Books & Digital Picks
A Guide For Family Historians
This month’s family history inspiration
The latest book from regular WDYTYA? Magazine contributor Chris Paton (see page 16) has an ambitious aim: to showcase all of the ways in which family historians can collaborate with others over the internet. And for the most part it succeeds, dividing the topic into six digestible chapters that cover everything from social media and crowdsourcing to DNA testing and sharing stories.
The guide can be read on two levels: first, skim-read it to appreciate all of the opportunities the internet provides for opening your family tree up to a wider online audience. Then, use the comprehensive table of contents and index to focus in on programs, websites and services of interest.
The prose is relatively easy to follow, despite the technical subject matter – you get a summary of each type of resource, then a runthrough covering major examples. The amount of space devoted to each varies, but in many cases you’ll gain more than a simple overview – there’s useful information on privacy, how to sign up, plus guidance on how to access those areas relevant to sharing. Paton’s familiarity with these services shines through to demonstrate his obvious expertise.
For those who still require convincing that the internet offers more than dry repositories of digitised records, Paton has one final ace up his sleeve. By drawing on his own experience, he’s able to demonstrate how
the internet has led to contact with distant cousins, which in turn has opened rich seams of photos, documents and stories. It certainly chimes with my own
This could be the tool you need to smash brick walls
experience, and helps prove the point that Sharing Your Family
History Online could be the tool you’ve been looking for to smash brick walls and unlock new avenues for your research.
Stephen Wynn
Pen & Sword, 144 pages, £14.99
During the Second World War the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) ferried aircraft of all kinds – fighters, trainers and heavy bombers – from factories to Royal Air Force stations across Britain. It is known today for the pioneering use of women pilots. In fact, of the 1,300 pilots employed by the unit only 168 were women. They were people who for one reason or another – age, sex, physical fitness – could not join the RAF.
Naturally it is the aviatrices who have attracted the attention of historians. And rightly so, for they all show a determination and strength (as well as in some cases deep pockets) to overcome male opposition that on occasion bordered on the absurd. Joan
Marsh, who joined up as soon as she could, was one of the first test pilots, having learnt to fly at the age of 15. The prewar pioneer Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo between London and Australia, was another notable early recruit.
This book offers a useful introduction to the history of the ATA. It has a particularly interesting section describing the 174 men and women who died in the course of their duties, including Johnson, who lost her life when her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary in January 1941. is an author and a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA)