The Orlando One-Name Study at Geneabloggers!

I was interviewed about the Orlando One-Name Study by fellow +Guild of One-Name Studies member +Tessa Keough for the "May I Introduce you to....." series.

You can read the post over at Geneabloggers

Motivational Monday - Medical Genealogy

For those of you who read the digital genealogy magazine, "The In-Depth Genealogist" you may recall that I have written twice in the last year about medical genealogy[1], [2].

This last week I have needed to look back at my own medical records and whilst I have some of the data because I was there, therefore I know and remember! I have needed to prove what I know. There was, in additions to that some things that I could not be 100% sure of, my late Mum would have known, but that is clearly not an option and as I am still going through Mum's things accessing the data, should I have it is not going to be a quick solution.

I instead turned to my own medical records. Here in the UK medical records are kept in different places:

• General Practitioner (GP) medical notes - depending on your age these might be a mixture of 
• paper notes
• computerised records
• Child Health notes - these are essentially vaccinations administered through the mass immunisation clinics - Rubella for example these are kept from birth until 10 years past the leaving age from compulsory education
• Hospital notes at each individual hospital

The information I needed to access was from Child Health and, as you might suspect I am older than 26 years and subsequently those records have been destroyed. I next contacted my GP. Did my notes pertain to anything specific to what I wanted to know? They didn't but I did obtain a list of all my vaccinations from 1970. Next I tried the long shot of my hospital records. They were destroyed at 9 full years post my last interaction with the hospital, although my maiden name was still on the system showing the records had been destroyed; so that was no good either.

Had the records been available the hospital in question would have charged an access fee of £25 and wanted me to complete a form and provide evidence as to my identity and entitlement. The child health records would have been the same. Each hospital can effectively charge their own fee within the constraints of the legislation that is applicable, which is Access to Medical Records.

Lloyd George Medical Envelope
Developed in 1911

Most General Practitioners allow patients to access their records reasonably easily. There is still paperwork and payment, but if you know the practice staff well and they understand the reason for requiring access they maybe nice and waive the fee.

Over the last twenty or so years hospitals typically offer you a copy of any letter they send to your General Practitioner and usually appointments are arranged through a postal system.

How many of you keep those letters? 

Those letters, even those simply giving you and appointment are worth keeping, (or scan and archive). They provide a snap shot of your life that others might find useful. As you might expect accessing medical records of others is problematic, but achievable if you are the next of kin, or the nearest next of kin an example might be the Grandchild of an deceased only child, and the records have survived.

Respecting privacy - we are all entitled to privacy; and quite rightly so. Just because you know something about someone else does not give anyone the right to share that information, regardless of how the information was acquired.  Those of us that work in the health professions are use to the constraints of confidentiality; and even in death there is the need for respect, privacy and confidentiality.

As an historian I also understand the need to extrapolate the information. To wish to preserve it for a future generation, especially if the original material might not survive or be accessible to a collateral line of descendants.

How can that be achieved?

There are probably a selection of ways that this can be achieved, but I can tell you how I have tackled this, especially as in the future with no immediate descendants I might not be in a position to provide any information or the information might be in a different country and time zone.

• Scanned copies of all hospital letters and archived them 
• Using key / tags to indicate the specifics (eg Heart, Asthma)
• Give context to the clinics attended
• Endocrinology could mean diabetic, it could also mean other conditions that are looked after within this specialisation
• Copy of regular prescribed drugs (update regularly)
• Indicate the conditions - some drugs are used for more than one thing - several Epilepsy drugs are used by pain clinics.
• Give context to the conditions - in 1900 to be Epileptic was very stigmatised. 
• Record (with a huge amount of care) any information you know about family members.
• Cousin Margo (died 1986) was asthmatic - might be relevant if someone is looking at heredity issues (not conclusive) in the future.
• Especially of interest if the condition is not recorded as the cause of death or not related to the cause of death.
• In a 100 years will your descendants or collateral lines know you had a hip replacement in 1998?
• Ensure that you have created a letter of authority and that it can be easily accessed.
• Ensure that your nominated person (suggest more than one) knows where the archive is!

