I have just done a bit of an update of links and sites on the collaboration page – things have certainly changed a bit with various web applications and social networks disappearing since I created it.
For more visit:
http://tracingourhistory.com/collaboration.html
I have now added a Blog and Guestbook to Kevin’s Portal. The Blog is simply a news update Blog for the site, announcing changes to that site and comments on new links added to it and/or links removed from it.
I am working hard to get an updated version of the family trees onto the website as soon as I possibly can. There is a lot of work going on at the moment with additional information being added to the database that I have. There are now over 15 000 names in the database and some 4750 marriages – so you can see the extent of what is going on behind the scenes. I still have a lot of work to do and the names in the database will probably reach about 20 000 or so by the time I’m finished (it may even get to 25 000) and about 10 000 marriages.
It is possible that I’ll be able to add the family trees corrected to what I currently have in the very near future – however, an update for the book is some way off.
Have a peek at the new site at:
http://tracingourhistory.com
Work is progressing well on the new site and already some sections of the site are going live and working well. I have now got the newsletter section of the site running, along with the first edition of a new newsletter.
The new newsletter is called ‘Research – The Tracing our History Newsletter,’ or ‘Research’ for short. The newsletter archives will be hosted at Scribd, but you will be able to download them from the tracingourhistory.com site via an embedded widget from Scribd. With this widget from Scribd I will no longer need to update the site when adding a newsletter – just simply upload the newsletter to Scribd and the embedded widget updates the site automatically. All very easy.
How can you subscribe to the newsletter? You don’t need to really. If you subscribe to the Tracing our History Blog you will be notified when a new issue of the newsletter is posted and you can then go to the site to download the issue. Those who do not have Internet access will need to let me know (or via someone that does) that they would like to have a hard copy sent to them – or, someone may be able to print them a copy.
Get the first issue of Research at:
http://tracingourhistory.com/newsletter/research.html
Have a peek at the new site at:
http://tracingourhistory.com
I have now renamed the website to ‘Tracing our History.’ So this means that the Blog is named ‘Tracing our History,’ the community is named ‘Tracing our History’ and the main web site is called ‘Tracing our History.’ Hopefully this won’t lead to confusion – hopefully it will tie the three main sites together, with all three being part of the same online collaboration. At least that is my aim – hopefully I hit the target.
The forced changes to the site continue, with the recently begun updates to the site now having to be changed again. Why? Well, now Yahoo are dropping the Delicious bookmarking service, which is one of the social networking/sharing services I have started to added buttons to make easier sharing for site visitors. I will start to remove this button from today. As I update a page I will remove the sharing with Delicious button. It is disappointing, because I really liked the Delicious service. So Yahoo does it again – very poor Yahoo!
I am still working away at improvements and content additions.
I have been researching my family history for a number of years now and have a family history web site. The site is all about my family’s history, as well as other areas of history that I’m interested in – Australian history, The US Civil War, King Alfred of Wessex, etc.
Visit: http://particularbaptist.com/matthewshistory/index.html
In the last little while I’ve been able to put together a couple of things on the site that have helped to provide visitors with an insight into my family history.
The first is a book that I have put together which includes some historical notes on my family as well as the family tree itself from several different perspectives. The other is the family tree being now available via the web site from several perspectives – i.e. from the Blanch side, from the Lilley side, from the Matthews side, etc.
Visit: http://particularbaptist.com/matthewshistory/familybook.html
It is good when all of the research begins to come together and you have something that you show for it – like the book (available to download in PDF format) and the online family tree. The research is far from complete, even though it is already reasonably extensive. I have continued to work behind the scenes updating information and gaining new content – all of which will make its way to the web site in time, though another major update of the book and tree online will be some time off yet. I have some solid work to do over the next 12 months at least, which will considerably add to the family history and tree.
Of course, if you have any information that might be of assistance I would love to hear from you and you can contact me via nrbcpastorkev@yahoo.com.au Thanks in anticipation of any help you can provide.
