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pub history birmingham

  • Thread starter Thread starter jake
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jake

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anyone interested in pub history write this in google ( Genealogy Forum for Birmingham ) and when it comes up click on it, you must click on
the one that reads what you have written in google, pretty good site

jake
 
Hi Jake,
Nice site and well worth a visit, There were a lot of old pubs mentioned that I'd never heard of, also there are some enquiries on there that I could help with - I see our own Sylvia Sayers posted on there many moons ago
The problem is, if you read the intro, the guy running the site is charging people for answering enquiries, he's saying that he's gonna bill people £20.00 an hour for researching their enquiries while at the same time asking people to send him answers to those enquiries for nothing.
Now since Rod and all the other Webmasters on the BHWR,including myself, do these things for nothing as a labour of love, I don't feel inclined to help this guy get rich by answering those enquiries for him
Still, as I said, the site's worth a visit for a blast from the past
I'll shut up now
Jerry
 
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Jerry I asked him a few questions and even offered to give him a photo but he never replied
Scam merchant comes into mind
 
Yeah graham
I don't think there's any doubt there!
I didn't see any recent postings on there when i looked so I don't think his scam is working O0
 
Are we talking about www.midlandspubs.co.uk? I must say that Keiron who runs the site has emailed me with answers to my queries and also posted some replies in the Genealogy Section to my queries without charge. I haven't had a look in recently as the site was being updated, and also I am eagerly awaiting our own Peter Walker's efforts, Peter has set himself a mammoth task but he is so thorough with his research I'm sure I will find more about the pubs my various ancestors used to run.
 
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I have seen my posts Jerry, but as I said when I looked a few months back most of the site was going through updates, and with all the time I spend on here, haven't got round to checking it lately.
 
this is what he says about a research fee

Genealogy Look-Up and Family Search Service
Due to the high volume of e-mails now flowing into my in-tray, it has become necessary to introduce a fee-paying service for those requiring specialist research. So, the big question is "what do I get for my money?" Well, having studied pubs for many years you get a very experienced researcher with the knowledge of what to look for and where to find it. Secondly, you will be provided with digital images of any relevant material that features your ancestors - e.g. trade directories, wills, electoral rolls, ratebooks etc. If the building in which your ancestors lived is still standing I will also provide photographs for your records. I live in the Black Country so enquiries for Birmingham, South Staffordshire, North Worcestershire and South-East Shropshire are easier for me and, naturally, will be cheaper. If you require my services then please indicate this in your e-mail to me. I will send you a rough idea of how long the task will take and an estimate of the cost. A general rule of thumb is £10 per half hour which is in line with fees charged by libraries.
 
Right John!
Which, I think, proves my point.
The Birmingham Web Sites are providing this sort of info on a daily basis free of charge.
We all know how much work you especially put into this sort of research behind the scenes
So I think if this guy is charging for info that is freely available on other sites then that's my definition of a scam merchant :(
 
:angel: In defence of Keiron I must say in the past he has given me info' free of charge and has been very helpful.
However I think his original site (A volunteer one) like this one has grown far beyound what he expected it to. He covered not only the Midlands pubs, but other areas of the country as well. He had a good data base on his main site (Homepage) as well with links to all sorts of history of Breweries and Pubs... Because of it's size I think the charge would go to covering the upkeep of the much larger site (unlike us he did not have a membership to help out however small the contributions may be) and not personal gain as it might seem at first glance. I for one was sad when he started to change the format of his old site as I found it very easy to navigate, he has also been working on a Tamworth Pub Project.

https://www.midlandspubs.co.uk
 
Surely if he cannot handle the site he has, why expand ?...............Money !
 
its like most geneaolgy sites now, some have realised that geneaology can be a cash machine,
look ups on ebay £1.90p is a con they just look up stuff thats on other sites, which you can do yourself for nothing,
jake
 
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I agree thast Kieron runs a very good site, and his historical detail on bits of Colmore Row and Hurst Street is superb, with good maps, all well researched and attractively presented. But he has a vast site there, which is wide-ranging and almost as much concerned with the present as the past. His comments about the pubs today are usually very fair too. I'm not surprised if he charges for dealing with some queries. Otherwise he would be drowned in requests, and that would be no good for him or his family.
It was kind of Sylvia to mention my efforts at a database, but I think I have well and truly scrambled it, and rather despair of retracing my way to put things right - after about 4 months of intensive work, too. One day, peraps. There's a moral to this story about keeping regular back-ups, of course!
Peter
 
Hi Brummies
This is my first post. I have had a quick look around the forum which is excellent - a great way to share information. Congratulations to those who have set it up and maintained it.

