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December 2012 - House that?

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 11:56 pm
by mardler
Happy 2013, everyone. Thanks for your support over the past year(s). Hope those without Ancestry subscriptions were able to get some value after my note from yesterday.

Another VC winner in our database
The Victoria Cross is awarded to soldiers across the British Commonwealth for exceptional bravery in combat. From 1,350 or so given over the past 160 years, we have three recipients in our database: Neville Howse, William House and now James Huntley Knight, the son-in-law of Eliza Ann House of Dorset. Mr Knight won his VC in the Boer War in South Africa in 1902.

Topical collection
While I was in Norfolk, England just before Christmas, I saw an article in the local newspaper about Diana Howes from the village of Briggate who collects snowmen! Read more about her hobby here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-20646028. Lovely picture!

A useful tip for Ancestry users
When using ancestry, there's often a choice of "View Record" or "Click for image". If you're like me, you go straight to the image for the sake of speed. However, recently I had occasion not to and noticed that in the right-hand column ancestry makes suggestions about other records that might be relevant, thus saving you the trouble of searching for it. I've found references to probate records and military records for that individual, and sometimes it figures out records from the spouse too. Be careful, though, sometimes it does get the wrong person!

Generous correspondents
It being the season for giving, I'm pleased to say that we have had two great gifts this month:
- a transcript of 15 very old wills from Norfolk. I need to set aside some time to work through those!
- a large tree of a South African Howes family arrived yesterday and we have updated our files already.
Oh, and I bought myself a present of a set of pre-1837 parish register transcripts from the Oxford Family History Society. I know very little about Oxfordshire and have already used some of those records to strengthen our database.

Milestones
Finally, I'm very happy to report that we passed two significant milestones this month, when the number of facts in our database went past 500,000 - yes, that's half a million! - and the number of people actually named Howes in the database now exceeds 20,000. As of this evening, we have 69,806 people in our database and 670 people registered on site.

Thank you again. It's a pleasure, but you knew that!
Paul


As of this evening in New Jersey, we have 69

Re: December 2012 - House that?

Posted: December 31st, 2012, 12:45 pm
by phowes7@yahoo.com
Happy New Year Paul and to all my relatives world wide. What a wonderful year of knowledge you have given us all and have brought so many closer together. Superior!! From your cousin Paul Arthur Howes from Boston, Massachusetts (11th generation of Thomas Howes, born 1590 in England, sailed to Massachusetts in 1637 and wife Mary Burr?) I hope everyone is passing this on to their children, grandchildren and great grand's. This has to be one, if not #1, of the best genealogy records. Have a GREAT 2013.

Re: December 2012 - House that?

Posted: December 31st, 2012, 5:55 pm
by mardler
You're very welcome, Paul. I enjoy doing this, but please do remember it's not just my efforts, but those of a range of others too.

(the other) Paul