Are you motivated to look at your medical genealogy?

---

[1] The In-Depth Genealogist - Medical Genealogy - Issue 13, pp 29 - 36 ~ February 2014

[2] The In-Depth Genealogist - Medical Genealogy - Sad Next Steps- Issue 14, pp 57 - 61 ~ March 2014

Collections - Summary

Created by Julie Goucher, Jan 2015 using Wordle

Last week I shared a few posts about collections.

Those posts had actually been written with a specific organisation in mind, and I broke those posts down and shared them here. I had meant to get back to you with this post, but life got in the way. You know that feeling....don't you?

If you missed those earlier posts then here are the links for you:

• Motivational Monday - Understanding a Collection
• Tuesday's Tip - Recognise a Collection
• Web Wednesday - Software Collection

I have recognised I have a few collections. That is probably the first step. Then there are decisions to be made on what to do with them. WHY do I have those collections. There are an assortment of reasons why I have some collections.

• Gifts or Sentimentality attached to the collection - Stamps
• Expanding a further area of research - Postcards
• Reading material - books, articles and journals

As I stated last week, all my books are kept in LibraryThing. I have also added to my LibraryThing Microfiche, Data CD's, Audio books, Journals and Specific Articles. My thinking here was if the physical item exists in my home library / office then it would be logged on my LibraryThing account.

The bulk of my collections are linked to specific places - probably my One Place Studies, but not exclusively so. I have a very large collection of Guildford (Surrey, England) material and whilst Guildford is not currently registered as a study, it is just that in some way.

I also have a few things that relate to my two One-Name or Surname Research for the Surnames of Orlando and Worship. Articles and journals relating to several health issues, are also featured in my collections. I have a particular interest in Polio for example.

I truly wish I could say that is all my collections, but it is not, and I get a sense that if you are reading this then you probably can think of a few collections you have!

I shared a few links last week to collection software. My personal choice is to use Excel. I have created a blank spreadsheet which can be accessed at Google Docs and via my website

Just as everyone's collections will not be the same, neither will the catalyst for starting them or how they are indexed. For me the point is not just collecting, but doing something constructive with the material once there is a collection. 

Motivational Monday - TGP 35 - DearMYRTLE

Created by Julie Goucher using Wordle Jan 2015

Usually I manage to listen and follow the TGP podcast series hosted by +Marian Pierre-Louis.

Last week was no exception and I sat on a pretty grim and miserable Monday morning and listened to podcast 35 in the series which featured +Pat Richley-Erickson , also known as +DearMYRTLE.

If you have not listened to the podcast I recommend that you do. It was an absolute to delight to listen to.

Web Wednesday - Collection Software

Created by Julie Goucher using Wordle Jan 2015

Over the last couple of days I have talked about Understanding a Collection and Recognising a Collection.

Whilst using Excel or Google sheets is a really good option for recording the items that make up a collection I have come across two pieces of software that are available and free to download.

I have not currently tried either of them, so please exercise care and attention with downloading!

• Adlib Museum Lite
• Museum Archive Software Project

As I said I have not tried either and before doing so I will be clarifying the types of material I have in my collections. I shall share details of my collections later in the week and share how I am tracking my collections.

There is also one site that I do use and I know many fellow book readers and genealogists do too.

• LibraryThing 

You can view my LibraryThing profile. I paid my $25 for lifetime access back in 2005. I use the site to track my books, reading and book wish lists by having a series of collections; you can read the details by visiting the profile. 

I still have two bookcases to do, one that houses my Italian collection of books and my thyroid collection of books. The second bookcase houses the majority of my husband's angling and fishing books. I also have several boxes of books that belonged to my late Mum to process.

In addition to that I also record journals, papers, audio books and microfiche. I have a plan to log several podcasts that I have listened too and want to review. In the comments section I add the URL and/or the details where the podcast is located. I also have a notebook of around 20 years of book reviews that I may (or may not) add to LibraryThing as time and the urge allows!

Over the next few days I will be sharing some more information about my collections.

