Genealogy and History

Sites of Family Members

Ross J BULLOOCK
(new 25th Jun 2000)
A 3rd maternal cousin to my wife - descended from Henry TREVITT c.1858 and Christiana JANION.    This link goes to the site established by Ross in August 1999 - and is dedicated to the Norton Priory Museum and The History of Runcorn .
Michael BULLOCK
(rev 24 Dec 2001)
Son of Ross (above) - Michael started family history research before he left school - and is now a seasoned genealogist. Michael's research was the basis for my TREVITT and JANION pages.    This link goes to his new site in the making - where various ancestors and other family members are being listed - and additionally information on Durham Presbyterian Church.
Greg LEEDER
(new 14th Nov 2000)
Not identified as a family member - but hey - I've not started on MONTAGUE yet - so who knows.? At least it will lead you to more MONTAGUE's !
Jack WILSON
(setting up new site}
A 4th cousin of mine descended from Leonard COWING born c.1773 and Mary HOLDER born 1778.  Link to  secondary site of Jack's - where various COWING ancestors and other family members may be found.

General Genealogy Links

Cyndi's List
(rev 13th Apr 2006}
The most comprehensive genealogy source I have found on the web - if you've never visited then you're in for a treat.  It has over 250,000 links to about any source that you can think of - and then some.  A - must visit.
Family Tree Maker FTM - Search page
Genealogy Forums
(new 5th May 2001)
News group in style - but your email address is not exposed to spam harvesters.    With separate groups for each surnames.
COWING ,  MONTAGUE ,  PERFITT .
GENUKI GENealogy UK Index for non-commercial resources - Family History Societies - surname lists etc.
Getting Started
(new 22nd Nov 2003)
If you are new to Genealogy / Family History - then there are pages that may help at:-
  • GENUKI - where there is a link in the top navigation block;
  • BBC - search for family history.
I haven't put specific page addresses here - as they do change from time-to-time.
Montague Millenium A site claiming that it will have every MONTAGUE past and present indexed before the millennium!  Well it didn't make it - and from what I see it has a long way to go - and I personally have had little luck at this site which appears to be mainly US orientated.  It has a searchable index - so if you are seeking MONTAGUE's (any spelling) - give it a whirl.
Surname Web
(new 19th Aug 2000)
Search for other web sites by surname - or add your own genealogy site.
Starting Point A good site for tracking down people.  The only way I have found to search the UK is first to do a dummy US or Canada search (i.e. search for "zz").  Following this you will get a select country option.  If there is a direct way to this I have yet to find it.  If you know then please let me in on the secret.
War Graves Search 
(rev 13th Apr 2006)
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission search engine.  It is very slow and may fail altogether.  This is due to the the extremely high usage of the site which has about 600,000 hits a week! So be patient.
White Paper titled
"Civil Registration:
Vital Change,
Birth, Marriage
and
Death Registration
in the 21st Century"
(new 3rd July 2002)
Web site dedicated to Civil Registration White Paper

Discusses the new government White Paper - and how changes planned to Civil Registration will affect Family Historians/genealogists.

The site comprises six pages:

  1. An introduction to the White Paper proposals
  2. Key points of the White Paper
  3. A summary of the White Paper listing the differences between "now" and "future"
  4. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
  5. Concerns and issues: areas that are unknown, not clearly defined or lacking in substance in the current proposals
  6. Links to key web sites

Graphics
Abstract Dimensions This site is a must if you are getting started with graphics. It has tutorials for many aspects of graphics including - Photograph restoration - image enhancement and manipulation - image creation etc.   Whilst this site relates specifically to using JASC -  Paint Shop Pro software - the techniques can be used with almost any photo editing software.   The graphic images in these pages were designed using PSP versions 5 or 7. Both include Animation Shop for animated gif's.

Language

We supposedly speak the same language in both the UK and North America - but do we?

As well as using different spelling - words often have different meanings - as well I know! 

Back in the 1980's - on the second day of my visit to the US HQ of a US Company that I worked for in England - I asked a young secretary for a rubber.  She gave me what I wanted and said "we call them erasers over here!".   Strange comment I thought - until later when I discovered that rubber meant contraceptives in the US.   Fortunately the secretary was used to visits by Brits. 

