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Topics - Mike Morrell (NL)

Pages: [1] 2
1
Glamorganshire / Gower and what it means(book)
« on: Sunday 18 June 23 14:31 BST (UK)  »
Just a shout-out for a book that I bought a year ago and have just have re-read.  It doesn't contain any specific genealogical info but it's a well-researched book by the rev, Philip Stephens.

Nowadays, 'the Gower' almost always refers to the Gower penisula. In his book, Philip Stephens describes the history of the 'Cantref Gower', bounded east-west by the the rivers Lougher and Tawe and to the North by the rivers Aman and Twrch. So it inclcudes towns/villages such as Ammanford, Brynamman, Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, etc. that I'd never considered being part of 'Gower' as a child

His book charts the history of the 'Gower Cartef' from it's earliest inhabitation to the 20th century. It includes political, economic, social and religious developments over the centuries.  What I really liked about Srephens's book is that its not just a 'bland history'.Throughout his book, Stephens goes into detail about the history of individual villages, hamlets and towns. Another thing I liked is that he explains the meaning (in terms of Welsh, Old English or Scandinavian) of Gower place names.  These were place names that I'd grown up with and just accepted. Stephen's book helped me realise that there was often a deeper history to these place names.

Anyone intersested in buying the book van do this via an e-mai to gowerplacenames@outlook.com

Disclaimer: I have no commercial interest whatsoever in any sales of this book. After my first read of this book, I contacted Rev. Stephens and offered to promote his book in any way way I could. Just because I thinks it's a good book that perhaps deserves more attention.

FWIW, I suspect that many of the developments in the history of the Gower also apply - to a greater or lesser extent - to other areas of Wales.

2
Monmouthshire / Any info on David William SUGG (1926-1944) Ebbw Vale
« on: Thursday 04 June 20 13:05 BST (UK)  »
I saw this post on FB from dutch company director of and I found a family tree (facts) on Ancestry.
Just re-posting here in case members have anything to add to names and dates.

Mike
---------------
On the 8th and 9th November 1944 in The Netherlands, four soldiers were killed by German snipers and enemy rifle grenades - grenades launched by rifles. All of them 4th battalion Welsh regiment.
They are buried in the cemetery in Nederweert, Netherlands 4. Our company adopted the four graves, two of them from Wales
David William SUGG 19 son of John and Gertrude Sugg from Ebbw Vale,
Stanley George THOMAS 19
Son of Wilfred S. and Doris M. Thomas, of Town Hill, Swansea.

We want to honor them and give them a face (picture), who can help us with information about family or more, please email us at loket@digitaleopsporing.nl or post your info THANKS,
Wilfred van Rooij

3
Glamorganshire / Any info on Stanley George THOMAS (1926-1944) - Swansea
« on: Thursday 04 June 20 13:01 BST (UK)  »
I saw this post on FB from dutch company director of and I found a family tree (facts) on Ancestry.
Just re-posting here in case members have anything to add to names and dates. I found his entry on the 'Roll of Honour' too.

Mike
---------------
On the 8th and 9th November 1944 in The Netherlands, four soldiers were killed by German snipers and enemy rifle grenades - grenades launched by rifles. All of them 4th battalion Welsh regiment.
They are buried in the cemetery in Nederweert, Netherlands 4. Our company adopted the four graves, two of them from Wales
David William SUGG 19 son of John and Gertrude Sugg from Ebbw Vale,
Stanley George THOMAS 19
Son of Wilfred S. and Doris M. Thomas, of Town Hill, Swansea.

we want to honor him and give him a face (picture), who can help us with information about family or more, please email us at loket@digitaleopsporing.nl or post your info THANKS,
Wilfred van Rooij

4
I have a friend in the village I grew in up in whose mother (now dead) always maintained that she was related to my family via my friend's grandmother and mine (mine b. 1888, hers b. 1883). They both had the common maiden name "Phillips", they both lived in my home village and their 'roots'  both originated in Pembrey in South Wales. My 'Phillips" ancestor  moved from Pembrey to my home  village in about 1861. Hers moved some 20 years later.

Recently, my friend gave me details of her GM's birth and death dates, marriage, etc. Seeing this as a challenge, I tried to see whether I could connect some dots (siblings/1st cousins/2nd cousins?). So far. it's proved much more difficult than I'd imagined. Perhaps there is no connection though I still think it's probable.

We both have an ancestor "William" but (according to census info) hers was born in 1847 and mine in 1853.  I've traced her family back to a Thomas Phillips (b 1817) and mine to a James Phillips (b 1829).

In Pembrey at that time there are a whole lot of "Phillips"'s with similar forenames. I don't want to spend much money on GRO certificates so my plan at the moment is to trawl the parish registers to see if I can connect "William" with ""James".

There may be trees that have already established links but I've not found any on Ancestry.

Does this sound like a good approach? Any tips on a better approach? Resources I've not thought of?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

5
The Lighter Side / Just one more thing ...
« on: Monday 25 June 18 16:37 BST (UK)  »
I just wanted to share my experience that simply drafting a 'cry for help' to Rootschat has helped me more than once in finding new approaches to research challenges. It's what I've come to know as the 'just one more thing ..." experience.

A couple of times recently, I've been frustrated, exasperated, exhausted and been on the point of posting a 'cry for help/tips/advice'. When I've summarised what and where I've already researched in a draft post, I've suddenly realised that there's just "just more one thing" I need to check before posting. And that "just more one thing" has up until now turned up something new. If it hadn't, I would have posted ;).

Just an example, I could not for the life of me understand why I could find no birth record of my GGF on the GRO index, FreeBMD, Ancestry, FindMyPast, etc., when all census info clearly pointed to his birth year and location.

Puzzled by the lack of info, my post to Rootschat for help/tips/advice was ready to post. The only 'one more thing' (=is there really anything I haven't considered?) was whether civil registration would have been usual/compulsory in his birth year (1861). Although civil registration started in 1837, I discovered that it wasn't compulsory until 1875. This branch of my family, Irish immigrants, living in an area of Swansea known as 'Little Ireland' and Roman Catholics would in all probability have considered baptism into the RC Church as being far more important than civil registration of births. Sufficient too.

So I realised that my next step was not to ask Rootschat for help but to contact the local RC church to find out whether and how I can get a copy of baptism records.

I've often heard the expression that 'the best way to understand something is to explain it to someone else'. This applies to research too :)

Mike

6
I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to track down my GGM's maiden name.

The background is that my GGF, David Gravel(l)(e) b 1862/3 married his wife 'Sarah' b 1861/2 around 1884. The 1891 census shows that their first son was born in 1885. It's possible that some records show their Welsh names (Dafydd, Sara) but Ancestry.co.uk hasn't turned up anything new for these.

What I know from the first married census record in 1891 is that David was born in Pembrey, Wales and Sarah was born in Pontargothi, a small village in Camarthenshire, Wales. In subsequent censuses, Sarah gave her birthplace as Llanegwad, a larger village close by, which has either subsumed Pontargothi or is more recognisable to census officials.

From their headstone, I also know the exact dates of their deaths (David in 1918, Sarah in 1925).

I've narrowed the 'Sarah' maiden name options down to 2 or 3: a Sarah Lloyd, a Sarah Phillips and a Sarah Thomas, all born in Llanegwad around 1861. But there might be more ;).

So I know approximately when and where Sarah was born and exactly when and where she died. Similarly I know approximately where and when her husband was born and exactly when he died.

The dates of their children's births is approximate (from census info). All approximations are +/- 1 year. What I don't know is the exact date that they were married though 1884 sounds reasonable (based on the birth of their first child).

So to find out my GGM'd maiden name, I have 4 approaches in mind:
1. Do more deductive work (to remove alternatives)
2. Get the death certificate for my GGG (but would this include her maiden name?)
3. Get a birth certificate for one of their children (but would this include her maiden name?)
4. Try and look up parish records for the village where they were buried
Option 2 sounds the easiest but I read connflicting reports of whether the deceased female  is described in relation to her father (long deceased) or to her spouse.

