BerksFHS Computer Branch

Program for 2008

2008-01-01T21:54:00.000Z

Wednesday 16th January 2008
Setting up a home network: by Chad Hanna & Gillian Stevens
How to easily share the internet, one printer and files between all your computers, upstairs, downstairs and in the garden shed.

Wednesday 20th February 2008
The future of Internet genealogy: by Peter Christian

Wednesday 19th March 2008
Using Society of Genealogists data online and future developments: by Else Churchill

Wednesday 16th April 2008
Getting the most out of Ancestry: by Paul King

Wednesday 21st May 2008
Where did my files go? Organising information and images in the digital age: by Paul Brooks
Branch General Meeting

Wednesday 18th June 2008
What to do with those Gedcoms: by Peter Beaven

Wednesday 16th July 2008
How members are using technology: by members (co-ordinated by Paul Brooks)

August 2008
No Meeting

Wednesday 17th September 2008
tba

Wednesday 15th October 2008
tba

Wednesday 19th November 2008
tba

December 2008
No Meeting

November 2007 Meeting: 'Scotlands People and the Like by Phil Wood

2007-11-21T22:22:00.000Z

tba

October 2007 Meeting: 'Getting your Family History into Print' by Kate Parchment

2007-10-17T21:27:00.000+01:00

Kate is the third generation in charge at Parchment Printers of Oxford. This is a firm started by her grandfather 46 years ago when they were still using metal typesetting. Since then they have moved to other forms of printing, principally litho and digital printing. Although based in Oxford they accept contracts from all over the country and some 60% of their work comes from outside where e-mail makes it easy to send copy to them. They specialise in short run print jobs for both societies and individuals. A print run can be for a single copy or up to several thousand.

Making a printed report of your family history research should be the final fun bit of work with the objective of producing something that looks good and will interest other people. Having assembled the text, charts and pictures you need to plan the look of the final report. You need to make a plan. It is best to start out by aiming for the best, but you need to remember your budget. How much is it worth to you and the people who will read it? You need to think why you are making this report and who is going to read it.

When considering the type of printing there are two main options, litho or digital. Litho will produce a better quality result, but has an initial set-up charge for production of the plates and will also have costs for ink and operator costs. A wider range of paper types can be used, but a print run of more than 500 would be preferable to spread the costs.

Digital printing is essentially a glorified photocopier with the emphasis on glorified. Essentially it is a print on demand service and the final cost is proportional to the number of documents printed. The original material can be your own printed pages or they can be sent electronically as a PDF document. You can also send in your original material, handwritten if necessary, and this will be prepared for you.

When you have decided on the content of the report it is advisable to talk to your printer before producing the material for reproduction. Advice can be given on details such as margin widths and size of type for the page size you are using and also on the quality of material submitted, particularly with reference to images. These must be of adequate resolution, but you also need to consider colour changes between your original and the printed output. You can also choose the weight and quality of paper, which has a major effect on the look of the final product.

At this stage you need to get quotes from different printers but make sure that you are comparing like for like. It is not unusual for a quotation for litho printing to exclude the cost of making plates and here quotations can vary by 20 to 50 per cent. Quotations for digital printing tend to be more standard. A proof copy is to check the quality of the printing, not for you to make changes to the text. Minor changes can be made here, but if they involve extra work for the printer they are chargeable.

Two main types of binding are used although spiral binding is also an option. Saddle stitching, using the staples along the spine, can now be used for quite large reports. These can be opened out flat and also of course have a cover of your choice. Perfect bound books are glued and the resulting square spine can be used on which a title can be printed. For a special report hard covers could be added to one or two copies and dust covers, printed with title and images, would make a final touch.

September 2007 Meeting: ' A computer search of the history of a 19th century family' by Peter Beaven

2007-09-19T21:35:00.000+01:00

From Balaklava to Bangalore

“On the 25th of October, killed in the engagement at Balaklava, aged 27, Captain Thomas Howard Goad, 13th Light Dragoons, eldest son of the late B. Goad, Esq., and stepson of the late General Sir Thomas Bradford, G.C.B., G.C.H.”

This note started a search for the families involved and this presentation showed how computer resources were used to develop the study. A Google search for Sir Thomas Bradford listed over 1.3M references; by using quote marks “Sir Thomas Bradford” this was reduced to under 250. However the Oxford Dictionary National Biography reference was missed here as it listed ‘Bradford, Sir Thomas’.

