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The monthly newsletter to customers of BMDindex, TheGenealogist, Genealogy Supplies and British Data Archive

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – don’t forget to check out our Christmas gift ideas for family historians at www.genealogysupplies.com/xmas.htm

Email News Offers – we are currently giving out a free online trial to an all-inclusive subscription. This comes with a special offer for all those who take a Premium subscription out after the trial. www.TheGenealogist.co.uk/freesub

In this issue:

* UK Events

* Special Email News Offer

* What’s New Online

  - The largest collection of Census Transcripts
    Complete for England and Wales 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891, 1901

  - Family History Articles

  - New Census Transcripts added

  - New Wills added

  - New Census Ship Lists

* A story of family courage by B. Mannix

* What’s New on CD

* Top-selling Products

UK EVENTS – Jan/Feb 2006

Come along to the next UK event and meet the family behind S&N. These forthcoming events can save you pounds with our special fair pricing.

Bracknell Family History Fair

Sunday 28th January

Sports and Leisure Centre Bagshot Rd (A322), Bracknell, RG12 9SE.

Crawley Family History Fair

Sunday 11th February

Crawley Leisure Centre

For further details of fairs visit www.genealogysupplies.com/events.htm

SPECIAL EMAIL NEWS OFFER

Buy 3 S&N Directory CDs and get the cheapest one free. Just phone in and quote 3 for 2 Email News offer when placing your order.

To place your order phone S&N on 01722 716121 (9-5 Monday-Friday)

WHAT’S NEW ONLINE

If you have any subscription to The Genealogist you can now read articles by fellow family historians about their research. If you have an all-inclusive you can also contribute your own stories about how you got addicted to genealogy and share your most interesting research tales.

The leading articles win prizes, this month the winner gets £100 in S&N vouchers and his story features in this newsletter.

The forum is another great feature as part of the all-inclusive: it allows you to communicate with each other or suggest new features. We are always striving to provide a better service and add new features. The suggestion box on the forum allows you to tell us what you would like to see or let us know how to improve the service.

New Online Research Databases

We have just added several major new data sets to The Genealogist:

Census Ship Crew Lists, Wills Indexes, Herefordshire 1841, Kent Marriages.

Census Transcripts

Herefordshire 1841 is the final census transcript to finish England and Wales.
We have the following years: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891, 1901.

The 1901 which is on a feed to us, is already available as a Pay As You Go service and is now being added in sections into the All Inclusive.

Census Ship Lists

These can find relatives in the Navy or onboard ships in foreign ports.

The coverage given in each census varied so we have provided a guide to the number of entries in each year.
1861 = 99,000
1871 = 17,000
1901 = 26,000

The data given is Vessel Name, Surname, Forename, Age, Marital Status, Rank, Place of Birth, Where Vessel Docked and a CD reference. The full crew can be obtained by clicking on the ship icon and the original page image is also available.

Searches cost 1 credit, to view an image is 3 credits and to display all the crew on board the same vessel is 3 credits.

Subscribing on a Pay-As-You-Go will cost £19.95 for a year’s subscription.
They are listed under the specialist indexes. They also form part of the All-Inclusive subscription.

Wills

Wills are a valuable source of genealogical information. They can give details of family members, places of residence and burial, as well as revealing details about their possessions.

We have added new Wills virtual book interface to help search this useful new resource.

Bristol Wills Index

Edinburgh Wills Index

Leicestershire Wills Index

Northampton Wills Index

Yorkshire Wills Index

Parish Records

Kent Marriages, Marriage registers for the following parishes:
Charlton in Dover 1565-1837, Eynsford 1538-1812, Lamberhurst 1564-1837, Penshurst 1647-1812, Westerham 1559-1837, Halstead 1561-1836, Newington 1559-1837, Staplehurst 1538-1812, West Farleigh 1558-1812, Wichling 1577-1837, Willesborough 1538-1837

All of the new data has been added into the All-Inclusive subscriptions which cost as little as £4.66 a month.

www.TheGenealogist.co.uk

A STORY OF COURAGE by B. MANNIX

This is just one of the exciting stories subscribers are writing on TheGenealogist new article system which allows you to publish your family history articles.

I am an inveterate family history researcher and I have been researching the families from whom I am descended, both paternal and maternal, for about 15 years now.

To date I have researched 21 different families from England, Wales and Ireland, including: Boyle, Burns, Doran, Davies, Edwards, Evans, Fitzwilliams, Germaine, Hall, Hill, Kenyon, Mannix, Mills, Ratcliff, Rice, Roberts, Robinson, Sammond, Smith (paternal), Smith (maternal) and Wynn.

I have used the majority of tools onsite in order to conduct my research, the surprising thing being that it is not always the most sophisticated tool which proves to be the most useful. I find the ability to print off a printer friendly version of a transcript really helpful.

I was not aware that my Gt.x 2 Smith (Paternal) grandmother was Irish, but using this facility enabled me to discover that she was born in Newry, Northern Ireland.

This was something that my grandmother had neglected to tell me.

The furthest I have managed to trace any of my families for absolute certainty is to 1728, with my 6 X GGF Richard Fitzwilliams, though most of my families have been traced back to the 1700s, and I am still going strong.

