school photo, or picture of any school why not let them know. I would rate
this as one of the best website ideas I have come across for a little while

http://www.genealogyprinters.com/
I seem to have visited many websites this month which are based around
services and/or businesses for the family historian. Many of them offer
similar services and obviously the vast majority centre around research.
However this website interested me. It is an on line service to print your
family tree, including secure on line payment. Basically you send your
GEDCOM file over email and it comes back nicely printed – no more scraps of
paper stuck together by sellotape! It is, of course, the website which I am
most interested in as that is what this column is about – well the site is a
shining example of how to offer a service using ecommerce. Steps to ordering
are simple, prices are laid out before you press and ordering buttons, so
you can easily vary your order according to budget, little is hidden from
the order form which is good, as this is one of the most frustrating things
about shopping on line. Overall a nice and simple ordering process. The rest
of the website contains samples and more information about the business, and
it is easy to find out what you want to know.

http://www.ann-spangle.supanet.com/
Unusual narrative history of the Rollason Family of Erdington in Birmingham.
This story reflects the development of Birmingham and its surrounds during
the eighteenth and nineteenth century concentrating on the fortunes and
endeavours of one family. This is not a lengthy story and not packed full of
detail but is interesting nevertheless and a wonderful background to the
area

Upcoming Events

This week I received news of the following meeting in New Zealand with
regard to ‘Finding the Best of British in US Genealogy Software’ this looks
to be a very interesting lecture so I have reproduced the email in full

“Extra special meeting Saturday 27 January 2001
Robin Lamacraft from Adelaide, SA, Australia, will be in Auckland. Robin is
on his way give his lecture "Square Pegs in Round Holes" at GenTech (THE
genealogical technology Conference!) in Dallas, Texas. In his talk for us
he will cover his 7 'black holes' - areas where we might experience
differences with our European/Australasian use of US programs.

Robin also writes 'plug-in' and utility software for some genealogy
programs - so he will bring us up to date with what is happening there - the
'extra' facilities that can be offered this way - to enhance our chosen
genealogy program.

Ever thought your family would need a 15 metre drop line chart (on 900mm
wide paper) so everyone could be displayed? Well, Robin produces just that
from a number of the popular genealogy programs. Drop line charts to order!
He will be telling us about this too.

AND - what is our greatest bugbear when entering our data into our program,
no matter which one??? I say - the sourcing!! Robin is writing the British
and British Colonies (Non US) version of 'Citing Your Sources' - so we can
talk to him about that.

Then - he is using 'The Master Genealogist' so, if you have ever wondered
about this program - he will be only too pleased to sing its praises.
Now - guess you are thinking - so much to learn!! So little time!! So we
have
booked the hall from 2pm-8pm. Will break at 3.30 for afternoon tea. Then
again
at 5.30pm. Then, for those who would like ‘more' , we could bring in
take-aways
(or??) and stay talking and learning as long as we wish.

When: Saturday 27 January 2pm (we will not be there till then, so no use
coming
much earlier!!)
Where: St Thomas' Church Hall, Cnr Kohimarama Rd & St Heliers Bay Rd,
Kohimarama
Why: To hear Robin Lamacraft's "Finding the Best of British in US software -
the
Ocker approach". And for discussions on the wide range of topics mentioned
above.
Time: 2pm - 3.30pm, 4-5.30pm, 5.30pm-8pm+ come for as little or long as you
like. Tea & coffee provided, food is your choice, your cost - takeaways??
Cost: $5
RSVP: With special meeting in the subject line
Extras!! Prizes!! (From Beehive Books)
programs: TMG Silver Legacy 3 Deluxe Generations "Easy Tree"
book: "Evidence: Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian"
Beehive Books will have programs and books for sale”

New on GENUKI

New on the Cumberland pages: Cumbria Archive Service; Publications Page;
Carlisle Cathedral; Cumbria Local History Federation.

New mailing list details added to GENUKI: ENG-VILLAGES; ENG-SOM-NORTHCURRY;
ENG-SUSSEX-EASTBOURNE; IRELAND-OBITS; SCOTLAND-OBITS.

Families of Wanlockhead has been added to the Dumfriesshire

The State of Parochial Registers has been added to the Kircudbrightshire
pages.

Added to the Carmathenshire pages has been: Index to "Welsh Shipping -
Forgotten Fleets"; Index to "Welsh Rural Life"; Contents etc of "The Welsh
House"; [Eglwys Fair y Churig] Rhydyparc Unitarian Chapel; [Llandeilo Fawr]
White Hart; [Llanelli] Llanelly Historical Society; [Llangadock] Index to
the "History of Brynamman"; [Llangadock] Index to the "History of Brynamman"
(Welsh).

Added to the Clackmannanshire pages: Clackmannanshire Council; "Wee County
News" - Local Newspaper; Links to Other Local Sites; "Peak District Mines
Historical Society"; [Alloa] Map of the area; [Clackmannan] Map of the area;
[Dollar] Map of the area; [Tillicoultry] Map of the area.

GENUKI's Home Page - http://www.genuki.org.uk/
GENUKI's Listings of:
Family history Societies - http://www.genuki.org.uk/Societies/
Genealogy Mailing Lists -
http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/MailingLists.html
Surname Lists - http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/SurnamesLists.html
GENUKI's Frequently Asked Questions File -
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/faq.html

And finally…

Well that’s it for this week, I hope there has been something good here for
you, it’s certainly been a good week to put together.

Have a good week

Rob
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Thank you

Rob

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Rob Thompson

Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1BB

http://www.galethompson.freeserve.co.u

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