GENanon

Temptation?

2007-07-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

If you haven't yet dipped into Harry McFry Investigates, here's a little trailer that might just tempt you...

When Family Historians Lose the Plot

2007-04-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am indebted to Pete Edwards, a seasoned miner of the vaults of YouTube, for finding this rare footage of a genealogist who has clearly drunk too heavily from the cup of his ancestors.

It should stand as a warning to anyone even contemplating examining their family's past.

A Poem For Genealogists

2007-04-25T02:49:00.000-07:00

I came across this wonderfully interesting site today, which I can commend to anyone.
Walter Burek has pulled together a great resource: a chapter a week from great works of literature (currently Frankenstein by Mary Shelley), available in audio form or as podcasts.

Of especial interest to genealogists (and dog lovers) is this poem by Thomas Hardy, which is quite, quite lovely.

The Onerous Responsibility on My Shoulders

2007-04-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

Although my personal quest to free myself from the shackles of genealogy was going reasonably well, I am afraid to report that the inevitable happened. I received an e-mail request from someone in the USA, asking me to help them untangle a few threads in their family history.

Much as I tried to resist, I found myself drawn once more to that portal of doom, Ancestry.com.

On another matter, I am starting to worry about my old friend Bill Blunt. Bill it was, some years ago, who I introduced to a wonderful genealogical resource called Rootschat.com.

Now, it seems, he's getting all hett up in a debate about website moderation. I know where he's coming from on this one. He has made many friends via that site, and I have personally heard him wax eloquently about it both in print and in other media. Wise counsels have promoted a debate about the issue of consistency in moderation here. I have hesitated to contribute to that discussion, as there are people more eloquent than I who have clearly thought about the matter, and it is encouraging to see it debated.

13 days ... and counting!

2007-04-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

My personal quest to free myself from the insidious drug of genealogy should serve to hearten others in its grip.

It has not been without pain, agony and frustration, and I cannot pretend that the thoughts of my long dead ancestors have never crossed my mind in that time, but the record shows that I have not logged onto Ancestry.com for almost two weeks!

I realise it is early days yet. However, my previous attempts to become genealogy-free (and there have been many since this accursed hobby entered my life) have usually faltered after a few days.

Wish me luck!

Three Days and Counting

2007-04-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

It is now over three days (85 hours, to be exact) since I last logged onto Ancestry.co.uk This is, for me, a 'personal best' and should give heart to all those who claim it is impossible to turn your back on the 'hobby' of genealogy without becoming hopelessly ill or despairing.

I decided it was best not to go 'Cold Turkey', however, so had a ready supply of Your Family Tree magazines by my side.

The cravings to log onto Ancestry, to do 'just one more' census search were, at first, quite overwhelming. I found myself dreaming of mistranscriptions during my first night of freedom. But I am pleased to report that the cravings have lessened as time has worn on.

I will continue to report on my progress via this blog.

Temptation Beyond Salvation

2007-04-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

The vested interests behind the business of genealogy have a new recruit to their ranks - someone, I am afraid, who may serve to tempt more and more men into the one way street to personal ruination that is called 'family history'.

Not content with parading the silvered - if not exactly sylvan - voice of 'resident genealogist' Nick Barratt (a blatant attempt to woo yet more 'ladies' into pursuing their roots, in my opinion) BBC Radio 4 have now secured the services of the lovely Sally Magnusson, in an obvious ploy to win over the men folk.

Who could not be tempted by Sally's lilting, Scots tone (perceived to be the most trustworthy of all the UK accents, according to this report) into making that first, fatal step to uncover their dead kin-folk?

One day, the Government is going to wake up to the fact that its taxes, and that of the public service licence payer, are being used to peddle the genealogy drug. Let us hope, when they do so, that it is not too late.

Avert Financial Ruination

2007-03-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

If you feel you must spend time tracing your genetical roots (and I would advise caution at every step), then help is at hand for those who have been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by their endless quest for certificates, census images and shipping logs.

I have, alas, seen many families ruined by this same, insistent desire; children going shoeless to school merely because their mother felt the need to have 'just one more death certificate'.

Someone calling themselves Clear Digital Media have highlighted all the information on Ancestry.com that can be found free of charge.

I hesitate to encourage you - but if you are driven to spend your every free moment in the pursuit of dead relatives, you may well find some of them here.

GENBIRES

2007-03-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

GENBIRES:

An independent assessment of on-line resources for genealogists who have been unable to shake off the heavy coat of their British ancestors is now very much available. This long-overdue, impartial view of the good, the bad and the ugly, makes a refreshing change from the marketing hype that sometimes attends genealogical sites.

In endorsing this site, you will understand that I am in no way encouraging the unhealthy globalisation of family history, which has the potential to pull the addicted further from their current family even as it drags them towards their past. You have been warned!

More grist to the mill...

2007-03-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

If you thought you were safe now that the Gene Detective series has finished on BBC TV, with quite a while until the celeb-fest of the next series of Who Do You Think You Are?, then you were wrong.

News just in to GENanon tells of a new series on Radio 4, called Tracing Your Roots. I listened to the first show via the admirable 'listen again' facility offered by the BBC website. It sounded good to me: down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness family history as it was meant to be. Not a whiff of royal blood to be had from start to finish.

But it's evidence (if more were needed) that the grip which genealogy has on the zeitgeist is growing yet stronger. How long before UKTV launches a specialist Family History channel?

The Blurredy Thing!

2007-03-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

A Doctor writes:

Sooner or later, genealogists will encounter the medical condition which we doctors have come to know as Microfilm Blur (mī'krə-fĭlm' blûr).
The condition is often transient, but is noted for its severity on those occasions when it does manifest itself.
Typically, the subject will have spent a minimum of 3 hours in a County Records Office. In some cases (and this has been reported from patients in the North Yorkshire area, in particular), the surroundings in which they find themselves will be so cold as to lead to the onset of shivering and a hacking cough. Combined with microfilm blur, such a condition can only be treated by complete bedrest. On no account must the patient be allowed to look at grainy images of parish records - even if these are high-quality photocopies, taken with a view to looking at them later.
Thankfully, symptoms have been shown to ease after a short period. Alcohol may help.

Alas, dear Garrick...

2007-03-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

I knew him well.

I only ever met Garrick Webster once. But he struck me as exactly the kind of guy you'd want to edit your favourite family history magazine.

Garrick has, apparently, been the editor of Your Family Tree magazine for four years. Since he first took over the helm, assembling beside him a team of staff who seemed genuinely interested in family history, the magazine has gone from strength to strength.

I haven't a clue where Garrick's moving onto. For all I know, he's using his 'transferable skills' to edit Cross-Stitch Monthly. But I doubt it. His evident love of family history leads me to think there'll still be a history theme to whatever magazine he goes on to edit.

Let's hope he brings the same skills and abilities that have made Your Family Tree the UK's favourite family history magazine to bear in his new job.

Good luck, Garrick! Now, that's the kind of name I'd love to name a theatre after!

cheers

THJnr

Biting My Nails

2007-03-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Having spent two days interrogating the IGI for Dade records, in preparation for a visit to the North Yorkshire Records Office in Northallerton tomorrow, you can only imagine my despair when, on calling them today to book a microfilm reader, I was told that they were closed this week for 'refurbishment and stock-taking'.

I trust, while they are 'taking stock', they come across my ancestor William Clark, a wheel-wright of Skipton-on-Swale, near Topcliffe, North Yorkshire. If they don't, and he's been stolen, then I think I should be told.

The Campaign Gathers Momentum

2007-02-21T01:52:00.000-08:00

News that a senior UK police chief has called for heroin to be made available free under the National Health Service should hearten all of us who endure the torture of addiction to family history.

It can only be a matter of time before the UK Government listens to the voice of reason, and make genealogy services free on the NHS, too.

How else are we to stop the situation where families break up, as one partner or another spends inordinate amounts of time digging up their lost ancestors, spending the housekeeping money on the fruitless subscription to internet family history sites, or on copy certificates for marriages that took place a century or more ago?

Feeding the Addiction

2007-02-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

What happened to the last three days of my life? Fuelled by copious cups of coffee and handfuls of ProPlus, I was tempted in by Ancestry.ca's recent offer of three days free access to their Canadian records.

