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By Claire, on March 12th, 2012
 Technology. Always a favorite topic of mine! Much of it mystifies me, at least the nuts and bolts of the inner workings which make the magic of it all possible. But I’m definitely a happy “end-user.” Technology plays a huge part in creating the abundance of genealogically rich information I’ve been able to use in my research this last decade. I use it every day in my research, especially for records in England.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a website that provides statistics on surname concentrations by county in England in the 1880s. To test the waters, I typed in Denchfield, and was surprised to learn that toward the end of the 19th century there were more Denchfields living in Oxfordshire than in Buckinghamshire. I had no idea. But it provided a new avenue for research that hadn’t occurred to me before. Perhaps some of my mysteriously (…more)
By Claire, on January 19th, 2012
 My favorite free genealogy site for British genealogy research isn’t even a site about genealogy, it’s Google Books. Its digital scans of books and periodicals which are old enough to be out of copyright are always popping up in my Google searches. Here are a few of the things that have been a helpful in sorting through my English ancestors in the last year:
Kelly’s 1883 Directory for Bucks, Berks, and Oxfordshire Google’s search field on the left of screen makes quick work of finding keywords in the text of the book. I’ve found some facinating information about my ancestors’ employment, neighborhoods, and other clues about their civic and business lives in early county directories.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, issue from 1807 a source I would never have thought to check, reported on the death of my 6th Great Grandfather, the auctioneer James Cole. This find ultimately led me to his will, which (…more)
By Claire, on January 12th, 2012
Amy Coffin at the We Tree Blog has come up with another great blog theme, 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, which presents bloggers (and others) with a weekly topic related to the abundant resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. With so much of my family history based in England, I’ve decided to approach these 52 weeks with a British perspective.
This week’s focus is on paid online genealogy tools. In thinking about the abundance of genealogical sources available to the online researcher, I have to marvel at what I”ve been able to accomplish on the British side of my family tree from the comfort of my favorite armchair here in Northwest Pennsylvania. If I had to choose just one paid online tool, I’d have to say my subscription to FindMyPast.co.uk has been the most useful in locating UK records I couldn’t access any (…more)
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