Folkestone & District
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WEBSITES FEATURED IN WEB WATCH
For ease of reference, links to websites in the regular
“Web Watch” feature in our journal are given below.
Vol 21, No 2: December
2007
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From Rootsweb review,
18th July 2007. So you just found
your ancestor on the 1860 census, and you see the value of his personal
estate listed as £1,000. "That’s great," you think, "but how
much is that today?" A site called Economic History can help you figure
that out. Use their calculators and other resources to get an idea of whether
your ancestor was a prince or a pauper. The web site shows US dollars and
British pounds. |
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English Family History and Genealogy |
This is a fantastic web
site for English Family History and Genealogy wherever your family came from
in England. Some of the links are to ‘well known’ web sites for example http://www.genuki.org.uk/
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
and http://www.ancestry.co.uk/
Some of the sites mentioned are free, some are pay per view. |
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Second World War Defences in
Kent |
You may need Broadband to
view this site as it does take a while to load. It is not really a web site
for Genealogy as such, more social history. The document is written by
English Heritage and is information for teachers titled, Second World War
defences in Kent. I have been helping my 10-year-old granddaughter with a
project about the Second World War, which I have found fascinating. If you do
view this site, you may find it easier to click the icon at the bottom, on
the far right so two pages of the document can be viewed side by side. |
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I accept some of you
watched the Dedication Ceremony or saw The National Memorial Arboretum at
Alrewas, Staffordshire on the national news. It is an impressive monument to
remember the men and women who have given their lives in the service of their
country since the end of the Second World War. The site states that it is not
a traditional war memorial that only remembers those who were killed in
conflict, but also those who were killed by terrorist action. There is the
facility to search the Roll of Honour. Having watched my husband marching in
the recent Falklands Memorial Ceremony, it is quite a poignant one to
mention. |
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David Wharton sent in
this web site. It calculates and confirms birth dates from inscriptions on
headstones etc. The date calculator is most useful. Some of the other
information is quite fun, if for instance you want to know how long exactly
until New Year 2008 you can count down in seconds!! |
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This is an alphabetical
list of Coastguards 1841 to 1901. Gives the Coastguard's name, place and year
of birth. The location of their station and family details from the various
censuses. |
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And the other one is GenMaps - Old Maps of
England, Scotland and Wales |
Martin Brisco mentioned
this site on www.rootschat.com It gives you the option to view
old maps from England, Wales and Scotland. The web site then lists the maps
under the various counties. The old map of Dover (Dower, Douer) from 1661 is
delightful. It shows the Castle, churches, small houses and even ships as
pictures. This site is well worth a look. On the more serious side, the maps
of Bridgwater in Somerset have helped me find the location of the old Brick
Works where my husband’s ancestors worked. |
Vol 21, No 1: September 2007
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HM
Court Service – Post 1858 Wills |
I have often wondered
where researchers obtained records of probate for their ancestors. This is
the web site. |
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This web site contains
wartime memories from both the first and second World War. These are not only details of the
lives of service men and women, but also those ‘back home’ There is a chance
to add your own memories (for those old enough!) and there is also a guest
book. |
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If you have any Woolworth
relations (or more likely Woolworth employees who are relations?), visit the
website museum for a history of changing shopping habits and tastes.
Even find out how sweets were made in the 1930s! There are some great photos
and a Roll of Honour. I bet it will bring back memories whatever age you are! |
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Bryan has recently added
extra information to the Elham web site and although not specifically a
family history web site, there are many pictures of both new and old Elham.
This is a great web site especially for those who do not live locally (me)
and who wish to view the area. If you are planning a visit to Kent, have a
look at the nearby attractions page. |
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Have you found your
relations on the various censuses listed using different spellings for their
surnames? This web site is a search retrieval of surname variations. My
maiden name, Punnett, matched 56 spellings and many more matched with
Soundex. [Soundex is a system for finding words that sound similar, e.g.
Punnat, Punitt, and Punyt.] |
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A listing of death
sentences for Kent between 1735-1799. There were 870 death sentences during
that time which led to 308 confirmed executions and 14 probable ones. Along
with murder and Highway Robbery, burglary was looked on as a serious crime.
Most of the executions took place at Penenden Heath at Maidstone. There is a
short piece on the following web site http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/grub/province.htmabout
the hangings on Friday 9th September 1748. If you are researching
family who came from Marden in Kent, there are various web sites with lots of
information. |
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This is a listing of
names from the poor law records. There are many single women who have named
the fathers of their children and removal orders. |
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This listing of Memorial
Inscriptions has been put together as a joint venture between the Marden
Parish Church and the Marden History Group. |
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This is a list of the
marriages in Marden between 1754-1771 and 1813-1880 |
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I do like this link…it is
a hand written map of the old registration districts. |
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If you click on the map
it will bring up registration districts of England and Wales with an insert
at the top for the London areas. The map is part of the National Statistics
and ONS web site which contains much more information that I have not
personally looked at. |
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Janet Powell sent Peter
this web page, it is a free Lincolnshire marriage index 1837-1850 and 1870 in
some cases. |
Vol 20, No 4: June 2007
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From
Rodney Hall’s website which has other useful links |
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From
Peter Ward’s site which has further interesting pages |
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A
project inspired by the life of a Victorian child prisoner, this is just one
of the fascinating topics to be found in The National Archives’ Learning
Curve online teaching and learning resource |
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A
Canadian non-profit organisation with the primary goal of maintaining a
comprehensive database over 100,000 children who were sent to Canada to work
as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants as part of the British
Child Emigration Scheme to Canada between 1870 and 1957. |
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Among
the archival databases on this site is one that has nearly nine million people
who served in WW2. Of interest to
those whose families emigrated to the USA. |
Vol 20, No 3: March 2007
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This web
site covers churchyard monumental inscriptions from the Kent area. The
coverage of inscriptions varies between parishes and in some cases there are
photographs of the churches etc. (Kent Archaeological Society) |
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This is
a wonderful web site, which was sent to Peter by Janet Powell. Dave Dixon has
put this site together to add some of the ancestral details to the men who
gave their lives during WW1. There is a list of the men whose families have
been traced and family connections discovered. I am sure as more people view
this site, they will want to add their own contributions. If you have an
interest in WW1 the links take you to many relevant web sites. |
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I wonder
whether many of you watched the programme ‘Shot at Dawn’? introduced by Ian
Hislop that was shown just after Christmas. This web site gives the names and
some of the details of trials of the serviceman who were shot during the WW1.
It is an emotive subject whatever your views. |
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Following
on the armed forces subject, this is a list of deserters and absentees for HM
Forces. If you click the home at the bottom of the page, it takes you to the
London Ancestor pages and web links. There is enough interesting info there
to keep you going for at least an hour or so! |
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Lots of
information on this web site. The traveller’s tales are interesting. Not
specifically for genealogy, but more a site for historical facts and data. |
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An
excellent site passed on by David Wharton, covering all aspects of the
workhouse system, including the Poor Laws, buildings, staff, inmates,
children and education. It has maps and photos of some sites and census
details from 1881. |
Vol 20, No 2: December 2006
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I find
that the search mode on this web site is not too helpful, even the advanced
option as it brings up too much information. If you click on the ‘enter
rootschat’ icon there are many options. If you click on England, General, the
web page is broken down into counties. Click on your chosen county, the top
part of the page is look up offers and the facility to add your own request.
The bottom part is a list of messages and the facility to add your own
message. You may strike lucky if one of the members had a fiche for the
parish you need info on, or is a ‘regular’ at that county's record office and
may be able to find the info that you need. This web site is free and used by
many really helpful people. |
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Like the
Friends Reunited web site, you can search for free, but if you want to
contact another member there is a small annual fee. There is a facility to
add your own family tree once you have subscribed. This is a very easy site
to use. Existing trees can be added to the site. Many genealogists both experienced and beginners seem to use
this site and it is great for finding new family connections. |
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All the
items on this web page are interesting. You are able to search for a place
name, see what it was called at the time of the Domesday Book and the people
mentioned. There is a facility to download the pages for a small fee. |
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This is
a University of Leicester project; it is a searchable library that contains
some of the directories in England and Wales from 1750 to 1919. It is by no
means complete, but is free to use. For
those you cannot find, try the following web site www.archivecdbooks.org/ |
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This is
a great web site. I particularly like the collection of English accents and
dialects. The Penny Illustrated Papers from the Victorian times are now on
line. Although this web site is not specifically for genealogists, it does
give a wonderful insight into the lives of our ancestors. The search facility
is excellent; it will bring up information from all the collections, what is
even better, you can search by place name or postcode. There are some
interesting references to Folkestone in the Penny Illustrated. Thank you,
Jeanne Brinton, for the last 2 web sites. |
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Family History - Your Region (BBC
Site) |
Did you
enjoy the latest in the series ‘Who do you think you are?’? While having a
look at that web site, I found much more on the BBC’s pages. This web page is
a link to view the different regions and then the many associated web pages.
If you are interested in Kent’s more recent history, have a look at the
section ‘This Day in History.’ |
Links from earlier journals will be added in due course.
Our grateful thanks to Heather Cave, Mem. No. 852, for
compiling Web Watch