Some Xmas Holiday quickies

Over the Christmas period I have been involved in various social activities - including cooking the Christmas Dinner - and this is really a summary of some of the recent activities relating to my web site which did not justify a blog page in their own right. It also includes older less urgent queries which needed tidying up before the end of the year.

• Alan wrote asking if I had succeeded in identifying the location of Britons Camp, St Albans, and says he has some military pictures that might be relevant to this web site.
• Ann has added a further note about William Walby - and links his aunt to the Cyclist's Rest at Essendon.
• Anthony came up with another patient at Harpenden Hall, Elizabeth Wilhelmina Galliers Swinton, and I have also made some minor edits.
• Barney sends me his new email address - he is quoted on one of the earliest pages on the web site - The Dangers of Internet Genealogy and also kindly provided a 1855 photograph of Gaddesden Place.
• Cindy's William Burchmore ancestor lived in Hertfordshire at about the same time as my William Burchmore acnestor, but they are two different people. I gave her some general advice about her problem and suggested some general topics on my site which might help
• Gary (from HALS) wrote to say he was researching Private Hertfordshire Mental Asylums for the chapter of a book - and added the surnames of some patients mentioned as being at Harpenden Hall. I forwarded the email to Antony - who used the information to provide details of two more patients.- Mary Debary and Gayford Manning Bare.
• Gerard asked about the software I used to edit photographs such as the Fire Engines at St Edmunds College - The main tool was the "histogram Equalize" tool in Paint Shop Pro. 
• I contacted Janet about a possible article for the Walkern History Society web site. 
• Jean wrote to say how she had been distressed by visiting a relative at one of the long stay hospitals in the St Albans area, a few years ago. [Not for publication as it involved patients still living.]
• John has some comparatively modern memories of Ardeley Bury and rather than add them to the existing page on this site I suggested he might consider posting them on Hertfordshire Memories.
• I contacted Lottie about the possible purchase of more Stagenhoe photographs.
• I contacted Peter about historic material being published in the Potten End & Nettleden Church Newsletter
• Phil has recently acquired a draft text by Edward Lawrence, entitled "A Hertfordshire Man Remembers." Edward was born in 1902, possibly at Little Amwell and  the draft was written in the early 1960s. Phil is considering transcribing it to make the text more widely available, but wanted to know if it had already been published. I know of nothing and suggested that he contacts HALS. 
• Stephen contacted me via Genes Reunited about a Phipson couple who married in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, in 1668 who happens to be a very distant cousin of my wife. In 1988 I published a computer produced book - A Phipson One Name Study - which is now out of print - and I have suggested that the tries to see a copy through his nearest LDS Family History Centre. An exchange of emails shows he is in touch with someone who is more up to date on the family than I am.
• Tom's relative may have died in Hill End Hospital in 1908 and if he is lucky the records may be at  HALS.
• A message was sent to the Essendon Parish Council web site to ask them to update their link to this site.