Tuesday's Tip - Recognise a Collection

Created by Julie Goucher Jan 2015 using Wordle

Following on from yesterday when I talked about Understanding a Collection. I ended that post with the question of do you have a collection? I expect you do, and I suspect more than one.

Today's tip is quite simple. Recognise you have a collection.

What sort of number makes a collection? two, four, six, ten or more? Does the number matter? or is the crucial thing whether you are actively adding to, or looking to add to what you already have.

Three black pens on your desk could be seen as a collection. The chances are that they are simply there. A gathering of pens collected from hotels, conferences and other people! If you are actively looking to add to the number does that make it collection? If they are not cheap disposables, but rather flashing Mont Blanc fountain pens does that make a difference?

In order to recognise you have a collection consider the following:

• Set your parameters. 
• Consider each collection separately.
• Write your collection scope that I shared yesterday including any other comments
• Is your collection fit for purpose?
• References sourced (sound familiar!)
• Will the parameters of the collection change in the future?
• Is a collection the same as a set?

I will be sharing some of my collections over the coming week or so

Motivational Monday - Understanding a Collection

Created by Julie Goucher  Jan 2015 using Wordle

There comes a point when you have collected enough of your chosen entity that you have a collection and at some point there are decisions to be made about it.

According to Christopher Bart in "Industrial firms and the power of mission" Industrial Marketing Management 26 (4) pp 371 - 383 there are three key elements.

1. Key Market - Who is the chosen item aimed at?
2. Contribution - What does the chose item provide to the wider audience?
3. Distinction - What makes the chosen item unique over others?

These three elements do not exactly fit a collection, but they go some way to present a suitable structure of key indicators.

In my experience as a family and local historian a collection forms as a natural stage of research. I do not believe that any of us make a conscious decision to collect every postcard of X, every piece of pottery made by X or every occurrence of a name in a location or of every instance of every name in a location. A collection quite simply happens, a result of a catalyst.

In which case why did it happen and how are you going to deal with it in the future?

Create a mission / purpose statement with the following:

• How did the collection come to be created and by whom?
• Who is it created for? and has that changed?
• How will it be maintained or grow?
• How will it be accessed by others?
• Does it need to be?
• How will you advertise your collection?
• How do you ensure the longevity of your collection?
• How is the collection kept?
• How will you ensure copyright and ownership issues are protected and addressed?
• Do others have any investment in the collection? (investment does not necessarily mean financial)
• Is the collection unique?

Do you have a collection (or perhaps two or three!)? I will be sharing some of my collections over the coming week or so

Web Wednesday - Prudential Insurance

A few weeks ago I was looking on the Prudential Insurance website for a contact address when I came across an interesting find.

created by Julie Goucher Jan 2015 using Wordle

The Prudential PLC, one of the leading Insurance providers here in the UK had a rather substantial business in Poland before World War Two through a subsidiary company called Przezornosc of which Prudential had a controlling interest which had been acquired in 1927.

Przezornosc continued to issue life insurance policies in Poland until the end of December 1936 and Prudential Assurance continued to do the same between January 1933 and December 1936. From January 1937 both companies ceased to accept new life business and the administration for both of those branches merged.

Under the Nazi regime, the assets of Prudiential were ceased and they did not operate during this time. At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War there were more than 4,500 policies in existence, of which around half were settled during the early 1950's despite there being significant gaps in records due to destruction of documents under the Nazi regime.

Prudential has made some files available which might be of interest to genealogists and these can be access via the following links, all of which are on the Prudential website

• Policy Holders relating to Pre World War Two business
• Staff believed to have been employed by either the Prudential or Przezornosc in Dec 1936

The Prudential site which is specifically related to the Polish records can be accessed HERE with a link to contact the company if you have a potential claim (subject to documentation) or you were employed by the company.

Whilst none of my family surnames can be found on these lists, these are quite a unusual find for genealogists. The reality is that there could be policy holders, staff members or their descendants across the globe.

(Links accessed and checked January 2015)

Alex Haley – Genealogy Hero or Heel?

image courtesy of
http://www.alexhaleymuseum.org/biography/

Yesterday, Thomas who writes Geneabloggers wrote a post with the title Genealogy Hero or Heel? in recognition that the author of Roots would have celebrated a birthday, had they been alive.

