Hello there!
I believe that this is the last 52 Ancestors post of 2020 so before I talk about some of my genealogical resolutions for next year, I thought I’d take a look backwards at some stats and figures.
52 Ancestors: Resolutions
52 Ancestors 2020
52 Ancestors: Witness to History
Except for a short sojourn in Purley (sort of south London) I have lived in the countryside all of my life – either in Wiltshire or the four years I spent in rural France. Consequently, my immediate response to this week’s prompt is how much my ancestors would have watched the land around them change.
Not only the land, of course, but their villages changing as shops closed, services withdrawn and then acres of post-war housing and, of course, the rise of the motorcar and the roads they ran on. Now, some of those changes are still being faced by rural communities today.
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Ooops
This post was originally slated to discuss assumptions in genealogical research. My point being that we are often told to never make assumptions (in life as well as genealogy), but we’ve all ignored that a time or two – hey, I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
Besides, we all know the famous adage about making assumptions …
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Good Deeds
I am of an age that I began my serious family history research at the cusp of the digital revoution of the mid 90s. That was the time when the internet was becoming more pevalent in our homes and every day lives, and also the digitisation of family records was in its relative infancy.
I remember the early days of Ancestry and FamilySearch (and it’s associated IGI – International Genealoigical Index – which was always viewed with suspicion by ‘real researchers’ as it was so driven by normal people and a lack of proofed sources. There were message boards and email groups, small, specialised websites dedicated to family names, specific record sets or localities. then there were the sites that served as aggregators of all these sites, like Cyndi’s List which is still around today.
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Bearded
Sadly this post is not about the marvel that is Justin Trudeau’s beard, but the latest in this year’s 52 Ancestors series. That’s not to say I couldn’t do a whole post dedicated to that beard. Because I could.
But looking at my family photos, one thing strikes me. Beards didn’t feature large in my family, with a few exceptions here and there …
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Scary Stuff
In aid of Hallowe’en this weekend, the prompt this time around is “Scary Stuff”. Obviously this can be interpreted in a few different ways, but I feel like its time to be a bit light-hearted.
And … if you have one, please press your Tenuous Link Klaxon now …
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Proud
It’s been a long three months since I last contributed to 52 Ancestors and it feels that momentous changes have happened this summer. Slow and inevitable, like continental drift. But that isn’t the conversation for this post.
This is about bring proud. Having pride. In my family? My ancestors? Myself?
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Multiple
This week’s 52 Ancestors post is, as you might have guessed, on the theme of multiple. As opposed to last week’s solo post. But multiple what…? Multiple children? Multiple births (although twins seem to be a pretty rare circumstance in my family)? Multiple marriages (definitely less rare!)?
How about … multiple identities …?
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Solo (Updated)
I don’t think that there is one solitary only child in my tree. Not anywhere. Even all the spinster aunts and bachelor uncles seem to be found in close proximity to their niblings in later years, and several of them make clear provision for them in their wills and testaments (yes, you may have several cauldrons of tallow, dear nephew …).
So I had to take a bit of a different tack with this week’s challenge and take a look at a line that’s just been hanging out for a while now. On it’s own. Kind of … solo.
(more…)
52 Ancestors: Unexpected
So this week’s 52 Ancestors post – on the theme of Unexpected – is a bit of a three-for-one special.
Yes, it’s a 52 Ancestors post. It’s also a sort of … Ethelbert Update post (which doubles the unexpected side of things as I didn’t have any intention of doing another one – despite what some people might tell you …!). And it’s also part of the nascent Holborow in America series.
That’s a lot for one post. Oh, and there’s also some timely discomfort. Let’s get to it …
(more…)
The Family Mess 