Part of the worldwide genealogy/family history community

Quote: Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Dr. Seuss.

FamNet eNewsletter January 2012

Editorial 1

News Flash. 2

FamNet in Schools. 2

Subscription Increase. 2

Brick Walls. 2

From The Developer 2

Editorial

From Sue Greene:-

Happy New Year to all our readers. Now that Christmas is over for another year, I expect that you are all getting back to doing some more research.

News Flash

The big news to start the year off is hearing that one among us has done good: Jan Gow has been awarded the QSM. See below for more details. On behalf of all FamNet members we pass on our congratulations Jan. I cannot think of anybody more deserving of an award for the hours and hard work she has put in on behalf of genealogists. Jan has been a stalwart of the genealogy community, serving for many years in senior positions within the NZ Society of Genealogists, including president, and she has been a very strong supporter of FamNet.

FamNet in Schools

Pupils do family history projects from primary to secondary school, and of course today’s pupils expect to use their computers for this. As pupils return to school it’s a good time to point out that Robert has already developed some special FamNet features to help with these projects, and more are on the way. If you’re a teacher, pupil, or parent and want to know more, click here.

Subscription Increase

A reminder: we said that FamNet’s price was going to increase this year. We should have already increased the price, but now the price increase to $30 per year, or $120 for 10 years, won’t occur until the end of February. Per-member prices for group membership are remaining as before, increasing the relative discount.

Brick Walls

I hope over the New Year many of you will break down those brick walls. If you do, how about letting us know about it, as Kathy Hill has done (see below). It is always interesting to read how others break down those brick walls to find those elusive ancestors. Your research process just may help someone else.

From The Develop er

From Robert Barnes;-

More Videos Added

In the last newsletter I described our new home page and introduced the new Guided Tour video. I promised more videos, along with more developments to simplify the site and make its facilities more accessible.

In the left-hand column the second Help link, “General Help and Videos” takes you to a web page with a list of the major help topics and videos. You’ll see that I’ve added three more videos: -

Registering and Logging On

Page Layout and Help

Searching the GDB

You can find these videos through the General Help and Videos, and also through the general Help system. For example if you’re using the Search page and you click the link Help for this Page you’ll see that the normal help now includes a link to the video. General Help and Videos also shows you the videos that I’m planning. But I find that I’ve got a tiger by the tail, so I need your help.

· Firstly, what videos do you want next? It takes at least a week’s work for each video, so if I simply work down my list I might be a long time getting to the topic that you need help with. In the meantime I could be spending my time preparing videos of topics that nobody has problems with. So what should be my priority?

· Secondly, I can only provide help about using FamNet. Unlike Jan and Sue and many others I am not an experienced genealogist, so I can’t really help with: where to find records, how to access archives, how to research ancestors in (for example), England and the myriad of other questions that genealogists might have. So I’d love to have others prepare videos (and/or text help) about these topics. I’ll be happy to make this material available through FamNet’s Help system.

Search Improvements

To find this feature, click look up people by name on the home page, and click the [Advanced Search] button. There is now a new feature, “Records changed since”: -

A record is changed if -

· It has been created or edited on line

· It has been loaded or reloaded – the GED containing it has been [re]submitted

· Another scrapbook item has been linked to it

Unfortunately FamNet can’t tell you what has changed. It may be a completely new record, or the change may have replaced a record with exactly the same information. Even so, this is a useful feature if you want to keep watching for people of interest: you can now repeat your original search setting “Records changed since” to the date of your earlier search, and the unchanged records are left out.

History Databases

Thanks to Wayne Laurence (user Bydand) for preparing a table of Scottish events. If you have Scottish heritage you should include these events in your timeline views: -

· Open any of your records in Timeline View

· Click the tab [Historical Events]

· Check “Scotland”

Once you have done this, any time you (or anybody else) looks at one of your records in the timeline view Scottish events will be included.