In 1977 I watched with my family the serialisation of Roots based upon the life of Alex Haley's ancestors. I recall, even my Grandmother who very much had the opinion that history was simply life yesterday, was enthralled with the programme. I can recall being allowed to stay up and watch the program. For some strange reason I recall it being on the TV at 8pm (probably BBC) on a Thursday. Why I recall that I have no idea, but I do, whether that is accurate or not, is another matter.

Of course, since then there have been various statements that the story was not true, that it was plagiarised. There was a court case and a financial settlement made.

Regardless of that, Roots was inspirational to lots of people, whether you were black or white. It was the story of a family, which is something that everyone can relate to. More importantly, it dealt with the issues of slavery. That subject that is emotive to many people on different levels. It gave people hope, that even if you you descended through slavery you could, if you wanted to or tried to trace your Roots.

So, Hero or Heel? I think perhaps a little of both.

Heel because you never, ever take someone work as your own. If you do, your secrets will surely out!

Hero, because from that book it gave an opportunity for some people, who had dreamt of their ancestry to be reassured sufficiently that perhaps, just perhaps, they could research their past.

......and perhaps that was the point.

Other sites of interest

• Alex Haley Museum and Interactive Centre
• Alex Haley papers at the University of Tennessee
• Article - Roots and the New Faction A Legitamate Tool for CLIO Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 89, January 1981 pp 3-26 by Gary Mills and Elizabeth Shown Mills
• The Genealogist's Assessment of Alex Haley's Roots by Gary Mills and Elizabeth Shown Mills, National Genealogical Society Quarterly Journal (72), March 1984, pp 35-49

Tuesday's Tip ~ Where Family History and Local History Unite*

Image courtesy of the
Project via Facebook

I recently spent some time on the newly launched site Lives of the First World War, a joint effort between the Imperial War Museum and FindmyPast. On the day it was announced I nipped on and set up an account and then wanted to gather my images and data for the First Cousin of my Grandfather; William James West was just 20 years old when he died in September 1918.

I was then pondering on the data I had collated for the Shared Endeavour Project which is the brain child of the Society for One-Place Studies. You can hear about the Shared Endeavour Project via this YouTube video



I have three One-Place Studies registered with the Society. One of the studies is for a road in central Guildford. There are nine individuals from that road that I have tracked so far and nine seems such a lot for just one road.

What I discovered, is that via the site of the Lives of the First World War you can create a community and thereby have your Shared Endeavour material together in what the site is calling a community. Here is the link to my Walnut Tree Close Community. I am still adding my individuals to the site at present, but what a fabulous way to bring research all together.



*"Where Family History and Local History Unite" is the tagline used by the Society for One-Place Studies

Tuesday's Tip ~ Microsoft OneNote

Last September I wrote this post, Embracing One Note. I formally declared that I thought I was in love! I loved the feel and workability of the software. I loved the flow of updating between iPad, iPhone and laptop.

Then something happened.

Microsoft did an update and my OneNote relationship has not been the same since. I am beyond frustration. 

I even picked the telephone up to their support team and expressed that somehow the flow of material between iPhone and laptop is not fluid. 

Sadly the support team have no idea of how the iPad app works they are solely trained on the PC version and bless him, he did listen, he did make comforting noises of interest down the phone, but sadly it was not helpful. Other than to stop me becoming deranged with frustration.

The look and feel are not conducive to productivity or ease of working. Whilst out yesterday I went to access a notebook, one of the 31 that I have to find it took ages to locate it, and that was nothing to do with connectivity to the internet. 

When it did locate the notebook, it told me there were no sections within it, there were four. When I accessed another notebook with a word document and PDF file embedded. I expected the files to open, just like they had before. 

Nope, this version does not open embedded files.

I am beyond frustration and sadly for Microsoft, a step closer to Evernote.

So what is my Tuesday's Tip? Never fall in love with a piece of software because they leave you!

So can I go back to my wonderful OneNote relationship?Can I turn back the clock to the wonderful accessibility I had before OneNote was updated in the name of Progress? Are you experiencing issues with your OneNote since the upgrade?

Society Saturday - The Next Gen Genealogy Network

The first general meeting of Next Gen took part in Tuesday evening, well it was the early hours of Wednesday morning here in the UK.

I had planned to try and watch live via the Google+ Community whilst sitting in my pyjamas. Are you not relieved that I not join live?

So on Wednesday morning I sat and over a cup of tea I watched the recorded and archived version of the meeting. It is wonderful that like +Society for One-Place Studies that +The NextGen Genealogy Network is embracing social media and taking genealogy to the next level in terms of engagement.



After the introductions, +Jen Baldwin, co-chair of Next Gen raised a series of questions and then encouraged conversation with the panel and those watching live. Here are the questions then I am going to chip in with a few answers

1. What can we, as a virtual organisation do to make an impact right now in the genealogical community?
2. What can we physically do to support the mission of the Society? ......."empower genealogists world wide"
3. How can we assist more traditional societies?
4. Where should we be focusing our energy right now?
5. How do we connect at national events?
6. What special interest groups are required within NextGen?
7. How do you genealogically "geek out"?

Some really great and thought provoking questions. I will share some thoughts with you.

Next Gen exists as a virtual group. The society embraces social media and by doing so is setting the scene for the next generation of genealogists to join those already involved. The biggest issue is, we as an arena of genealogists need to over the ageist aspect of genealogy. Whether you are 10, 40, 60 or 102 you can all be genealogists. Young does not equal new. We need to stop labelling as young and new. We need to be inclusive of race, gender, age, geography. We need to open our arms wide and welcome anyone who is interested in genealogy or history in this way. We need to stop the elitist view.

Next Gen goes some way to stop that and does bring people, location and genealogy together. There is quite a journey ahead as Next Gen bridges the gap from the traditional ages of genealogists to the actual varying ages of genealogists.  Next Gen provides an arena for enabling that conversation to take place between say parents, grandparents and extended family with the youngsters of the family. We need to build on the interests of those youngsters, by getting them engaged with what is around them. 

The children of today, are it seems, (as I don't have any children), children for less time now. Or is that a sign that I am getting old? The kids have mobile phones and often not parted from them. Then there are Playstations, x-boxes and hosts of other games. All pretty much technologically driven. What happened to Monopoly or is that old fashioned?

Engagement needs to happen in the arena where the kids are. Get genealogist Grandma on Facebook and share those photographs. Perhaps pointing out the resembles to current, live family members, especially the youths.

Next Gen, by simply being "out there" is providing an arena to encourage dialogue Firstly  with the youth that are interested in genealogy and secondly, for the want of a better term, the genealogical adults to try and engage the family next generation.

Think about it. Great grandma would have potentially milked a cow or walked five miles to the farm to purchase milk in a jug.  Junior these days opens the fridge and it is in a plastic container. The concept and dimensions of something familiar to everyone is completely different.

In the hangout the example was given of engaging youths in the Pension Rolls for 1812. Sounds a great idea. About three years ago I visited The Underground Hospital on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands.As you enter the museum visitors are presented with a card bearing someone's name. There was limited information, but the genealogist in me asked why? Having been round the museum, the cafe had a series of pictures of people on the wall.You took the card you received when you arrived and searched the wall to establish the fate of the named individual. It interested me and pretty much every adult and child there.

The fate of some people was unknown, some had survived the Second World War (the Channels Islands was under German control from 1940) and others sadly perished. Sobering for the children, but that is a conversation for a parent to explain. I have written about the Underground hospital before, but you can see the post HERE. What is interesting is that about a year ago I had an email from someone whose parent knew one of the people named on one of our cards. That was fabulous as it meant that, the individual had survived the war and I passed the details onto the museum in Jersey. Sometimes joining the dots is great!

By being an on-line organisation the possibilities are endless for engagement and testing the water with technology. Encouraging those more seasoned genealogists to toe dip into the fantastic on-line genealogical world. The bottom line is that we can learn something new every day. The internet has revolutionised the way we do everything, including genealogy. Lets use it to an advantage to engage another generation of our families.

