Once again I must thank listers who kindly sent me suggestions for Yorkshire subjects for my "Famous family trees" blog. However, I am sorry but I will not be able to pursue the great majority for reasons I shall explain. It is probably my own fault that I did not sufficiently explain in the first place the criteria and parameters laid out for me by my editor at Findmypast, a lady who knows precisely what she wants which is what all good editors should! The subjects have to be 1) household/big name celebrities; and/or 2) currently in the news for some reason. For example, she wanted my July blog to be on an Olympian with gold medal potential, to tie in with the London Olympics, and Victoria Pendleton was an obvious choice as one of our top track cyclists and the reigning world and Olympic champion. It follows that the great majority of my subjects will be living ones. Out of five blogs I have done to date, the only one who is deceased is Charlie Chaplin - but I chose him because there was a major news story (if a somewhat daft one) in all the papers about records being released from The National Archives which showed that in the 1950s, under the McCarthyite witch hunts of Hollywood stars, the Americans asked MI5 to investigate whether Chaplin had been born a Jew in Paris! Needless to say, they found no evidence, but it interested me sufficiently to look Chaplin and his family up in the censuses. There was an additional element in that I made a discovery I don't think anyone had done before, i.e. that in the censuses of 1871 and 1881 Chaplin's grandfather, Spencer Chaplin, was living in Rillington Place, Notting Hill, only five doors away from the infamous house where in the 1940s the mass murder John Reginald Halliday Christie (who was from Halifax, BTW) killed a number of women. Thus, any famous Yorkshiremen or women I am likely to tackle will normally be living and either in the news or seen regularly on television, which is why I particularly mentioned John Craven (Countryfile presenter), Alan Titchmarsh and Michael Palin. Historical Yorkshire folks, while of great personal interest to me, would normally only qualify if there was some current news story about them that thrust them back into the public eye - if (he said jokingly) records emerged to show that Captain Cook or William Wilberforce were bigamists, that might qualify! <vbg> Several listers have mentioned Eddie Waring. As a rugby league fan, I used to love his "oop and under" style of commentary! However, I doubt he would be sufficiently well known outside Yorkshire or rugby league to be "dug up" and resuscitated. I apologise if I mislead listers by not explaining the parameters properly, but I do thank everyone for their contributions. In any case, I believe it's led to an interesting thread, anyway! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Roy An explanation of your perameters in the first place would have been very helpful to us all. Lin PLEASE REMOVE NAMES & email ADDRESSES BEFORE FORWARDING. USE THE Bcc BOX FOR YOUR NAMES & ADDRESSES WHICH WILL HELP ELIMINATE UNWANTED EMAILS On 12/07/2012 09:31, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: > Once again I must thank listers who kindly sent me suggestions for Yorkshire subjects for my > "Famous family trees" blog. However, I am sorry but I will not be able to pursue the great > majority for reasons I shall explain. It is probably my own fault that I did not sufficiently > explain in the first place the criteria and parameters laid out for me by my editor at > Findmypast, a lady who knows precisely what she wants which is what all good editors > should! > > The subjects have to be 1) household/big name celebrities; and/or 2) currently in the news for > some reason. For example, she wanted my July blog to be on an Olympian with gold medal > potential, to tie in with the London Olympics, and Victoria Pendleton was an obvious choice > as one of our top track cyclists and the reigning world and Olympic champion.