1st Update of 2010
1 February 2010 - 11:59:17pm

There should be a new GEDCOM up on the site within a few days.

Since my Christmas update I have started work on the recent London Parish Record data that Ancestry.com have transcribed and scanned for the London metropolitan Archives (LMA). I had visited the LMA in the past, but it was hard work finding entries by scrolling through microfilm fiches on a viewer, unless you knew the church where you would find the entries. I had searched Hendon for my ancestors and close family, but had pretty much stopped at that. Now the whole of the data from about 1800 onwards is easy to access, and the scans are there to check for transcription completeness and errors. So far I have checked baptisms, marriages and burials for Charsley, and am a good way through with Cheasley and Cheesley.
Due to this, and other information contributed by various correspondents, the number of people in the database has expanded, as have the sizes of the main family groups. Taking the July 2009 update for comparison, the statistics now show that I have 7509 Individuals (7331 in October), total trees, including unlinked people 1844 (1890), trees excluding unlinked people 708 (720). The largest 5 trees link the following numbers of individuals: Charsley (originally from Buckinghamshire) 912 (892), Charsley (originally from Middlesex) 596 (579), Cheasley (originally from Surrey) 366 (360), Cheesley (originally from Wiltshire) 202 (160), and Cheasley (originally from Middlesex) 168 (148).
We still have 114 users listed for the website, but I have managed to do some clearing out of the list, and about 10 duplicate entries have been removed, and all but one of these 114 have signed on at some time. Several people have sent me data recently, and I hope it is all included in the update. If not, please remind me what you sent!


Phil Charsley 2 Feb 2010

Christmas 2009 Newsletter
8 December 2009 - 5:51:59pm

Christmas 2009 is upon us, so many of us will be visiting family. This is a good time to ask those elderly family members to recall their memories of earlier times, and pass on little snippets about people no longer with us (or who we no longer see). Looking with them at www.charsley.org.uk may remind them of family stories that are worth writing down! If you think they are worth publishing on the website, please pass them through. An example of the sort of memory I am talking about will be found soon attached to John (Jack) Heath Charsley of Rhodesia (I2736). I say soon, because I hope to upload the 4th update of 2009 in a few days time. Check the GEDCOM date on the welcome page before complaining!

Updates this year have been many and varied, but I still have not been able to keep up with the emails I have received, so if you have sent me information that does not yet appear please accept my apology, and remind me again!

If you are a Charsley descendant, and have a Facebook account, but have not yet joined the Facebook Charsley group, please do so, and chat to the rest of us. I admit (and have been told) that I am too old for Facebook, and this is evident to me from all the chatting that goes on among the younger members. However, it is good to chat, they tell me, and I have found it helpful for asking family history questions (like who are you?)

If you are a Cheasley or Cheesley or Chesley descendant, why not set up a Facebook Group for your name, and invite the people you know to join. You can also search for people of your name already on Facebook and ask them to join. Please let me know if you do this! We might even set up a Ch?ley Group.

I am still considering a DNA study, to see if we can prove whether the names all come from the same stock, so if you would be willing to take part, please let me know.

I am quite pleased to have achieved 4 updates this year, while also selling my holiday home in France and buying one in Norfolk. The 12 hour journey to St Pierre de Chartreuse was getting a bit too much, so our new journey of only 2 hours means that we can go more often, and Amy can take School friends for the weekend.

If you have not visited the website for some time, please do so, and confirm that all the information about your close family agrees with what you know.

And have a good family Christmas one and all!

Phil

3rd Update of 2009
31 July 2009 - 8:06:15pm

Last year I failed miserably, and only managed two updates of my data. This year I have not done much better. I started the year with an update in early January, and then made a second update at the end of January. Since then nothing, until now! This is not because I have stopped work, but simply because I always want to finish something before I release the update. This time it was a new release of Birth Marriage and Death data from Ancestry.com which took a long time to work through, but which made it easy to find all the children born to mothers whose maiden names were Charsley, Cheasley or Cheesley.

Due to this, and other information contributed by various correspondents, the number of people in the database has expanded, as have the sizes of the main family groups. Taking the October 2008 update for comparison, the statistics now show that I have 7331 Individuals (6938 in October), total trees, including unlinked people 1890 (1950), trees excluding unlinked people 720 (1204). The largest 5 trees link the following numbers of individuals: Charsley (originally from Buckinghamshire) 892 (800), Charsley (originally from Middlesex) 579 (468), Cheasley (originally from Surrey) 360 (358), Cheesley (originally from Wiltshire) 160 (122), and Cheasley (originally from Middlesex) 148 (101). In addition, there are two more trees with over 100 people.

We now have 114 users listed for the website, but several have never signed on, so we obviously need some clearing out of the list. I will endeavour to do this before the next update, and to encourage those who are genuine relatives to actually sign on and check the data that they can. Expect a personal email to say what I would like you to check or supply!

Phil Charsley 22 July 2009

First Update of 2008 for www.family.charsley.org.uk
10 October 2008 - 7:45:17pm

My last GEDCOM update was in December 2007, so this one has been a long time in the making. Since family history research is slow and laborious, it is always easy to say “I will just finish this before I do the update”, and there is always a new “this”. Anyway, I have now downloaded the GEDCOM, and it will be up on the site as soon as Nick has the time. Many people have contributed new information to me, especially relating to births marriages and deaths outside the UK.

As a measure of the change since December, the statistics below show figures now, with December figures in brackets: Individuals 6938 (6907), unlinked trees, including single people 1950 (1995), trees excluding unlinked people 1204 (1217). The largest 5 trees link the following numbers of individuals: Charsley (originally from Buckinghamshire) 800 (756), Charsley (originally from Middlesex) 468 (447), Cheasley (originally from Surrey) 358 (357), Cheesley (originally from Wiltshire) 122 (97), and Cheasley (originally from Middlesex) 101 (84).

Alan Watts did lots of work in the past on Buckinghamshire parish registers, but no one has tried the same for Wiltshire (Cheesley), Surrey (Cheasley) or London and Middlesex (Charsley). If anyone has a hundred hours or so to spare, please let me know!

I am setting my own next objective as identifying key birth or marriage certificates to purchase that might link trees or just individuals to trees. My family know that I don’t throw money around when I can avoid it, but it becomes harder and harder to believe that someone alive today might remember the name of their grandfather’s grandfather!

Please remember to check that all the facts that you know are on the website. If you have not logged on for some time please do so. If you have never activated your account on the site, please do so now, as we will be removing accounts that have never been accessed within a couple of months!

Keep happy!
Phil

All Change Again
4 January 2008 - 1:33:14pm

Due to improvements in phpGedView, the site has now moved back to using it and it alone.

I hope everyone should be able to access the data they could previously access, if not then email me and I'll see if I can fix the problems.

Not everything is currently working, so if you get any odd messages please email me and I'll get them removed.

Enjoy the experience.

Nick (c)