The ONB reference gives his father’s name, place and date of birth. This information was then entered into the online IGI site (with a year range added as the IGI records Birth/Christening). This returned the record of Christening together with a Batch Number, which is the source information. The Batch Number is a hyperlink and by clicking on it the search site is reloaded, pointing to that source. By entering the father’s name all records of the family are displayed.

To find the children the 1841census was first searched. Sir Thomas and Lady Bradford were living in London with his brother, the Rev. Bradford, three of his daughters and two children of Benjamin Goad. The 1841 census shows that the Bradford girls were born in Scotland, while Sir Thomas was Commander of the forces there. Looking in the 1851 census for Barbara Bradford found her visiting her married sister together with her brother who had adopted the name Atkinson. This was his mother’s name but he probably adopted it as her uncle left her his estate. The third Bradford daughter, Frederica, does not appear in any census record.

Sir Thomas’s military career can be traced through the online London Gazette and the Times digital archive. The Times can be accessed if you have an Ancestry account (or at the Research Centre) but many public libraries also provide this and you can log-in from your home PC. Other references occur in regimental web sites; Project Gutenberg - an online collection of 20,000 ebooks, including the diary of Sir Walter Scot who records the death of Sir Thomas’s first wife and even the Adelaide Civic Collection which contains a painting of an attack led by Sir Thomas in the Penisular war.

His brother, William, became Rector of Storrington in Sussex. However he had not lead the quiet life of a country parson; a search of The Times archive found a note about him as part of his son’s obituary. This showed that he volunteered for service as a chaplain to the Forces, and in that capacity took part in Sir John Moore's retreat to Corunna.

On retirement the Bradfords settled in Sussex near where Thomas senior had lived. They can be found in the 1851 Post Office Directory, using Thomas senior had a brief Berkshire contact as he is recorded as purchasing Coley Park in 1802 but selling it again that year. He finally appears in the National Burial Index for 1824 at Storrington where his youngest son was Rector.

The Goad storey
In 1840 Sir Thomas Bradley married the widow Ann Elizabeth Goad, née Hill at Hove. From the notice in The Times it was seen that one of the officiating ministers was Sir Thomas’s brother the Rev William and the bride was the widow of B. Goad of Harley Street. Her father was Lt Col Hill; a possible link between the two army families.

The National Archives contain several Goad wills from this time, one of which is the Will of Benjamin Goad of Harley Street. This will named three brothers and a brother-in-law, most of whom also had wills at TNA. From this information the IGI was able to find that the parents were William & Darling Goad. Looking for records only using the parent’s names found eight children from two different parishes. However Benjamin Goad was not one of these; the information of his birth is only recorded in the Vital Record Index, available only on Cd and found at the Research Centre in Reading.

In his will William Goad directs his executors to sell his possessions and a notice appeared in The Times of 15 Feb 1794 listing the furniture etc for sale. High on the list are 50 dozen old Port and 40 dozen excellent Madeira. Earlier notices in The Times show that the income had been from the sale of furs such as Racoon, Bear, Otter, Wolf or Musquash.

The second daughter, Emma Darling Goad married John Henry Powell Schneider, recorded in Pallot’s Marriage Index. She was in her 40s by then and he had at least two previous marriages. He made many announcements through advertisements in The Times such as
“On the 12th inst. at Southgate, the lady of John Schneider, Esq. of a son”.

Goads in India
Two of the Goad wills in TNA were made by Benjamin’s brothers in India and sent to London for safekeeping. The first was for ‘Will of Samuel Thomas Goad, Senior Merchant in the Civil Service of the Honorable United Company of Merchants of England of Calcutta , East Indies’ and the second was ‘Will of John Fryer Goad, Lieutenant Interpreter and Quarter Master of the second Battalion twenty Fifth Regiment of Native Infantry in the Honorable Company's Service on the Bengal Establishment of Bengal, East Indies’.

This part of the study was left at first as it did not seem easy to find information - but it proved to be as detailed as in the UK. First of all the using the IGI for India produces 37 references for Goad between 1809 and 1886. Most of these are for baptisms but many give both parent names.
A more valuable resource is ‘fibis’, Families in British India Society, which has transcribed a variety of resources including marriages and military records. Most of the Goad men served in the local East India regiments in the first part of the century, although some were also in the civil service. In the 1841 census William Parker Goad and his family were in London, although it is not possible to tell if they had returned temporarily. The family are recorded with the letter ‘I’, which was supposed to indicate Ireland - which is how the entries have been transcribed.

