Leo Goodstadt, my grandfather, was in many ways the person who stimulated my interest in Genealogy. This was not only as it was from his family that I inherited an unusual surname but also because he himself had a great interest in both the name and his family’s history. Indeed the first item on the wall upon entering the living room of his bungalow was a classic family tree. It was this information and his associated notes that formed the base of my initial research but in addition to bare dates and names he typed and annotated this brief but fascinating memoir.

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Another surname mapping service came to my attention today via lifehacker.com. It is run by the dynastree.com online genealogy website and covers the USA and Canada.

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Today the 1911 Census for England and Wales is officially launched. I liked the beta as it shows that Find My Past are beginning to tackle the shortcomings of their main site. For my own research into both the Goodstadt and the Renshaws this is a big opportunity as it includes Lancashire. When I have done some research I will update the site but until I have results here is a brief summary of what I found in the first minutes of searching.

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I had started rummaging around various sites to build up the information on my mother’s side. I was struggling to ‘get across the border’ to my great great grandfather William Renshaw and was getting grumpy with the lack of online certificates for England. So I bashed “surname william renshaw mcveigh” in Google and foruitously came across the amazing family tree of Jim Renshaw.
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Last week I received my first Christmas present – a sneak preview of the beta site for the 1911 Census! This is a major new early release of census data and although not allowed to give any details I will share my first impressions.
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