http://www.foote-family.com/weblog Tue, 23 May 2006 11:21:09 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en_US The Freedom of Information Act (2000) was supposed to make it easier to get information out of government, and lead to more openness - especially in those areas where there are outdated indefensible practises.Well that is exactly the oppsite of what is happening with census records. I have just learnt that the 100-year closure for census records was only introduced in 1966 ! When the 1911 census was taken - no commitment was made to those completing it that ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/31.html This grand ambition is the objective of a new initiative from the people who brought us Wikipedia - the open source encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to.Their goal is to establish a family tree that anyone can contribute to, and thus eventually create a family of the whole world ! It is called WikiTree and can be found at www.wikitree.org.According to Wikipedia's entry on Genealogy, academics have established that the first common ancestor of all those ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/30.html On Friday, we went to see Sophie & Amy sing with their choir (Taplow Children's Choir) at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert was organized by CLIC Sargent, a charity supporting children with cancer. There were hundreds of children taking part, as well as a host of guests including Joss Stone, Lemar & Ms Dynamite.A fun day was had by all the kids, even though it included travelling up at lunchtime and hanging around all afternoon. Our kids ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/29.html I spent this afternoon with an old friend, Pete Dyson, who now owns Studio West recording studios in San Diego. He was playing host to 30 school kids (and their teachers, parents and assorted hangers-on) who were making a charity record in aid of the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund. The whole event was the brainchild of music teacher, Joretta Harris, who had organized the whole event, written the song, laid down the backing tracks with some musician friends ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/28.html The amount of online resources for genealogists is expanding by the day.Notable additions that have come to my attention recently include:1861 Census - the searchable index to the 1861 census for England & Wales at 1837online.com is now complete.FamilyRelatives.org - a new site offering a complete index to all civil births, deaths & marriages 1866-1920.  They also have records beyond this date available - but not fully searchable. Together with an ever-increasing freeBMD, it is ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/27.html I've spent a couple of weekends in San Diego over the last couple of months. With a great seafaring tradition, there are some great maritime tourist attractions. Without doubt one of the most spectacular is the Star of India (pictured). It is a permanent exhibit of the San Diego Maritime Museum, and one of the last surviving tall ships afloat. It was used for the film, Master and Commander, and many details about how the film was made is featured ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/26.html I have recently been rediscovering Steely Dan - one of my favourite bands of all time. Until the late 1990s they were regarded as a passé 1970s AOR band - but over the last couple of years have reformed and released two great new albums. I have always loved their witty/ ironic lyrics, clever rhythms and high standards of musicianship/ production.I have now discovered on amazon, that there are a whole load of "early years" compilations available of ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/24.html Great story on BBC News this week - The Comfort of Strangers - about members of an online genealogy forum, frustrated with trying to burst through their own brick walls, have taken to researching other peoples' family history - by selecting people at random from the 1881 census.The forum in question - rootschat - also features an area for "censuswhacking" - identifying the only person or family with a given first name, surname or occupation in the census. ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/23.html It's not often that two of my areas of interest converge - but I saw an article in the Guardian Science supplement last week, which intrigued me - "How do you decode the new Coldplay album cover?" by Marcus de Sautoy, a professor of mathematics at Oxford.Not wanting to be a spoilsport or anything - but the answer is that it is a pictorial representation of the Baudot code for the characters X (10111), & (11011,00011), Y ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/22.html It is looking increasingly like June is becoming Chocolate month:-Our latest selection of luxurious chocolates from Hotel Chocolat arrived (one of Tina's birthday presents)The new Roald Dahl Museum has just opened in Great Missenden - with chocolate-coated doors.We visited Cadbury World (see separate article) - apparently Dahl's inspiration for Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (didn't see any Oompa Loompas there though).Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the movie - is now complete, and the launch date has ... http://www.foote-family.com/weblog/archive/21.html