I am excited about this new Blog which I am hoping to use as a central meeting point for interaction between family members, no matter which actual means an individual family member or friend may use to get here. You may come via a Facebook group, a Yahoo Mail Group, the Blog itself or from the web site, yet hopefully this will be a means for communication and interaction with other family members, some of whom you may never have met before.
My family history research and publication of it via the web has brought me into touch with various family members from around the world, including England, Canada, the United States and Australia. Hopefully this Blog will increase my circle of contacts and also allow others in the family to enter into the fruits of my labour, as well as sharing their own.
The ‘Tracing our History’ Blog will provide a central meeting point for our family, no matter the surname, the distance between us or what side of the family you may be on. It provides an opportunity for getting involved to whatever degree you may be comfortable with.
Some further opportunities to increase our experience of familial communication, discovery and interaction are listed below:
Matthews Family Mail Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MatthewsFamilyMail/
This mail group is a means for members of the family on my father’s (Brian John Matthews) side to stay in touch with each other via email.
Lilley Family Mail Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LilleyFamilyMail/
This mail group is a means for members of the family on my mother’s (Edna Ivy Elizabeth Lilley) side to stay in touch with each other via email.
Kevin’s Family – Online History Site:
http://particularbaptist.com/matthewshistory/index.html
This is my family history web site where I maintain online my family history research. It is generally a bit behind what I have in hard copy, but I do try to update as regularly as I can.
The Family – Descendants of Mary Bagg (b1770): http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43863243859
This Facebook group is there for those on Facebook who are descendants of Mary Bagg (born in 1770) and Josiah Roberts (b 1770). Their children were Sarah Bagg (b 7/2/1796 – d 23/6/1799) and Joseph Roberts-Bagg (b 6/7/1801 – d 28/10/1882). Joseph married Ann Vincent (b 1799 – d 8/4/1874) on the 8/4/1822. Their children were Ann (b 1821), William (b 1822), James (b 1826), John (b 5/1828 – d 10/4/1900), Mary (b 1831), Eliza (b 1832), George (b 1/1/1835 – d 30/4/1916) and Charles (b 15/8/1838).
Kevin’s Family – Online History Message Board/Forum:
http://kevinsfamilyhistory.aimoo.com/
You may be familiar with message boards or forums – they provide an opportunity to raise questions and to discuss various issues. Feel free to contribute here.
About Tracing our History
Below is what I have added to the ‘About Tracing our History’ page on the Blog site:
‘Tracing our History’ exists for a whole range of reasons – informing, educating, entertaining, updating, sharing, etc. The Blog is concerned with a number of family surnames including Lilley, Matthews, Blanch, Randall, Bagg/s, Webb, Jenkinson, and quite a few more – in short, it will be relevant to any surname that is represented in our family history (as long as the person concerned is actually part of our family history).
This Blog exists for my family, as does my web site at:
http://particularbaptist.com/matthewshistory/index.html
I am of course the chief contributor to this Blog (and the before mentioned web site) and also the moderator of it. I do however welcome contributions from others in the family and will consider adding contributors to the management team of the Blog. This is something I would love to do. If you do want to add something please let me know.
I am hoping that this Blog site will further assist my research into our family history, as well as others who are pursuing the same goal and will therefore enable us together to trace our history both in Australia and abroad.
If you can assist us in tracing our history please contact us and share what information you have – be it documents, family trees, photographs, video, records, etc. It will all help to put together as comprehensive a family history as we can, in order to share it with others in the family today, as well as preserving our history for those who will come after us. In this regard we can put together something of a ‘cyber-museum’ if you like.
For about me visit either of the pages below:
http://particularbaptist.com/matthewshistory/kevins.html
http://particularbaptist.com/kevins/kevin.html
Thanks for visiting – come again and contribute if you can,
Kevin Matthews
Tracing Our History 