Saturday, February 24, 2007

British Army WWI Pension Records surnames A and B

Ancestry.co.uk - British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920 Release One: "War Office: Soldiers’ Documents from Pension Claims, First World War (Microfilm Copies); (The National Archives Microfilm Publication WO364); Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies; The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.

From the western front to the world wide web for Britain's old soldiers | Technology | Guardian Unlimited Technology: "Although pensions were authorised to men who could prove they were disabled on active service they were hard won and closely scrutinised as a surviving award sheet relating to Joseph Allcock of the Manchester Regiment shows.

Allcock was discharged in July 1918 because he was classified as no longer physically fit, having injured his left knee. The paper carefully notes that a temporary allowance was made, before noting brusquely that the disability was not attributable to his service and so his appeal should be disallowed.

For relatives the records may be able to flesh out details about ancestors they never knew, or remember only as old men. One such was John William Ballinger, who stares out pensively as a young soldier in the creased photographs he left his relatives when he died in his 90s in 1981.
Ballinger, who joined up in 1908 at the age of 19, also left a detailed diary that recorded incidents such as his attempt to crawl out of no man's land back to British lines at the Battle of Givenchy in December 1914: 'It was raining hard as I slipped into this trench, about midnight, I found something like a cushion under my feet and to my horror I was standing in a trench full of dead German soldiers."

getting better

If I am ever of this blog for more than 2 or 3 days unannounced
these are my local hospitals


and my leg is getting much better

Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust:

"Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
Bordesley Green East
Birmingham
B9 5SS

Solihull Hospital,
Lode Lane Solihull,
West Midlands
B91 2JL

Telephone: 0121 424 2000 from within the UK
+44 121 424 2000 from overseas
Fax: 0121 424 2200

Friday, February 23, 2007

Comments Board - British Army WWI Pension Records

Ancestry.co.uk - Ancestry Site Comments Board - British Army WWI Pension Records: "I posted the original message in the hope that Ancestry might intervene and make corrections before they pulish the records for surnames from C to Z. Am I expecting too much???

Lists of the counties of England, Scotland and Wales (with the correct spellings!) are available everwhere on the Internet, including Ancestry's own site!!! Were the transcribers of these pension records not given a copy of the these lists for cross-reference???"

and the old standard postal abbreviations

RootsWeb Boards updates

RootsWeb Newsroom » Blog Archive » RootsWeb Operations Team Introductions

welcome to the war zone newbie über-admins:-)

Elaine,
if you won't listen to me about the incorrect spelling and structures of the danish county message boards,
would you ask Gerhard to impartially review the situation of his northern neighbour

Sweden has correct spelling of counties in a structure useful to genealogists

The errors in DK are those of the CIA fact book
https://cia.gov/cia//publications/factbook/geos/da.html
and now from 1 January 2007 those 14 counties have been reorganized into five regions

http://www.dis-danmark.dk/index.asp


http://www.clicketyclick.dk/amt-herred-sogn/prod/amter/Amter.php
Bornholm Amt
Frederiksborg Amt
Haderslev Amt
Hjørring Amt
Holbæk Amt
København Amt
Maribo Amt
Odense Amt
Præstø Amt
Randers Amt
Ribe Amt
Ringkøbing Amt
Roskilde Amt
Skanderborg Amt
Sorø Amt
Svendborg Amt
Sønderborg Amt
Thisted Amt
Tønder Amt
Vejle Amt
Viborg Amt
Åbenrå Amt (Aabenraa)
Ålborg Amt (Aalborg)
Århus Amt (Aarhus)

from 1793 to 1970 which are the most used by genealogists
http://www.dis-danmark.dk/kort/kort.htm

Amt = county and may be left out where preceded by "counties"
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.scan-balt.denmark.counties/mb.ashx

I am an experienced board admin and know exactly how to do the work under the old system

the RootsWeb boards are still suffering from the wounds inflicted by the "update" but not yet dead.

French genealogy

Géné 46 Liste des dépouillements des registres paroissiaux et d'état civil du Lot.: "

Attention! les archives départementales de Cahors sont en train de numériser les registres d'état civil du Lot. La plupart sont donc indisponibles... et seront de nouveaux disponibles théoriquement au cours de l'automne 2007.

ARCHIVES DEPARTEMENTALES DU LOT
218 rue des Cadourques
46000 Cahors

Tél : 05 65 20 80 40
Fax : 05 65 20 80 69
Email : archives@cg46.fr

Heures d'ouverture au public :
Le lundi de 10h à 12h et de 13h à 17h
Du mardi au vendredi de 8h30 à 12h et de 13h à 17h
Fermeture annuelle : dernière semaine de septembre et semaine de Noël au 1er de l'An

La salle de lecture est ouverte gratuitement à toute personne sur présentation d'une pièce d'identité lors de sa première visite. Elle est régie par un règlement intérieur dont il importe de prendre connaissance. Il est remis à toute personne venant consulter des documents. La recherche des références se fait à l'aide d'instruments de recherche, imprimés ou dactylographiés, et de fichiers.
Ces instruments sont consultables en salle de lecture ou disponibles à la vente, quand ils ont été publiés.
Par contre, les documents qui n'ont pas encore fait l'objet d'un classement ne sont pas consultables par les lecteurs."

Second Anglo-Boer War 1899 - 1902

Welcome to Casus Belli (military books and medals): "This website was launched on February 10 2007.

Future developments will include:-

*Transcribing another 100,000 names from Winifred Scott's Anglo-Boer War Index
*Updating the Gazetteer
*Adding to the Register from the medal rolls
*Increasing the number of contemporary sources consulted
*Developing a subscriber’s area giving greater access to The Register and the Gazetter with an enhanced search facility"

Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902

256,000 regulars and 92,000 volunteers some are still in UK in the 1901 census but most were in South Africa


The Asplin Military Resources
a sample of the full roll of the QSA & KSA entitlements to the Lancashire Fusiliers. The data is extracted from the relevent WO 100 series at the National Archives, Kew and data has been added from the 'South African War Casualty Roll' - there are 4,400 men in total. The references quoted are those pages from which the data is extracted (i.e. WO 100/179 pxxx for the QSA rolls and WO 100/326 pxxx for the KSA roll ).

Muster and Pay lists (WO 12 series at the PRO).

Depot Rolls of the 34th Foot (Cumberland) for the period 1838-1873. This is a list of 6500+ entries from the combined sources of the Crimean Casualty Roll, Indian Mutiny Roll and Depot Book of the 34th Foot (WO 67 at the PRO),

Boer War Shipping Lists. These lists were extracted from the LONDON TIMES SHIPPING LIST for the period July 1899 to December 1902 as well as the CAPE TIMES WEEKLY EDITION SHIPPING LIST for the period January 1899 to December 1902. This wonderful work contains nearly 500 pages of details on the movement of troops in and out of the South African theatre and contains many references to individuals - mostly officers.

Asplin Military History Resources:
plan to index the more complete WO 127 series (nominal rolls with details) in due course, work is on going at the moment by myself, Ted Beard and members of the British Medal Forum.

and for example what can be found out about one man Thomas Dafter 14th Hussars - 1887-1902 (Queens South Africa Medal

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

ScotlandsPeople

The Official government source for Scottish genealogy, census and family research

Images of Old Parish Register (OPR) records are now publicly available online for the very first time. These comprise the records of births & baptisms and banns & marriages kept by individual parishes of the Established Church of Scotland, before the introduction of civil registration in 1855. The earliest records available date from 1553.

In addition, a major OPR index update has been deployed with over nine million entries updated and linked to the associated images.

The session time limit has now been extended from seven days to ninety days.

Frequently Asked Questions - ScotlandsPeople: "The expiry limit is defined by government statute. " which badly needs to be modernised to allow annual subscriptions.