I was however a little horrified to find myself being described as a "Scam Merchant" on this thread so I thought I'd defend myself [and my honour!]

A few years ago I set up the Genealogy Forum on my website to help people out. It proved very popular. Too popular for one person really. When I go to Central Library I tend to do an all-day job and work from 10am until the bell goes at 7.45pm. I used to try and do my research in the morning and in the afternoon I was opening a file of printed e-mails that people had sent me asking for help and info. I was spending hours on these queries - the librarians used to joke how big the file was getting as I was receiving hundreds of e-mails from around the world. They couldn't believe how much time I spent on the pleas for help.

The queries tended to be for material that was not readily available on the web but in books and documents held in what was Floor 7 in those days. I would request material, take a photo and send it to people FREE OF CHARGE. It was the head librarian who said to me that I should charge for the effort as they do the same for members of the public and were charging £10 per half hour. Consequently, I put the message on the website regarding a fee. I can state here that I have never received a fee from anyone. What it did do - and, to be honest it was a bit of a relief, it slowed the e-mails right down. These were getting on top of me and I still have hundreds of e-mails filed away that I hope to answer some day. I feel guilty that I haven't answered all the queries people have sent in but on the plus side I did help a few hundred people out - FOR FREE!

The website started off as a hobby - and still is to a degree. I'm just passionate about pubs - despite their rapidly shrinking numbers. However, anyone visiting the site of late will notice that there is a charge to download high resolution photos etc. The key reason for this is that I have spent thousands of pounds [honest, a frightening amount] on original photographs, negatives, postcards and archive material. There are a couple of big Birmingham collectors who could vouch for the amount of money I have handed over for stuff.

The website has been re-developed and some previously available material is not there at the moment. Time is always against me because I tend to get sidelined by other projects. As posted on here, I did spend a year doing a Tamworth project which involved creating a heritage panel for most of the pubs in the town plus an exhibition in the Assembly Rooms. I started to put a website together for this at https://www.tamworth-heritage-pubs.co.uk. I have also worked on a number of official pub sites such as https://www.anchorinndigbeth.co.uk because this sort of thing pays money and my website remains a bit of fun. Incidentally, all the material of old will re-appear in the 'new' format/layout eventually.

So please, before any more accusations of "Scam Merchant" appear here ask around first. People who know me e.g. Carl Chinn, Andrew Maxam, Joseph McKenna, Peter Drake etc. will tell you that I'm a decent chap.

Anyway, looking forward to reading posts about pubs - after all, I'm too young to remember the one's that vanished in the bulldozer clearances of the 1960's. Besides, most of my drinking has been in the Black Country.

Cheers
Kieron [Yam-Yam] www.midlandspubs.co.uk
 
Having read Kierons post tonight I decided to have a mooch around his web site - seeing as how my ancestors were licenced victuallers in the Aston and Foleshill area.

Couldn't find what I was looking for so decided to e mail him - but was prepared for a lengthy response time.

Lo and behold he replied in no time - we have been tooing and froing with e mails during the course of the evening.

He has confirmed information I already knew and also came up with other details/dates and information that I didn't know.

Well done Kieron.

A big THANK YOU.
 
Just a note to commend the work of Kieron (www.midlandspubs.co.uk ) He has been helping me pin down the location of an 1880s long disappeared pub.

Yes, I had tried all the obvious research sources and enlisted the help of members on the forum, but still came up short. Kieron helped with his specialist knowledge, for free, as a forum member.

His joining the forum is a great benefit to us all.

I know his own extensive website finances running costs by advertising and there some charges for extras (at what is very close to cost) and this seems to go against the grain for some members (Heaven knows why); but the quality of his research is excellent. I'm not going to open the tired debates stired by members of the forum commenting adversly on others. Just a bit disappointed by some of the comments.
 
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