Apart from the delights of the annual invasion of no longer so small folk, life continues to be hectic. Despite saying ‘never again’ numerous times, I find myself in the throes of residential conference organising once again. A sell-out event to commemorate Devon Family History Society’s 50^th anniversary this one. Please can anyone explain why, when I am definitely ticking things off the to do list, it isn’t getting any shorter?

I am excited to be part of The Society of Genealogists’ ‘All About That Place’ event again this year. You can join in this free online event in October, details can be found here. Mistress Agnes is also taking part. She doesn’t speak quite as we do. Obviously she doesn’t speak in authentic seventeenth century language, or none of you modern folk would understand her but she likes to give a flavour of her time. After an unbelievable nearly twenty years of our acquaintance, I am fairly fluent in Mistress Agnes but I just wanted some advice on a couple of phrases. I accidently enquired of AI, rather than Mr Google and before I could paste in the actual phrases was amused to receive the following reply, “Hark, gentle traveler! Thou hast provided the stylistic guidelines, yet the core message or topic is missing. Please bestow upon me the text, idea, or query thou wishest to transform, and I shall gladly render it into the proper phrasing of the seventeenth century. If it pleaseth thee, share with me the subject matter or text thou wishest to translate. The intended audience (e.g., a royal court, a common peasant, a trusted friend).The desired tone (e.g., solemn, poetic, or comedic).I shall then pen thy words with the utmost historical care.”

Coincidentally, I’ve been part of two sessions on school records this week. The primary school local to where I used to live celebrates its 150^th anniversary next year and we are all set to gather memories of the school in preparation. At the same time, I received a very exciting email offering me the school log book dating from 1900-1919 for the school relating to another of my one-place studies. This had been rescued from a skip many years ago when the school building was converted to a private dwelling. You can imaging how thrilling this was to receive and work has begun to transcribe this. It will then be made publicly available.

In another local history project, I’ve been tracing the story  of a young midshipman who drowned in 1823 and at first seemed to leave very little trace in the obvious naval records. A muster roll for a single ship opened to door to a fascinating story, an involvement in the Napoleonic Wars and the 1812 war with America, as well as a spell as a prisoner of war and an act of bravery.

I’ll be off on another short visit soon, so expect more news from a caravan site near me. We are still trying to tick off the final few counties in my ‘every county in England’ quest. The plan is to stay, visit a National Trust property and an English Heritage property in each. There are four more on the list for this year, although, to be fair, three of them I have definitely stayed in before but just not as part of this project.

You can play the game of trying to spot me if you wish.