The Reffell Family History website was first launched during 2001 as a joint initiative at www.reffell.info, then transferring over to www.reffell.org.uk in 2006. In the early days there were a few articles about the family with a small number of photographs, a basic family tree, a few links to other websites and a contact form.
The website has grown considerably and has had different appearances over that time, as can be seen in the screenshots below. Even in 2001 there were estimated to be over 29 million websites worldwide, with an estimated nearly two billion around today. Even bigger growth has been seen in the increase in functionality of websites, with consistent visual design over the range of desktops, laptops, tablets and mobiles becoming more important.
Originally the website was hand coded in HTML 2, and the challenge in the early years was the incompatibility between the various Internet Browsers of that time. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 was then the dominant software, but was soon being challenged by Firefox 1 and Opera 5. First released in 2008, Google Chrome has become a major player and is especially dominant in the mobile market. Eventually these browsers have become more compatible, but still some differences can be seen today. A big step forward technically was taken when the website was converted to WordPress during February 2017.
