New additions - yes its a boring title!

Can you cope, or can I, two entries within a week !

The other day I told you of my Family History Diary and today I have to mention a new addition - the Interview Diary and that can also be found on the shop at www.wakefieldfhs.org.uk. The booklet is an easy way to keep your interview records together, forget about using the shorthand pad ! Included are 21 relative questions that will add family and social history to your growing information + a list of things not to forget and extra questions. A good add-on to the Family History Diary.

Tonight the following have been uploaded either as new files or amendments

Oct 2010

Pihen le Guines CWGC Military Cemetery, France. Photographs of all the headstones. This a quite small cemetery set in the main part of the village. You enter via a grassed path to the small section behind village houses, then pass down a further grass path behind further houses and the cemetery is set behind the village school - peaceful and poignant, the quietness of resting souls and the happy laughter and chatter of children floating on the breeze

Oct 2010

Esquelbecq CWGC Military Cemetery, France - every headstone set into 7 galleries. NOTE : this will take time to load due to the large number of images contained.

Oct 2010

Extra information incl a military citation + images for Woburn War Memorial.

At the moment am working on 2 war memorials that were photographed on Heritage weekend and they will be uploaded soon - well once I have copied the information and handed it over to the church/village group.

Well, I think that's enough for now

See you all later

More additions

Yes, I know it's been a while since I put fingers to keyboard but I have a good excuse, well I think it's good !! You know the saying 'tomorrow never comes', well its true it never does, as I've been saying that I will do an entry on my blog tomorrow and you're still waiting for my tomorrow to come...........well it is finally tomorrow!

There have been a few entries to the site including the following war memorial transcripts :- Taddington ; Chinley ; North Duffield Methodist Church and Appledore.

There are 3 full CWGC cemeteries awaiting their final process to put them into a photo gallery and still a lot of more transcribing sat in files on my pc awaiting their transcribing turn.

But, the most important addition is the Family History Diary - An A4 or A5 Family History Research Booklet

These A4 or A5 40 page booklets are printed on quality 120gsm paper offer a simple and easy way to organise your research. They are handy and an easily transportable way to keep your information at hand when visiting Archives, Libararies and even relatives.

No longer is there the need to be laden down with files and lose papers while researching.

The centrally held family tree forms the core of your work with each 'couple' having a unique page number - a simple and quick way to find who you need without flicking through the pages.

The page for each couple has sections for the name of the couple with dates and places for birth, death and burials with 'tick boxes' so you can see at a glance if you have a birth, marriage and death certificate for the couple.The marriage information also has a section along with spaces for 12 children and their relevant details.

The census is the next important fact to be included from 1841 up to the current 1911 census - space is also available for the address and the census reference, which is also a boon when wanting to follow up or print the information at a later date.

As well as a notes section at the front of the booklet the back of the booklet has pages for monumental inscriptions, including such information as where the headstone is, a brief description and most importantly, the wording.

The booklets are in a choice of colours and size - if using more than one booklet for different sides of the family you can now have a specific colour to a family.

Now it's even easier to transfer the newly found information to your main way of storing your family history, be it a computer, database or card system.

All in all a good tool for the beginner or more experience researcher.

The Family History Diary is available from the shop and there are discounts for family history groups/ societies or classes - email me for these at carol@wakefieldfhs.org.uk

So you can see even though the site has not been added to greatly, somethings have been going on in the background.

So keep a look out for the CWGC galleries that are coming soon and a new booklet that is coming very soon.........as they say watch this space

Additions to websites

Since I added my last update at the beginning of April there have been quite a few additions, updates and new 'stuff'. Some you may find is related to your research, but if not, I do hope you will find it of interest.

Here goes :=

26 Apr 2010

Swillington War Memorial - additions to information for casualties

26 Apr 2010

Allerton Bywater War Memorial

26 Apr 2010

Lewes WW1 and WW2 War Memorial

23 Apr 2010

New addition to Shop - Ancestral File - a record book for family history research. An A4 36 page booklet offers a simple and easy way to organise your research. A handy and easily transportable way to keep your information when visiting Archives, Libraries and even relatives.

17 Apr 2010

Gaugnies-Chaussee War Memorial

16 Apr 2010

Reningelst War Memorial, Belgium

Haveluy War Memorial, Nord, France

Tranent War Memorial

Prestonpans War Memorial

Forgandenny War Memorial, Perthshire

15 April 2010

St Marys War Memorial, Wakefield

St Andrews War Memorial, Wakefield

Musselburgh War Memorial A - Li ¦ Lo - Y

St Andrews WWI Memorial and WWII Memorial

Newhaven Memorials - WWI Memorial ¦ WWII Memorial ¦ Canadian Engineers ¦ HM Transports

Tillicoultry War Memorial, Clackmannanshire

15 Apr 2010

Dunning War Memorial, Perthshire

Pool of Muckart War Memorial, Perthshire

Tillington War Memorial + private memorials inside church

Twineham War Memorial

St Peter's War Memorial, Wisborough

15 Apr 2010

Wisborough Green War Memorial, Sussex

Woodchurch War Memorial, Kent

13 Apr 2010

Salmeston & Alciston War Memorial

Broadbridge Heath War Memorial

Warnham War Memorial, Sussex

9 Apr 2010

Lodsworth War Memorial & Lodsworth Roll of Honour

Tenderden, St Michael's War Memorial

Withyam War Memorial + private memorials on church walls

Whitley War Memorial

8 Apr 2010

Barcombe War Memorial

War Memorial in the cemetery close to Strathmiglo and Edenshead Parish Church

Kingussie War Memorial

Fortrose War Memorial

All these memorials were photographed last year - it takes a while for a one man (woman) band to get all things done, but we get there in the end !!!

April and May jaunts

Easter time normally sees us nip over the channel to France, but this year I was told '....it's too cold and the bar is shut....' What can you say to that and therefore just before the May Day weekend we set off.

Our first day, as usual, we ventured to the supermarket to stock up the fridge with meats, cheeses and lots of salads + a few little luxuries. The weather was very good and an afternoon of reading and sitting in the sun followed.

When away at anytime, regular followers will know that I photograph war memorials etc, my family and friends say I can spot a memorial or a church at 2 mile, I think that is a slight exaggeration !!!! We did on this visit to France and I include my hubbie in this, photograph 3 complete CWGC cemtereries, namely - The Canadian War Cemetery of Calais about 700 photographs, The Pihen-les-Guines War Cemetery with about 150 images and finally, Le Baraque Military Cemetery, Bleriot le Plage with over 1000 images and eventually will be put in a gallery style web section.

When photographing the Canadian cemetery, the sun shone but it was bitterley cold and I was alone on this excursion as Ben said it was toooooo cold. I was joined after a while by 3 young girls who looked at the headstones, took photographs of the memorial cross and then left me alone again. As I neared the end of my task the shelter of the fir trees was very welcome and left me without the wind chill.

Pihen-les-Guines was a very peaceful place, as are all the cemeteries, even with a school playground a matter of yards away, is in two sections. The first section being more a part of the Communal cemetery, while the larger part is accessed via a grass path.

The largest of the cemeteries had the majority of the headstones laid out in the usual format but with many forming a border along the boundary wall. There was also a section for the Chinese Labour Force.

While in France I photographed the War Memorial in St Omer, so many names and so many civilians from WW2, all in date order - a great help for researchers. One date for May, off hand can't remember the date of the year, but there were so many civilians who lost their lives, must have been nearly 100 people - What happened on that day to cause such a loss the the town ? Does anyone know ?

Back in England we followed the coast for a while and found a few more memorials along the way - including: Appledore, Dymchurch, Headcorn, Lynn, Lypne and Snargate. So as they say Watch This Space for them all being added to GenealogyJunction.

If you are looking for a specific memorial photograph or transcription, please email me - you never know it may be just waiting to be transcribed and added.

Happy hunting

Latest additions to websites

Latest additions to GenealogyJunction

I've started taking the transcriptions from my photographs of memorials during the evenings, while on holidays - hopefully it saves me time when I get home... you know part of the work is done and all I have to do is add some additional information and a photograph and up into space it goes.

Well, I've done that many that I have had a back log waiting to be sent into a virtual world and after last weeks episode, thought I had better do something about it.

As a result of today's efforts the following have been added to GenealogyJunction, my site for anything outside of the Wakefield area.

I hope you find something of interest

Barcombe War Memorial

War Memorial in the cemetery close to Strathmiglo and Edenshead Parish Church

Kingussie War Memorial

Fortrose War Memorial

Petty Tornagrain War Memorial

Port of Glasgow WW1 and WW2 War Memorials

Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay War Memorial

Inverness Memorial to those who were KIA, died of wounds or disease in Egypt or the Sudan in 1882-1887

Sissinghurst War Memorial, Kent

Lhanbryde War Memorial - with some additional information

Inverkip War Memorial, Renfrewshire

Hopeman War Memorial

Gourock War Memorial

Braco, Perthshire, War Memorial

Gullane War Memorial with some additional information

Turner's Hill War Memorials (WW1 & WW2) + original wooden crosses from the fields of WW1 France and Belgium

Seaford War Memorial - South African War 1899-1902 ; WW1 and WW2

Rothes, Morayshire War Memorial

and the following on Wakefield Family History Sharing

New additions to forms and charts - a couple of charts have been uploaded that were only available on one of my cd's before.