Of course don’t forget that you can create a personal event table for the timeline. For example, the “robertb” events give the ships on which my ancestors emigrated, and various world events like the exploration or the North West Passage and the Battle of Grand Port in which various ancestors were involved. In other words, events of significance in our family story, but unimportant to other people.

Also, it would be great if people would create further historical categories – England, Ireland, Australia (there is an Australian category, but it’s currently empty), and so on. By default all users see the World and New Zealand categories. Feel free to add more events to these categories.

If You Have a Problem with FamNet, Please Let Me Know!

Recently I was contacted by user Glennisef with a couple of problems. One was simple to fix – the program was complaining about a page that it couldn’t find. This was a simple error on my part: when I rewrote the edit program I had missed one of the references to the old page. All I had to do was correct the program to refer to the new page and all was well.

The second problem was more complicated. Glennise was trying to upload a picture to her scrapbook, but she kept getting a message like this: -

D:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Pictures\Web site photos\Henderson Dora Robina Eliza Jane.jpg could not be uploaded: The given path's format is not supported

No matter what I suggested this message kept appearing for her. Yet I could use this feature without any problem, even when she emailed me her picture and I uploaded it to her record.

I had to go to Microsoft’s technical forums to sort out what was happening. The problem turned out to be caused by the fact that Glennise was using Internet Explorer, while I normally use FireFox. There was no problem with FireFox (and Chrome etc), but Internet Explorer had a bug – well, Microsoft consider it merely a “different rule” – that caused problems for my program. Once I knew this I could fix the problem. I wrote it up on the Microsoft forum in case others encounter a similar problem.

The point of telling you all this: if you encounter a problem PLEASE let me know. Yes, I’d rather there were no problems, but I depend on you to let me know when there are. I would never have found either of these problems, but they have been in the program since the function was released. How many people have simply given up? So I’m very grateful to Glennise for telling me about these problems, even if sometimes I have to work hard at seeing the bright side of being told about yet another error.

FamNet doesn’t have the programming resources of larger sites like Ancestry.com or the LDS, there’s only me. I have to cut a few corners: I can’t test every feature with every browser, nor can I test every possible dialog sequence. I do my best to get it right, but I know that many problems remain. If you find one, please tell me.

WFHCG’s Web Page

Type in the URL http://wfhcg.famnet.net.nz or click on the WFHCG record on the Sponsors page, and you open the Whangarei Family History Computer Group’s new web page. Good for them for establishing a web page and a blog like many other family and local history groups. But look closely; there are some very interesting features of this web page.

Firstly, the web page is fully integrated with FamNet. Like FamNet’s home page and most of the community pages, the page is available to all and doesn’t need a logon. However, like FamNet, if you log on you get to see and do more: for example, you can post to their blog. The system can sort out whether you are a WFHCG group admin, a WFHCG general member, or a general FamNet user, and grant appropriate privileges. Admins can maintain the WFHCG membership database, send newsletters to WFHCG members, and so on. The blog is fully integrated with the membership list too: it will send emails to WFHCG members every time somebody posts there.

We’re still developing this, and we expect to develop the web page a lot further.

Secondly, WFHCG didn’t have to purchase a domain name from a registry like www.domainz.co.nz Instead, their URL is within the FamNet.net.nz domain, with “wfhcg” replacing the normal “www”. Domain names are not very expensive, but cost is not the point: the exciting thing is that this technique will make it possible for FamNet to provide web sites to individuals and to groups with minimal administration, creating the sites automatically with a few clicks of a mouse.

A future FamNet development will be to support “Family Groups”, allowing friends and family to join together to maintain a family story. This is already happening to some extent: several users are using the permissions facilities that FamNet has always provided to work with friends and family around the world to build a combined tree. Yet although the facilities have been there for a long time, they are a bit obscure and difficult to use.

Family Groups will make all this much easier. With a few clicks of a mouse you’ll be able to create a family group web page with URL your-user-id.Famnet.Net.nz (e.g. http:// robertb.famnet.net.nz). You will be able to add people to your family group, and determine their permission levels for your records. Family group members will get notified as your records are changed, and a blog will allow family group members to discuss family matters, and to plan reunions. Etc. Watch this space!

