Here is another web site that makes online books available free of charge. Many will of be of interest to genealogists.

  http://www.archive.org/index.php

Open The Door & Here Are The People is the title of the major UK genealogical conference for 2009.

I attended a similar conference in Northampton a couple of years ago and it was great. Total immersion genealogy for 4 days. The venue, speakers, food and atmosphere was wonderful. I shall try and attend this years conference, depending on the state of the piggy bank nearer the time. If you have the opportunity to attend do go, it will be a worthwhile experience.

The latest press release announces another 2 speakers.

"We are excited to announce two further eminent speakers for the OPEN THE DOOR … conference.

Professor Richard Holmes, the noted military historian, is particularly well-known through his many television presentations, including the Battlefields series and Wellington, the Iron Duke. He the author of many best-selling books including Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front and Sahib: The British Soldier in India.

Dr Nick Barratt is a prolific reviewer and commentator on all aspects of history, notably family history. He is best known as a presenter on Who Do You Think You Are? and Hidden House Histories. Nick is also the author of many books including Tracing the history of your house and The family detective."

Take a look at the website and start saving those pennies !

http://www.openthedoor.org.uk/

If you are like me you can quite easily find yourself side-tracked when doing your research. For example you start looking for Army Records for an ancestor, you go onto Ancestry.co.uk and then find a likely entry, start looking at those record only to find it isn’t your chap. BUT you see that this soldier served in India, you begin to wonder how he coped with all that heat after coming from the low lying Fens and before you know it you have done searches on the British Army in India, the history of the Fens, Malaria and it’s effects on the Victorian Soldier and become what my friend Val calls a "5 minute expert" on the the Raj and it’s consequences down to the present day!!

A 5 minute expert is someone who becomes knowledgeable about a subject after intensive research, but ask them a question about it a few weeks later and they can’t tell you a thing!! According to Val genealogists are very prone to this malady!!

Anyway I came across this link which might help you keep on track.

http://genealogy.about.com

Having said all of the above I must say I rather like getting side-tracked sometimes

Three descendants of Sir Ernest Shackleton reached the South Pole recently and completed what they termed unfinished family business.

Taking family history to a whole new level !!

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article/Shackleton

Did you know that if you click on

http://landing.ancestry.com/comingsoon

you get to see what Ancestry plans to add in the future? I didn’t until I found the link on the Internet by accident. Lots of the items are US based records that might not be of use if you have ancestors firmly residing in the UK, however I have found several ancestors (sideways ancestors not direct line) who have emigrated to the USA, Canada & Australia.

The England & Wales birth & marriages 1916 – 1983

I assume and I could very well be wrong, that this will be the monthly updates from the Free BMD site  www.freebmd.org.uk 

Record of Aliens arriving in England 1794 – 1921 will be of interest to my friend Sue who has German Sugar Bakers on her family tree.

I await the London Parish & Poor Law Records 1500s – 1900s  coming online with great anticipation as I have London folk that I would like more information on. Anyone with Southwell, Matkin or Ashton ancestors who are London based please add a comment and I’ll get back to you !!

UK City & County Directories 1700s – 1900s will be useful for background information as well as names of those who were local business people.

Prison Records 1800s – 1900s several of may ancestors will appear in these. I am related to turnip stealers & oak post thieves !!

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

This tv series produced by Wall to Wall productions has made a huge impact on the genealogical community. It has inspired thousands to start tracing their family history. I was in the Society of Genealogists library the day after the first programme of series two was shown and the place was buzzing with people asking "How do I start?". You will see that the rather long title is often shorted to WDYTYA in articles about the series.

Click here for WDYTYA website.

The National Archives (TNA) have details of the various series, with synopsis of each individuals story and examples of the documents used to find their ancestors.

Click here for the TNA WDYTYA webpages.

A magazine also called Who Do You Think You Are is available through BBC Magazines.

Click here for BBC Magazines

You Tube has a selection of videos of some of the episodes.

Click here for You Tube and then type in who do you think you are in the search box.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES PODCASTS

TNA offers podcasts of the lectures & talks that are held at the Archives at Kew, London. The subjects are wide ranging and the speakers are experts in their field. What better occupation on a cold winter’s day than to settle back and listen to a range of these talks, just like having your own custom made genealogical conference at home.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheNationalArchivesPodcastSeries

This is a marvellous site. New content is added regularly so one to put into your favourites list. The Victoria County Histories are here plus many other primary & secondary sources for medieval & modern British Isles history. The aim of the site is to support the learning, teaching & researching of British Isles History and this site delivers.

www.british-history.ac.uk/Default.aspx