Family history buffs in Northumberland are turning to the web.

Northumberland County Council produced a video (below) to raise awareness of the facilities available to people wanting to know more about their ancestors.

It was uploaded onto internet video sharing site YouTube and has got more than 12,000 hits.

We dip into the Journal's archives to get into the festive spirit with some Christmas images from Northumberland's recent past.

Send your seasonal images of the county to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk if you would like to share them on our community sites.

Peter Troughear of Ashington sent in this photo of the River Wansbeck, where the scene looks a lot more summery than it will do now.

Send your photos for publication to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk

A video has been launched by Northumberland County Council to help it meet demanding Government recycling targets.

The tutorial video (watch below) shows Northumberland County Council's new recycling centre in action and helps residents understand what can and can't be put into the recycling bin.

In Northumberland the council is responsible for collecting waste from more than 140,000 households as well as thousands of business premises.

The Journal's photographic archives provide a fascinating glimpse into the past of Northumberland pit villages Stakeford, Choppington and West Sleekburn.

In its heyday, Choppington was one of the big three mid-Northumberland collieries, making up the C in the ABC of Ashington, Bomarsund and Choppington.

The Journal has a picture from a VE Day party in the village in 1945, and also a sadly undated photograph from some time in the 1960s showing the newly-opened nursery school at the Choppington Social Welfare Centre.

A selection of some of the images added so far to our Your Place Northumberland group on the photo-sharing website Flickr.

If you've been out and about at events or scenic places in the county with a camera, why not join the group and add your own?

You can view the group, and more pictures by these photographers, at www.flickr.com/groups/northumberlandcommunities/.

Photos you would like to share on the Journal Extra pictures page can also be sent to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk.

Pupils from Ringway First School in Guidepost danced around a traditional Maypole at Beamish Museum before staging a spring festival procession to crown a May King and Queen yesterday.

The dancers had been rehearsing for weeks to perfect the complicated interwoven patterns for the display.

The Journal's photographic archives offer a fascinating collection of pictures from some of Northumberland's set-piece annual events.

The Northumberland Miners' Picnic at Bedlington is one such event, with hundreds of pictures in our files.

Many show the bands and mine banners that were the mainstay of an event that at its height - when mining was one of the main industries in south east Northumberland - attracted thousands of spectators.

Last week's poll on the Your Place Northumberland sites asked people to vote for their favourite natural beauty spot in the county. We celebrate the winner, the Farne Islands, with a gallery of photos showing some of the islands' inhabitants: