December 2009

Still almost monthly!
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mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

December 2009

Post by mardler »

Hello there, folks. A very merry Christmas and happy new year in advance to everyone. It doesn't seem ten years since we were all wondering whether our computers would crash on 1-1-2000!

Apologies for no newsletters since October. I have been rather busy trying to get to a major milestone, and have just achieved it. We now have details on over 18,000 different individuals on the site. My thanks to everyone for all your support which has enabled us to get this far.

Major events over the past few weeks:
- I'm now about 20% of the way through the London archives for Howes marriages. If you have ancestors from London, do keep checking back.
- I have received details on over 180 Howes/Howse/Hows marriages from fellow Guild of One Name Studies members. Half of them come from just one place: West Ham in London. Others were from Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Worcestershire. I've entered details on about 120 of these.
- My cousin Ian is back helping again and is trawling through http://www.freereg.org.uk for Howeses and then connecting them to people already on the site. His efforts are really terrific at helping improve the overall quality of information on the site.
- I wrote an update article about the site for the Norfolk Family History Society magazine which was published two weeks ago. The result has been to stimulate a lot more interest in the site again. Our average sign up rate is over one person per week, with 128 members now.
- Jean wrote to me tonight helping me connect three different individuals on the site. That's really terrific and thanks to whoever pointed her towards us. This process is really great. We want people to help us improve our accuracy. Sometimes we are right and can help the correspondent, but usually our correspondents have superior knowledge, as it should be!
- Peterand Stephen sent me details on their Howes family with an overseas military heritage including a Sergeant-Major Howes to add to our General Howes. With their help we were able to add 150 people to our site. Thank you, gentlemen.
- Gerry is a descendent of Victor Tolubiev Howes, the painter of the image on the front page of the site. He sent me an image of another of Victor's paintings, which I will use - see below
- some other people sent me photographs of their relatives' graves, which I am happy to put online. I really would like someone to organize pictures of
- we've had a few other people sign up for DNA tests. Remember, the special offer expires on December 31.

I will use the painting referred to above, and other images I have received, during some major site updates I have planned for January. It's been almost a year since I last changed it, and it needs refreshing, I know.

Finally, can you spare a little time to help us with some of the effort to improve the site? We have a wide range of things we would like a volunteer to do from small jobs to big ones. If you can help, send me a note (paul "at" howesfamilies.com) with the kinds of things you might have energy for, and we'll see if we can oblige!

I hope you manage to get some time with your live families over the holiday period, as opposed to the old ones we focus on here! I'm taking my family off to warmer climes for a few days sailing with friends. Back early in the new year. Until then, service will be fitful!
Best regards, everyone, and thank you again for your support.
Paul
phowes7@yahoo.com
Posts: 12
Joined: December 16th, 2009, 11:37 pm

Re: December 2009

Post by phowes7@yahoo.com »

Good morning Paul. 4am here in Boston, MA, 12/17/2009. Good to hear from you. It's nice to get a holiday wish from accross the pond. Happy holidays to you and your family. Just got an email from Cuz Al about the reunioin in Salem, MA for August 13-15, 2010. What a crew that will be. I'll forward it to you through my email.

Enjoy your sailing. Wish I could join you.

Paul Arthur Howes
350 Meridian Street Apt. 408
East Boston, MA 02128
phowes7@yahoo.com
617-569-3652
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