The moral of this tale

Over the past few one of the hard-drives on my pc has had a 'ticking' noise. So, spent some money buying a BIG external hard-drive to back up all my info and an internal drive to replace the one that was on its last legs.

I arrived home, put the kettle on, and then set my husband to work - hopefully backing up before changing drives over...............too late.........as I sat and watched one of my hard-drives crackled and then set on fire. I was assured by hubby that all was well and that it was not my main drive.

After a while, I got a little bored, made another cuppa, then our evening meal and I went out as I normally do on Thursday. Returning home a couple of hours later I was told all was well and that I had a cloned hard-drive.... you know what's on one was now on the other, so all my stuff was safe - the day was as good as it was going to be today (Thursday 25th April 2010)

I could not wait to try out my new back-up drive, even though I knew it would take an age to transfer. You know how it is, you know how it works but you still just want to check - you do don't you !! So, click on 'D' drive looking for my website and all my photographs of memorials, churchyards etc collected over many years of days out here and there and a few holidays, but none were to be found. At this point panic was turning into P.A.N.I.C. and a rather large shout downstairs enquiring where all my stuff was, only to be told quite calmly 'it's all there, look in the right place'. After that I shouted again and asked if it had been all put inside another folder? I seem to remember a series of mutters as he climbed the stairs, still don't know exactly what was said.

The day at this point had only two hours left and was seriously going into melt down as hubby finally admitted or realised the 'flaming' circuit board had been my main drive.

Nothing could console me as I fell into silence and a state of mourning for my website, family tree info and all my thousands of war memorial, cemetery images that had been part of my life for so long.

After a while I checked 'C' drive as that was where Windows was placed and all my programmes ......my family tree was safe and well and so were a small amount of my pictures.

I watched television, but took nothing in, flicked from chanel to chanel only to find nothing that could make the situation even the smallest amount better.

By Sunday I had become resigned to the fact that the drive would be sent away for ressurection and I would be a little lighter in the bank. Ben, must have known something was wrong as by Sunday afternoon he popped his head around the door and told me he had read on the internet, so it must be true, of a possible answer to my plight and he set to work.

Later that evening, the world was a beautiful place as all was restored to its former glory, everything was backed-up and my state of mourning had gone.

So take note..........

From Cradle to Grave Exhibition

Friday and yesterday an exhibition was held in a vacant shop in the Ridings Centre, Wakefield, the second in the series of 'A Window to your Past' organised by Allan Black - sorry to let you know after the event but I did promote on the messageboard and mailing list that Wakefield & District Family History Society (www.wdfhs.co.uk) were involved with the libraries, archives and museum and Christine Ellis with her displays of costumes.

Anyway, with one of my other 'hats' on I manned our section with a few other stalwarts. What a couple of days. The doors opened at 9.30 but eager beavers were waiting outside. Many people came only to see the exhibits, but many, many more were shoppers and passers-by who just 'dropped in'. Or, visitors to Wakefield that had come to the City to see the Yorkshire Regiment being granted the Freedom of the City. But either way, all from the young to the old enjoyed their stay.

The young played with toys from a past era, wrote with a quill pen or tried to put money into a money box. While, the more mature person looked at the photographs or looked for relatives who were killed in mining disasters. Many of those visitors were ex-miners who brought in their own memories and photographs.

At all the stands people asked questions and listened eagerly at the replies. I recognised faces from my childhood and caught up on years lost. I remember in particular one lady came in and said she had some glass photographs hanging on the wall, she knew who two were but not the other, although it was a family member. She went on to explain that her late husband had tried to clean them but the image came off as a powder and he quickly left them alone. I told her I thought they could be late 1800's from the costumes she described but could not be sure. I told the lady she should keep them safe and pass them on to someone who would appreciate and care for them. I called the lady from the museum over and she confirmed what I'd said but again would need to see them. The lady went away happy as she did not realise that glass photographs were rare - you can drop a paper photograph, but drop a glass one and its more than likely destroyed.

Another visitor I spoke to stated he had a small display of old photo's where he worked but did not know who many of them were. He went onto explain how he had a number of military pics and again was not aware of who they were. At this point my 'hat' changed into Wakefield Family History Sharing mode and I spoke of how sad it was that no one knew who they were and could I loan the images to put on the internet and see if anyone was recognised. At this point he also told me there were letters included in this batch and I could have them. So watch this space for the soldiers info.

After two days, many of us had aching feet and backs and really wanted to sit down with a good cuppa but the high of the past two days and the fact that nearly 3000 people had come through the doors all made it worth while.