This period includes the Indian mutiny of 1857, which particularly affected some members of the Goad family. William Trickett Goad was an Ensign at the siege of Lucknow and was awarded the siege medal. The only other record of him is from The Times, Wednesday, Jul 04, 1860
‘32d Foot Ensign Goad superseded for being absent without leave.’ The 32nd Foot was the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and so William was probably from the Cornish branch of the Goad family.

After the end of the mutiny many regiments were disbanded and the officers retired on full pay, often with a promotion. The career of Samuel Boileau Goad needs more study. It is reported that he was ‘Court‑martialled three times (acquitted twice)’ He also retired as a major on full pay.

The census records show that the families did travel to and from the UK. Men came back and married and also for training. Some of these movements have been recorded through Bonds indexed by fibis.

Finale
Early searching of Sir Thomas Bradford’s family identified four children but Frederica was only known from the 1841 census. Her step-mother Anne Elizabeth died in 1868 at Avranches in the Empire of France. Her will contains the passage 'To my godchild Edith Harriet Ridley I leave a box of gold catchwork in a leather case with viscountess coronet and initials M. A. S and a Chinese Dressing box. These were intended for her poor mother'. A search of the IGI found the following record
EDITH HARRIET
07 JAN 1849 Hartburn, Northumberland, England
Father: HENRY RICHARD RIDLEY
Mother: GEORGIANA AUGUSTA FREDERICA BRADFORD

The reason that Frederica did not get the bequest is shown by the death recorded on FreeBMD:-

Deaths Mar 1861
Ridley Georgina Augusta Frederica Durham 10a 183

The full results of this study have been put onto the internet and this has generated feedback, including corrections where Lt Col Philip Ainslie had been confused with Lt Col Charles Philip Ainslie (known as Lt Col Philip Ainslie). References incude

Project web site:- http://familytrees.genopro.com/appleshaw/Goad/
Oxford Dictionary National Biography :- www.oxforddnb.com/
The IGI can be found at http://tinyurl.com/5kwh
Online Gazettes:- www.gazettes‑online.co.uk/
Project Gutenberg:- www.gutenberg.org
DocumentsOnline - Download wills:- http://tinyurl.com/7kqoz
Families in British India Society:- www.fibis.org/
FreeBMD:- www.freebmd.org.uk/

July 2007 Meeting: 'Creating a Family History Presentation in Powerpoint’ by Paul Brooks

2007-07-18T21:17:00.000+01:00

Paul began by reminding the audience that humans have managed for thousands of years without software, but that a Powerpoint Slide Show could enhance a talk if well constructed. He explained the limitations that might be imposed by equipment and software available on the night. He also mentioned the free software, Powerpoint Viewer, which now allowed presentations to be shared (read only) with those who could not afford the true, but expensive, Powerpoint software.

Paul went throught the basic concepts and terminology, and then began a presentation, by choosing a presentation design, and then used the slide master option to adjust the defaults. He then created a set of 5 slides : 1 - Introduction - 2 - bullet points - 3.- text and clip art - 4 - inserted photograph and text box - 5 - screen shot.

He explained the various options to edit, sort and view the slides, and how to move and resize images and text boxes. An example of a transition was made, preset animation was added to the bullet points, and a custom animation was added to the clip art. Autoshapes were added, adjusted and animated.

June 2007 Meeting: 'Creating a Weblog using Blogger' by Gillian Stevens

2007-06-19T22:35:00.000+01:00

Last year at a family History Conference Gillian went to a lecture on blogging. The lecturer recommended Google’s (free) Blogger program and said it was easy to use with both essential and useful features. Gillian decided to test this and within half an hour had set up a basic blog site for this Computer Branch.

So what is a blog, and what use is it? A blog is the abbreviation of Web Log. In essence it is a notebook on the internet where the latest addition appears first, unlike a written book where the first entry is at the front. It can be used for a variety of purposes: personal diary/journal; collaborative space; news channel (Dick Eastman’s newsletter now appears as a blog); collection of links.