Useful Websites

Cemeteries

By Janice Cornwell.

I have realised that as one looks for URLs for FamNet’s Useful Websites one needs to revisit sites to explore what is new. You need to click on the links and the dropdown menus available in all screens. Over time many websites have items added to them or are adjusted and improved. For example, cemetery sites are continually being updated as people add photographs.

Below Tokomairiro Cemetery (Fairfax)

A few years ago I had persuaded my young adult daughter and nephew to let me show them their great grandparent’s grave in Karori cemetery. I also wanted to locate another grave I hadn’t visited before, so I asked at the sexton’s office for directions. The sexton rolled out the map and then proceeded to explain how to find the grave. “Go down the hill until you come to the crossroads and then turn left . . . “It’s just like a city”, came the comment from my nephew.

Locating a cemetery on the web is almost like negotiating a city. Useful Web Sites at FamNet can be thought of as a map to the many websites now available, including those for cemeteries. Many of the cemeteries have their own sites.

In FamNet, go to “Useful Web Sites” and use the search category “Cemeteries” and you will get you a list of cemeteries. Put putting country “New Zealand” or “Australia” to filter the list to cemeteries in those countries. Be aware though that there is an overlap and some Australian sites have New Zealand links and vice versa.

My favourite cemetery site listed is KiwiCelts. Murray Lynn began the site in 2004 and it has expanded since then. From the KiwiCelts home page click on the “map” tab and you will see two more tabs, “Full List”, and “Regional Links.”

· Full List is a list of all the Cemeteries in the New Zealand Cemetery Database. On the right-hand side notice under country there are other countries mentioned other than New Zealand. Click on the link and you will get a Google map of the cemetery.

· Regional Links shows you a map of New Zealand on the left, handy for anyone not sure of their geography. Click on the area of interest and you will get a list of in the main council web sites in that area. Also on that page are links to other New Zealand Cemetery resources.

In FamNet’s Useful Web Sites try a search for Country = any, Category = Cemetery Records. A list will appear for all countries, and while our records are focused on New Zealand there is a small and eclectic list of other resources. For example there is a scanned copy of the book “Ardclach Churchyard – A survey of its Memorials.” A wonderful find if that is a churchyard you are interested in Scotland.

To find FamNet’s Useful Web Sites page: either

· Click the [Community] tab on FamNet’s home page. Click the button [Useful Web Sites].

· Click the [General Resource Databases] tab on FamNet’s home page. Locate “Useful Web Sites” in the list of “Other Tables” and click this link.

Blogs

I enjoy reading blogs. I have to restrict the number of blogs I read otherwise I would not get anything done. FamNet’s Useful Web Sites has a category “Blogs” intended to list genealogy blogs. If you choose either the category Blogs or Technical Help you will find a blog called Tech Tips which is part of the Family Search.org site.

The last few blog topics have been a series about geo-tagging your photographs both manually and automatically. Security issues have also been discussed. Use the drop down menus across the top and you will link to other subjects such as; learn about file formats, using mobile devices for genealogy. Also check the side box on the right for previous topics.

If you know of any good genealogical blogs please either add them to our Useful Websites database yourself or email me at janfamilia@gmail.com.

Enjoy

Janice Cornwell

From Sue Greene: -

Video on the Edwin Fox

The Edwin Fox is the oldest and only surviving ship used for transporting convicts to Australia. It should be of great interest to those whose forebears were deemed social problems and were shipped off to Australia. The ship is actually in dry dock in New Zealand (Picton). I hope they get plenty of funding to refurbish this ship as a floating historical museum. http://youtu.be/K7e1V3vY8G0

British Pathé

British Pathé are the guardians of a digital archive which can be viewed at www.britishpathe.com There are 90,000 films that you can view free of charge.

A sample of topics are; Entertainment & Humour, Fashion & Music, Historical Figures & Celebrities, Lifestyles & Culture, Sport to name a few.

Spend a bit of time with footage of the Titanic Disaster Documentary with interviews with survivors of the Titanic.

Soldiers from the Great War

Daily Mail article

The Imperial War Museum is trying to find out as much as possible about 100 soldiers from the Great War whose photographs are included in an online exhibition. Do you recognise any of the names or faces? Each portrait was a cherished keepsake for the wives and families of soldiers who went to war. For many it would be all they had left to remember their loved one by. To mark Remembrance Day, the Imperial War museum in London is exhibiting these 100 poignant portraits in an online exhibition. The museum is appealing to the public to help find out more about the servicemen to add to the little information that is known about the men.

If you know of web sites that you think may be of help to others either add them yourself, or email Janice or Sue at - Janice Cornwell janfamilia@gmail.com Sue Greene sueg-97@xtra.co.nz

Group News

Whangarei Family History Computer Group

From Wayne Laurence FSA Scot.

Contacts:

Gloria: 435 1217 barry.gloria@orcon.net.nz

Wayne: 437 2881 wayne@bydand.co.nz

Pat: 437 0692 whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com

Waipu Highland Games

Several members of the Whangarei Family History Computer Group, together with Robert Barnes of FamNet, were at the 141^st Waipu Highland Games, January 2^nd, 2012. Our site attracted a lot of interest, and we got several new members. Because of our link with FamNet we had membership interest from outside Whangarei, and so now we have some “remote members”. Fortunately our newsletters are distributed via email. Clan Societies by their very nature deal with family history so this made our presence at the Games quite important. We plan to attend the 142^nd Games, on January 1^st 2013.

Because of its geographical location to Whangarei we concentrate on these games, but also we’re keen to work with established Clan Societies generally to promote the use of computers as a tool in research. I’m a member of the House of Gordon and the Waipu Caledonian Society as well as a WFHCG member, so I am keen to advance this idea myself.

And now for something complete different

I found this discussion interesting, and similar to my own experiences. In "The Sibling Effect," Jeffrey Kluger writes: "First-borns...take on the kin-keeper role...even writing the family genealogy." Is that true of you? Are you older than your siblings? Click here to read the discussion group.

Kapiti Branch

YURU 2012

Good progress is being made with research for our 2012 guest Dame Kate Harcourt. "Flowers of My Family” will show during Family History Month in August at venues in Paraparaumu and Wellington. No wider tour is planned unless some kind benefactor comes up with a proposal as there is no NZSG Family History Fair this year and a request to appear at the Annual Conference in Taupo was declined. So if anyone has a proposal, it would be good to hear from you!! A lot of work goes into these shows and the end product gets better as we gain experience. 2012 is our 5th production year.

Kapiti 2012 Programme

Our programme for 2012 including monthly branch meets and our Special Interest Groups are by and large signed and sealed. Go to our website at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlsgkb and check it out. Visitors from other districts and FamNet users always welcome.

FamNet Developer to ride into town

Robert Barnes will be visiting Kapiti in several ways this year to update us on what is happening and plans for the future. He is to present some demos by Skype to our Computer Friendly Group and plans a personal appearance at the April branch monthly meeting, 24 April.

News and Views

“Our Jan” QSM

Jan has been one of our leading genealogists for about thirty years. Since she got hooked on genealogy Jan has provided help in so many ways to genealogists.

Jan says that it was in 1981, on a visit to Salt Lake City, that she became really hooked. Realizing that she needed more help she joined a local genealogy branch then the New Zealand Soc, of Genealogists, and it wasn’t long before she got roped into being on the NZSG committee. She became treasurer for the NZSG, then president, and has since served in different positions on various committees of the NZSG over several years.

In 1987 Jan started a business and is still the owner of that business, "Beehive Books", a specialist bookstore for genealogists, stocking many interesting and helpful research guides and books. Since the initial days of NZGDB she has been a strong supporter of this project, a support that we value greatly.

