Behind the scenes - January 1 to 14

In reply to one query I added the following comment - which actually applies to many of the queries I receive which don't get an answer.

 I find that a very common failing with beginners is to hunt for names without spending enough time getting to grips with the available tools - or to understanding the many pitfalls.

I also got a very short email request that included no specific birth, marriage of death dates for any of the people concerned, no sources, a large typo and part of the very little "real" information that was provided looked as if it could have been wrong! In addition the surname was common enough for Right Name, Wrong Body to be relevant. If someone gives so little thought to drafting their question they do not deserve an answer.

Ray kindly pointed out an error on the Harry Cull, Photographer, Watford  page - relating to which pictures would enlarge and which would not.

There has been some further emails relating to last year's query about The Long Family of Sacombe, and hopefully there will be something new to post later this year once an email address problem can be resolved.

Tonmoy11 has posted an interesting comment about the US costs on my post on the cost of UK Birth., etc, certificates. It would be interesting to know what the prices are in other countries.

Via blog comments Anthony has been able to provide more information in reply to the blog post Were your Ancestors mad in 1911? and I have used his contribution to update the The Patients of Harpenden Hall on the main web site.

They say that Things come in Threes ... In the first six weeks of 2012 I have three dates in my diary to visit the local hospital. The first has already promised me another visit to have a kidney stone removed. The second is confirm that my hernia needs repairing. The third will undoubtedly arrange a later date for the cataract in my one "good" eye to be removed. Otherwise I am feeling fine - and happily did 30 lengths in our local swimming pool last week - my target being 50 lengths in the "Old People's Hour" by Easter - including walking across town to the pool and back home afterwards! All the procedures should be pretty straight forward so I am not expecting breaks of more than a day or two in the management of this site.

Finally I am delighted to say that the Herts Mind Network has already received £50 in 2012 as a result of activities connected with this site. But there is still £1150 to go to get the year end target so why not make a DONATION now and help the mentally ill of Hertfordshire.