There are many choices of Blog software many, but not all, are free. The Blog can either be hosted on your own webspace or on the software’s own space. Using Blogger the steps to get started are
1 Go to www.blogger.com
2 Create an account. If you have an existing Google account this can be used as a first step. If not then create a Google account using an existing email address. Enter a password (twice for security) Choose the Display name and the enter the Word Verification by copying the letters of the image into the text box. Accept the conditions (to say that you have read them)
3 Name the Blog. Choose the Blog name and select a Blog address. Check to see if it is available
4 Choose a template. Choose a template for the Blog. A dozen samples are shown which can be enlarged for preview. As this only a template which is applied to the posts, it can be changed later.
5 Add content. This can be text, with the ability to choose font, including colour and style and many standard word processing options such as justify (and spell check). You can alo import images.
Having created the content, this can be either saved as a draft, for your use, or published

To change the appearance of the published version, open the blog and click the Template tag. This allows you to add extra features and edit the existing ones, including their position (by dragging them)

Ideas for Family History Blogs
A simple blog of names
A blog for collaboration
A blog for research notes

Additions to the blog by other contributors can be reviewed (if you wish to do so) before they are posted. To view a blog you can go directly to the web address but in addition you can ‘suscribe’ to it so that any addition to it causes a notification to be sent to you

Blog Day

Follow up session to be held on Saturday 21st July 2007 10.30-4.00 in the BerksFHS Research Centre - for more details or to book email computerbranch (at) berksfhs.org.uk

2007-05-16T23:01:00.000+01:00

May 2007 Meeting ' British Library Newspapers' by Stewart Gillies

Stewart started his talk with a brief description of the development of newspapers from the 17th century to the present day. The first English language paper was produced in 1620 in Amsterdam and it was two years later that the first paper was licensed for production in England. This was under the censorship of the Star Chamber and so contained no domestic news, only reports from Europe.

During the Civil War from about 1640 the censorship broke down, but was renewed after the Restoration when press controls and licensing were introduced. The papers, such as the London Gazette which first appeared in 1665 (published initially in Oxford) tended to report official publications. In 1698 the controls were not renewed and other forms of paper began to appear. In 1702 the Daily Courant was started, the first regular daily newspaper. These were expensive to produce and became more so with the introduction of stamp duty in 1712, followed by the advertising tax. This meant that the papers were only for the wealthy and in the 19th century Acts were passed aiming to curb Radical newspapers by duty on cheap publications and restrictions on publishers.

Local papers, such as the Reading Mercury which started in 1723, contained extracts from London papers but with local advertising. By the end of the century several London papers had started, but the Daily Universal Register (1785), renamed the Times in 1788 became the most noted. This carried advertising on its front page until 1960. It has now been indexed and digitised and is available online.

Newspapers expanded from the middle of the 19th century; stamp duty was abolished in 1855 and the use of wood pulp paper lead to better quality and lower costs. The expansion of the rail network increased the distribution leading to the introduction of the first Penny Papers.

Another new form of publication, aimed at a different readership, was developed with the start of the Illustrated London News in 1842. This was issued weekly, containing foreign news and domestic events, but illustrated with engravings. This was relatively expensive and several competitors appeared. A cheaper alternative, the Penny Illustrated Paper, appeared between 1861 and 1913 and this has been digitised and is available, Free, online from the Collect Britain site of the British Library. Other, often lurid, publications such as the Illustrated Police News contained reports from the courts with wood cuts.

As London papers became more widely distributed the local papers had to compete by including local news. Records of birth marriages and deaths can be found although as these were paid insertions the coverage was limited. Trade and professional papers, such as the Grocer or Bookseller appeared and these also contained advertisements and obituaries.

A project to identify and catalogue 19th century newspapers and periodicals is the Waterloo Directory. This Canadian project is available by subscription online; it may become available at Colindale.

Newspapers continued expanding in the 20th century, the Daily Mail started as a broadsheet in 1896 with short articles aimed at the commuter. In 1903 the Daily Mirror introduced the new tabloid format and made use of photographs. The Mirror now has a subscription archive. Paper shortages 1914-1918 meant that some publications became weekly and others were closed and a similar thing happened in 1939-1945. Papers recovered after the wars, but since 1950 have lost influence and declined in size due to the influence of TV and alternative sources of information. The loss of advertising has also affected national papers but against that is the growth, since the 1970s of the free press, which is funded by advertisements.

More information on the development of the British Newspapers can be found at
http://www.bl.uk/collections/britnews.html

Colindale

The British Library Newspapers collections at Colindale consist of nearly 700k volumes/parcels and over 370k reels of microfilm. There are 2,600 UK and Irish titles acquired since 1869 under the legal deposition scheme. It also includes the main London daily and Sunday papers since 1801; pre 1801 copies are held by the main Library. There is a fairly comprehensive cover of regional papers from 1840 with some earlier editions.