My mother’s youngest brother, William Roberts, was born in 1917. My mother and William were 2 of the 6 children of Thomas Roberts and Louisa (who married under the maiden name of Boyd, but was in fact born Boyle).

Louisa sadly died in childbirth in 1923 at the age of 39. My mother, as the eldest daughter of the family at only 13, had to become the 'mother' to her brothers and sister. This was in the 1920s of course when poverty was very grinding for the poor.

As young William grew into manhood, the call of the sea took a strong hold, attracting him to join the merchant navy. In 1938 he married his wife Louisa Boggild and in 1939 their daughter Mavis was born. Born with a spinal defect, Mavis was to require an operation to correct this, scheduled to be carried out in 1941. William doted on his daughter and as the date of the operation drew near it was obvious to him that he would be at sea when it was carried out. Knowing that his daughter needed him, he took the decision to miss his ship to be with Mavis for the duration of her operation.

Being that this was wartime, William’s actions were a very serious offence, but his love for his daughter came above all else. The operation was a complete success and William went to the authorities to confess what he had done. He was met with compassion and understanding, and was later ordered to join another ship, the SS Aguila.

Aguila was the designated commodore ship for convoy OG 071, this meant that it was to lead a convoy out to Gibraltar. OG71 left the River Mersey with her supplies for Gibraltar in August 1941 and sailed in a zigzag pattern to try to foil the German U-boat pack.

At this time, the German Luftwaffe were trying out a new tactic of spotter planes to find British convoys. One of these planes managed to spot OG71 off the west coast of Ireland and radioed its position to the U-boat pack.

Unfortunately, OG71 came under sustained attack for days on end, losing many ships and hundreds of hands. Finally, on 19th August, Aguila was hit by a torpedo fired by U-201, literally blowing her to smithereens. William and many of his shipmates lost their lives during the 45 seconds in which Aguila was defeated.

Sadly, William died not knowing he was to be a father again, his daughter Norma was born on Christmas Day 1941.

The tragedy of OG71 was hushed up by the admiralty for some years after the war, and my aunt Lou, William’s wife, could not find out what had happened to her husband.

Gradually the story came out and was made famous by the book "Nightmare Convoy" by Paul Lund and Harry Ludlan. The book and film "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Montserrat made the story of the convoy even more famous.

As a family, we eventually got to know the whole story, but we never found a death certificate for William, even though I personally searched for years for one. It was on a visit to one of those helpful sites that I mentioned my search for the death certificate of William and a friend suggested I contact The Genealogist. ‘They are very helpful’, he said.

I did so and in only 2 days I was sent a copy of Williams Death Certificate, I didn't even have to search for it. This is an act of kindness that I have never forgotten.

I have had my Mannix family tree professionally printed and I am now in the process of getting my maternal tree ready for printing.

B. Mannix, Cornwall

Winner: Best Article of the month - £100 in S&N vouchers
 
www.TheGenealogist.co.uk

WHAT’S NEW ON CD

www.TheGenealogist.co.uk Gift Voucher - Personal Premium 1 year Credit Free Subscription £ 68.95

Yorkshire - Giggleswick School Register 1499-1913 £ 9.95

Channel Islands, Kelly's 1923 Directory £ 17.45

Colour A2 Oak Tree Chart & Blank Family Tree Chart £ 5.00

Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Kelly's 1925 Directory £ 17.45

Etonians Who Fought in the Second World War 1939-1945 £ 14.95

Hampshire, Kelly's 1913-1914 Directory of Southampton £ 14.95

Lancashire, Rossall School Directory 1844-1882 £ 14.95

Lincolnshire 1901 Census   £ 24.95

Lincolnshire Census Bundle - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 £ 99.80

Navy List 1874 £ 19.95

Norfolk 1901 Census £ 24.95

Norfolk Census Bundle - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 £ 99.80

Westmorland, The Registers of the Parish of Askham 1566-1812 £ 9.95

See www.genealogysupplies.com/whatsnew.php for details of our new releases.

TOP-SELLING PRODUCTS - November 2006

1.  RootsMagic UK Version 3 Platinum Ed. £49.95, Standard £34.95, Basic £18.40
2.  Family Historian v3 Full £35.45 Upgrade £20.95   
3.  National Burials Index Second Edition £ 45
4.  Reunion 8 for the Mac £72.95
5.  Birth, Marriage & Death Records DVD Box - Online access for one year £14.95 
6.  Long Certificate Binder with Archival Sleeves £14.95
7.  Family Tree Maker Version 16 (2006) £22.95, Upgrade £17.95
8.  Overseas Births, Marriages and Deaths 1761-1924 £29.95
9.  Getting the Most out of RootsMagic 3rd Ed. by Bruce Buzbee £14.90
10. Custodian 3 £26.95   

Order any of the above at www.GenealogySupplies.com

Don’t forget to check out our Christmas gift ideas for family historians at www.genealogysupplies.com/xmas.htm

Earn money by joining our Affiliate Scheme

By joining our affiliate programme you can earn money for your family history society.

Registered affiliates are entitled to a commission of 20% of the value of any subscriptions purchased as a result of using the special link we will create for you.

To join, simply go to: www.thegenealogist.co.uk/affiliate

Email News

Please tell your friends about our email news: they can sign up for a free monthly copy by going to www.GenealogySupplies.com/emailnews

Happy researching

Sue and Nigel

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