VE Day - End of the war - Rejoice!

After five years, eight months, and five days of massive devastation, the end of the European phase of World War II was celebrated.Victory in Europe was commemorated with celebrations all around the world in recognition of the unconditional surrender of all German forces signed in Reims, France, the previous day.

Rejoicing at end of war in Europe

The London Daily Mirror, May, 8, 1945

On March 7, 1945, the Western Allies—whose chief commanders in the field were Omar N. Bradley and Bernard Law Montgomery—crossed the Rhine after having smashed through the strongly fortified Siegfried Line and overran West Germany. The German collapse came after the meeting (Apr. 25) of the Western and Russian armies at Torgau in Saxony, and after Hitler's death amid the ruins of Berlin, which was falling to the Russians under marshals Zhukov and Konev. The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed at Rheims on May 7 and ratified at Berlin on May 8.

May 8 marks the formal celebration of the Allies' victory in Europe during World War II

Banns of marriage

a proclamation of intended marriage , repeated three times at weekly intervals in the parish churches of both the bride and bridegroom. To dispense with banns required a marriage licence.  Both banns and licences were valid for 3 months.

In 1753 , Hardwicke's Marriage Act brought Banns Registers into regular use, sometimes in separate books, sometimes in the parish marriage registers.A comparatively small number of Banns Books survive, the requirement to register banns continued until 1812. A banns record by itself is of course no guarantee that the marriage itself actually took place. People could always change their minds at the last minute, or parents might have stepped in to stopped minors marrying, or previous spouses have come forward to prevent a bigamous marriage, the list goes on.

Marriages are sometimes said to take place " by certificate", before 1837 that would likely mean that one party came from another parish and had to provide written evidence[a certificate] that the banns had properly  been called in the other parish too, and no objection made. After 1837 it may refer to a Registrar's certificate issued after notice of the intended marriage had been posted for the requisite 3 weeks in the RO, and when the marriage subsequently took place in a church.

The records of more than 27 million people in England go online at www.1911census.co.uk today, three years earlier than planned. We here at FHUK - Family History UK website (together with others in the industry) and its FHUK members have previously pressured the government for early release - we can now see the results on www.1911census.co.uk . Find My Past

The National Archives are hoping there will not be a repeat of the great website crash that accompanied publication of the 1901 records. Lets hope so folks!

Millions of people are expected to click on for a peek at their families' past and a taste of other people's lives, from the great and the good of nearly a century ago to the great-grandparents of 21st-century celebrities. The actual 1911 census was carried out on April 2nd, 1911.

Find My Past - 1911 CENSUS FOR WALES GOES ONLINE
*    Online access to the records of 2.4 million people living in Wales in 1911
*    Major new family history resource

 2.4 million people were recorded living in Wales in the census taken on the night of Sunday, 2 April, 1911. Today, after nearly 100 years, the Welsh census records are available to the public at Find My Past at www.1911census.co.uk. 

Due to public demand for access to the 1911 census, the records have been released as soon as each region's records have been digitised. Following the initial release of 1911 records in January 2009, the records of people living in Wales in 1911 are being made available today for the first time.

The 1911 census records contain details about the lives of the ancestors of many of Wales' famous sons and daughters, such as Richard Burton, Dylan Thomas, Kylie Minogue and Tom Jones.

Find My Past

The census covered Wales, England, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as recording those aboard Royal Naval and Merchant vessels at sea and in foreign ports and, for the first time in a British census, full details of British Army personnel and their families in military establishments overseas. It is the most detailed census since UK records began and the first for which the original census schedules have been preserved - complete with our ancestors' own handwriting - providing a fascinating insight into British society nearly a century ago.

www.1911census.co.uk is easy to access and enables the public to view high quality colour images of their ancestors' original handwritten census returns. Transcribed text versions of the records ensure they are fully searchable by name or address.

Public demand for the 1911 census, which will be a key resource for family historians, has resulted in the records being released earlier than the scheduled 2012 date. To make this early online release to the public possible, the 1911 census team worked around the clock for two years - scanning on average one census page per second. In line with data protection legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners will be held back until 2012. 

Tens of thousands of Jewish genealogical records will be made public under initiatives by the Manchester Council of Synagogues and the city's Jewish genealogical society. People will be able to access the records over the internet through a pay-as-you-view facility.

The genealogical society has released 300 new digital records from the closed Prestwich cemetery.

It is hoped that these will be added to the council of synagogues' ongoing project to create a super-database. A five-year council of synagogues' project includes digitising the last of 28,000 ageing records from burial societies and creating a website to host the data. The £50,000 cost has come from the city's burial societies and synagogue funds. It is hoped to recoup outlay from paid inquiries.

The council is also considering whether to join forces with the genealogical society and Manchester Jewish Museum to input combined records on to the museum's website.

Council of synagogues' chairman Shimmy Lopian said a joint venture had not yet been agreed. "I think pooling resources would be a positive thing, and we may join together in the future."

Genealogical society chair Lorna Kay is frustrated that the records are not being made public immediately. "I have a huge backlog of genealogical inquiries from the US, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. We're turning down money as we speak."

The genealogical society has moved to premises at the Jewish Museum, where its records will be kept

From The Jewish Chronicle 

November 06, 2008

A conference is taking place to discuss what is described as a crisis in the maintenance of graveyards.

English Heritage says Britain has the world's best graveyard heritage, but that gravestones are deteriorating through weathering and vandalism.

The meeting in Oxford will discuss how the neglect of the sites also means a decay of their social history.

English Heritage hopes renewed public interest in genealogy will improve conservation efforts in cemeteries.

Britain has thousands of parish churches with graveyards dating back to Medieval times, which English Heritage says are repositories of a rich social history.

BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says so many people have been buried and slowly decayed in churchyards that they are often conspicuously higher than surrounding ground.

He said collections of stone monuments and gravestones have been built up over the centuries, often bearing colourful inscriptions.

But they are slowly succumbing to weathering and the onset of undergrowth, and many gravestones have been removed by local authorities concerned for public safety, our correspondent added.

From The BBC

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