Every genealogist will come across a brick wall in their research at some point; a time where you can go no further with a particular part of your research. Usually records cannot be found for an ancestor or they just seem to disappear without a trace. However, brick walls can be overcome. I have come back to problems I have had in the past and solved them due to new records becoming available, or by tackling it in a different way, even up to a year later. This article is my list of brick walls, and how I hope to solve them.

There has been a lot of discussion over the last couple of months about other browsers implementing support of the CSS -webkit- vendor prefix, and this week an unidentified source told .net magazine that Opera have confirmed implementation of the -webkit- prefix.

Many developers are concerned. If other browsers start implementing CSS vendor prefixes other than their own, and implementing them in different ways (as often different browsers do), then surely that defeats the point of vendor prefixes entirely? The point of vendor prefixes was to ensure new, experimental CSS features are completely interoperable before standardised support was introduced. Some developers were initially against them, but most forward-thinking developers should now be used to using them to ensure the best cross-browser compatibility possible. Yes, it means we end up writing pretty much the same property declaration five or so times, but unfortunately that’s the way it is. Vendor prefixes are the best solution for us to be able to use experimental CSS properties now.

Something I have been interested in doing for a while is a one place study — a historical and genealogical study of one particular geographical place. I have seen a few of these before and know what great help they could be to fellow genealogists researching ancestors in that place. I wanted to choose somewhere that I had a genealogical link to, but also one that wasn’t going to be too much of a challenge or work, i.e. a fairly small village, not a huge town or city.

I have decided on Horton in Ribblesdale, a small village in the Yorkshire Dales. My maternal ancestors, the Mittons, have deep roots here and surrounding villages, although they had all moved away to Lancashire and Cumberland by 1901. Horton in Ribblesdale is a picturesque Dales village on the River Ribble, with fabulous views of Pen-y-ghent, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

As anniversaries like these don’t come around very often, I thought I would post an article about it. I don’t have any direct links the fateful voyage of the ship; no relatives who were aboard the ship or anything, but I have come across someone in my research with a link to the ship.

This was the first photo I discovered of my great-grandfather, Harry Collingwood Mitton. It was taken in 1913 at Broomfield Farm in Chopwell, County Durham, England. He lived and worked there as a Horseman, and my grandfather was born there. Harry’s grandson still lives in Chopwell, as did many members of Harry’s wife’s extended family. I actually visited the farm myself a few months back, which is still run by the same family that did in my great-grandfather’s time.

I don't have many wedding photographs, so I have decided to post a marriage certificate today, although I will post the photos I do have in the near future.

This certificate is the oldest marriage certificate I have, registered only 8 years after civil registration began.

It documents the wedding of Alexander Charlton de Saintonge and Eliza Collingwood. Eliza is my four times great-aunt, the brother of my great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Collingwood.

This is my first post inspired by a blog prompt from Geneabloggers. It’s often difficult to come up with new and interesting ideas for blog posts, so the blog prompts are a great way to provide some inspiration.

This gravestone is located at St Michael’s Church in Ainstable, Cumberland (Cumbria), England. I haven’t yet personally visited the grave, but a distant cousin had a copy of the photo below and forwarded it to me. It’s a great find, as there are a number of my ancestors and their relatives all buried together.