I had my 70th birthday at Easter and decided to take a short break from this web site to relax and rethink whole life priorities.

Within the past year I have had partial loss of sight in my left eye (glaucoma) and my wife has had a knee replacement operation. Franci (the dog) will be 16 in July, and while he still actively enjoys his walks, the signs of old age are becoming apparent. To make things easier at home we have had a new kitchen, and the bathroom has been converted to a wet room with walk-in shower and disabled facilities. I have also reduced the time I spend on mental health related committee work to reduce stress levels. In considering the future we cannot forget to allow time for our granddaughter Hanaa (now 3½). She has just been on holiday with her parents, visiting her mother's family in Canada. On her return she was thrilled to tell us how warm the sand was at Santa Monica - and how cold the snow was on a mountain near Vancouver!

The key issue identified is domestic. Over the years I have been a hoarder and a glance round the house shows my office bursting at the seams, a double bedroom where the bed can no longer be seen, the roof space that is hard to get into, and the garage filled to capacity with things we will never have time to use again. While much may be "junk" it includes family and local history papers, a unique collection of documents related to the history of computers, and other items which could be sold on ebay to provide some extra income. If left untouched this "collection" will become a liability to whoever has to sort it out when we are no longer in a position to do it ourselves. Many items which should be preserved may well end up on a tip. Clearly tackling this problem, which has been neglected in recent years, is becoming a priority.

This means that I must reduce the time and money I am spending on this web site. Last year the cost of postcards, etc., uses as illustrations on the web site represented a drain of about £2,000 from my pension. Ways of streamlining the running of the site are currently under consideration, and some of the ideas I am considering are:

1. Running the web site is fun - as long as I don't let it get in the way of other things I need to do. I should aim to spend no more than about 20 hours a week on it. This means having realistic targets about what I plan to do.

2. This means identifying the parts of the web site which people find most useful.

3. The web site is run to encourage donations to help those with mental health problems, in memory of my daughters Lucy and Belinda. So far this year £182 has been donated to the Herts Mind Network and any change should be in a way to encourage donations.

4. It might help to alter the "Ask Chris" to make it clearer that I give advice when you have hit a brick wall, and that I do not do free look ups of data from commercial sites or where you could do the look up yourself. There are clearly some people who expect everything to be free on the internet, never buy certificates or visit a paying web site, and are too lazy to read instructions, get a book from the local library, or join a family history society. I believe that such people are unlikely to make donations if I answer their questions, especially if my advice involves spending money. If such freeloaders can be discouraged it will free up my time for more charitably profitable activities.

5. The main menu and help files need attention - but it is hard to keep some of the help up-to-date with all the changes that are happening on the web. Changes are needed which should (a) make it easier to find the right pages and (b) refer questioners to relevant external web sites where this is more appropriate and likely to be more up-to-date than information I can provide myself.

6. Phase 1 of a tutorial was set up a couple of years ago. The original plan was to extend this to cover the 18th and possibly 17th century and include other types of documents. If people have found the current facility useful please let me know, as if it not being used there is not point in my spending more time on extending it.

7. It is suggested that updates to the Town & Villages pages, the Book pages, and other subject and project pages, will be continued but at a lower rate as time allows. There is a significant backlog of information - which could take a year of more to clear - so there is no need to spend much time on collecting new material.

8. The Newsletter should continue - and the current experiment in sending out emails to selected people to let them know when there has been an update will be extended - as it encourages people to report on the success they have had based on the advice they received from the site. Reporting tales of success provide a positive view of the web site and are less work than answering new queries. It could also encourage donations from people who have found, in retrospect, that the advice I gave was useful.

9. I have resumed selling duplicate and other items from the "household clutter" on eBay to help fund this site (and recover some of the £2,000 overspend last year). Some of the material will relate to Hertfordshire and if you want to support me my eBay selling name is Chris_from_Hertfordshire.

If  you have any comments - or suggestions how the site can be streamlined - please tell me - as I will be making changes based on the need to reduce my time/money commitment over the summer.

The Help Desk takes the "Ask Chris" queries sent to the "Resident Genealogist" and produces or updates the answer web pages.    See My Full Report >>>

The Hiker's duty is to wander round the county collecting information on towns, villages and hamlets which could be of interest to family and local historians.    Report carried over to next month

The Book Worm reviews books and other publications.    Report carried over to next month

The Postcard Detective is interested in history as revealed by postcards. This month's mystery photograph comes from an old photo album which records a holiday which included a number of locations in Hertfordshire. A Holiday Group Photograph from 1912 Another photograph, from about 1916 shows wounded soldiers at Kings Walden Bury. Can you identify any of them? Were they all Australians?

The Teacher's job is to keep the help pages up-to-date, to extend the Tutorial, extend the Subject Index, to put useful texts online, and to introduce links to other helpful web sites. The review of the new search facilities on the HALS site will be covered next month.  Report carried over to next month

The Web Master's job is to make sure that the site runs smoothly, that there are no broken links, and that changes such as the introduction of menus go smoothly. The latest scan show there are 2554 pages covered by the indexing package.  Report carried over to next month

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