To read Jan's bio click here. Also, we thought you’d enjoy this tribute from Gail.

Jan sml (a bloody Aussie getting a kiwi gong!) (By Gail Riddell)

Kiwi or Aussie, Celtic or Brit

It don’t matter, ‘cos Jan is OURS; she’s it!

Even Eastman’s on the wagon

Looking to showcase our Kiwi braggin’

You can seek her here, or seek her there,

This HOG tour leader, she’s everywhere.

Janet Dorothy Gow is her name

Global Genealogy is her game

Give her a pencil, not a pen!

It’s not a case of "if", but "when"!

Not content to stay at home and deal to pans and pots and dust

That's David's job; whilst off she goes to anywhere that she must

The world, it wants and needs her cheer

Us Kiwis delight in the teachings we hear.

And now that other lot, those awful "them" can think again!

Our Jan, she has the QSM!

Thank you FamNet for Restoring a Long-Lost Family Connection.

(By Kathy Hill)

My husband’s mother was one of 11 children, and his father was one of 14 so when we married in 1970 I had rather a big challenge to get to know them. In fact, my husband couldn’t even tell me all their names as several of his paternal uncles had left New Zealand or died young.

Herman HILL, one of my husband’s “lost” uncles, had died in Tasmania in 1909 aged 24. His widow remarried and all the New Zealand family knew only the names and ages of his two children. Herman’s little sister, Olive HILL, went to her grave regretting that she had lost contact with his young children. She told me much about her large family of brothers and sisters, and always hoped that one day we would be able to find Herman’s family.

Recently, when my aged computer was playing up, I converted my genealogical research to a GEDcom file so I could put it on a website as a backup system while I got a new computer organised.

Early in November 2011, I took the nerve-wracking step of committing all my work to the ether. It was easier than I had anticipated, and I was quite pleased with myself. The files transferred to FamNet without mishap, and it was easy to search for people.

Within two days, I had an email from Queensland. It was from one of Herman’s great granddaughters, who had been looking for his New Zealand relatives, through all the usual channels, for two years. All it took was two days on FamNet and we were back in touch after over 100 years. Olive would have been ecstatic.

Now we are hoping that the descendants of another “lost” brother, Leonard, HILL, who died in Australia in 1929, search for him on FamNet and bring all the family back into contact.

Family History and Early Recollections from A. C. Barnes

From Robert Barnes

I am very lucky: my parents were keen genealogists, and much of our family research has been done for me. My brother and I didn’t just inherit a family tree with about 1500 names, we also got boxes of documents with photographs and other family artifacts, letters to English parishes as our parents researched their history in the days when airmail was the fastest way to communicate, and so on. Perhaps this explains FamNet’s focus on “Telling the story”: for me, the research is largely done and my main challenge is to publish we already know so that it is not lost, so that my grandchildren and their descendents know their story too.

I have a wealth of material giving the stories of our ancestors. Of particular relevance to the FamNet theme of “tell your story”, it has become a family tradition that, when you get to “a certain age” you write your story. Here are a couple of documents written by my father about 1965. Early Recollections is an account of growing up in rural New Zealand (Fordell: just south of Whanganui) in the early 20^th century, while Family History and Early Recollections is more about his recollections of his ancestors. Aren’t I fortunate to have this?

This is what FamNet is all about: a place to tell your story. Dad was a school teacher, and I suspect that he wrote some of this with a view to publication in the School Journal. What you write might be much less elaborate; perhaps a single paragraph might be all you want to write. But write something, and link it to your record. What you write might be just some text in the Notes field of a record, or a brief Word or PDF document attached to the record. Or it might be a major document with chapters and pictures. It’s up to you, but it’s far less daunting that writing a whole book and, unlike publishing a book, you can keep revising it as you think of more things to say. Whatever you write will follow the privacy rules of the FamNet records that they are attached to. Thus my father’s story is publicly available, but my brother’s is only available to the family because he’s still alive.

