Thus far

First night in Edinburgh. My room is 58 steps above the street (in the gay corner of town I am told). So it's time for reflection. I'm often asked if I use ancestry.com for my family research. Yes I do but it isn't the only source nor necessarily the best. As the program Who do you think you are illustrates very well there are many others avenues to rich primary source material. Of course not all information is correct. John Burke Ryan's will included his brother Matthew as an executor but Lieutenant Colonel Sir Edward Michael Ryan had died several years previously in 1812 taking dispatches from Java to India. And while I found William Newman in the 1941 Census using Find my Past I can only find him in Ancestry using the piece reference. Of course there are transcriptions and omissions and I have had lots of fun using wild cards looking for Wilberforce (Wilberfoss and Wibberfoss). FamilySearch allows the use of wild cards at the beginning of a name which is really useful. And just because I can't find anything just yet doesn't mean it isn't to be found. Less than 30% of data filmed for London has been indexed for online use. This is despite the fact that about a million indexes are being added weekly I think it was to online databases. I know a little about John Fulford, builder, who died in London in 1824, his son John, his clergyman son John and his Penshurst doctor son John. I have a will of John Fulford of Middlesex who died in 1751 which mentions his son John and his grandson John so I am confident that I shall find more about John Fulford in Middlesex if not in London then in Westminster. Incidentally, I loved his place of worship, St Andrews Holborn. Much preferred it to the new St Pancras which was all Victorian grey stone gloom. Serendipity is a good source too. I walked down from St Pancras to find the Foundling Hospital Museum. Inside was a picture of Christ's Hospital where my ancestor Charles Salter went. Amongst all the portraits of the Governors of the Foundling Hospital. The way to immortality seems to be to get an emerging artist to paint your portrait and then donate it to your charity. Bit like head masters or mistresses.