+The NextGen Genealogy Network Google Community

Society Website where you can find out more details about the Society and join

Disclaimer - I write a regular column called Right Here, Right Now for NextGen Dispatch, the quarterly newsletter for the Society and I am also Chair for Social Media. I have also write occasionally for the Society blog and have been featured as Member Spotlight. The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the Society.

Tuesday's Tip ~ Snail Mail Day

Yesterday, a dear genealogy friend who I have know for about 25 years posted on her Facebook wall

"Imagine getting the country behind one day a year whereby they actually post a 'real' letter. Where children write to a friend or family member, or even perhaps they exchange letters with a class somewhere else in the country or even the world. Anyone in the world can do this.

S end
N yone
A n
I nteresting
L etter

It has become apparent to me that few people ever write a letter. Most of our children no longer know the excitement of mail arriving in the letterbox with their name on it. Many wouldn't even know how to write a letter to a friend.

As I recently sat and watched my 37 year old daughter and her friend sitting on the floor, surrounded by their children, reading aloud letters they'd written to one another as young teenagers, and laughing at the stories those pages held within, I realised what we are losing. All those memories and family history which is now either doesn't get recorded, or is stored on a computer. How much is lost when a computer crashes?

It made me think it would be a great idea to create new memories, and new experiences by having one day a year when we all send some SNAIL MAIL. June 13th is the anniversary of my dear Mum's death, and she was an avid letter writer, so what better day to get this going.

Please share this and let's make it happen."

After I read this post from Judi, I spent an hour or so looking through my files and found the letters I received from Judi, all the way from New Zealand. I pondered at the memories and the pleasure I always felt when I saw the envelope and the stamp and would take the letter to read on the train, as I took the daily commute to work.

What struck me as wonderful is that this project is in memory of Judi's Mum who passed away on 13th June and what a wonderful way to commemorate a lady so close to Judi's heart.

So in the spirit of friendship and a great project I am going to write a letter and mail it to Judi. You can write a letter to who ever you see fit to write to, but I am going to wander down memory lane with Judi.

Pictures originally shared by Jamie Kennedy

Because the world we live in is so much driven on-line, there is a Facebook page for the project. Facebook and the internet, concepts that our ancestors, even more recent ancestors would simply be in awe of.

Then just as I was about to go to bed I looked at Facebook and spotted this picture and immediately thought of Judi and this project.

A copy of this post will also appear on "The In Memory of Quilt" 

Military Monday ~ Letters to an Unknown Soldier - Paddington Station, London

War memorial Paddington station
© Ceridwen

The statue shown here is from London Paddington Station. It was built to commemorate members of the 100 members of Great Western Railway Company staff who perished in the First World War.

The Letter to an Unknown Soldier Project is an opportunity to write the letter the soldier is reading, 100 years on.

The Letter To An Unknown Soldier website will remain open for 37 days, from 28 June when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, triggering WW1, to 4 August when Britain announced it was at war.

People can post letters on the Letter to an Unknown Soldier website or send letters to the statue at an address at Paddington station. 

Letters will remain on-line up to the anniversary of Armistice Day 2018.

Tuesday's Tip - Creating a Memorial

Part of the way I have grieved for my Mum has been by creating a memorial of various things from the funeral service. This has enabled those overseas or unable to attend the funeral to see, hear and to feel part of saying goodbye. The memorial is of course quite a nice thing to have and keep for future generations.

I thought it might be quite nice to share with you how the presentation was created and how I have shared the final memorial.

The memorial was created with Power Point which is part of Office 365, but equally could have been produced using Google Docs or any other presentation software.

Having created the memorial I saved the first slide as a PNG image as you can see here.

The contents of the memorial can be whatever you want to include. I chose to write a short section on the events leading to our conclusion. I also included a collage photograph that I had previously created for my Mum's birthday. I included the eulogy that I had written. Mine ran over four slides. My husband wrote his own and that ran a little over one page.

