The Genealogist

Weekly Ponderings

October 1, 2006 on 1:21 pm | In Amateur Genealogist News, Census, Genealogy, Family History, Ancestral Research, British Genealogy, Ancestor, Genealogy MySpace, MySpace, MySpace Alternative, 1911 Census, Petition, GenMates, GenMates News | No Comments

Hope that your week has been good and that you are enjoying the weekend?

It’s been another busy week for us and several of our sites have been featured in National Magazines in the UK!

Our Get The 1911 Census Online Petition has been fetaured in Your Family Tree and we have seen lots more signatures added, if you haven’t signed it already then do op along and join our Campaign!

In addition GenMates - The Genealogy MySpace has been featured in a half page spread in Family History Monthly and we have already seen a flood of new members. GenMates is absolutely our members site and unlike other Genealogy Sites our members create the content!

We are also looking to develop our resources for Genealogists and others with a new site which will have Audio Articles on it! So in addition to reading the articles you will also be able to listen to the articles at your leisure. Initial feedback from those we have asked to try the concept has been very positive and we may well look at offering the audio articles for sale at a reasonable price so that people can listen to them on the move! So get your iPods ready! The first articles will cover Genealogy and Scrapbooking. In the meantime you can also check out our existing Genealogy Articles site.

Squidoo

You may have read my comments elsewhere about Squidoo which I think is a fascinating site. It fits in so neatly with my passion for providing information to people which empowers them to make real changes in their lives. If you haven’t already taken a look at my Squidoo Lenses here are a few:

Genealogy and Family History
Hobbies For You
The Blogging Guide
Make Money From Blogging
Family, Home and Garden
How to be a Success in Niche Marketing

I also have a collaborative project going on at the moment with a number of experts in their fields which I will be talking about shortly! If you haven’t started your own lens yet then you can do so here: Squidoo and have the potential to earn an extra $5!

Finally for today! I don’t know about you but I like to be able to read reviews of things that I am considering buying and that’s one of the reasons I have gotten involved with Clickbank Reviews - you can tak a look and let me know what you think!

Have a great week!

Family Historians Demand Their Rights!

August 19, 2006 on 11:49 am | In Amateur Genealogist News, Census, Finding Ancestors, Genealogy, Family History, Family Tree, Ancestor, 1911 Census, Petition | No Comments

The UK Government continues to claim that the 1911 UK Census Returns are confidential. They claim that they cannot be released under the 100 Year Rule despite the fact that the UK Freedom of Information Act 2005 should make them available.

The reluctance of the UK Government to release this information continues to confound Family Historians and a Petition has been launched to attempt to get them to reconsider their position. The petition can be signed at Get The 1911 Census Online

Genealogists are asking why when Northern Ireland saw the release of both the 1901 Census and the 1911 Census in 1960; the Freedom of Information Act 2005 removed the restrictions placed on the release of information and prior to 1911 the average release period for Census Returns was 80 years they cannot have access to the 1911 UK Census information.

Genealogists and Family Historians would derive immense benefit from being able to further research their Family Histories if the 1911 Census Returns were made available. We recognise that the release of the census returns after 100 years is determined by long-standing government policy however the Freedom of Information Act 2005 supersedes that policy. We also acknowledge that the 1911 census form included the following emphatic assurance to householders: ´The contents of the Schedule will be treated as confidential. Strict Care will be taken that no information is disclosed with regard to individual persons.´ Again this is superseded by the Freedom of Information Act 2005.