Monthly Archives: February 2022

What Janet did Next: a bit about website creating, piano playing and childbirth et. al.

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a very long time since I wrote about the day-to-day mayhem that is my life. So, what have I been up to?

The Braund family one-name society is 40 today. In 1982, 200 people who were Braunds, or related to Braunds, gathered in North Devon and formed the Braund Society – and they said it would never last. I was heavily pregnant so didn’t attend but I was a founder member. Over the years, the society has tried to evolve with the times. We’ve had a website for some years but it was looking very tired. Much as I knew that we needed a new website, I’ll be honest, my heart sank as plans for the re-vamp progressed. I knew that the generating of content would take many hours and would be largely down to me. I was wrong, it took twice as long as that. I have to confess that, although I had a quiet (some would say not so quiet) moan about having to take this on, once I started, I really enjoyed doing it and it certainly gave my enthusiasm a boost. I climbed huge learning curves in the process. I have created and run three websites for years and have helped with others but they have all been on the WordPress platform. This was going to use Wix. I had had one brief, unhappy association with Wix in the past. It did not go well. Nonetheless, I gritted my teeth and began. I should add that I had no spare time to take this on. I don’t even burn 8pm oil, let alone midnight oil but I can do getting up early; starting work at 5.30am or 6am isn’t a hardship. By pushing this to 4.30am, gradually the website took shape. It became an obsession. I had to tear myself away from it to do all the other many things I should be doing, like a post-graduate course, writing two books, practicing for my first ever piano exam (it was a bucket list/lockdown thing and I passed—just) and the small matter of earning a living. Don’t even mention housework.

I created a website that I was really pleased with. Then it was pointed out, very nicely, by a beta tester that it looked awful on a mobile phone. As part of the aim was to bring in those who use phones for internet access, this needed addressing. Every page, yes, every flipping page, had to be re-set for a phone. I barely use a phone for making phone calls, let along scrolling webpages. I am not sure I’d even know how to get to a webpage on my phone. I only got the phone because things like banks insist on texting you security codes. I will confess to a recent foray into Pokémon Go to interact with the grandchildren but that’s it. I spent two days adding a whole series of ‘Contact us’ and ‘Read More’ buttons, they were a fiddle but looked great on a laptop. If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have set up the pages differently, with much smaller blocks of text, which would have made getting these buttons in place on the phone version easier. Hindsight and all that ……. . I persevered. Then it appeared that those wretched buttons just wouldn’t stay where they were put. I spent another whole day taking them out again.

But ’tis done and its ‘soft launch’ is today. Please do take a look and feed back on any glitches so I can iron them out. So far, the only issue seems to be that the search box doesn’t. It will search the solitary blog post but not the website itself, sigh. I am also giving a talk about the 40 years of the Braund Society on 3 May, if you are interested. You can register to listen to this here.

Then I have been endlessly playing the same four piano pieces over and over again for months, I was sitting the exam virtually, which meant that I had to record my ‘performance’. Not only did this involve the use of a dreaded mobile phone but there was the slight issue of the absence of a piano. I practice on an electric organ, not the same sound at all. Ah but Martha has a piano. Could I manage to record during a brief stay with her? Added advantage, she also knows one end of a mobile phone from another. I had several attempts at playing my pieces straight through as required. Inevitably, each time a different bit went wrong. I finally lost the will to play Down by the Salley Gardens etc anymore. The whole submitting process was a bit of a challenge but within a week, back came my indifferent result. I try to convince myself that passing was an achievement but once a perfectionist……. .

Whilst on the subject of recording, I have two presentations hidden away in the Rootstech conference that were recorded before Christmas. Living in a very dark house and doing this in December meant that I had to pick a sunny day, which were few and far between. A sunny day dawned. A day that was accompanied by incessant and very loud drilling in the neighbourhood. By the time the drilling ceased, my laptop had been recording and re-recording so long that it started to overheat and the fan came on argghhh. Despite the challenges, there’s a session on our relationship with family photographs and one on uncomfortable family history for you to listen to. Do check them out, along with hundreds of other sessions. It is all free.

I am also doing some writing. Firstly, helping to produce a history of my home parish. This has involved forays into the 1921 census, which has been fun. Then there’s been a chapter on the history of prostitution. That led to an interesting internet search history. As I also have to access images, I have now seen things I can’t unsee. A tip don’t Google ‘Victorian Prostitutes’. Just don’t, well unless you want the address of every street worker in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Canada etc.. It is ‘nineteenth century prostitutes’ every time.

Along with my lovely group of ladies, I am still working on the biography of my grandmother. I am nine pages in and she is still being born. Plenty of opportunities for context. More ’interesting’ internet searches surrounding child-bearing practices in the 1890s – Call the Midwife it was not. Oh and Call the Midwife. Discussing Family Search’s compare a face app in the post presentation chat with Devon FHS, it was pointed out that I looked like sister Hilda (I can’t see it myself but 50% according to Family Search). The actress has an unusual name and a surname that is on my family tree. While the chat was progressing, I managed to establish that we are 4th cousins twice removed. Sometimes I feel like I have a magic wand 😊.

Despite all the appalling international news, there are things to celebrate. So here is an image from the first seaside walk of the year yesterday in wonderful sunshine. You are welcome.

