'Dogs of War' the third episode of Chris Terrill's 'Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan' on tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

Are you researching your Royal Marine ancestors?

On Sunday 19^th February 2012, the Royal Marines Museum, Southsea are running an open day where anyone thinking about researching their Naval and Royal Marines Military Ancestors can come along to hear a case study and short presentations to demonstrate how to look for information and what that information can tell you.

Don't miss the second episode of 'Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan' on tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

Venus Fly Trap is tonight's episode.

Embedded with Lima Company of the Royal Marines during a six-month deployment in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, award-winning documentary filmmaker Chris Terrill reports on what it is really like to work in one of the most dangerous locations in the world.

Episode 1 'Deadly Under Foot'

Available for replay on Channel 5 On Demand after it's aired (UK residents only)

This week has seen the return of the 13 inch Mortar to the Royal Marines Museum after a year of restoration. The restoration of the 13-inch mortar has been achieved thanks to generous financial assistance from Colin Maitland (a former Royal Marine) and the Friends of the Royal Marines Museum. The work has involved the creation of a new wooden base for the mortar – a replica of the original – and the refurbishment of the mortar’s barrel. The wood used for the base is oak and it has not been painted because this is how it would have looked originally. The cast-iron barrel has now been painted black rather than grey and this means it is back to its original appearance.

The Minstrels Gallery of the Royal Marines Museum is the perfect majestic setting for an evening of dining and mystery as you take your seat for a Victorian Dinner that Dickens’ himself would be proud of.  Enjoy a superb meal and drinks, interrogate the characters, work together to identify the murderer and decide the motive and method of the crime. Then when after dinner coffee is served you can reach your conclusions and all will be revealed.

There are two sittings for dinner, 7pm to 9.30pm or 8.30 pm to 11pm

£35 per person.

To book go to the Dark Encounters website

The Royal Marines Museum had a visit from 30 Commando today. They presented the Museum's curator Ian Maine with a commemorative plaque. The plaque has the new name that was adopted last year to reflect the increased focus on intelligence and information gathering. 80% of the Marines who visited today came back from a tour of Afghanistan last summer.

February Half Term at the Royal Marines Museum we'll be running a series of 'Combat Intelligence' activities aimed at 4-14 year olds. Sessions will run at 11am and 2pm Monday to Friday. More details can be found here

The Royal Marines Band Service Corps of Drums are at the Museum today to have new offical photographs taken.

The new photos give the band an opportunity to show off their new drums which have been specially made form them by Pearl. The drums have been a year in production and take over from a previous make and model of drum which the band have used for the last 25 years.

If you'd like to see the band in action tickets for the Mountbattern Festival of Music went on sale on 9th January and are available from

www.royalalberthall.com

For those that served in the Falklands War the kit layout picture may bring back some memories. But how does a curator, who was only just born at the time of the Falklands War, know what was used and worn in the Falklands?

New Year is a good time to dust off the cobwebs and have a good sort out of your things. Out with the old and in with the new. This year while you’re rooting around in your attic or throwing things out from your garage or garden shed, have a look and see if there is any Royal Marines memorabilia from your ancestors being stored, you might be surprised at what you find.

The Royal Marines Museum is currently running an exhibition called ‘More than a Name’ which looks at how you can research your ancestors and piece together their stories.

With only a few days left until Christmas here is a must buy for everyones shopping list. Unless you've been living under a rock you'll be aware of the Military Wives and their single' Wherever You Are' which was written for Gareth Malone's Military Wives Choir, whose husbands served in Afghanistan.  The song is the fastest-selling single for six years and is tipped to be the Christmas number one single.

Over the past three years the Royal Marines Museum and the Royal Marines Historical Society in Hampshire have been recording oral history interviews with serving Royal Marines about their experiences in Afghanistan.

Oral history interviews are usually conducted after a Royal Marine has completed their full career, meaning there can be a large period of time between a conflict and when the interview is conducted.

In 2008, the museum decided to create an exhibition about Afghanistan, which now has been installed in the permanent galleries. Because there had been little written at that time on the subject, oral history interviews were needed to help the project staff with their research.

Working in the museums industry I go to a lot of museums, and I have to say that it is very rare I get blown away when visiting a new museum. Yet this happened to me on a recent trip to the US at both the National Museum of the Marine Corps (NMMC) in Quantico and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.

As a military museum enthusiast the NMMC was epic, both in scale (it had an impressive atrium for aircraft and large vehicles in the entrance) and on the money spent on it (the building cost $60 million, and $42 million has been spent on the exhibitions). The results are a modern feeling museum that successfully combines traditional museum object displays with immersive experiences and large audio visual presentations. It has a theatrical feel to all of it, but you still feel like you are at a museum. I was also treated to a behind the scenes tour by the curators who showed me their respective object collections.

Sometimes it is not just an interest in a family tree that can inspire a search for information.

In 2007 Ann Fitzgerald donated her late father’s medals and documents to the RM Museum; they were the relic of a Dad she barely knew having been three years old when she last saw him. She had grown up to know he had been killed during the Second World War, but had not known the following story.

Through donating her father's medals to the Museum we were able to fill in some of the missing details for her.