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I am currently doing some research about the village in which I live, In the 1950s, the vicar decided to do some restoration on a chapel in our church concentrating in particular on its heraldry. Some of the heraldric devices are divided into over 30 individual shields. None of the original paintwork on these devices was still in existence so it appears the vicar was more interested in filling in the paintwork rather than getting their colours correct.

Surely there are people who have a certain obsession on heraldry in much the same way as we focus on genealogy so I am asking if anyone can direct me towards something where I might be able to ask a few questions to give me something to get me started on the topic. I am not worried about the size of the challenge as I have a (hopefully) long retirement ahead of me.

Many thanks
Nick

Am keen for local knowledge to be brought to bear here. If somebody (in a census) described herself as having been born in Thirsk in 1785, which parishes would this cover? She was living in York in 1841, so Thirsk wouldn't be the other end of the world to the census enumerator (I presume). This has been the most troublesome bottleneck I have ever encountered - I cannot find this woman's maiden name or place of marriage, but as the two daughters I know she had were both born in her 30s, she may have borne them to a second husband. Any 'out of the box' suggestions most welcome.

Just trying to post an image. If anyone can see the image, can you make out the age of Esther Maltby, the last entry? I have always taken it as 65, but since using that age makes it impossible to find anything else out about her and given the enumerator has her down as Caster, anything might be the case

Sometimes you hear things that you are sure others would want to know about but doubt that they might ever come across the same information. In these cases, posting it on a message board, perhaps to be found by a researcher in the months or even years to come is probably the best thing to do.

I was listening to Mike Harding's programme on BBC Radio 2 last Wednesday when he played a song of Frank Higgins recorded by the Unthanks called 'The testimony of Patience Kershaw". This is based on the evidence of a 17 year old girl who worked down the mines and who was interviewed in 1842 for a commission investigating the work of women and children in the mines. It is deeply moving and reveals just how hard they worked in those days.

Of course, being a family history buff, I immediately went to Familysearch and discovered that Patience was born in Northowram, Halifax in 1826 to John Kershaw and his wife the former Elizabeth Haigh. There were 7 other siblings as well. I was first intrigued because I have Kershaws in my family tree, but I doubt there is any link - one of my rellies became Lord Mayor of Bradford.

So if you are intersted in this, listen to it on BBC iplayer (only available until 3rd March) or check out the lyrics. If this is of use to anybody, then it was certainly worth posting. I hope other people might consider doing the same if they come across things they feel might be of use to others.

My Christmas pressie was a brand new screen for my PC as the old one had developed terminal malfunctions. This one is a 'wide' screen and the manual says the optimal setting is 1268x768 (may not be 100% correct in this, but I am sure you get the picture). Other settings lead to rather odd shaped pictures/icons etc. The problem about which I would like advice is that the RHS of the screen is outside the display, so the scroll bar and the close button are not visible. Any tips on how to resolve this?

Many thanks
Nick