I included a copy of the obituary and a link to the on-line memorial that the newspaper offers. I also uploaded the music to the slides as M4A files.

At the end I wrote a short piece about the support we received from family and friends. I shared a photograph of some flowers received and sympathy cards. All of which will be kept. I gave thanks to the medical teams and then wrote a few final words.

The presentation was a little over 13 minutes and was a heavy file, so much that Google refused to email it.

That caused an issue. A further issue was how could this be viewed if you did not have Power Point? Saving a PDF was possible, but the audio files failed to play. Sharing the file via Evernote experienced the same fate. I pondered on adding a page to my website, but for some strange reason that did not feel right. Loading to YouTube was again not an option because the music is copyrighted, but even if that had been acceptable I was not sure.

A few days later and after much thinking I discovered the perfect solution. The solution is so simple that I don't know why it took me about 4 days to think of it. Here are the steps in the solution.

1. Load the complete Power Point to OneDrive (https://onedrive.live.com/)- if you do not have an account it is easy and free to do so.
2. Go to Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) and create a blog. What I created is located at http://christinejoycebutcher.wordpress.com/
3. Then open select create new post and then select text tab.
4. Meanwhile head back to your OneDrive location and enable the share function for the file you have just loaded. Then select the Power point and click on the embed option which is situated across the top. This provides the HTML code. It automatically gives small dimensions and I increased them slightly once I had inserted the HTML onto the text tab on the blog page.
5. Having uploaded the file, I then spent about an hour creating the site as I wanted it. Simple, crisp and without lots of clutter. I added a short write up on the About page and created a contact me form in case someone comes across it in the future and wants to get in touch.

I usually use Blogger which is part of the Google family, but didn't because the possibility to load a Power Point file is not an option. Wordpress is not a facility that I enjoy using on a regular basis, but for this, it came up trumps and overall I am very pleased with the result and that I can now share the site and the Power Point with the people that I want to.

For me this is a perfect way to share the file and commemorate someone who was a real inspiration and influence in my life.

(Thanks to both +Tessa Keough and +Susan Petersen for being my beta testers as I clarified and tested the various options)

Society Saturday - Using Google Hangouts & Embracing Social Media

Using Google to embrace interaction between a group of people is not only a great idea, but it is free. There are two kinds of Google Hangouts

1. A private conversation or meeting between no more than 10 people 
2. A Hangout that will be recorded and archived at YouTube

How can I or my Society do this?

1. Create a Google Community for yourself or your Society. I have the Book of Me, Written by You community, some other familiar on-line faces with communities are +DearMYRTLE +Society for One-Place Studies, +Tessa Keough who hosts the Legacy Virtual Users Group, Guild of One-Name Studies and +Jill Ball who hosts the GeniAUS community.
2. Once you have a community you can host hangouts that are scheduled, invite people and comments on the hangouts and much more.

Once the community is created that will be the home of your on-line hangouts and is the gateway to interaction 

1. Members of the community will see the scheduled hangout in their Google stream. By members responding Yes or Maybe the event will be added to their Google calendar in their time zone
2. The stream will allow comments that can be shared or addressed in the hangout
3. The hangout typically has one or two hosts, and then 8 spaces are available for interaction - known as JOINers. Should you not wish to participate but simply want to watch whilst the hangout is in progress you can and are a VIEWer. 
4. If the event is missed completely because you were at work , walking the dog, taking a nap or you simply didn't know then you can view via the archived version which is located on the relevant YouTube Channel.

Here is a few Q & A that I created for the Book of Me Community and the Society of One-Place Studies community.

There is even a good video created by +DearMYRTLE and Cousin Russ(+Russ Worthington) which explains how to schedule and create a hangout.



The on-line world has never been so easy. There are friendly faces across the globe who will be more than happy to answer questions and assist.

So go ahead, embrace the free facilities that Google offers!

Those Thursday Places - Britain From Above 1919 - 1953

Image from
Britain From Above

A few days ago I came across this fabulous site Britain from Above 1919 - 1953 which I shared with the +Society for One-Place Studies community. As with many sites you can register and then select images to be saved your own account. What is truly wonderful as a One-Place Studies member is that value these add to my individual studies, well two of them as my third is in Sicily. They also add value to our individual wider family history.

