An exciting week!

A few of my favourite things...
Originally uploaded by swashford

This picture sums up some of the things that I have been excited about this week. The CDs are Tom McRae from the gig that I mentioned on Monday. The books are Harlequin by Laurell K Hamilton (yes I admit to enjoying vampire novels on occasion!) and How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library by Phil Bradley. The latter book is going to take a lot longer to get through than the former as every couple of pages I keep going online to explore the resources discussed. I was very excited when I ordered the book and so far it is surpassing my expectations. The strange document at the back is a copy of a document from the National Archives showing my ancestor's military service in the Suffolk Regiment (2nd Regiment of the Foot as it was then) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Thanks to this I know that my ancestor had grey eyes and was 5"8 tall and that received a good conduct medal. 150 years after he was discharged, John Chapman's great, great, great granddaughter could find out what colour his eyes were thanks to a document she ordered online. Isn't the internet fantastic?!

National Archives do Podcasts!

Recently I've been less in library world in the evenings and back researching my family history. On the hunt for blogs, RSS feeds etc that are not about libraries (I got tagged!) I came across the podcast series at the National Archives. If you're at all interested in history, genealogy or archives I have to recommend this series. So far I've listened to an introduction to the Family Records Centre (would be useful to have on an MP3 player on your first visit), Anthony Adolph talking about his famous ancestor who may have been the father of Charles II and an introduction to workhouse records . One of my ancestors was born in the Barnet Union Workhouse which may have been the inspiration for the workhouse in Oliver Twist so the workhouse podcast was particularly fascinating. Worth a listen.

National Archives Newsletter

Every month I receive a newsletter from the National Archives in my inbox and it is always something I look forward to reading. I love spending hours researching my family history and the National Archives are continually coming up with new ways of providing online insights into their collection. This month the first item in the newsletter was Ancestors on Board.com a database of outward passenger lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles between 1890 and 1960. At the moment it only has 1890-1899 but it looks like an interesting project.

I'm also interested in a new book Workhouse: the people - the place - the life behind the doors . One of my ancestors was born in the Hertfordshire workhouse that inspired Charles Dickens to write Oliver Twist and I look forward to reading this.

There is a lot of concern at the moment about the proposed move of the Family Records Centre to the National Archives in Kew. I have enjoyed visiting the FRC in the past but have never been to Kew and I think there is a tendency for many people to feel that the National Archives is a difficult place to access and use, a little beyond the casual family historian. If moving the FRC to Kew improves the connection between the two and encourages people to investigate the material at the National Archives I can see this being a positive step but there needs to be a serious move towards making Kew accessible to people who have never before been to an archive. It is very easy to become overwhelmed by the amount and variety of material available in an archive and a national resource needs to be just as welcoming to the beginner as to the professional researcher.