So, every 10 years or so, after ignoring all the warning signs … something breaks.
For technical reasons, which I won’t bore you with, the previous incarnation of the Close Ancestry website finally and suddenly expired in a heap of glowing electrons. It’s been brewing for a while, so I’ll just blame Covid and move on.
Since it was floating face down in the water anyway, I’ve taken the opportunity of fixing a bunch of other stuff that I’ve either been putting off, or not noticed. We’re now more accessibility-friendly, which is better for the visually impaired. I doubt it’s ever going to be perfectly compliant, but I’ve done my best to remove as many of the bad things as possible. Some things I can’t fix because they’re provided by third parties, so I have to wait for them to get their act together.
Most of the other stuff is under the bonnet (or hood for our American non-English speakers), so not really apparent. I’m still faffing with bits and pieces, but I can do that over time without affecting the site too much.
There’s another upgrade to the tree software coming up, but I’m waiting for a stable version before future me bites that particular bullet.
Anyway, have a look around, and tell me what you think.
And now for a bit of housekeeping
See the wood and the trees
We publish everything we have in our fabulous trees, so basically if you can’t find it, we don’t have it. With over 20,000 people, 5,000 families, 12,000 sources, and 69,000 image references currently sat in our database, you’ll appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this over the years.
You can see more in the Close Ancestry Trees.
Donations
We know that everyone in the world is after your hard-earned cash, but if you do feel a donation coming on as a result of your visit here, then please feel free to send it our way. It all goes towards the upkeep of the site, for which we charge absolutely nothing. So, please help us to keep the site free to use. Thanks.
Contacting us
If you find anything that you think may be of interest to us, then drop us an email at stuff@closeancestry.com
Get these updates directly to your inbox
All our updates are also published to my Twitter feed, @PoetClose. So, you can follow me there … if you really have nothing better to do.