i’m still stuck up in my family tree and can’t find my way back to the ground. transcribed data from the 1881 british census (my great great grandfather) appeared online last week sending me off on whole new branches. sometime in the near future i’ll vanish into a library and not come out until i’ve wrecked my eyes reading microfiches. there’s tons of information online these days but there’s so much more that isn’t yet and perhaps never will be. the 1881 canadian census and 1880 us census are also available at the same place.

i found a more sombre genealogical resource at the commonwealth war graves commission (a great great great uncle of mine). typing in surnames that aren’t very common and being returned page after page of war deaths got scale of the loss of life in the world wars over to me in a way that few other things have managed.

there’s some great information about researching your family history at the family records website which is significantly more interesting and in depth than i expect government websites to be.