So make a start, write something! Anything! Your descendents won’t care about spelling or grammar mistakes; they’ll just be pleased to have it.

If others have similar material then we’d be delighted to feature it like this in future issues of our newsletter. Just let Sue know.

Smart Libraries

From Sue Greene.

This relates to those of us living in Otaki down to Wellington the Hutt Valley and Masterton. Have you got your Smart Library card? Never heard about it well read on.

New SMART card gives access to more than 500,000 library items. Local library users can now choose to become SMART library members and gain access to more than half a million library items across 23 libraries.

The SMART libraries initiative is New Zealand’s only tertiary and public library collaboration giving new and existing library members at Hutt City, Porirua City, Kapiti Coast, Masterton District, Whitireia New Zealand and Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) libraries the option to swap their local library card for a regional SMART card. SMART cards can be used at any participating library to view and reserve items and have them delivered to the library most convenient for pick up, free of charge. SMART card holders can also drop items off at any of the 23 participating libraries.

There is no cost to become a SMART library member. Kapiti Coast District Libraries’ Manager Leslie Clague says the initiative is about giving local library members more choice and greater access to resources. “The 23 libraries involved have been working together for the past year to make this happen.

If you have not got your smart card the next time your in your local library you can apply on the spot and receive your new card.

New Family History Resources in the National Library of New Zealand

January 2012

The Genealogist, Diamond Library Premium version. This includes English and Welsh census records 1841 -1911, BMDs 1837-2005, original images of PCC wills, school college and university registers, parish records, official National Archives Non-Conformist records, parish records, occupational lists, peerage, regimental records, electoral records and many other useful indexes. This database is very well regarded for its searching tools. The NZSG Kiwi Index v1.0 (institutional members' version) Search millions of names in multiple New Zealand indexes.

Family Search

From Wayne Laurence FSA Scot

Family Search was extra busy during the holidays. It added 119 million new, free records online (about 64 million indexed names and 55 million browsable images). This latest round of record updates makes 1008 historic record collections online boasting 2.58 billion searchable names and 466 million digital images of historic documents. The numbers are actually very staggering and very exciting for family history enthusiasts! Search the records online now at FamilySearch See the list at the link below...

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/whats_new

We invite contributions from FamNet members for this section. Please email me (Sue) if you have any material for this section.

Book Review

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe

by Norman Davies, publisher Allen Lane (2011), isbn 978-1846143380

Reviewed by Wayne Laurence FSA Scot

The loss of some of these kingdoms could explain what caused your ancestors to move from one country to another.

In this enjoyable and idiosyncratic historical excursion, Norman Davies discusses 15 European states of the past, widely varying in character. Three of them – the Byzantine Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Soviet Union – were great empires which looked as if they would last for ever; but they all disappeared, the first gradually over centuries, the last almost overnight. Another three – Aragon, Prussia and Savoy – spearheaded the respective ‘reunifications’ of Spain, Germany and Italy, which eventually subsumed them. Three of them were short-lived entities which might be described as ‘Ruritanian’: the Napoleonic Kingdom of Etruria, the Kingdom of Montenegro and the ‘Republic of Ruthenia’, which existed for one day in March 1939. Two of them belong to early medieval history, the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, which ruled over southern France and Spain in the fifth and sixth centuries and the Scottish Kingdom of Strathclyde, which held sway between the Solway and the Clyde from the sixth to the 11th centuries: few today may have heard of them but had they not both been defeated in war France and Scotland might never have appeared on the map as we know them today.

One chapter discusses Burgundy, a ‘moveable feast’ of a state hovering between modern France and Germany, which existed in no less than 15 different incarnations between the fifth and 18th centuries. Another deals with the Kingdom of Galicia, the name given to that part of historic Poland ruled by Austria from 1773 to 1918, which was remarkable for its ethnic mix of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and Germans; since its demise the Germans have been driven out, the Jews exterminated and the Poles expelled from their ancient city of Lvov. From the petty German monarchies which ended in 1918, Davies selects the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, from whose house (via Prince Albert) the British royal family is descended: after 1945, Coburg found itself in West Germany and Gotha in the Communist East. Finally he discusses the end of British rule in Ireland, suggesting that it may presage the disintegration of what remains of the United Kingdom.

