It is beginning to look a lot like …… Decorations are up! I have been putting some of these ornaments on my trees for over fifty years and my mother for more than twenty years before that! Christmas is all about recalling old memories and making new ones; it is about family past and present. I’ll be sharing some family bits and pieces over coming weeks. For more about family associations and my Christmas tree, see my post from 2013.

Some of my Christmas Tree Ornaments that date from the 1940s

As regular readers are aware, during December, I often blog an advent calendar, with twenty four vaguely history themed posts. I had decided that this year my writing time should be devoted to novel number two, which I really need to finish by the end of March, ready for a late August launch. Added to this, I have been invited to undertake three other writing projects, which I suspect will have tightish deadlines, so another reason for blog posting to take a back seat. It seems, however that my fans (believe me there is a least one) have been eagerly awaiting this year’s offering. Well, I can’t promise twenty four entries (especially as I have already missed two days) but I thought I would share some favourite family/local history websites during December. If you are feeling the advent calendar withdrawal symptoms then you can always re-read these from previous years.

2012 History of Christmas A to Z starts here

2016 Historical Novelists starts here

2017 Social History Books starts here

2018 Barefoot on the Cobbles Sources starts here

For this year though, here is the first of my family history sources, in roughly alphabetical order.

B is for Bomb Sight This site makes public maps of World War II bomb damage in London. There are maps of all incendiary devices that fell on London between 7 October 1941 and 6 June 1941. You can search by street and many incidents are accompanied by photographs or memories. See also The National Archives’ research guide to the Bomb Census Survey 1940-1945 that can be down loaded from their website.

Many of the entries in this year’s advent calendar are based on my book Family Historian’s Enquire Within. I would be very grateful if anyone in the UK wanting to buy a copy would get in touch with me directly (there will be no charge for UK postage). I am trying to free up book storage space ready for novel two arriving!