Category Archives: Greater London

There is currently a joint JISC and TNA (The National Archives) Funded Project being led by Dr Kate Jones at Portsmouth University which is focused on Mapping the impact of the WWII Blitz on London.

“The mapped data will be used to construct an interactive web-mapping application and a mobile phone application that can be used as you walk around the streets of London.”

The Project website deals with the GIS and Infrastructure technicalities but as with all JISC projects there is not much reported about what the end user benefits will be. It would be good if there were strategic gains and at least co-oridnated outcomes that can be leveraged and integrated…

We have asked and wait to hear some more, isolated daa sets are that much more useful if they can be layered and used on publicly available and deployable tools rather than GIS systems the average user does not have the knowledge of or familiarity with.

Hopefully there is at least an open access data policy, after all in these cash stricken times it is ourselves as tax payers that are funding these projects, whether the purse is TNA’s or JISC

Here is the Stepping into Time: Mapping the London Blitz Project Blog if you would like to explore some more details, will keep you posted on what we hear back…

London history and recent programmes for the BBC inspiration and insights via BBC Iplayer for you and your history project, in this summer of historic happenings, what made and makes London Great and how does it impact on the subjects of interest to you… more

Secret History of our Streets over 125 years BBC iPlayer

Booth’s 17 year study and survey of Poverty in London produced a ground-breaking set of revelations some 120 years later using 6 archetypal streets what has changed, what has not and why is the subject of this new excellent BBC Series. Ideal for anyone with family social and local history interests whether your subject is London and these streets or not. A collaboration between the BBC and OpenLearn from the OU coinciding with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics some interesting observations, do we ever learn? more

New Ancestry Website

Is the New and major Ancestry upgrade more like colourful building blocks we all treasured as kids, or more like a battleship grey but none less popular Aeroplane kit, less creative and more prescriptive? Take a look a this excellent new interface and find out how together we might take a fresh look at our toolkit and resources for family history spurred on by this latest competitive leap by Ancestry.

The English Accent and Family History

What English accent did your ancestors speak with back in Elizabethan England? You might be surprised to learn that an American reciting Shakespeare is nearer to the mark than you or I.

Scotland’s Valuation Rolls

The 1925 Valuation Rolls for Scotland have just been launched by Scotland’s People and are free to search.

People of Northern England Database

The People of Northern England (PONE) database is not new but not much heard about either. This database is of the people in the Northern counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland from the C13th. It is drawn from two types of material, one financial and one legal. The financial material is drawn from the pipe…

History Pin WWI Hub

Use the History Pin WWI Hub to share your WWI project and let others connect with what you are doing. Your project may be large or small but by sharing it, many more people will be able to make links and connections with you.

Mapping the London Blitz

Mapping the London Blitz is a great project which has used the collated and mapped all the census material of all the bombs dropped during the Blitz 1940 – 1941. It is a fascinating resource for family historians with a connection to WWII.

Red Cross POW Records

The Red Cross POW records are now digitized and available online to search. For many family historians these records complete the story of their ancestors who served in WWI.

New DNA Studies

A new study of European DNA has revealed a third population group that make up the DNA of modern Europeans.

WW1 Postcards

WW1 Postcards a rich resource and a visual opportunity, find out how to discover and use the 20K plus postcards on Europeana for the period 1914-1918 and muse over how you might dig-out what ephemera you might have in your loft or research boxes that might help you and others connect and make that next step n researching your project wehther for your family history social, local or special interest project. In the first year of the 100th centenary of WW1 will there ever be such an opportunity to explore and discover what happened and better understand those momentous events?

Operation War Diary

Operation War Diary is a crowd sourced project to classify the WWI diaries of the British Army on the Western Front. A project involving the Imperial War Museum and the National Archive.

← Older