There are extensive collections of Commonwealth newspapers from the late 18th century onwards and a selection from other countries back to 1631. The collection is strong in papers from West & East European countries and also the USA. Asiatic papers are only collected in the English language version. Trade papers are also held along with magazines received under the legal deposit scheme. Some of these have been transferred to the main BL Humanities Collections at St Pancras.

A few printed indexes of newspapers are available; the Times from 1785 and the Guardian from 1842. A list of publications can be found at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/newspapers.html

Many recent newspapers are available online in the reading room.

A major project, which will hopefully be complete later this year, is the digitisation of complete runs of some British national, regional and locally important newspapers, dates 1800-1900 http://www.bl.uk/collections/britishnewspapers1800to1900.html. Unfortunately this will not be available online, but is intended for use in universities and libraries (NB the library at Reading University is open to the public).

Colindale is open 10.00-17.00 Monday to Saturday. Readers must provide proof of identity document bearing their signature or a British Library photographic pass. Advance reservations of up to 4 items may be made 48 hours in advance by email or by phone 020 7412 7353. A request at the Reading Room will take approximately 30-60 minutes to deliver. Latest time for ordering is 14.15.

Only pencils may be used in the reading room and cameras are not allowed. This may change some time in the future.

There is no café on the site but there is a lounge with a dispensing machine.

April 2007 Meeting 'Publishing Your Family History' by Barry Jerome

2007-04-18T20:32:00.000+01:00

Tools for the project

Your hardware may include a PC, a printer, a scanner, an Internet connection, a digital camera, a CD writer. When thinking of a printer you need to consider total cost including consumables which can affect the choice. The digital camera can be used for copying photographs and other material from relatives.

Software. Use software that you are comfortable with. Stick to ones that work well for you. A word processor can be used as a desktop publishing program and also for producing text to be used on any Web page. Software with a scanner often includes programs for image manipulation; otherwise there are several free image programs. A drawing package can be used for diagrams and maps. A spreadsheet can be used to create a distribution list recording where you have sent copies of the report and which version people have.

A common problem with writing is deciding when to start. Research never seems to stop and so an approach based on the ability to update is recommended. Breaking the report into chapters and sections where a section relates to an individual means it is possible to produce chapters based on a surname. However other ways of arranging the sections are possible, e.g. generations.

When designing a book you have to think of the format of presentation such as A4 or A5 paper. When choosing text size you need to think who will be reading the document. A 12-point font improves legibility whereas 10 point allows more text on a page. With long lines it is better to break the text either by using columns or adding blocks of text or pictures. A serif font (like the Times Roman font used for the main text of this summary) is recommended for text but sans serif (like the Arial font used here and used for the title of this summery) which is used for the can be used for headings and tables. To achieve a consistent appearance the use of templates or styles means that headings can be defined at different levels and applied to the whole report. To change the appearance you only need to modify the style.

To start, choose a person that interests you. Devise a standard set of paragraphs covering birth marriage death children residence jobs. The important thing is to start getting text down and then add illustrations afterwards. Sections can be combined into the chapters of the final book.

Printing and binding
DIY is now feasible although commercial outlets can be cost-effective. Things to consider include use of black and white or colour printing and the quality of the paper. 100 gsm paper is recommended as the extra cost is small in relation to increased quality particularly when printing on both sides of the paper. Simple binding with a slide or clip is possible for small sections but comb binding means the report can be opened flat. However, a title can be written onto a plastic comb.

A book does not have to be printed but can be distributed in other formats such as on the Internet or on a CD-ROM. Text from a word processor can be converted into HTML or printed as a PDF file using a software printer.

March 2007 Meeting 'Putting Your Name on the Map' by Howard Benbrook

2007-03-21T22:54:00.000Z

Howard’s interest in the study of names came from the wish to locate the origin of his own surname. He has registered it with the Goons (Guild of One-Name Studies) along with variants Banbrook, Bembrook and Bambrook.

Surnames have four main origins: occupational, geographical, nicknames or family. Occupational names such as Butcher are widely and evenly spread, but some may be locally more important. Geographical names such as Townsend or Castle do not relate to a specific town but others obviously do eg Winchester. Even family based names show regional patterns. A name such as Johnson is likely to be from the north of England or Scotland whereas Johns would more likely to come from the south or Wales.

The ability to plot names on a map could demonstrate many features, particularly distribution clusters. Name variants, such as Clark and Clarke, might have different distributions, suggesting a separate origin. However this is only a pointer to a theory and should not be assumed uncritically.

