One of the subject areas that attracts quite a few hits is genealogy (family histories and trees etc.). The guestbook was configured to accept comments since Jan 2000 and got some from all over the English speaking world from people who've want to contact old friends in the area or who have traced ancestors to Harthill or Laughton or Wales etc. Such messages have been reprinted on the message board.
* For old archived messages posted to this website about family roots etc. see the messageboard. They'll be posted on it for years!
* Free genealogy software: If you're researching your own tree you may benefit from having the free genealogy software available from the Mormon website at http://www.familysearch.org. Its called Personal Ancestoral File and is a specially configured database system for family details including scanned images. I have no connection with them by the way, but as part of their project to record the birth and death of everyone for the last few hundred years they have produced an excellent resource for genealogical research, and they allow online searching of their website based databases.
They also sell the 1881 census etc. on CDs. As they are compiled from public records the Mormons are not allowed to make a profit from their sales.
* UK and local genealogy websites: For UK researchers it's worth checking out the GENUK website, who's top level is at http://www.genuki.org.uk which has a mass of historical and genealogical information about England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Local genealogical societies include the Rotherham Familiy History Society, and their Sheffield counterpart the Sheffield Family History Society. As the J31 area borders on Nottinghamshire it may be worth checking in with the Notts Family History Soc. as well (although J31 only touches on the northmost tip of Nottinghamshire). The
* Newsgroups: Excellent newsgroups for info are soc.genealogy.britain and soc.genealogy.surnames.britain which your internet provider should carry. Read the newsgroup rules or monitor their traffic before innundating them with requests though (newsgroups can be a bit prickly about 'off topic' postings).
www.censuslinks.com A collection of over 8000 census releated links!
www.familysearch.com Huge collection of free family history/tree and genealogy records.
www.bbc.co.uk/history UK government information.
www.genuki.org.uk A "virtual reference library" of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland.
www.rootsweb.com Facilitating the shareing of genealogical research.
www.genalogy.com Just about anything you can think about concerning genealogy!
www.cyndislist.com Huge 260000+ link index.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/ Great for tracing individual ancestors by name.
www.englishorigins.com Access to the most authentic English/Welsh genealogy collections online
www.genealogylinks.net 4,200 pages of over 45,000 Free Genealogy Links; for US, UK, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
www.worldgenweb.org A non-profit, volunteer based organization dedicated to providing genealogical and historical records and resources for world-wide access.
http://www.balh.co.uk/ British Association for local history.
http://www.servicepals.com/ UK Armed Forces Friend Finder allowing you to find lost military friends and colleagues.
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/guide/chron.shtml About dating conventions in English documents up to as late as the 18th century.
http://www.polysyllabic.com/CalHist.html A History of the Western Calendar.
http://www.albion.edu/english/calendar/ Dates for students of English history and literature.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/easter/ Dates of Easter Sunday and Perpetual Calendar, 1550-2049 for Great Britain and the Colonies
www.ffhs.org.uk Federation of familiy history societies.
http://www.rootschat.com/ Messaging forum for everyone researching their family history or local history.
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.genealogy.britain?lnk=gschg Chat on genealogy in Great Britain and the islands.
http://www.archivesinfo.net/uksites.html
http://hospitalrecords.pro.gov.uk/
http://www.hmc.gov.uk/mdr/mdr.htm
http://www.genealogysupplies.com/ S&N Genealogy sellers of software, data CDs, books, charts and family history kits.
www.ids.org.uk/ The Latter Day Saints Online, i.e. the Mormons
www.archersoftware.co.uk Specializes in software and utilities to help with family histories.
www.rod-neep.co.uk/index.htm Archive of CD books: reproductions of old books, documents and maps available on CD to genealogists and historians.
http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand
http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/
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