Well, I made it to half an advent calendar! This will probably be the last post of the festive season as the descendants are about to descend and I really need to tidy up, or at least make space for them, before they arrive. Interesting incident yesterday when a full carton of fruit juice fell on to one of those metal spiky dish things you use for carving meat. Ok, so I don’t use it for carving meat but the occasional roast animal does get deposited on it before being inelegantly hacked to pieces. You know that thing on medical dramas where they say, don’t remove the knife or they will bleed out? They aren’t wrong. Interesting ‘bleeding-out’ carton of fruit juice incident anyway. Despite all this and the other pre-Christmas merry-go-round, cakes iced, presents still not wrapped etc., I did manage to update the account of one branch of my family history. For those who remember the Mary Cardell saga, I am a teeny bit closer to making progress but I am still not confident enough to ink it in.

Anyway, enough of this trivia. The favourite family history website of the day is: V is for Vision of Britain Through Time. The website provides links to maps, historical travel writings and old photographs. It also includes the census reports and statistics and there are some statistics of church attendance from the ecclesiastical census.. It is effectively a gazetteer of place names, including those from the 19^th  century. Inevitably, there is more information for some places than others. So have fun exploring your ancestral areas.

Thank you for your support and have a wonderful Christmas. For those who find this time of year difficult, reach out, there are people there for you. If you are happiest in your own space that’s fine too, you don’t have to feel guilty for not celebrating in a conventional manner. Be kind to each other folks.

1950s vintage – slightly ruined by a particularly resinous tree one year

Many of the entries in this year’s advent calendar are based on my book Family Historian’s Enquire Within. I would be very grateful if anyone in the UK wanting to buy a copy would get in touch with me directly (there will be no charge for UK postage).