It mattered not that I have few, if any, family emigres to Canada. The supply of free, detailed census data should be made a criminal offence - don't the authorities realise how easy it is to get addicted to this stuff?

Has anyone yet successfully cited Ancestry.com in a divorce proceedings? I fear my wife may be the first to do so.

Travails with An Aunt

2007-02-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

I finally know that the time has come to hang up my Gedcoms. Today, I found myself wrestling with a work of fiction in which the main protagonist is, at one and the same time, the grandmother and the aunt of the heroine.

Ye gods, I need help.

THJnr

Red Letter Day

2007-02-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

Today, I managed to spend an entire morning not thinking about my family history. I was reminded, during that brief respite, that there is life outside of genealogy. If only I could resist the urge to develop my family tree on a more regular basis, perhaps I could regain that innocence and live my life anew?

The moment passed when the postman arrived, with my latest copy of Your Family Tree Magazine. I know I should have been stronger, but instead I spent the last three hours devouring its conents from cover to cover.

Help.

The Grip Tightens

2007-02-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

That worldwide voice of authority, the BBC, has already identified a new and worrying trend amongst some family historians.

Not content with hounding their own kith and kin, it now seems that some are hunting for the dead relatives of total strangers.

If you know anyone involved in this dangerous pursuit, please point them to us. Together, we're stronger.

Ne'er a Day Passes

2007-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

If ever evidence were needed about the way in which genealogy can so easily overtake your life, you need only take stroll through blogdom. It seems that never a day passes without a new blog appearing outlining someone or other's research into their family tree.

GENanon is growing. Don't be a stranger. You're with friends now.

Another day, another grave

2007-02-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

A cold, frosty Wednesday morning might seem the perfect time to pull the duvet up a tad higher, snuggle down and grab a couple of hours extra sleep. For most normal people, this is of course how they might have spent today.

Not me. I found myself trudging through a municipal graveyard, hunting out the unmarked plot of my late father's younger sister, who died from tuberculosis in 1945 at the tender age of 9. I never met her. The family never really even talked about her. Yet such is the hold genealogy has come to have on me that I found myself driven, uncontrollably, to drive 180 miles to track down this small plot of earth.

Next time I get that urge, I'll try to resist. But I know already, it will be futile.

That's why GENanon exists - for people like me. And for the sad kind of people who seem to have flocked to use this travel company.

The drip, drip, drip affect of genealogy

2007-02-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

It starts off one quiet, Friday night. Perhaps there's nothing much to watch on the TV. You've finished that novel you bought from Waterstone's last week.
Hmm ... you think. How would it be if I put my surname into Google and see what it throws up?

Before you know it, you're lost in a maze of family history websites all seemingly dedicated to your own special family. You turn around to check the clock on the wall, and suddently you realise four hours of your life has gone.

THIS IS HOW IT STARTS FOR SO MANY PEOPLE - a familiar tale of the insistent drag that the study of genealogy can have upon your very soul.

I beg you, if you have not yet considered tracing your family tree, then cast that thought aside should it ever infiltrate your mind. We can, of course, help those who are afflicted: but how much better might it be if we could stem the tide of lost wanderers, cut down with one fell swoop the trail of individuals driven to spend their every waking hour huddled over a dim microfiche reader?

If you know anyone who has intimated their desire to find their ancestors, point them in our direction, please.

Help may soon be at hand....

2007-01-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

News from Britain suggests it may not be long before family historians receive financial and social assistance to help them kick their habit into touch.

The Guardian Unlimited site recently revealed plans by the UK government to issue vouchers to hardened heroin addicts, which they could use to purchase food and other essentials - provided they tested 'drug free' for a stipulated period.

GENanon can reveal that UK charity STOPYOURADDICTIONUK is already running a pilot programme aimed at genealogists, and the results have been surprisingly positive.

Colin Dawkins, Chief Executive of STOPYOURADDICTIONUK said: "Given that family history is known to be at least as addictive as most Class A drugs, we were heartened when over 6% of the pilot participants said they had 'seriously considered' not sending for a Birth Certificate for one of their ancestors, and our voucher scheme played a big part in that mind-shift."