He then demonstrated the ‘Surname Atlas’ which plots the data from the 1881 census of England, Scotland and Wales as point data or as flood fill map. The base map can be generalised to County level or for more detail the Poor Law Unions can be used. Despite its name, the program can also be used to plot the variation of forenames.

The next program shown was ‘LDS Companion’. This is used to convert data downloaded either from the LDS sites, such as the IGI, or from LDS CD-Roms (you have to extract data from discs as they are in a proprietary format). IGI downloads of Gedcom are limited to 50 records but this program can batch process a sequence into one file. The data can be exported into basic database (DBF) or simple spreadsheet format for use in other programs.

The final program shown was GenMap, this contains a basic UK map linked to a large gazetteer of place names. Data can be imported either from a gedcom file or a database. It will accept data created by LDS Companion and also Custodian; an import wizard is used to assist this process. When the data is imported it is matched against the gazetteer and puts places that are not identified into a separate file for editing. Additional locations can be added to the gazetteer which is accurate to 100 metres. The two main map styles are again Dot‑Distribution or Area-Fill. However other options are available such as Poly-Symbol and this uses a library of symbols supplied with the program, although it is also possible to create your own symbols. Within Dot Distribution it is possible to change the size of dot so that it is proportional to the number of occurrences. Sample data within the program includes IGI data for the names Austin/Austen. This can be plotted, using different symbols, on the same map showing that the latter variant is clustered in Kent; (a countrywide map illustrates the effect even more clearly). The author Jane Austen's family came from the Weald of Kent.

February 2007 Meeting: 'FamilyHistoryOnline and other Search engines' by Chad Hanna

2007-02-21T21:39:00.000Z

see http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/events/MeetingSummaries/meetingsummary2007_02_21_hol.htm

January 2007 Meeting: 'Mucking about with Multimedia’ by Paul Brooks

2007-01-17T20:59:00.000Z

( Attempts at ) Presenting Family History in Text, Image, Sound and Motion

Paul began by looking back at the technological leap in the last 25 years, from the birth of the IBM PC to the mobile phones of today which can share voice, text, images and video. He highlighted the mass of images, slides, cine film, audio and camcorder tapes that most families have accumulated over the last 50 years, which would become meaningless within a generation if not properly identified and preserved for the future. Scanning was discussed with advice on resolution and file formats, along with importing images from memory cards and photo CDs, a couple of more advanced editing tricks, and the use of images in family history programs, charts, and word processed booklets. Paul's view was that images scanned at 100 dpi, and saved in the JPG format would probably be fine for general use on web pages, etc, at the moment, but for editing, zooming in, and future viewing, it would be worth scanning a copy at a minimum of 300dpi, but preferably 600 dpi, and saving in a non-compressed TIF format.Creating and editing sound files was considered using a microphone, importing from audio tape or old records, followed by a method to create a slide show with soundtrack using Microsoft Movie Maker. He related his personal experience of converting cine film to VHS tape and DVD, both through the use of a specialist company, and home projection and digital recapture. Methods of importing digital video were then reviewed, directly from a camcorder using firewire and indirectly through a coaxial cable to a WinTV card. Finally Paul explained the basic principles of editing digital video, combining the moving image with soundtrack and voice using a timeline, and the principles of creating a family history DVD using Ulead VideoStudio software.. Multimedia was recognized to require 'fast thinking PCs, with plenty of brain cells’ for processing 25 to 30 pictures every second in the case of video, so a machine of at least 3ghz speed with 2gb of RAM was recommended. Storing video at a reasonable quality was seen to consume around 4.5 gigabytes per hour before being processed, thus requiring large volumes of disk storage. Ideally members considering their next machine should also include Firewire as well as USB connections for attaching digital cameras and camcorders, etc.In summary he reminded the audience that they should ensure that all their existing photographs, slides, cine, audio and video should be clearly labelled, and that old cine films really should be converted now before the reels become too brittle with aging to be projected.In the question and answer session that followed it was noted that members with old cine film with a wider social significance might wish to contact the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, based at the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester.

(To see this report with illustrations go to
www.berksfhs.org.uk/events/MeetingSummaries/meetingsummary2007_01_17_multimedia.htm

Program for 2007

2007-01-01T21:15:00.000Z

Wednesday 17th January 2007
Mucking about with Multimedia: by Paul Brooks
Presenting Family Histories in words, pictures, sound and motion pictures.

Wednesday 21st February 2007
Family History Online and other genealogical search engines
Compare and contrast Ancestry, FamilyHistoryOnline, FindMyPast, FreeREG, etc for information relating to England and Wales.