The site has indeed been generous enough to state on the terms and conditions page

"Terms & Conditions for the Use of this Image
You may: copy, print, display, and store for your personal use at home and you may copy to a blog or personal web page as long as the page is freely available with no login restrictions and no charges"

 What a wonderful resource to have quite literally at the click of a button. I shared three photographs from 1948 to my Puttenham One-Place Study, and one to the Walnut Tree Close Study.

Have you explored the site and found some gems of your own?

Those Thursday Places - Richmond Poor Law

Map showing Richmond Union Workshouse
Courtesy of Surrey Records Centre

Today I read that Surrey Records Centre has released via their web page the Richmond Poor Law Union Applications and Report Books.

This is a fantastic resource which has indexed by a team of volunteers.

Not many of these records have survived for Surrey, so we are indeed very lucky that these have, and that an index has been published.

The data itself is spread over two pages and provides an assortment of information

• Number in the Relief List
• Date of Application
• Names of Applicants
• Age
• Residence
• Length of time in Union
• Calling or Occupation
• Marital Status
• Ability (i.e. whether disabled)
• If in receipt of relief
• Present cause of seeking relief
• Observations and names of relatives liable to relieve the applicant
• Weekly earnings
• Date of last visit
• Quantity and nature of relief
• Relief ordered by Guardians
• Other orders
• Observations

The alphabetical indexes are available to use and download from the Surrey Heritage website. They cover the period of 1870 - 1912 and contain some 103,000 names.

Society Saturday ~ Branding & Logo's

Last week we looked at society websites, blogs and we briefly touched on social media. Today we are going to look at Branding and logos.

Have a look at this picture. It is simply a collage of images created by me and were chosen because they will hopefully mean something to you, the readers of this post. I have not been compensated by any organisation, the images used are done so as an illustration point.

So, do you recognise any of them? Some are UK or Australian specific, some are from the USA and one is from South Africa. There are a few that are global and represent social media.

The point is that they are a representation of the individual companies and are worth millions. I worked for an organisation who merged with one of the logos represented here. The deal made someone a very rich individual, and was a really brilliant (and virtually unheard of) strategic move. 

Each of the logo's is a statement of identity and taking the steps further we look at branding. The colours used in those logos are the corporate colours. Whatever the logo is, whatever the colours chosen they need to be eye catching, something that jumps out at you the moment you see them. Using 15 shades of the same colour does not necessarily equate to eye catching!

Within the family history and genealogical arena you might think the logo is typically going to involve trees, but does it? Here is an example of the logos from a few societies that I belong to.

Do you recognise any? Are you curious about any of the logo's? Which ones do you find eye catching and why? 

The majority of these organisations have been in existence for some years. I have been involved in two of these Societies since their beginnings and hold the membership number of 1 for one of them. The logo in probably all of these organisations was created at the beginning, with probably little thought that it would be around many years later. That is not a criticism, simply that at the beginning of an organisation's journey, there is not time to think about the longevity of the logo. At least three of these societies in the last year have celebrated their 40th birthday. 

The logo is typically going to reflect in some way the area or speciality that they represent. That is a fairly typical way of thinking. Can they be changed in the future? Yes they can, if it is deemed necessary. Changing a logo is not as difficult as it sounds, and I worked for a company that went through a re-brand and merger within four years. I have some former colleagues still getting over the shock, years after the event!

It is not just organisations that have branding and image to consider. We all do. The name of this blog for example is my brand. I also have an unusual surname, so I often use that too. It is interchangeable and whilst that might not be ideal, that is the way I have always been known. There are various other people on-line that have an logo or image that represents them, but that is a topic for another day!

Tuesday's Tip - February Map Offer

Map of Surrey - Cary's Map 1787

The UK based map company Your Old Books and Maps are offering free access to their maps server during the month of February.

Visit their map server - HERE
Quote the user name of yobm and the password of yobm2013

The maps are downloadable as PDF documents.