EoLFHS What's New Archive Sep2000-Aug2001

If you haven't visited the website for a couple of weeks you may have missed notification of our 3rd Place Award 2001 from the Federation of Family History Societies.

BARKING MEMORIAL: UPDATE
The rededication ceremony has been set for 4 August 2001. Read more about this on the Barking Memorial page HERE

EoLFHS BRANCHES
Each branch of the Society now has their own page within the site. So far they contain dates of forthcoming meetings. Branch secretaries are invited to send in any information they would like to have added to their page. See more HERE

BETHNAL GREEN FACTORY 1915-17
Lorri Busch has kindly contributed an interesting photo of her great-grandfather with his fellow workers HERE

EoLFHS SEARCH PAGES
It is pleasing to see that the Search page introduced in Mar 2001 attracts more visitors as the months go by. To date, over 5,000 visits have been recorded since the page was created.

MESSAGE BOARD
The Message Board (formerly the Query Forum) has moved location and looks somewhat different as a result of the merging of message boards on Rootsweb, Ancestry.com and Myfamily.com. The link to the Message Board, shown in the left navigation bar, will take you to the new look Message Board. You can read the messages, search for surnames, locality boards and authors without having to log into the site. If you want to post a message, however, you will need to register your name and email address. The Message Boards remain FREE to use. Introduction and instructions on how to use the new Boards HERE

Rootsweb/Ancestry.com/MyFamily.com have had a turnaround in requiring posters to the message boards having to log in first. If registering caused any of you anxiety, you can now post a message to the EoLFHS Message Board without having to register your name and email address first, although the option to register is still there.

EoLFHS BRANCHES
New pages for each of the Society Branches have been added showing venue and dates of forthcoming meetings. The first of these pages is HERE with links to each Branch Meeting page. Further details added to the Events page with links to sites showing information about forthcoming Family History Fairs HERE

CHURCH PHOTOS
Thanks to Phil Degan for contributing part of his collection of East London Churches. They can be viewed HERE

MIDDLESEX LOOKUP EXCHANGE
Peter DeAth (#0037) has offered to do look-ups in a variety of publications and journals covering Middlesex bordering on the East London area.

PARISH INFORMATION
John Henley has sent some additional information about All Saints Church, Skinner Street, Bishopsgate and St Mary, Norton Folgate.

QUERY BOARD
All 100 missing February postings were reposted by me this month. They are easy to spot in the list as the subject includes the line (1st posted -- Feb)

SURNAME HELPER
All surnames that appear in the Query messages are indexed by Surname Helper. Click the link at the top of each board to see an alphabetical listing of surnames. Each surname is linked to the relevant message on the Board.

In addition, all surnames in our Members' Surname Interest pages are indexed. Both of these searches can be reached from our own Search page HERE There is also a search help page if you are not used to using search boxes before.

It is encouraging to see the Search page has attracted over 2,800 hits since it first appeared on the site.

9 May 2001
Some new information added following arrival of Cockney Ancestor 90.
Publications: 1831 Census Index Hackney
Members Diary Dates
Events in and around the EoLFHS area
Changed times for Computer Group Meeting

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS
Mary Wall (Member #5718) is researching Industrial Schools in the 19th and 20th century and has offered to do lookups.. More details are given HERE

NEW SEARCH FACILITY
The new search facility for the website is now complete. The link to Search on the left links bar takes you to an Overview page of multiple search facilities covering both the EoLFHS site and various Rootsweb searches. The biggest impact on our own site is Surname Helper. Each unique surname on our Members Interests pages is indexed so that it will appear in the Surname Helper results pages available from many other web pages. The best way to see how this works is to try it out on the Search Overview page. It can take about a week for the Surname Helper names to be indexed so new names won't appear straight away.

The site now has its own dedicated Search facility which will allow you to search for a name, place or phrase. This search facility takes place off site so success of the search is dependant upon the hosting site, Atomz, being trouble free. This page is linked from the Search Overview page as is the new Search Help page.

MEMBERS' RESOURCES
A couple of members have enquired about lookups offered by other members and lookups they themselves are willing to do.

The Help Exchange page already lists some members willing to do lookups in resources they own or have access to. There a couple of pages linked on the Help & FAQs Overview page HERE

QUERY BOARD
The Board continues to be well supported and appears to be a useful addition to the online facilities added for members. The Board however is not closed to members and attracts enquiries from researchers all over the world. If you have made a successful contact as a result of using the Query Board, why not share your good news with others? Information can be sent to me and I will put it on a new webpage.

The missing February postings still haven't been reinstated by Rootsweb. They amount to nearly 100 for our Board. I do have copies of all of the postings so if you have a vague memory that there was a posting about something of interest to you, email me with as much as you can rremember and I'll look back through the postings for you. Rootsweb have strongly discouraged that moderators re-post these messages, so we can only wait and hope that they will be reinstated soon. This offer is only open to EoLFHS members so please remember to include your membership number in your request.