Wednesday 21st March 2007
Putting Your Name on the Map: by Howard Benbrook
Howard will illustrate his talk with 'live' demonstrations of the programs Surname Atlas, Gen Map and LDS Companion.

Wednesday 18th April 2007
Publishing Family History: by Barry Jerome

Wednesday 16th May 2007
British Library Newspapers: by Stewart Gillies
The collections and services, including information on electronic newspaper resources, and news of two exciting digitisation projects taking place in 2007 followed by the Branch Annual Meeting

Wednesday 20th June 2007
Blogging: by Gillian Stevens
Using a web log to record your own family history

Wednesday 18th July 2007
Creating a Family History Presentation in Powerpoint: by Paul Brooks
Incorporating scanned images and screen shots

August 2007
No Meeting

Wednesday 19th September 2007
From Balaklave to Barrackpore: by Peter Beaven
Following a Family History using Web Pages, Wills, the LDS, Censuses, online Newspapers and Journals.

Wednesday 17th October 2007
Getting your Family History into Print: by Kate Parchment
Practical advice from Parchment Printers

Wednesday 21st November
Scotlandspeople and the like: by Phil Wood
Using the ScotlandPeople website to find birth, marriage, death records plus census and much more

November 2006 meeting: Computer Security by Mark A’Bear

2006-11-15T21:09:00.000Z

Mark introduced himself as someone who had come to work at Microsoft (MS) and had returned to his ancestral area; the A’Bears having lived at Hill House in Wargrave for many centuries.

His talk concentrated on the Microsoft approach to computer security. He started by demonstrating the new operating system (Vista) that will become available at the end of January 2007. This has been completely redesigned with an emphasis on security but with many other enhanced features.

At present most PCs will be using Windows XP, although earlier versions still exist on older machines. In all cases it is important to obtain the latest updates from the MS web site. Two points to note: 1) Support for ME, W98 & W95 is not being updated; 2) Updates for XP are only available if you have installed service Pack 2 (SP2). This pack includes many security features.

There are two areas that need protection: Your Computer; the User.

Protect your computer
1 Turn on a firewall. XP has a built in software firewall but check that it is turned on. Other programs can also be used. If the Internet connection is through a router check its firewall is on
2 Keep the operating system up-to-date Use the Update facility
3 Install anti-virus software AVG Anti-Virus is free; remember to get updates for any such program
4 Install anti-spy ware software Free programs such as Spybot or Adaware or the new MS Defender
5 Back up the hard disc Save your data (at least) to a CD/DVD or an external drive

Protect yourself
Be aware of potential threats: Spam; Phishing; Hoaxes; ID Theft
Spam email is annoying but can be dangerous. Never open emails if you do not know the sender. If you can preview them, this will be safe but opening them can trigger macros or embedded functions. Viewing an image can confirm your email address. ISPs may have filters to stop some messages; this can result in the blocking of all messages from certain sources - which could be your own ISP (one reason why your email does not get through). Your email program can be trained to put potential spam into a separate folder, where it can be inspected and deleted.

Phishing is an email variant trying to obtain financial information. This can be very sophisticated, including an address that looks similar to the genuine institution and may contain logo images. A genuine institution will never ask for account or password information.

Hoaxes may be relatively harmless, such as chain letters reporting non-existent viruses. Potentially serious hoaxes include reports of account closure or offers to make a fortune.

Actions to protect your system
Use strong passwords, at least 8 characters long, and include other characters such as numbers.
Install file-sharing programs cautiously. Such peer-to-peer (P2P) programs may leave your Internet connection open to other visitors.
Check for web sites that protect sensitive data. These have a web address ‘https’ (“s” for secure) and will have a padlock or closed key at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately this can be forged on a fake site but can be checked by double clicking the key to see the security certificate.
Keep security programs up-to-date by frequent download of updates; this is best done automatically. Microsoft release an update of the Malicious Software Removal Tool on the second Tuesday of each month. This should be downloaded automatically if you use Automatic Updates.
Restrict sharing of files on your PC.

October 2006 meeting: Why YOU need a web site and how to make one by Alan Simpson

2006-10-18T21:42:00.000+01:00

Alan began by convincing us that publishing our family history on the web was cheaper than producing a book, could reach a much wider audience, and could lead to unknown relatives making contact.

After explaining the conception and birth of the Internet in the 1960s and the birth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, he demonstrated that simple web pages could be produced and linked together on our own home computers without even connecting to the web. Furthermore, this could be achieved with just Windows Explorer and Notepad.

