Archive for May, 2007
May 31, 2007
Today I’ve launched the latest addition to the FryGen project, FryGenChat.
After a lot of thought and many hours of research and testing I’ve decided to partner with Userplane to add a totally cost-free chat and web conference facility to all of the FryGen portals.
Userplane Webchat is truly the next step in chat software—beyond generic and ubiquitous chat rooms, Userplane Webchat is a feature-rich, multi-lingual, solidly-built, and easily used Flash App that enables real-time text messaging and streaming audio/video communication for FryGen portals. Leveraging Macromedia’s robust Flash Communication Server technology, Webchat enables the FryGen community to benefit from a scalable, centrally-hosted audio / video chat room for their users.
The FryGenChat system requires no software downloads and no software to be installed on a user’s computer, over and above Adobe / Macromedia Flash which the majority of computers already have installed and which is freely available for those who don’t already have it.
By bringing not just a feature rich chat system to the FryGen community but also an easy to use video chat / video conferencing option, Fry Family Genealogy researchers worldwide will be able to carry out real time video conference sessions at any time, bringing the community together and helping further with mutual fry family history research.
To benefit from the FryGenChat system you first need to create a username and password. Once you have done this you are free to set up your own rooms and invite others to join you at anytime.
The FryGenChat system is yet another tool to help you, I hope you find it useful.
May 28, 2007
Parallel to my family history research I’ve recently started a personal research project into the poorhouses in the hamlet of Meaux in the East Riding of Yorkshire. This project started after visiting friends who live in the hamlet and going through some old maps of the area.
The 1851 Ordnance Survey map of Meaux shows some poorhouses adjacent to a Methodist Chapel Bethel along the main Meaux Lane close to Meaux Bridge. Viewing the 1898 Ordnance Survey map of the same area shows the chapel and original poorhouses gone and the poorhouses apparently rebuilt a little further south down the lane. These new poorhouses are still in existence today, now an occupied residential property with an original dating plague high on the gable end showing 1866 as the build date.
Information about the Meaux poorhouses and Methodist Chapel Bethel is very limited so I’m appealing for any information researchers may have accumulated during their own family history research which references either the chapel or poorhouses.
I’m especially looking for snippets of census returns listing any inmates or residents of the poorhouses, any information on births, deaths or marriages carried out at the chapel, scans of any old photos of these buildings or any information which board members may have accumulated during their own research.
Meaux is a very small hamlet with few residents so records are limited. Any information, however insignificant would be greatly appreciated by both myself and my friends who live there.
If you can help in any way please contact Jonathan Fry.
May 28, 2007
Today I’ve launched the beta version of the Fry Family Genealogy Wiki. The Wiki is the first part of a new portal system I’m currently developing codenamed Project FryGen.
Project FryGen was conceived from weaknesses I’ve experienced whilst carrying out my own family history research. Many one-name family history resources suffer because they are often fragmented, do not benefit from modern software solutions and don’t have the backing of expert web developers and web servers. In a lot of cases they are expanded personal projects containing an amazing amount of valuable data which is difficult to navigate and search and therefore of reduced value than otherwise would be the case if the same data was available through a better interface.
The Fry Family Genealogy Wiki is a central collaborative database of information provided and edited by researchers who are also involved in Fry family research; people just like you and me.
This wiki is very flexible and allows information on just about any relevant subject to be entered and categorised in minutes. That information becomes immediately searchable by other researchers both through this wiki and through most major search engines such as Google.
The wiki will remain in beta for the next 60 days while I tweak the settings and address any support issues.
I’d therefore like to invite anybody who is carrying out Fry research to join me on the wiki and help build an invaluable family history research resource for the benefit of all.
