I had to rush out and get a copy, well OK if I am honest I forgot all about it and it was a couple of days before I finally remembered to pick up a copy one morning on the way into work.

I was a little shocked and very flattered to find my blog listed as one of the best websites for researching asylums and mental health records. Of course this is because of my series of blog posts about the search for my 2x great-grandfather George Thomas Gasson.

It has been a couple of years since I wrote those blog posts and on a couple of occasions I have wondered about updating them, or whether there is a need for any updates. I came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t worth the effort, but maybe I need to re-visit them again.

So thank you WDYTYA Magazine and Jonathan Scott (the article’s author) for spotlighting the story of my lunatic ancestor and the research of mental health and asylums in general. Although I am still surprised that my little blog was included with the likes of The National Archives and The Wellcome Library.

Copyright © 2012 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The CD contains five datasets, plus a selection of images (photographs and documents) from Sussex museums and archives. These are accompanied by a six page article in the magazine with background information and links. The five datasets are:

1874 Post Office Directory – this consists of two pdfs, the court directory (listing all the residents, or at least the wealthier ones) and the trade directory (an A to Z of Sussex tradesmen).

Army Lists – several pdfs listing officers of the Royal Sussex Regiment serving during the Boer War and First World War.

Parish Material – a tempting selection of parish register transcriptions from Hastings, Guestling and Crowhurst, the work of the Hastings & Rother Family History Society.

1821 East Grinstead Census – a transcription of a pre-1841 census survivor, a taster for the full CD from the Sussex Family History Group which also includes the 1811 and 1831 Census from East Grinstead.

Eastbourne MIs – an index and transcription of parts of Ocklygne Cemetery, Eastbourne produced by the Family Roots FHS.

I don’t think any of these datasets are going to answer any immediate research questions I have, but I am sure that they will in time turn out to be useful tools in my genealogy toolbox.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The anniversary issue is number 14, which seems a little strange for a monthly magazine which is only a year old, but then as family historians we are used to trying to fit more into the time available so I shouldn’t really be surprised. The cover bears a large picture of Kate Middleton reminding us that this is also a Royal Wedding issue as well as an anniversary issue, with an article on some of her ancestors and also an article looking at Royal wedding dresses over the centuries.

There are some great articles in this issue covering a good selection of topics. One that really stands out for me is the article 1911-2011 A Century of Family History by Else Churchill which describes the origins of The Society of Genealogists (in its centenary year), takes a look at their library and their online offerings.

I also found the article Going Down Under particularly interesting. It was written by Neil Kevan of Title Research, which is a probate genealogy company, as such it not only gives some useful background information on research in Australia and New Zealand but also provides some insight into the probate genealogy business.

Something I really like about the magazine is that there seems to be less emphasis placed on technology. Sure there is news of the latest internet releases from the major online players and elsewhere, but much space is also devoted to reviews of traditional media.

Some may see this as a disadvantage, but having spent far too much time online being bombarded by information about how we should all be social networking and how technology is going to radically change the future of family history, it is refreshing not to find it in the pages of this magazine. If I wanted to find out how to get the best from my scanner or digital camera I probably wouldn’t be looking to a family history magazine for advice.

The magazine delivers the same high quality and well written articles as it did when it started out. The format doesn’t seem to have changed, it still has all the features you would usually expect from a family history magazine, and the quality of production is excellent. The price has risen slightly in the last year (up to £4.25 from £3.99), but it still represents excellent value for money.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.
	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The following paragraph is taken from the Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine website:

If you visited this year’s show, we hope that you had a fantastic time. The Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine team were there the whole weekend, and it was great to be able to meet so many of you – but now we want to know what you think. What was your favourite part of the event? What could the organisers do better next year? Let us know by emailing your thoughts to Matt Elton at mattelton@bbcmagazines.com.

I will be sending Matt an email, but I thought I would share some of my thoughts here first. Overall I thought it was an excellent show, but it could be improved.

My favourite part of the show sounds a bit odd now I come to write it down, but standing upstairs on the gallery and looking down on to the ground floor and all the stands with hundreds of people wandering about. I have never thought of myself as a people watcher but it was great to see people exploring the show, wandering from stand to stand or purposefully darting to their next talk. It was reassuring to see so many people engaged enough in genealogy to make the effort to visit the show.

However, it wasn’t all good, but most of my negative points are pretty minor, such as a shortage of tables and chairs and a lack of choice from the food vendors (from a vegetarian point of view). It appeared that the only cash machine in the building was out of order for the entire three days, although it didn’t really bother me because I was there for three days and could get more cash before coming the next day.

My only real concern would be the content of the talks, there was a good mix of subjects but in my opinion the experience level seemed to be very much targeted towards the beginner. The time alloted for each talk (45 mins in most cases I think) was not really enough to go into much depth in any case. Whilst there are still aspects of genealogy where I am a beginner, I am sure there are plenty of others like me that would appreciate a few more advanced topics being covered.

The line up of talks also seemed short on technology related subjects, such as file management and of course blogging and other social media. Back to more traditional methods I would like to see some talks covering best practices like citing sources, organising paper files and making backups.

Having said all that, the talks are only one part of the whole experience and I will of course be back next year, hopefully for all three days but if not then for the whole weekend at the very least.