In his introduction, Davies observes that published history tends to concentrate on states which still exist, whereas it is important that we should also study states which are now extinct, if only to remind ourselves of the transience of things. However it is somewhat disingenuous to present this volume as a survey of states which flourished and then died. Galicia was not really a ‘state’ in the sense of an independent entity; Ruthenia never got off the ground; Montenegro was snuffed out in 1918 only to return to life in 2006; and observing Putin’s Russia it is difficult to accept Davies’ contention that the USSR ‘vanished’, leaving not a wrack behind. One suspects that his publishers were somewhat alarmed to be presented with such a heterogeneous collection of essays and insisted he come up with a ‘theme’. A stronger theme is that even most educated people have little conception of the historical origins of their native localities. Few inhabitants of modern Glasgow have heard of the Strathclyde Kingdom which founded their city; most citizens of Belarus are blissfully unaware of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of which their land was part for five centuries; even in Kaliningrad (ex-Königsberg), which has only been Russian since 1945, no one seems to know about Prussia. Davies draws striking contrasts between the present and the historical landscape and quotes hilariously from guidebooks and Internet sites to show the extent of (sometimes wilful) ignorance.

In fact this book does not need a theme; its delight is in its discursiveness. Davies ranges far and wide, giving each chapter its own special thought-provoking point. In the case of Burgundy it is the magic of a name: ‘Burgundy’ has meant so many things at different times and places that few who mention it know what they are talking about. In the case of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, it is the efforts (humorously described) of the House of Windsor to disguise its German origins. In the case of Ruthenia, it is the pathos of a small nation that failed to realise its aspirations, while an ignorant West dismissed it as ‘quaint’. In the case of Lithuania it is the attempt to locate and reassemble the scattered archives of a great state two centuries after its disappearance.

Perhaps this book offers too rich a diet of dynastic politics, of which the author cannot have enough. He sometimes shows his prejudices (pro-Polish, anti-Russian, pro-EU, anti-‘British’). But by and large this is a worthy companion volume to Europe: A History and The Isles; like those marvellous works it combines the broad sweep with the telling detail, entertains with quirks and paradoxes and constantly reminds the reader that nothing is inevitable and history must not be read backwards.

Community

Ask an Expert.

At the time of publication there were no questions submitted to Ask an Expert.

Do you own reference books at home and would be happy to do lookups for members? Or are you willing to visit cemeteries, archives etc for others? Simple click here and add a record into the “Information Offered” table: we’ll put a note in the next newsletter, and at any time FamNet users can look up this table and make contact with you.

Help Offered

Like “Useful Web Sites”, we believe that a combination newsletter/table approach is needed. The newsletter can give you an instant “aha” and if it happens to coincide with your need it’s perfect, but you also need the table so that you can look up the list later long after you’ve forgotten which newsletter mentioned the subject that you needed help with.

At the time of publication there were no new items added.

Information Wanted etc.

Remember that you can post photos for identification, and information wanted requests: -

Click here to post a photo

Click here to request help with some information

At the time of publication there were no new photos posted or help wanted.

We’ll post the photos and information requests in the next newsletter, and they’ll remain in the database for at least a year.

Have your say – letters to the Editor

Just click here and then click the [Letters to the editor] button, then follow the on-screen instructions.

A Bit of Light Relief

light re Jan newsletter

Levitation – How it’s done

In November’s issue we promised to tell you how the trick is done. Look closely at the photo. Hint: the staff is the key to this illusion.

Here’s another view, from a different angle. Below this photo the fourth posting, from Melvyn Lewis, explains how it’s done.

If you look closely at the first photo you can see the outline of the steel support in his sleeve.

To Unsubscribe

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