Unfortunately this blog will not allow me to reproduce some of the html and tags that Alan demonstrated.

If you missed this very entertaining talk, or would like to know more about creating a web site (Alan gives very clear step by step instructions), or would like to see the Gillie Pooh Bears web page (Alan's very simple web page dedicated to his daughter's teddy), then visit Alan's own web site at http://www.shotover.clara.net/

The History of this Blog

2006-09-10T14:11:00.000+01:00

In August 2006 I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Boston USA. This conference was held over fours days and allowed you to attend twenty talks. It was a hard choice to choose which talks to attend as there were 379 on offer. This Blog came about because of my attendance at an excellent talk by Birdie Holsclaw telling us all about how to set up a blog and how to use blogs.

I set up the blog in just under half an hour while drinking a cup of coffee in a Motel in Toronto Canada.

Gillian

April 2006 meeting: Personal Ancestral File (PAF) by Les Binns

2006-04-19T22:31:00.000+01:00

Les started his talk by saying that Personal Ancestral File (PAF), like all genealogical programs, is a form of database and can be thought of as boxes containing cards with information written on them.

The three ‘boxes’ in PAF are
1 Individuals containing information about people, such as names but also database information such as RIN
2 Family This is about groupings, not individuals. Family details, such as links to spouse and children are here. (PAF does not recognise the existence of same sex partnerships)
3 Source Where the information came from - often overlooked at first but becomes of greater importance as the records grow.

All genealogical programs will save the information in their own generic format, which usually is not recognised by other programs. However all of them can export in Gedcom format, where the data is saved as a text file in a format defined by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) who provide PAF as a free downloa.

When you start PAF you are asked to set preferences, including LDS data. The latter can be turned off but this screen allows choice of format of names and dates etc. The main screen then opens in the Family view. Tabs at the top can change the view to Pedigree or Individual.

To add a new individual, select Add from the top menu. This offers the option of entering individuals or a family. It is possible to link individuals into families at a later stage. The standard entry provides for the basic data of birth, christening and death but if extended information is available, eg the child is adopted, then the Options button leads to a menu where New Events/Attributes can be chosen. If the extensive list does not include an appropriate description then a new Event can be defined.

The default entry screen refers to many types of LDS information that most family historians will not use. At the foot of the screen is a box labelled Template and this allows you to select which fields you want to use

The Individual View is a table of all entries. It can be sorted by name but not by other columns such as date. The columns displayed can be modified by right clicking on a heading, such as Full Name, and either choosing one of the categories, such as Death (which adds columns for Burial Date & Place) or by selecting ‘Add or Modify Columns ‘.

Much more information can be added including sources, notes and multimedia. These are accessed from the Options button of the entry page.

Reports are prepared from the Print menu and there are several pre-defined options. There is also an option to define a Custom Report to include only the data required.. Another form of report is the series of Web Pages that can be created from the Tools menu. These are written to disc for preview and can be loaded onto a web site.

PAF is free and contains many features. It is worth exploring.

Program for 2006

2006-01-01T22:00:00.000Z

Wednesday 17th May 2006
Short Annual Computer Branch Meeting - Election of Committee for 2006/2007
followed by
Custodian 3: by John Price
Custodian is a database that could help you sort out your raw information before you link it into your family tree. Special data entry forms help you with each type of record

Wednesday 21 June 2006
GENUKI: by Malcolm Austen
Surely THE most comprehensive tool for Family History Research. If you have used it, you will be amazed at what else it can help you with, if you haven’t then come and learn how.

Wednesday 19th July 2006
Looking at Census data: by Gillian Stevens and Peter Beaven
Using the internet and CD Rom to look at UK census data.
Where to find it, how to use it, problems or pitfalls.

August 2006
No meeting

Wednesday 20th September 2006
1837online: by Elaine Collins
Births, Marriages & Deaths 1837-2004 plus overseas records; advanced searching of 1861 & 1891 census; Military records and “living relatives”

Wednesday 18th October 2006
Why YOU need a website and how to make one: by Alan Simpson
Alan, an active member of Oxfordshire FHS and its computer group, will share his years of experience in creating web sites to help you take those first steps.

Wednesday 18th November 2006
Computer Security: by Mark A’Bear
Mark will share his professional expertise from within Microsoft to help you secure your equipment and data in this complex world of firewalls, viruses, spams and spyware.

December 2006
No Meeting (enjoy getting ready for the Christmas festivities)