New Website - Photographers 1840 - 1940

I Just found this, looks like it could be very useful if you have any old photo's or photographers in the family!

http://www.cartedevisite.co.uk/

A website about the photographers of Great Britain and Ireland from 1840 to 1940, their photographs, their studios and their customers.



Get information from the world’s largest collection of British and Irish carte de visite photographs and from the results of over 30 years of trade directory and census research.

Q - Where would I be without the list?

A - A lot more stuck than I am!

I really can't recommend enough joining up to Rootsweb Mailing Lists for the area(s) you are researching.

Not only do you get a lot of great and helpful advice, the people I've met so far have been great in helping to piece together details from my tree by helping to search, local knowledge, or looking things up for you!!

If you're a bit stuck or just want some advice or confirmation you are looking along the right lines in your tree, give them a go!! The Link is in the left sidebar, or click here http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Sparshott Chronicle

Hi all

If you found me searching for the name Sparshott I have been sent an excellent webiste which might help you out. I posted my surname list a few days ago which included Sparshott. I only have one in my tree who was Mary Ann E Sparshott born in abt 1878 in Sunderland, Durham. She married John W Bell in Sunderland in 1896. John W Bell was my Great Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Ellen Bell's brother.

Anyway I received an email from Peter at the Sparshott Chronicle who is researching this surname. So if you have Sparshott's in your tree click the link above or the one in the sidebar and take a look.

SJ x

Libraries

Well you learn something new every day!!!

I've been mainly an on line family tree researcher, being as my family comes from either Durham or Yorkshire I've been using Ancestry, Free BMD and a few other sites to put together the information I have at the moment. I've got to the point where I feel I've got pretty much all I can from there at the moment, until new stuff is added.

With a huge amount of thanks going to the Rootsweb London List I've now found out how to view loads of additional information online via my council website with my library card - which has until now been mostly neglected and gathering dust in my purse!! It's mainly old newspapers, but they seem to cover most of the country which is excellent!!! Not that I've found anything yet but I think the search facility is going to take some practicing LOL

Anyway if you're wanting to have a search through the old historic papers online check out the facilities your library offers and you, like me, might be able to stay safely on your butt in front of the pooter to view some!!

Thanks again to the Rootsweb London List!!

Top Tip for BMD Searches

I am a member of a few Rootsweb genealogy lists and have found them to be very helpful in the past. This message came through a few days ago and I wish I'd known it sooner, it would probably be very helpful with quite a few of my ancestors.

I've asked permission to post it up here along with a link to Roy's Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History which is well worth a read.

Anyway, less of me waffling and onto the helpful information.......

I imagine quite a lot of listers will already know this but on the off-chance
that not everyone does, here's a useful little tip for when you are
searching at the FreeBMD website for the entries of births, marriages
and deaths of relatives, etc. This is particularly useful for those running
one-name studies but it can also work for ordinary family historians if they
want to identify possible relatives with an unusual surname where it was
used as a middle name, i.e. possibly the name of a mother or
grandparent, etc.

If you enter nothing at all in the surname field but enter in the first name
field a surname with a + sign in front of it, this produces entries in which
the name was used either as a forename or a middle name. To give you
an example.....

Entering just "Stockdill" in the first name field produces only ONE entry,
for a child called Stockdill Middlebrook registered in 1896 at Dewsbury.
But if I enter "+Stockdill" in the first name field, nothing in the surname
field and choose All Types, this produces NINE other entries for births,
marriages and deaths where Stockdill was given as a middle name. I can
then identify all of these as being either relatives of mine or linked to my
one-name study.

Remember, it's important to put the plus sign before the name and the
more unusual the surname the better the chance you have of finding the
entries. Looking for people with Smith as a middle name will not be very
helpful!

I hope this helps some of the people who end up here looking for information on "how to"