What's New

I add names to the Family Tree Maker database almost daily. The database, converted to GEDCOM format, gets updated to this website using GEDsite.
I am slow... because its not just about collecting names, I am after connections and stories. The 'Living' are excluded from this website, the total viewable in website can be seen in footer at the very bottom of the page.  

18 February 2025:- Total 51,615 including living.  Following a Kent family in Detling back to early 1700s but a little inconclusive after that.

17 February 2025:- Total 51,607 including living.  Busy hunting and not finding... that's the way it goes.  Still, even a negative is progress of sorts in family history.

15 February 2025:- Total 51,597 including living. Still in Kent on my nephew's non-Dowling line.  Every day of research throws up something interesting, today reading-up on the Spanish Revolution in the 30's.

14 February 2025:- Total 51,587 including living.  Mostly sources for existing Kent people.  Come across some interesting puzzles but will persevere... learning never stops.

13 February 2025:- Total 51,582 including living.  Some more Kent work on non-Dowlings connected to the family.

12 February 2025:- Total 51,577 including living. A Kent census entry added.  Busy with other things plus spending a lot of time looking  for a marriage that doesn't seem to exist.

11 February 2025:- Total 51,570 including living.  Improving some old photos and uploading those.  Preparing a family tree report for my nephew.

10 February 2025:- Total 51,570 including living.  Mostly adding sources to existing people today.

9 February 2025:- Total 51,570 including living.  Sunday Single Back Up.  Found a Dublin marriage I hadn't years ago on an Ardateggle family.  A little tidying-up.

8 February 2025:- Total 51,569 including living.  Busy with other things and not too well.  Did some tinkering but nothing significant.  Found another entry source in need of refurbishment and have started on that.

4 February 2025:- Total 51,565 including living. Mostly trying to sort out a Joseph Dowling who has children in the 1920s but no marriage to be found... I feel I am missing something obvious.

3 February 2025:- Total 51,562 including living.  Some births, marriages and deaths from Laois today mostly picking up the newly released BMD's from the civil registers.  A lot of sources for existing people too.

2 February 2025:- Total 51,548 including living. Monthly Double Back Up.  A Liverpool entry and a review if recent births, marriages and deaths on the Irish records site... some have come online without images of the entries so are no more than index entries.

30 January 2025:- Total 51,537 including living.  Hunting some Hugh Dowlings in Liverpool to attach to the USA... A likely candidate but missing a crucial piece of information so cannot join as yet.  Will put them separately into the system tomorrow.

 

Legend:

 

Sunday Single Back-up: On Sunday of each week my computer gets backed up to a separate hard drive on my network (NAS).

Monthly Double Back-up: On the 1st of every month my computer gets backed-up to a separate hard drive on my network (NAS). The NAS, which also has other files not on the computer then gets backed-up again to another separate hard drive on the network that is normally off-line for the rest of the month, disconnected from the internet and powered-off.
Merge: A merge is where evidence has emerged to allow two separate people on the database to be merged into one individual.  For example, there may be two people called Michael Dowling, one as a son of John Dowling and the second as a census entry.  The two initially start off from records as separate entries but a marriage of Michael to Mary Phelan showing a father of John and matching other factors allows me to say with some confidence that they are one and the same person.  This can be quite complicated with much playing around with probabilities and numbers of candidates for merging or occasionally very simple.  The number of people in the database drops by one and it is a major cause for celebration as it increases accuracy and future confusion.

Join: A join is where evidence emerged to allow one person to be connected to another.  For example, a daughter to be added to a father.  A cause for celebration as it reduces the number of separate families in the database and increases accuracy and future confusion.

 


Projects

There are a huge number of entries in my database form a variety of sources. So, even though there is no project that covers a particular source or region does not mean there are no entries for that source or region. The projects cover where I systematically extract entries from a source to make sure the source has been 'milked' for all it's worth. The What's New page also shows when I have worked on a particular project.

Activity


Activity follows the Guild of One-Name Studies "Seven Pillars of Wisdom":

  1. Data Collection - from correspondents, projects (see below) and serendipity! I include maintenance in here as, with a large study over 30 years, a significant number of flaws creep in that need correcting.

  2. Analysis - researching, investigating, linking, etc. Also constant review for corrections;

  3. Synthesis - drawing conclusions about the Dowlings, making sense of it all!

  4. Publicising the Study - This website... I am not particularly technical so this is a challenge, I also promote the study on some DNA sites;

  5. Responding to enquiries - helping where I can, adding their families to the database or trying to make sense of DNA matches. I will reply, maybe not immediately, but I will always respond.;

  6. Publication of results - again this website, as much as possible is available as I believe widespread sharing is the basis of its permanent legacy;

  7. Preserving the study - A more significant challenge than it sounds, some arrangements have been made through the Guild for the study to be available when I am dead and gone!