Brentford High Street one-place study

Brentford High Street: a history of people and properties from 1840 for local and family historians:

"If your ancestors lived on Brentford High Street this site will help you find out more about the area they lived in and may have information about the actual house."

UK Centre for Census Access Studies

UK 1911 and 1921 censuses to be opened: "The National Archives has been forced to abandon its unlawful plans to keep the 1911 Census closed to public inspection for 100 years.

That important historic change has taken place because the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has decided that the National Archives improperly refused to provide one of our most pro-active campaigners (Guy Etchells of Wakefield) with an extract from the 1911 census for an address in Leicestershire, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000"

If a UK citizen please sign:-
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to enable better Freedom of Information access to census and other archives


Give access after 20 years Normal Closure or 70 years Exceptional Closure.

The Danish model is 20 years closure and 75 year closure for matters of state security and confidential personal data

You may apply for special permission for early access on pain of a fine or 6 months in prison for unlawful publication.

Their Census of 1930 1940 and 1950 are often accessed

and in UK census 29 September 1939 - WW2 National Registration, 8 April 1951, 23 April 1961, 25 April 1971,and 5 April 1981,

should be available conditionally too.

Submitted by Hugh Watkins – Deadline to sign up by: 08 January 2008 – Signatures: 167


reduce the classified period for census data from 100 years to 70 yearsJen Tibbetts 8 March 2007signatures 21289

World library Union Catalogue

WorldCat Registry: "The WorldCat Registry is a Web-based directory for libraries and library consortia. It is an authoritative single source for information that defines institutional identity, services, relationships, contacts and other key data often shared with third parties."

WorldCat [OCLC]: "Search for an item in libraries near you:"

reference genealogy

National Exhibition Centre 17 and 18 April 2007

I like to go every year to the Library +information Show 2007 - Welcome:
"Increasing pressure on libraries to understand, anticipate and respond to the needs of their users, means that it is vital for the library and information professional to keep up to date with all that is happening in this evolving industry.

In its 18th year, LiS helps you do just that. This unique show offers something for everyone who works in the library and information professions. With over 125 exhibitors displaying their products and services, a programme of free educational seminars and a 1 day conference covering the latest issues, this is an event you just cannot afford to miss!"


Exhibition Venue NEC, Birmingham (Hall 18) Opening Times
Wednesday 18th April 10.00 - 17.00
Thursday 19th April 10.00 - 16.00

Library +information Show 2007 - Seminar list

Library +information Show 2007 - Google’s Services for Library Users: "peaker: Jason Hanley
Strategic Partner Development Manager
Google Inc
Seminar Details

Google's services for library users and the library community are multiplying.

Google announced its Google Book Search (formerly Google Print) initiative in October 2004, and since then a range of other services and features have been introduced, enabling discovery and access to print and online materials collected at libraries.
Jason Hanley will give a brief overview of these developments and talk about how the information professional can use them to improve their library services."

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Good news for messy people

tidiness is bad for you-News-UK-TimesOnline:

"Good news for messy people: tidiness is bad for you
Daisy Goodwin is delighted to discover a new book vindicates her chaotic lifestyle

To write this piece I had to excavate my computer keyboard from under a three-year-old copy of The New Yorker, a photocopy of Mother and Baby magazine from 1959, a pearl necklace with a broken clasp, an invitation to speak at a conference on creating long-term value, a bottle of scent, a picture of myself graduating from university, a blank Valentine’s card and a free DVD called Dr Warrier’s Ayurvedic Hour.

Some people, indeed most people, would think my desk was a mess but to me it is a fragile ecosystem. I may never watch Dr Warrier’s Ayurvedic Hour but seeing its karmically balanced orange cover every time I move my computer mouse reminds me that television is becoming increasingly fragmented and that any niche interest can now find a home in its nether reaches. The pearl necklace may never get mended, but every time I think about getting it repaired I remember that jewels would be a great starting point for a TV show, and the picture is an ever present reminder of why 1980s fashion never needs reinvention."