Eek! Has it really been that long?

It’s eons since I updated this blog, sorry about that I’ve also noticed a teensy pile of comments, so if you’re waiting for a response, I’ll be with you asap.

I’ll try to update more often …

Changing things a bit

I’ve been publishing this blog for a while now, and although, I really like the set up here at WordPress, there are a couple of things that make life a bit difficult. One, the lack of javascript support – I know there is a good reason why we can’t use it here, but it’s frustrating none the less. The other problem I have is with uploading videos. It’s supposed to be easy, but I’m not finding it so. Both problems are quite minor, but I do feel that this blog lacks something because I can’t easily use the same tools as other bloggers. So, I’ve decided to split it into two blogs.

I’ll still update this one with information pertaining to my family – a lot of cousins have found me here, so it’s definitely worth keeping that going. However, I’ll be posting general genealogy advice at a new blog I’ve set up at Blogger, where I’ll be able to use the same bells and whistles all the other bloggers use. I hope you’ll join me there

Pro Patria Mori

Poppies

Image courtesy of foxypar4

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!– An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.–
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Just popping in

We are in the middle of the long summer holidays here, so I’m not doing a great deal of blogging or genealogy. However, I did have a rummage a couple of days ago looking for more information about the STALLAN family from Duxford in Cambridgeshire and, to my delight, came across the will of my 9 x great grandfather, John Stallan which not only provided some useful family details, but also revealed the fact that his wife Elizabeth, my great grandmother, had been a widow at the time of their marriage. Great stuff! I had assumed her surname at that time was her maiden name and had been trying to find her under that name for a long time. Not so good, the parish registers in Duxford (St. John) don’t include a mother’s maiden on baptism records, so she only appears as Elizabeth in the entries for the children from both her marriages Even more infuriating, I realised from the dates that my 10x great grandfather John SWANN was the curate at St. Johns when many of these babies were baptised and therefore may have been responsible for the omission.

You know those questions often posed on genealogy forums, the ones that ask ‘if you had a time machine who would you visit?’ I think my answer will now have to be, John Swann, to suggest he takes a bit more notice of mothers, not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it might avoid his granddaughter banging her head against her monitor screen.

How I discovered old things were once new.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m searching for my relatives in census returns I do like to click along to the next few households to see who their neighbours were. This can be a useful thing to do because you can often find members of an extended family living quite close to each other, but I would do it anyway because I’m nosey LOL. However, you can also discover other interesting facts.

Last night, while looking through the 1881 UK census for Yardley (Birmingham), I noticed a few of the houses in the area my great grandmother Blanche Wayne and her parents were living, were empty. Initially, I did wonder if they resided in some run-down location and others residents had moved out, but as I went on, I came across others that were only partly built. It was light bulb moment! I actually know that part of Birmingham quite well, and the houses would have been built around the 1880s. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this before, I suppose they just seemed like old houses and it hadn’t occurred to me that at some point they would have been new.  Now I know, it’s quite nice to think of them filling out the census in their new home in, what was then, a small suburb quite separate from the main city where they had been living at the time of Blanche’s birth.

Family History Mystery – Can You Help?

Are you familiar with old (17th century) Dutch, or old English place names? If the answer to either question is yes, please pop over to this thread on the Ancestry message boards and share your wisdom about the meaning of the sentence “van Absin in Engelt”. It appears to mean ‘from Absin in England’. If that is true, where on earth was/is Absin? Or maybe it means something else.

Scam Warning and Some Tips to Help You Stay Safe

I spotted this post over at UK Chat Genealogy warning of bogus sites mimicking genuine ones with addresses that are so close to the real thing only the most observant would notice the difference. Pop over and have a read, and take note of the urls used – whatever the reason for the fakes, it is unlikely to be to your benefit so you really wouldn’t want to stumble into the wrong place.

This isn’t the first scam to affect the genealogy community, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. As with all things online and offline, there are unscrupulous people willing to exploit any situation. However, don’t panic and don’t let that thought put you off your research. Scams are quite rare, and keeping your eyes open for discrepancies can often be enough to protect you from them.

One more thing. Since I have been writing a family history blog, I have received a number of spam emails from people claiming to be professional genealogists, or offering membership of genealogy sites I have never heard off. If you receive similar emails from strangers, send them straight to the trash folder. They are often scams – it’s known as ‘phishing’ – and by clicking any links contained in the message you are letting the scammers know that your address is live. Even worse, if you visit the site and input any data, that will then be in the hands of unscrupulous people. Not good! If you are unsure about the validity of a site or service mentioned in such an email, search Google (or another search engine) for information about it.

If you are using the Firefox browser, you can install the Google toolbar which now comes with a function called Google Safe Browsing which can alert you if you attempt to visit a bogus site.

Now with added community

I’ve added this blog to MyBlogLog – a place to publicise your own blog, find other blogs to read and get to know other bloggers. To verify it, I need to add the code at the end of this message to a post. So, I thought that as I had to post anyway, I’d leave you the link to the community page, if you are a member why not join in.

Update: the verification has worked, so I can remove the code – just in case you were wondering about it.

Lost Cousins free for Easter

The online genealogy site Lost Cousins is free until March 26th. If you haven’t visited before, Lost Cousins is a bit different to the usual family history website. In fact, I’m not sure if there is anything quite like it. The idea is, you enter the details of your family from the “1841 England & Wales Census, the 1880 US Census, the 1881 Canadian Census, the 1881 Census of Scotland, and the 1881 Census of England & Wales (which includes the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands)” and the nifty software searches for matches with other members of your family. I have found two cousins using the site, so can definitely say it works. If you join now you will be able to take advantage of the ‘paid for’ service, but basic membership is always free.

Additions and Updates

Just added new pages for Audley, Connell, Conroy, Cressey and Davidson, and updated the Leishman page. All can be found in the sidebar.
As you may be able to tell, the names Connell and Conroy originate in Ireland, and I’m afraid that is where the trail for those branches of my family goes cold because I can’t find anything more detailed than ‘Ireland’ on forms and censuses relating to them. I gather this is a common problem, but it’s frustrating none the less.

New pages and updates

I’ve just added a couple of new pages covering my Bucke and Clements relatives, and added new details to the Haggis page.

In the blogroll there is now a link to the online database containing information from the Nottinghamshire Presentment Bills, which are a wonderful resource for family and social historians.

Have a nice Saturday

Blog Update News

Hi Just a quick post to share a couple of items of news. First the blog is now at a new url. If you are subscribing in a reader, you should still receive posts as normal because I simply altered the url at feedburner. However, if you have the blog in your bookmarks don’t forget to update the link so that you can find it again.

Next, I have added a number of new pages covering the

• Atterbury
• Bangle
• Bozom
• Bothomsell
• Bird
• Berry
• and Barnes families

That’s all! Back soon.