The books on this CD rom comprise the quarterly magazines issued by J. Horsfall Turner in the years 1885 to 1890. There are a total of over 1,500 pages of text plus many illustrations, pedigrees, adverts, list of subscribers etc. etc. These magazines were named "Yorkshire Notes and Queries", "Yorkshire Folk Lore", "The Yorkshire Genealogist" and "The Yorkshire Bibliographer" and were published in various combinations. A detailed description of how these were issued can be found here, and a review of the books/CD by Steven Bruce can be found below, along with links to the indexes that are available for the volumes. The 4 later annual volumes of "The Yorkshire County Magazine" are available on CDrom too.

In order to give you a better idea of the information in the book, I have transcribed the indexes for the books where they existed, the contents for the books where they existed, and compiled the contents where neither exists:

• Yorkshire Notes and Queries, Volume I, personal names
• Yorkshire Notes and Queries, Volume I, place names
• The list of contents of Yorkshire Folk Lore, Vol I, and Yorkshire Notes & queries with Folk Lore Vol II
• Yorkshire Genealogist, Volume I, personal names index
• Yorkshire Genealogist, Volume I, place name Index
• Yorkshire Bibliographer, Volume I, personal names Index
• Yorkshire Bibliographer, Volume I, place names
• Yorkshire Genealogist & Bibliographer, Volume II, contents

For other Yorkshire miscellanies, please see "Old Yorkshire series II" and "Old Yorkshire, series II" edited by William Smith.

A review of the CDrom by Steven Bruce:

This CD represents such incredible value that any number of superlatives would not fail to do it justice outstanding, remarkable, marvellous. J. Horsfall Turner was a distinguished genealogist and antiquarian of the later Victorian period, authoring and editing a great many volumes concerned with the county of Yorkshire, the majority of which have now become quite rare and extremely collectable. Any genealogist or local historian conducting research within the county who does not own or at the very least have good access to these volumes would be wise to grasp the opportunity. Any one of the seven single volumes in this collection would make the asking price for the CD worthwhile but to own all seven volumes and to have the whole collection machine searchable is enough to make any Yorkshire researcher drool with delight.

For me, the highlight of the collection is the Yorkshire Bibliographer in which the editor discusses a vast number of volumes, many of which may no longer survive, though it would be fun tracking them down. An example of an entry concerning the parish registers of Almondbury states The first Register from 1557 to 1652 is preserved, and a splendid copy was made twenty years ago [c.1868] by Mr. John Nowell, an aged invalid, which is preserved at the Vicarage, and of free use to members of the Yorks[hire] Archaeol[ogical] Assoc[iation]. The association in question later became the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and the above mentioned volume eventually was published in two parts by the Parish Register Section of the society but not until 1974/75 more than one hundred years after the first transcript had been made.

Colin Hinson's own short description of this CD concludes with the words: "all in all, a wonderful miscellany from lots of places all over Yorkshire". I could not agree more, concerning this J. Horsefall Turner collection consisting of more than 2000 pages, his description admirably sums up my own opinion.

Steven Bruce
Yorkshire Family History
www.yorkshirefamilyhistory.org