Having previously ranted about how much I personally loathed the term "Brick Walls" in an earlier post this year, I thought that I would report back on the results of a very interesting conversation I had with Sarah Williams, editor of WDYTYA Magazine in Birmingham in April.
As a long term subscriber to the magazine, I told her that I felt there were always lots of articles that were great for beginners,including the ubiquitous "masonry-smashing" titled ones (great for shifting copies in WH Smith etc., apparently) but could we please have some more in-depth articles? By that I meant more of say a "masterclass" approach to using multiple sources together or perhaps some more expert advice on how to be more rigorous in scrutinising the quality and coverage of the records we search.
Apparently she liked the idea and lo and behold, a new series of Genealogy Masterclass features was commissioned and first appeared in the August issue (although I see Sarah got the last laugh on me with her front-page sub-title!!)
The features are brilliantly written by Helen Osborn, whose book "Genealogy: Essential Research Methods" is a well-thumbed tome on my bookshelf. The first dealt with working very systematically with English and Welsh parish registers to help you understand better the effect of gaps in surviving records, whilst the September one has some good advice on family reconstruction techniques to whittle away at a group of candidate records with the same names.
The magazines and blogs are often brilliant for alerting us to where to find records but frankly that can be the easy bit - interrogating the records wisely and interpreting the results with logical thoroughness is actually the key to solving those people puzzles.
So, if you wish that your favourite magazine had more articles that are relevant to you, then get in touch and make suggestions - they always have pages to fill and readers to attract and please.
As a long term subscriber to the magazine, I told her that I felt there were always lots of articles that were great for beginners,including the ubiquitous "masonry-smashing" titled ones (great for shifting copies in WH Smith etc., apparently) but could we please have some more in-depth articles? By that I meant more of say a "masterclass" approach to using multiple sources together or perhaps some more expert advice on how to be more rigorous in scrutinising the quality and coverage of the records we search.
Apparently she liked the idea and lo and behold, a new series of Genealogy Masterclass features was commissioned and first appeared in the August issue (although I see Sarah got the last laugh on me with her front-page sub-title!!)
The features are brilliantly written by Helen Osborn, whose book "Genealogy: Essential Research Methods" is a well-thumbed tome on my bookshelf. The first dealt with working very systematically with English and Welsh parish registers to help you understand better the effect of gaps in surviving records, whilst the September one has some good advice on family reconstruction techniques to whittle away at a group of candidate records with the same names.
The magazines and blogs are often brilliant for alerting us to where to find records but frankly that can be the easy bit - interrogating the records wisely and interpreting the results with logical thoroughness is actually the key to solving those people puzzles.
So, if you wish that your favourite magazine had more articles that are relevant to you, then get in touch and make suggestions - they always have pages to fill and readers to attract and please.