Audrey Collins had mentioned on The Family Recorder blog that both Anglo-Celtic Connections and Scottish GENES were mentioned in this edition, and I will forgive her for not mentioning my blog (I think she wanted to keep it a surprise for me!)

I resisted to temptation to wander around waving the magazine in front of anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity, I don’t think they would have been quite so excited as I was.

So thank you Jonathan Warren (the author of the piece) and Who Do You Think You Are Magazine for publishing the article, it means a lot to me  to be recognised in this way.

The article is entitled “Web resources for… Blogs for genealogy” and includes sections on commercial blogs, genealogical news and personal blogs, with examples in each categories. The article opens with a description of what a blog is and ways to read them, and closes with some suggestions on how to find blogs and some suggestions for feed readers.

I am proud to say that my blog gets a mention (and a screenshot) in the section on personal blogs, so I would like to thank Sheena and Practical Family History for giving me a mention.

The article does mention that “genealogy blogs are dominated by American writers and topics but there are now a growing number focused on the UK and Ireland”, so it is good that the article mainly focuses on UK and Irish blogs.

The other personal blogs mentioned were:

• Geoffs Genealogy
• A Twig in my Tree
• The Irish in Scotland
• Cruwys news
• Winging It
• Great War Heroes Weblog
• Tracing the Tribe
• Photo-Sleuth

At first glance it is very similar in appearance to Ancestors and has all the features you would expect from a family history magazine, such as news, internet news, reviews, lists of events and courses.

There are some interesting articles in this first edition. Of topical interest is an article on the genealogy of the three main candidates in the 2010 Election. On the practical side there is a beginner’s guide to making a video biography.

I was intrigued by the article on the supposed failed German invasion on the Suffolk coast (Shingle Street) in 1940. It certainly made me interested in reading more about the story and will check my local library for some of the material mentioned in the article.

This first issue has a Spotlight on Sussex which I was naturally drawn to. It contains details of the three main archives in Sussex, the West Sussex Record Office, the East Sussex Record Office and the Brighton History Centre. There is also an article on the private archives of Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.

The theme of archives continues in The Last Word, where Nick Barratt (Editor-in-Chief) reminds us that our archives and local study centres are in danger of closure and cuts, and need our support to ensure their survival.

It is an encouraging first issue, a worthy successor to Ancestors. There is a good selection of experts (who we are introduced to in this first issue) writing on a wide range of subjects and answering readers queries

You can find out more about the first issue, learn about the experts, subscribe to the magazine, sign up to the newsletter and submit your stories on their website.

The magazine, published by The National Archives and Wharncliffe Publishing Ltd, will finish just short of it’s 100th edition.

During it’s time the magazine has provided a wealth of news and information for British (although mainly English) family historians, many of the articles drawing from the collections of The National Archives (and other archives) and from the expertise of the staff there as well as other experts in the field.

As an example of the variety of content found in the magazine, the March 2010 edition included articles on body snatchers, Court of Chancery records, wages and currency conversion, highway surveyors and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It would be hard not to find something of interest amongst it’s pages.

UPDATE (09/03/10): According to The National Archives website, there is the possiblity of a replacement for Ancestors in the works, “We are currently discussing plans to launch a new magazine from The National Archives in the autumn. This work is being led by Simon Fowler, the current editor of ‘Ancestors’, and his team.“

There is a great selection of articles in this issue, covering a wide variety of subjects including features on resources at the Society of Genealogists and the Bishopsgate Institute.

It would be hard to pick out my favourite article from this issue, there really are so many fascinating articles. The interview with novelist Lee Jackson has introduced me to a wonderful resource, the Dictionary of Victorian London which was a result of the background research for his historical novels.

My favourite article (and it was a tough choice) has to be the one by the editor Simon Fowler entitled Drunk and Disorderly, which describes the life of Jane Cakebread who "over a 15 year period, received nearly 300 sentences" for being found drunk and disorderly.

Although she became a well-known figure through the media of the time and despite the best efforts of one or two individuals, she ended her time in a pauper asylum, with only one person attending her funeral.

The most helpful article is probably Peter Christian’s Mapping the Metropolis which is an excellent summary of the maps of London which are available online. It is going to take some time to explore all the sources mentioned, although one worth highlighting is the Crace Collection of Maps of London at the British Library.

This has to be one of the best issues of the magazine I have seen for a long time, it is packed with interesting and informative articles concerning the city that plays a key part in so many of our ancestor’s lives.

The first segment was filmed in the town of Zagan, Poland (mostly at the railway station) and Kate talks to Charles Clarke (a former inmate of Stalag Luft III) about life as a PoW.

The second segment was filmed at Stalag Luft III at the site of the escape tunnel, and is part of the conversation between Kate and historian Howard Tuck that didn’t make it to the final cut.

Both segments are quite short, a couple of minutes each if that, so probably not worth the cover price (£4.99) just for them alone, but for fans of the show there is also a seven page feature about the episode in the magazine. This includes an interview with Kate Humble, photos and information from the programme and background material.

The rest of the magazine is the usual mix of news, advice, features and adverts. This month the focus is on Devon research and the CD also contains a selection of Devon resources. For anyone just starting out on researching their family history this edition of the magazine has the first part of a “14-day family history challenge” which will help get beginners started.