ONGOING PROJECT
It is hoped that the addition of Members' surname interests have been submitted to the Surname Helper index will help you and our visitors locate your surnames more easily. Our members' fiche list of over 5,000 names however has not yet been done and will take some time to add the necessary code to each unique name. As part of the process the URL for each of the pages may change slightly but a note to this effect will be placed on the pages affected.

New Links this Month
Links to other Genealogy Sites
This page has been expanded to include a new section "Software" with links to all the popular genealogy software programs and a couple of sites offering useful utilities such as GEDCOM viewers.

MEMBERS' COLLECTIONS
We have a new section starting this month, members' collections. This broad title covers the publishing of any members' research material they are willing to share with others. It would be an enchancement to the website if we could add an article about every two months. If you are interested in contributing an article, some aspect of research which may be of benefit to others, please e-mail me with details. The contribution can be treated with a special design element to complement the content of the material.

UPTON PARK FOOTBALL CLUB
Peter Hamersley in Australia has submitted some of his research material on the early beginnings of Upton Park Football Club covering the periods 1866-1887 and 1891-1011. There are over 500 players and officials included in the information.

This is the first contribution in our Members' Collections Section so thankyou to Peter for agreeing to share this interesting piece of research with our members and visitors.

EVENTS NOTICEBOARD
Another new page this month. As we are notified about events of relevance to family history in our area, details will appear on this new page HERE Individuals and organisations are invitied to send notification of events to the chairman

EoLFHS COMPUTER GROUP
In response to several enquiries in the Mail List, John Reynolds had provided some useful information about the monthly meeting of the Computer Group HERE

IN GENERAL
100,000 visits to the website home page since 3 March 1996, an excellent number for this month, the 5th anniversary of the website!

It has been a bumper month for members submitting their email addresses on the Members On Line page. Nearly 22% of members have now published their on line details. This is a timely reminder to on line members to check your own listing - if you have changed e-mail address but not let us know, please complete the easy-to-complete form HERE Additions, amendments and deletions are carried out at the end of each month.

The Genconnect Queries Board has proved very popular since it started last month. Over 150 messages have been posted from members and non-members. Currently Rootsweb are upgrading their servers and some of the February postings to the Board have not reappeared. Genconnect assure us that these messages will be reinstated. The Genconnect system also automatically indexes surnames so they are searchable. Indexing takes place every two weeks but as yet our Queries Board has not yet been indexed.

CURRENT PROJECT
I am currently adding all the surnames from the Members' Interests pages to the Rootsweb Surname Helper Index. If you would like to test the search for your own surname interests, go to the Surname Helper Search page, type in a surname and see what responses you get.* In the list of results you will see entries on our site listed as "East of London FHS". Follow that link and click through the next screens and you will eventually be taken to that surname on our site.

Our site was last indexed by Surname Helper on 18 Feb 2001 so names uploaded on the members' pages since that date won't appear. I'll be adding a Search page to the site next month and will include explanatory notes on how to use the different Rootsweb searches available to us.

This is very much a pilot at this stage until I can get more surnames from the site included in the index. I would be interested in your feedback if you try the search.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT AGM
Ian Whaley, EoLFHS Chairman, has posted his Report on the Annual General Meeting held on 20th January 2001. Ian reports that nearly 300 members were able to attend. The Full Report can be viewed HERE

BARKING WAR MEMORIAL
This is a special appeal from the Barking & Dagenham Branch HERE (new 19 Jan 2001) Since publishing this article there has been quite some interest but perhaps overshadowed by the continuing distress caused by the removal of graves at Woodgrange Cemetery with quite a lot of mails in support posted to the mailing list.

DISCUSSION AND QUERY FORUM
Following a suggestion from some members in the mailing list we have now set up our own Query Forum (Discussion Board). You will be able to go to the Query Forum at any time by clicking on the Queries Jigsaw piece in the left navigation bar. Read more details HERE Since the Board went live on or about 22 January, there have already been over 20 postings.

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE WEBSITE
Whilst adding the new Query Forum item to the navigation bar, I took the opportunity of merging the Maps and the Geography section. The Map page will stay in place for a month with a divert to the new page in case any search engines have indexed the page.

You will see another new link on the left, the Contact Info page giving details about who to contact in the event of a query.

SURNAME LISTINGS
I have always been concerned about the loading speed of the surname pages. They get longer each month and will really test some slower machines and ISPs. With all of the pages displaying a link to all other surname pages, the whole lot have now been split over 11 pages which just about halved the download time. Another reason for rationalising these pages (they have new file names too) is that I am currently investigating having the surname pages listed with Surname Helper at Rootsweb. This involves additional code on each surname which will then be indexed by the Surname Helper software. When all the names are registered, anyone searching the whole of Rootsweb surnames and finding results in the EoLFHS list, will find a link direct to the EoLFHS page containing the surname. This takes a bit of time to set up and test, when it is finally working to my satisfaction I will notify the mail list and report back in next month's update on this page.

OF INTEREST?
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) are currently recruiting for Enumerators and Team Leaders for the forthcoming Census 2001 taking place in April.