The following links are for sites that give US/UK translations:

Cheers Love
(rev 24th Nov 2002)
Humorous Londoner orientated site. Cheers - often used for -  thank you.   Love - familiar term used for addressing any female - in particular in the Cockney area's.
Brit-Speak NYC serious site
UK-pages Serious site

Maps

Not sure of Great Britain's geography - then these should help.
MapQuest
(new 20th Mar 2006)
A universal favourite for : Driving Directions, Maps & Live Traffic Reports;
- non UK routes try - www.mapquest.com;
Multimap
(Batholomew)
(new 24th Nov 2002)
Search by:-  building; street; town; postcode; co-ordinates;
Old Maps
(new 24th Nov 2002)
Maps from the 1800's - find how things were at the time of our ancesters. One thing that immediately struck me - was the large number of wells.
Search by place name (appears to reference old to new spellings)
Streetmap
(new 24th Nov 2002)
Search by:-  London Street name; Post Code; UK Place; OS grid (enter as x,y); Landranger grid; Lat/Long; Tel Code; UK Street name.

Calendar Links

Calendar Find
(new 05 Nov 2005)
An Index for Calendar Resources of all types.

Security and Junk Mail
EuroCAUCE
(new 30th May 2004)
EuroCAUCE (European Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) - is a European branch of CAUCE, dedicated to the fight against UCE in Europe

Originating in the USA, CAUCE is a group of Internet users who are fed up with spam and have formed a coalition to promote legislation which would outlaw UCE. Good work has already been done with amendments to US Law originating fom CAUCE members. The founders of CAUCE are long-time Net Activists -- real "Netizens" -- who understand the power of this medium and the dangers of massive, uncontrolled Internet abuse. We're not a big corporation with a hidden marketing agenda; we're not morality crusaders with little Internet knowledge and a political axe to grind. For a good overview of our believed solution read Opt In vs. Opt Out, and the Opt-In Manifesto.

Software
 
IMPORTANT
Do your computer(s) have firewall(s) installed?
If NOT - they could be involved in criminal activity - and you could end up taking the blame!!! - more
Anti-spyware
As there are many affective free anti-spyware programs available that will detect spying programs such as:- key loggers - internet use trackers - trogens - I am reluctant to recommend one over the others.
AVG Anti-virus
(rev 03th Nov 2006)
AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product - and automatic updating can scheduled - thereby providing the high-level of detection capability. A well as automaticall scanning incoming and outgoing mail - full (or part) computer scan can be scheduled say every night when its not in use. AVG Free is easy-to-use.
EditPad The best text editor I've come across - capable of opening multiple files of any size.  You can switch between files at the click of a tab.  If you use a plain text editor then you should try it.  You've heard of Shareware and Freeware - but this is Postcard-ware !  If you don't know what this is - why not click and find out - and it's less than a 300KB download. Also available from Tu Cows general download site.
ePrompter
(new 29th Oct 2005)
I have been using this program for about a year now following problems with MailWasher (see below) - and it has proved very useful. Particularly for simultaneously checking email from a number of accounts via different providers including web-mail (e.g. Hotmail - Yahoo etc). In fact ePrompter can handle 16 accounts. ePrompter - freeware - but donations would be appreciated. Version 2.0 build 2 was under a 1 Mb download and installed without problems.
What prompted me to add this at this time was a phone call requesting help in downloading mail from a stuck mailbox. ePrompter downloads mail headers and allows you you to select mail for deletion without downloading. It also allows subject matter to be viewed as plain text without attachments so is totally immune from virus and worms etc.
MailWasher
(rev 29th Oct 2005)
If you are not plagued by spam - (official name UCE - Unsolicited Commercial Email) - then it is only a matter if time before you are. Presently I receive 300 plus each week. Help maybe at hand in the form of MailWasher - which is freeware - but not being updated. Later versions are only available for a charge afer an initial charge. I had been using the free version for several years but it started failing just before the end of 2004 - due to illegal characters being added to spam messages. This appeared to leave the option of downloading the spam to clear my mail box - but fortunately ePrompter came to the rescue.
It was definiately an own goal from the spammers as without MailWasher - and some advanced filtering techniques of my own - I took out new email addresses and black-holed the existing.
When will these spammers get it into their thick heads that if someone is taking the trouble to filter mail - they don't want it and spammers circumvention measures only results in dumped addresses and increased pressure for anti-spam legislation.
Tu Cows
(new 25th Jun 2000)
General download site. Software available includes the Arachnophilia HTML Editor;  EditPad plain text editor;  FTP managers such as: WS_FTPLE and Cute ; and many other useful utilities.
ZoneAlarm
(new 7th Feb 2005)
ZoneAlarm is a free software firewall for home users that runs when your PC starts up. ZoneAlarm is easy to install and setup - hiding your computer from would-be intruders - and only allows programs to connect out after your approval. All intrusion attempts are logged for your later examination. If you have networked computers - ZoneAlarm can also be setup to control access across your network.
If any of these links consistently fail - mail me
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