Family Tree Magazine Spotlights the Guild! Posted 2 September 2017 by Julie GoucherThe October edition of Family Tree Magazine is now available and features The Guild and One-Name Studies. The article on Pages 22 -24 looks at Setting up a One-Name study and focus’ on the Orlando One-Name Study and pages 66 -67 Spotlights the Guild and gives some details about us as an organisation and the benefits of membership. On the website you can read about Getting Started with a One-Name Study and of course if you want to join the Guild you can do so HERE. We look forward to welcoming you!
Railway Work, Life & Death project – help sought Posted 9 August 2017 by Paul HowesPhoto courtesy: Mike Esbester In 1911 alone over 28,000 employees were injured or killed on British railways. The government department responsible for the railways, the Board of Trade, had been investigating some of these casualties since the 1890s, to find out what happened and to make recommendations to improve safety in the future. These reports are a fantastic resource, giving plenty of detail about who was involved and working practices, as well as what happened. But it’s often difficult to get hold of these reports, or even to find out what they contain. Late in 2016, as a joint initiative of the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum (NRM), the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project started to try to make these records more accessible and see what we could learn from them. A team of NRM volunteers has been working through the Railway Inspectors’ reports for the years 1911-15 (when the reports were temporarily stopped as a result of the war). They have done fantastic work, reading each report, extracting the key information and placing this in a spreadsheet. With the details standardised in a spreadsheet, they become easily searchable, making the information more accessible and useable Dr Mike Esbester of the University of Portsmouth has been leading the project and recently contacted the Guild to ask for our members’ help. The project has just made the first batch of data freely available via the project website: www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk. The Project has catalogued nearly 4,000 individuals involved in accidents over the four and a half year period. Full details for each individual are available to download in a spreadsheet. One of the hopes of the project was that it would be of interest to a variety of audiences – including family historians, social historians and the general public. So, now that they’ve released some data, they would like some feedback. Please take a look and offer any feedback you want to share through their website. Mike will be speaking at our seminar, entitled “Accidents will Happen”, in Abberley, Worcestershire next February.
New educational web pages Posted 7 August 2017 by Paul HowesJust as the Guild has recently placed a good deal of information on DNA studies on the public part of our website, we have today added an additional five pages on the front side to guide people through the thought process of starting a One-Name Study. The sections are: estimating numbers and overall size thinking about variant spellings where and how to start organising the study selecting software We hope these pages are useful for anyone contemplating taking on a One-Name Study, whether they are already a Guild member or not. To see the new pages, click here and then use the links in the left-hand column.
Introduction to One-Name Studies starts 22 August 2017 Posted 4 August 2017 by Julie GoucherThe next Introduction to One-Name Studies course at Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd starts on 22nd August. The course is taught online and welcomes students across the globe. Here are the Lesson Headings: About One-Name Studies Surnames and their History Core Records you will need and Information gathering Analysing and making sense of your data Practical aspects of running your own One-Name Study Those who sign up for the course and are not members of the members Guild of One-Name Studies will get FREE Guild Membership for the remainder of the financial year. Each lesson includes exercises and activities; a minimum of 1 one-hour chat session per week. Course Length: 5 weeks Start Date: 22 Aug 2017 Cost: £49.99 To book your place on the course, please visit the Pharos Website