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Update from John: December 2007
"There are now 274 researcher pages that cover the six counties on the site, 715 census reports and the project with John Wilkes and I covering the parish churches (Parish Montage Pages) now includes 765 churches with over 8000 images including monuments, fonts and stained glass.
"At the time of the original article going online (June 2003) there were more than 111,000 visits to the site that is now just under 350,000 visits through the "Index" page and Chipping Campden has 134 researchers alone. Blockley now has 197 and Moreton-in-Marsh 109.
"The site is fully indexed with its own search engine (includes census pages) "
Original article:
It
is a testament to the power of the Internet that Allan Taylor, who
has lived in Canada since 1967, can run and maintain a compendious
site about the Cotswolds from so far away.
The
contacts - and friends - he has made in the process have added huge
interest and value to what has become an indispensable resource
for people researching their Gloucestershire family trees.
Allan
Taylor's story
My
name is Allan Taylor. My family moved from Blockley about two years
before I was born, because the government needed business to move
to Wales.
So
in 1951 I was born in Bridgend, Glamorgan (instead of my beloved
Blockley) and came to Canada in 1967 and have been a graphic artist
here for over 33 years.
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Allan
has designed the site himself
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My
site www.allthecotswolds.com
started as research into my own family tree and after a while I
discovered another site - that of Gordon Beavington's census transcriptions
for Gloucestershire 1851 - www.mycensuses.com.
We
became good 'email' friends and after a while Gordon invited my
wife and I up to his home for the weekend (we both live in British
Columbia).
About
a month after this we discovered that we were linked by several
marriages in the Blockley and Chipping Campden area (where my family
up to and including my sister, came from).
The
Blockley club
Gordon
was getting a lot of requests for information with regards to Blockley
and knowing my strong interest in the village he suggested I start
the Blockley 'club'.
This
researcher page started the ball rolling so to speak. Now the researcher
page has 173 researchers covering 197 surnames.
Almost
all are connected by marriage over a 125 year period. This has all
been researched by my cousin, John Malin of Blockley, who happens
to be a cofounder of the Blockley Antiquarian Society and also spent
34 years on the parish council.
A
growing resource
What
started out as one researcher page is now 253 researcher pages
covering all of Gloucestershire.
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| Allan
Taylor |
So,
what started out as one researcher page is now 253 researcher pages
covering all of Gloucestershire, parts of Worcestershire, Wiltshire,
Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Somerset.
It
now also includes parish transcripts and complete family histories
along with 153 census pages and much more. The site has now had
over 111,000 visits.
Making
friends and contacts
Meeting
(virtually) my good friend John Wilkes
has been a pleasure. He runs the Gloucestershire
Photo Library, recently featured on the BBC website for
Gloucestershire.
My
connection with John started when I found his site on the web, while
looking for photographs to augment the pages on my genealogy site.
John
gladly allowed me access to ALL of the photos on his site, which
has really helped researchers get a feel of the area their ancestors
came from.
by
Allan Taylor
People
like Allan Taylor and John Wilkes make the Internet a really exciting
medium. Let's hope their resource web sites continue to grow and
be used by thousands of people across the world!
If
you would like to comment on this story or would like further information
then please contact us at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk
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