| Product: |
Family History Monthly |
| Date: |
09/01/04 (86 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: UK based, cheap price, good for beginners
Disadvantages: font/type face not easily readable
Family History Monthly magazine (out monthly, priced £2.50) is ideal for beginners. I bought this once instead of Practical Family History magazine.
Unlike Practical Family History magazine it does not have many articles which encourage reader participation, but it does give feedback on almost every single readers letter published.
The other reader participation idea is Mailbag, which is similar to Family Tree and Practical Family History Magazines? Readers, interests sections.
These features are easy to read, easy to understand, and provide plenty of help for the researcher. Any one searching a particular surname such as MELLARD can find other people in the UK and internationally who are researching the same surname in a similar area. This is done by checking out the name interests. If you find one that seems a possible link make a note of the code number and compare this with the list of codes provided at the side of the names and addresses to find the person interested in that Surname.
Beginners should be advised that most names interests include the Chapman code for their area e.g. DBY for Derbyshire. A list of CHAPMAN codes is available from most Family history societies and most can easily be deciphered. An exception to the above rule would be WRY which stands for West Riding of Yorkshire, which included the Sheffield/Rotherham area. Yorkshire was split into 3 ridings so before a certain date these areas will be listed under their Ridings rather than North, South or West Yorkshire. To confuse matters the WRY covers parts of the area now covered by South Yorkshire!
The readers? letters can be on a variety of topics and make interesting reading. The magazine usually concentrates on a couple of pages of letters per month with the Can You Help section being for small queries such as ?Where can I find details of Wakefield Asylum where an ancestor died 1874??
All the above facilities are provided free of charge.
I have not submitted any articles to this magazine, as I do not generally read this magazine ? I bought a couple of copies when the topics on the front cover have appealed to me e.g. Tracing First World War ancestors. .
Other articles range from war records, recommended websites, computer advice, book reviews and items on events to be held on genealogy, family history, occupations etc.
Regular features include
1. "The Surname?", which concentrates on information about a particular surname each month including the distribution in the UK, prominent people with that name, and a general discussion on where the name originated, etc. July 2002 concentrated on Jackson, for example.
2. Occupations ? each month a particular occupation gets discussed e.g. in July 2002 it was Newsreels cameramen and I have also seen one on Framework Knitters.
3. Family History Calendar ? a list of dates of society fairs, meetings, etc
4. Family History Society ? concentration on a particular family history society including contact details, recent events, what projects they are undertaking etc. The July 2002 issue was on Pontefract District so they do not specialise in just London topics.
5. Web wise ? a page full of suggested websites that may be of interest to the family or local historian
6. A Heraldic Symbol for a particular surname on the back of the magazine.
Readers can not submit photographs to be used on the front cover as you can for both the Practical Family History magazine and the Family tree magazine and there are no photo dating services etc.
As many beginners are struggling to get back before 1899, I was lucky in that when I was about 10 I had to do a family tree as part of a project and I kept the original paper I scribbled the tree on. My late grandfather gave us details of 2 sisters, my father and uncle were unaware of because they died young and as my grandfather was born in 1899 I was back before the
100 year rule for most of my research. I now regret not having asked him more questions before he died ? a common complaint you will hear from family tree researchers! If you are thinking of starting tracing your tree ? ask your oldest relatives as much as possible now and get a copy of either Practical Family History magazine or Family History Monthly magazine.
In my view the text is interesting and informative and the actual font is just right for late at night or when I am tired as the words don?t blur as easily and there are plenty of photographs/pictures to break up the monotony. (I am getting old!!).
I prefer the font on the Family History Monthly magazine to that of the Practical Family History magazine.. However, I prefer Practical Family History magazine overall because of the features whereby readers are actively encouraged to participate, the writing style is aimed at beginners, the style of writing and the cost.
The Computer Section is aimed at the beginners which is to my liking ?as although I am fairly au fait with computers I do not like articles which use jargon, abbreviations, or assume you have a computing degree! Not all family historians and genealogists are keen on using computers and this section could be very off-putting if it assumes that everyone is on a higher level of knowledge and expertise in this field, but in this case it does not.
I was thinking of changing to the Family Tree magazine but the writing style assumes that the reader knows a lot about computers, family history research and often uses jargon that is difficult for a beginner to understand. If I was going to change from Practical Family History, it would be to Family History Monthly.
I have not found a website detailed in the magazine but there is an email address of fhm@dpgmags.co.uk and subscriptions can be ordered from Janice@dpgsubs.co.uk . The Family History monthly is published on the 3rd Thursday of every month and in t
he front of the magazine it tells you what date the next magazine is out ? if you do not arrange to have it delivered with your paper!
The article I especially enjoyed in the July issue was the Top Compact Discs for Family History ? using an old theme of Top of the Pops top twenty but for useful compact discs for use with family history research. However, I was shocked at some of the prices ?
£250 for a copy of ?Who?s Who 1896-1998? or the Dictionary of National Biography ?
compared to £30 for a copy of the National Burial Index or the 1881 census index ?
which are of much more use to the family historian, I have found one of my grandfather?s sisters by using the National Burial Index and traced several generations through the 1881 census ? although the latter has a lot of spelling errors e.g. SLATON instead of STATON.
Werewolf
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