I read option 3 on rootschat http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=187109.0 but the GRO info doesn't confirm this.

Thanks for any tips and advice!

Mike


7
I wonder whether anyone has had experience - good or bad - in using multiple 'genealogy programs' with the same tree data. I'm interested in any tips (or pitfalls, risks). To be honest, I haven't done much research or maintenance in over a year.

The background to this question is that I decided some years back to take more personal control of my family tree data (especially source citations and source media) and rely less on Ancestry.com online to fill in links to sources and media. The main reasons were that a) I could make no sense of the media filenames downloaded from Ancestry and b) there were many duplicates of the same source media. So I started using FTM more and changed source references (and filenames) to refer to local data that I could check and verify. I upgraded to FTM 2017 which now works well in synch with Ancestry.com.

Around the same time, I did a trial with RootsMagic and I liked the 'data integrity checks' that FTM2017 didn't have. I also liked the clarity of RootsMagic in relating 'facts' to 'source citations' to 'media'. I find that FTM (perhaps through my inexperience) makes a less clear distinction when viewing/editing a person or fact.

So, I would ideally like to continue using the strengths of both FTM and RootsMagic on the same tree data. My guess is that keeping the data in both programs synched via Ancestry.com is probably the best way of maintaining data integrity. There are export/import options from both programs and from what I've read the GEDCOM standard maintains the basic facts and relationships but may not include all field from all programs.

Any tips? If I had to choose between FTM and RootsMagic I think I'd choose the latter for the reasons I gave. But there are things I like about FTM too.

Is sharing data and maintaining data integrity between 2 different programs a realistic option?

Thanks,

Mike




8
Hi, I'm curious about the reasons why some restorers resize photos  - either during the restoration process or before posting their restores. I'm not critical of this, just hoping to learn more!

I don't usually look at the details (dimensions, file size) of posted restores, just admire (and learn from) the quality and style of restored photos On the 'Joan Chapman' thread (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=792406.0), I noticed that some restores had been resized to about 50% - 60% of the original dimensions (in pixels). In other words, the original scan resolution had been reduced by 40%-50% in the posted restores.

I've always thought that maintaining the highest (original) resolution - especially in fine details - is something to aim for. A loss of resolution probably won't be noticeable unless a photo is printed or viewed on a high resolution screen at some point. I accept that there is a trade-off between 'number of pixels' and 'JPEG compression level" to get the best quality photo that doesn't exceed Rootschat's 500 KB limit. But looking at the size of the posted restore files, resizing didn't seem to me to be related to reducing file size.

I can only think of two other reasons to resize (and reduce the original resolution by 40%-50%) other than reducing file size. One is that the photo then fits on the Rootschat screen (without horizontal scrolling). The second is that some editing tools (such as blur) can be more effective on smaller photos in achieving the desired results than on larger ones.

If you sometimes resize photos either during the restore process or before posting your restore, I'd be interested to read your reasons for this.

Thanks in advance,

Mike



9
Photograph Resources, Tips, Tutorials / Affinity Photo
« on: Sunday 04 March 18 17:04 GMT (UK)  »
I've read/watched some great reviews of Affinity Photo (https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ as a serious competitor to Photoshop CC at a fraction of the price. I have a trial version and it seems to do almost everything Photoshop CC does. You can find a good review at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HhvRjZg8F8.

But I have renewed my Adobe Photography (Lightroom+Photoshop) subscription for one more year. Mostly because - for my own photography - I work 95% in Lightroom.  The 'Affinity Photo' company (http://www.serif.com/) plans to release a 'Lightroom equivalent' in 2018. When that happens, I'll switch from Adobe to Serif.

I've tried GIMP and I'm now trying out Raw Therapee and Darktable as possible Lightroom replacements.

Anyone switched to Affinity?

Mike

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