Launching Our New Website

Thanks to Gary Torbett and Graham Boyd for last night's presentation to launch our new website.  Around 60 members were at Kilmarnock College to learn a little about the website and our discussion forum.  Gary took us through the procedure to access the Forum and how to register as a Follower, which will enable members to contribute items of interest or observations to the Forum.
Graham demonstrated how to access the Historic Scotland and "Buildings at Risk" websites.  He also briefly described how to access old pictures of Kilmarnock on the East Ayrshire Council site.
Members were given a lot of information in a relatively short time, but hopefully the handout supplied will enable them to have a look at some of the websites which were discussed.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 22 February at 7.30pm, when Sandra Liquorish will talk to us about her own home, "Fairlie House", which has some interesting Robert Burns connections.

You can see from the picture why it is known locally as "Fairlie Five Lums"!.

How to join the KDHG Blog / Forum

If you wish to join the Forum and do not already have a 'Blogger' sign in, please click here and follow the simple instructions. This will only take you a few moments.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Should you experience any difficulties, please e-mail us on info@kilmarnockhistory.co.uk

We have also placed some useful links on the following KDHG page after the syllabus.
http://www.kilmarnockhistory.co.uk/about.php
This will be expanded on as new links are recommended to us.




Many thanks

History on the Web

Some Useful Websites for Amateur Historians

Kilmarnock & District History Grouphttp://www.kilmarnockhistory.co.uk/

KDHG Discussion Forum
http://kilmarnockhistorygroup.blogspot.com/

National Archives of Scotlandhttp://www.nas.gov.uk/

National Archives of UKhttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

A2A Access to Archives – England & Waleshttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/

National Archives of Irelandhttp://www.nationalarchives.ie/

National Archives of USAhttp://www.archives.gov/

National Archives of Australiahttp://www.naa.gov.au/

National Library of Scotlandhttp://www.nls.uk/

British Libraryhttp://www.bl.uk/

Library of Congress USAhttp://www.loc.gov/index.html

Commonwealth War Graves Commissionhttp://www.cwgc.org/

Buildings at Riskhttp://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/BAR/

Historic Scotlandhttp://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/

East Ayrshire Councilhttp://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/

Maps of Scotlandhttp://maps.nls.uk/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Google Art Projecthttp://www.googleartproject.com/

World Newspapers Onlinehttp://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

The Louvre Museum, Parishttp://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en

World Newspapers

Onlinenewspapers.com

History on the Web

Next Tuesday's meeting (8 February) will give members the opportunity to see for themselves a little of the huge amount of information available on the internet to people interested in any aspect of history.  Members of the group will provide information about some of the very useful websites which can be easily accessed by historians as well as giving an introduction to our very own website and blog, which can be viewed at


Kilmarnock &; District History Group Forum

and

Kilmarnock & District History Group Website

Zulu Wars

We had a near-capacity audience last night (Tuesday 25 January) to listen to Dr. Tony Pollard speak about his battlefield archeology fieldwork at the site of the famous battle in the Zulu War at Isandlwana and at Rorke's Drift. Dr. Pollard is the Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archeology at the University of Glasgow.  As always, Dr Pollard provided the audience with a graphic account of the battle and of his use of modern techniques to uncover present day evidence of the battle. He provided an insight into Zulu culture and military tactics, backed up by many artefacts from the site, uncovered during his excavations in 1999.  A thoroughly enthralling talk.

Glasgow Botanic Gardens

We had a super talk about Glasgow Botanic Gardens on Tuesday 11 January 2011, given by Ewen Donaldson the General Manager of the Gardens. Ewen explained the history of the Gardens, which were founded in 1817. They were founded on an 8-acre site at the West End of Sauchiehall Street at Sandyford. This was through the initiative of Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth who gave his own plant collection to form the nucleus of the new garden.
Mr Donaldson then covered in some detail the recent renovation of the magnificent Kibble Palace.
Finally Ewen

dealt with the plant collections, illustrating his comments with some superb photographs. An excellent start to the 2011 lecture programme.