Young Genealogists at the Helm and some Words about Being Kind

by thehistoryinterpreter

Over the past few months, there has been much discussion about making the genealogical community a more all-embracing space. This covers many groups who are currently not feeling fully included, for a variety of reasons. I have been championing the cause of younger genealogists since I was one myself, a very long time ago. After all the talking and the nodding in the right places, something is finally happening. The Family History Federation have got together with the Society of Genealogists to provide the infrastructure for an online event that will be led by young genealogists across the world and showcase their undeniable talents and expertise.

The idea is to provide a platform for genealogists under the age of thirty to come together, exchange ideas and support each other. This is intended to be an international event enabling young people to contribute to shaping the future of the community. There will be a variety of sessions led by young people. These will include traditional presentations, panels, interviews, discussions and anything else that the contributors like to suggest. Sessions can be live or pre-recorded. Many young genealogists are skilled presenters but it is hoped that this will also be an opportunity for those with less experience to be involved and mentoring is being offered for anyone who is hesitant about stepping forward.

Some of the stakeholders in the genealogy community are coming along to listen to how they can play a part in creating a more inclusive environment. There are hints of possible special offers in the pipeline. We already have some interesting submissions and suggestions. The call for papers is open until 15 March, so if you have something to offer click here. Please spread the word amongst younger family historians in your circles and if you are a younger genealogist yourself, please do put forward ideas for contributions; we are excited to see what you have to offer and are happy to help if needed.

If your days as a younger genealogist, or indeed a younger anything, have passed, please do mark 7 May in the calendar and try to come along to all or part of the event, to encourage this generation of genealogists. We need to create an atmosphere of being amongst supportive friends. Booking details will be available later, don’t worry I will be sure to tell you how you can join in.

I can’t ignore another aspect of this. Incredibly, it seems that, partly due to the announcement of this event, there has been some totally inappropriate activity on social media and some young genealogists have found themselves the victims of online bullying. This is absolutely unacceptable in every way. To begin with, I cannot comprehend why anyone with any human decency and empathy would not welcome the concept of inclusivity and support. That aside, if you can’t see that this is a positive step, why not keep your thoughts to yourself instead of targeting others? Unfortunately, I was a little out of the loop when this was happening but be assured that I will not be standing on the side-lines if I see any evidence of bullying. On the one hand, I hope those responsible are reading this, so I can tell them how much I despise their deplorable behaviour (I edited out stronger comments as I don’t want to sink to their level) on the other hand I don’t want them invading my space, so if you can’t be a decent human being, please unfollow my blog. I am making no excuses for this paragraph, it is not a rant, it is far more important that that. Now back to interacting with the lovely friendly, supportive members of the genealogical community, who fortunately make up the vast majority.

The Experimental Archaeology Adventure Part 8: Choosing a ‘Thing’

by thehistoryinterpreter

Semester two is now well underway and the focus has turned from incomprehensible reading to the first assignment of this module. Writing an essay was so last term; now we are creating presentations. I have to choose a ‘thing’ and tell its story. There’s a bit more to it than that but broadly that’s it. Given that I can pick absolutely anything, the choice is not easy. It was always going to be something of family significance but I am fortunate that I have several things to choose from, so decisions had to be made.

Should it be the patchwork quilt begun by my great grand-mother in the 1880s and worked on by three further generations since? Given that each patch has its own story that would be too complex. I have a slide limit of five for this and one of those has to be the title. What about one of two Victorian christening gowns, or my mother’s wedding dress, made by hand from a parachute? As I write this, I am so tempted to change my mind! Then there’s my grandfather’s long service watch, great granny’s christening mug or one of the artefacts brought back by my great-grandfather from a tea-buying trip to China and India. Maybe once the assignment is done, I will tell all these stories too.

For now though, I have decided to tell the story of Caroline Jessie’s locket. I met Caroline Jessie, possibly only once but I can clearly remember her sitting in a chair in her parlour, alongside two of her sisters. I would have been seven or eight at the time. I have several reasons for finally opting for this particular heirloom. To begin with, Caroline Jessie has no descendants. Her closest living relatives* are seven first cousins twice removed, of which I am one. If one of us doesn’t tell her story who will? This particular item didn’t just belong to a family member, it was made by one. Caroline Jessie’s father was a silversmith and made each of his five daughters a similar locket. The fact that this is one of a collection of five, is another fascinating part of its story.

So far, I have learnt how to tell if something is silver. In this case there is no hallmark to help as it wasn’t sold on the open market, or indeed at all. One suggestion involves putting ice cubes on it, which seems a little bizarre. I am glossing over the fact that I don’t know where the silver was mined, or what processes are involved turning what comes out of the ground into the object I now have. I have got gloriously side-tracked researching the silversmiths’ company for whom Caroline Jessie’s father worked. It seems it was very well-known and co-incidentally, the founder shares a name with one of my grandsons.

I shall now be encouraging people to tell their own stories, tell the stories of their ancestors AND to tell the stories of family heirlooms. I will need several lifetimes.

* In the interests of genealogical accuracy, I should add that there could be great great half nieces and nephews in America, who might be regarded as being closer living relatives but I am not in contact with any of them and the English and American branches of the family seem to have lost contact in the 1920s.