RootsChat.Com

Thanks for this blog chiddicks ! I've started to read through, very interesting! I had heard of it, I think it also affected other parts of the Thames into Essex and Kent?

Was just trying to access Maureen Rawson's excellent resource for Kent genealogy which has been on Rootsweb since 1998, but the site now seems completely inaccessible. I found it was last backed up in October, 2024 on the Internet Archive below. I know Ancestry had made the website read only some time back - Maureen last updates were in February, 2024

https://web.archive.org/web/20241013223132/http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mrawson/genealogy/

Unfortunately, the search facility, which was very useful, especially for searching people named within the will transcripts, now does not work .

For years I couldn't trace the birth or baptism records of the children of a couple who I had the marriage of, and both wills of, so knew the names of many of their children. I suspected they may have been non conformists, but didn't do, what I now see was rather obvious - search JUST for the name of the ancestor with no parent's name put in  ! I think whenever I looked for the baptism or birth records of the ancestor or her siblings, I was always putting in at least the father's first name. But on finding another will, which mentioned an unknown sibling with a much more unusual first name, that led me to the register of the New Broad Street Independent Meeting in London, under the leadership of John Guysse, minister, an independent and supporter of Calvinism

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:History_of_Nonconformists_in_London%2C_England_and_surrounding_counties#New_Broad_Street_Meeting_House

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_History_and_Antiquities_of_Dissentin/wpIsAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA229&printsec=frontcover

All the baptism records are grouped by family, all in the form

Mr. Cooke's Daughter Sarah Sept. 23. 1728 (Apothecary)
                     son John Oct. 20. 1729
                    Daughter Sarah Dec. 1. 1732

So, unusually for the period, you do get a father's profession, but no name!

"A class-action lawsuit filed in August, 2024 alleges that the operator of GEDmatch.com, a genealogy site that claims to have a database of more than 1 million members, has been sharing users’ information with Facebook. This revelation should alarm us all."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-10-21/testing-dna-websites-genes-23andme-gedmatch

I am not sure really that is unusual unfortunately and is probably allowed by the terms and conditions most people never read properly. I am pretty sure at one time I have seen Ancestry connect to facebook domains, but just looking now with adblock I can several different Google  and other things on the page when accessing DNA matches or trees. Here's a list

dscb.akamaiedge.net
googlesyndication.com
googletagmanager.com
newrelic.com
nr-data.net
uk.cdn.cloudflare.net

Quote from: ikas on Thursday 02 January 25 11:40 GMT (UK)

I got an email today from Anc promoting a series of virtual training events. One of them was "How to use Pro Tools" by Crista Cowan on 28th January.
I don't seem able to register for it. I get a No Entry icon when I hover over the Register button despite UK being one of the countries listed in the availability list.
Has anyone successfully registered? I can't see what I am doing wrong.

You get taken to Zoom. You have to sign in or sign up (free) for a Zoom account to register. I think the Pro Tools event is now on the 22nd rather than the 28th

FAMILY HISTORY MONTH SERIES

Family Tree Building 101
Jan 8, 2025 11:00AM MST

ANCESTRY WEBINAR SERIES
Clean Up Your Family Tree: Fix Common Mistakes with Confidence
Jan 15, 2025 11:00AM MST

FAMILY HISTORY MONTH SERIES
Ancestry® Pro Tools: Taking Your Family Tree to the Next Level
Jan 22, 2025 11:00AM MST

https://www.ancestry.com/c/discover/education

The Pro Tools live talk on Zoom is today at 18:00 i.e. 6 PM UK time.