ENGLISH ORIGINS
On 18 January the FFHS issued a Press Release about the launch of English Origins which operates on a similar pay per view as Scots Origins. You can visit the website for English Origins and try a free search.

New Links this Month
We would normally report new links on this page Links to Other Genealogy Sites but unfortunately there are none this month. There is however a Bad Link of which I am aware.

NOTICE OF 22nd AGM
Members are cordially invited to the 22nd AGM of the EoLFHS to be held on Saturday 20 January 2001. Full details about the meeting, The Programme and speakers are included in the latest CA.

NATIONAL BURIAL INDEX
Latest news about the Index is detailed on the FFHS website, click HERE to view

New Links this Month
see these links on the page: Links to Other Genealogy Sites
London Ancestor website
Free Historic Maps
Find a Church
Calendar
1919 Romford Directory
The East London History Society
Victorian London Institutions
Boyd's Index of Marriages for Essex
London Churches

LATEST MEMBERS' FICHE ON THE WEB!
By now hopefully you will have received your latest CA (88). Included in the package was a 3-set fiche of members' interests. Don't despair if you haven't got access to a fiche reader. As from today, all 5,000+ entries have been added to this website. The information is presented in Surname order, followed by Chapman Country/County code, area, time period, Member No. and e-mail address.

EoLFHS PUBLICATIONS LIST
The Publications List has been updated on the website to coincide with the issue of the latest Cockney Ancestor (No. 88). The list includes new publications as well as modest annual price increases on some items. You can access the Publications Section by clicking the Publications link in the side bar.

Cockney Ancestor No 88
Most members should have received their latest edition of the Cockney Ancestor. If you still haven't received it, go this help page HERE

SITE VISITORS PROFILE - FOR YOUR INTEREST ONLY
You will have noticed the new "Home" page on the site introduced last month. It is the page new visitors will arrive at when they enter our normal URL. Once visitors are on the site, the Home page linked from the left links bar is in fact our general Introduction page. I introduced a special counter on the new Home page and thought you might be interested in some detail the counter provides. Here are some of the statistics:

Total visits since 31/10/00-30/11/00	2664
Unique visits (your visit is only counted once)	2353
Internet Explorer Ver. 5 and above	71%
Netscape Ver. 4 and above	14%
Monitor Resolution 800x600	64%
Country of visitor: (highest number first) UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, S Africa, France, Belgium, Ireland, Cyprus, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and a small number from Japan, Sweden, Austria, Greece and Saudi Arabia. Note: Nearly 50% of visits are from a .com or .net domain which cannot be determined by country.

You might wonder why this information is important. It may not be to you but it is to the web designer! Web designers will consider web page width knowing that a variety of monitor or screen resolutions are being used by their visitors. The latest version of the main browsers support many effects and features. Some older browsers won't support these so that too has to be borne in mind.

New Links this Month
see these links on the page: Links to Other Genealogy Sites
Genuki Gazateer
London Churches and IGI Batch Nos.
Archive CD Books Project
Victorian London Institutions
1919 Romford Directory
Free Historic Maps (Landranger series)

Major Revamp of EoLFHS Website
You will no doubt have noticed the new look to the website. A side links bar has been added to each page so you can navigate from category to category within the website. In addition, the larger categories have top link bars which you will see when you view them. In the process of making these modifications, some links may not work or, at worst, take you to the wrong place. If you find this, please let the chairman know, so the corrections can be made. The only category that hasn't had the new look applied is the section on Parish Pages. For the moment they will stay as they are.

Website Contents
A new addition to the website is the Contents page, which can be reached from the side link bar. The page has been organised into categories at the present time.

Members' Email Addresses
This long page has now been split over 5 pages to aid faster loading. The order remains the same, by membership number. The pages are split into numeric groups e.g. 0001-3999, 4000-4999 etc. Each page has a link bar at the top so you can click on a group to see the member lists. The section includes an introduction page which is HERE

Members' Diary Dates
A new page showing Branch meetings for the coming few months.

Cockney Ancestor Cover Collection
The front covers of the last year's CA have been scanned and appear HERE In time they will form a collection of interesting illustrations depicting a variety of locations in the EoLFHS area.

New Links this Month
History of the Workhouse, an excellent site with lots of information is included on the Links to Other Genealogy Sites, Miscellaneous. Well worth a look!
On the same page, see the Military section, the bad link to the site for Dept of Veterans in Canada has been updated taking you to a page which includes a search facility.
Another addition to the East London History & Geography section is "Upminster - the story of a garden suburb".

MEMBERS' DIARY DATES
A new page added on 11 October showing Branch meetings for the coming few months.

MEMBER SURNAME INTERESTS
There have been changes to the Online Member Surname Lists.

Additional coding has been added to the pages to make navigation easier and quicker through the surname entries. Consequently the pages have increased in download time. To offset this and to help members move quickly through the lists the following features have been introduced:

SEARCHING THE EOLFHS-MEMBERS MAIL LIST
The Mail List has proved to be very popular with Society Members. New members need not feel left out as previous mailings can be viewed in the Rootsweb Archive List. Instructions on how to search the Archives are included HERE