Author Archives: thehistoryinterpreter

Drunken Women, Large (Family) Trees and other excitements

by thehistoryinterpreter

‘What have you been up to lately?’, I hear you cry. Well, actually, I don’t but I’m going to tell you anyway.

I have been spending time with some drunken women, I should hasten to explain that this is in the historical, not actual, sense. Our Few Forgotten Women Team, aided by more than fifty helpers from all parts of the English-speaking world, have been tracing the stories of women found in two inebriate homes in the 1901 census. Their stories are mostly pretty tragic cycles of despair and degeneration but it is important that they are told. Photographs of many of the women survive in the online Habitual Criminals’ registers and they tell their own story. The stories of eighty six women are beginning to appear here.

There’s been a bit of a social media discussion lately about large online trees. Do people take large trees seriously? How large is too large? Here is my take on the issue. I was 100% against EVER putting my family tree online until I took an Ancestry DNA test about five years ago. I didn’t even have an Ancestry account at this point, being an inveterate FindmyPast fan (and I still am, finding their searching infinitely easier. Horses for course and familiarity is a great  thing, others will feel differently). Anyway, I took the test, the results came, I started looking for matches. Which were the matches I was prioritising? Those with online trees. Well, I thought, maybe I’d just add a very basic, private tree of my direct line. So I did. With all those thousands of DNA matches, in my case mostly very tiny, I found myself concentrating on those with public trees; so I went public. Of course, to link with DNA matches you need to be wide and deep, so I began, slowly to add all those individuals that lurk on my family tree, garnered over nearly fifty years of research. This I did cautiously and meticulously, one person at a time. One reason for not importing a tree wholesale was because I don’t have one single tree but about twenty different trees for different branches, as I prefer to work that way. Yes, I could have merged them and then uploaded in one go but I deliberately chose not to, using it as an opportunity to check what I’d done. Only one 9x great grandmother was felled from the tree as a result.

I wasn’t going to add sources because why would I? This was not my primary way of recording my tree, this was just for DNA. Then of course I realised that I was only taking online trees seriously if they were sourced, so sources were added. I included my children’s ancestors as well as my own and then, later, some of my grandchildren’s. I began by only adding individuals that I considered to be verified. Then, hesitantly, I have added a few individuals, clearly labelled ‘hypothesis’, in case the hypothesis is right and a DNA match could help to support it. Even with all this, as of today, my tree contains 3161 people. Maybe it isn’t larger because I never add information from other trees, although I do use them as clues to further research.

So what is wrong with larger trees? Do I dismiss them out of hand? Well no, that would be short-sighted but I must admit to a certain amount of scepticism as the numbers stretch beyond 5000. I find myself wondering if each one of those individuals really is carefully researched and verified using original sources. I’ve been at this for since 1977 and spend more time than I am going to admit on it. No way could I add upwards of 5000 people with any confidence. Of course, in some cases, these ultra large trees are well researched. Some are large because they are the result of one-name or one-place studies. It doesn’t take a great deal to gain an impression of the quality of the research on these mega trees and sort the good from the downright ridiculous. Is there a danger though that a large tree might give an impression of careless research? The jury is still out on that one but it is an interesting debate.

There’s been a lot more going on but this post is already too long so I’ll leave you with the tale of my mother’s day gifts. One daughter sent a package that included a mystery book (she chose the genre not the title) the title is ‘Family might be the death of you’, possibly not the most appropriate! A planted (I use the word advisedly) floral arrangement from other daughter was delivered to the neighbouring chapel porch, which shares my postcode. Fortunately, someone spotted it, retrieved it and handed it to me. It was also delivered by someone who had clearly ignored the ‘this way up’ notice and arrows. I seem to have successfully salvaged/replanted it and it is now flourishing but there was quite a bit of earth everywhere.

Cornish Adventure Aventur Kernewek (possibly) part 5 (nothing to do with travel but partly to do with family history)

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a while since I regaled you with news of my attempts to learn Cornish, mainly because ‘I’ve mastered a few more words’ isn’t exactly newsworthy. Questions are being asked, so here is an update. My second term of lessons has now drawn to a close, so I thought I should just put it out there that I am still on this adventure. I certainly would never have believed at the outset that I could amass a vocabulary of about 1000 words in twenty hours worth of lessons, especially as it took me about a month to get beyond the first couple of dozen. I’ll admit I am sometimes a bit hazy about plurals and whether things are male or female but I am getting there. I should elaborate, I am pretty clear about what makes actual things male or female, it is the gender of inanimate objects that is trickier.

The real struggle is stringing these words together into anything approaching a grammatical sentence. Then there are the mutations. If something begins with a g, why the need to suddenly make it begin with a k – or should that be the other way round? I have purchased an as yet unopened daunting book of verb tables but I’m not sure that that marks progress.

Why am I doing this? Well it is a bucket list kind of a thing, a later life crisis – I’d love to say mid-life crisis but who am I kidding? It is also a mental challenge. Some people climb mountains because they are there, I guess I do this to prove I can, despite my total ineptitude for languages other than my own. Mainly I am attracted to the idea of connecting with my Cornish roots. Cornwall features in my ancestry more than any other county. Admittedly this is eastern Cornwall, not the mystical far south-west but definitely Cornwall. Some of these lines can be traced back to the seventeenth century. I am looking at you Sambells, Rooses, Spears, Oughs and many more. Did you speak Cornish? Dydh Da dhywgh hwi.

Great encouragement, next term’s course is for ‘post beginners’, so I’m officially no longer a beginner. I am going to have to do a awful lot of consolidating over the Easter break to live up to this status.

New Book, New Ventures and a Random Shopping Order

by thehistoryinterpreter

Firstly, I am now allowed to tell the world the exciting news that my next book is at the publishers. This is a non-fiction volume, commissioned by Pen and Sword, about tracing Marginalised Ancestors. So, my usual fare of tragedy and trauma, with chapters on Poverty, Criminality, Illegitimacy, Mental Health, Sickness, Prostitution, Witchcraft and more. Each chapter includes a case study and they were such fun to research. I can’t wait to introduce you to Sarah and Joseph and Charity and Harriet and Frederick and co.. Don’t hold your breath though. I am hoping that this may be out by the end of the year, so in your Christmas stockings but it could be 2024. This isn’t exactly a cover reveal as it is still provisional but I have been given the green light to share.

Then two new ventures that will also involve writing. I am to join The History Girls as a reserve blogger. This blog contains a fascinating range of posts on all things historical and is billed as ‘A blog from great writers of historical fiction’. I am having a serious bout of imposter syndrome but it should be fun. As I clearly don’t have enough to do, I applied for and have been accepted as a contributor to the Mass Observation Project. This is particularly exciting as my mother was a contributor in the early 1960s. The website does say that the original project ran from 1937 to the early 1950s but does also mention some material from the 1960s and I distinctly remember my mother having to write down what was on her shopping list. They have asked for a biography ‘it can be as long or as short as you like’. Do they realise that I have an 80,000 word, as yet unfinished, auto-biography stashed away? I am assuming they don’t want all of that. On the other hand ……….

Last week, I encountered that thing when you accidentally click on the wrong day for your T****s order without realising (meant to be next week) and just bung all the favourites in the basket regardless to hold the order, thinking you’ll sort it out and delete stuff a couple of days before. Then you get an email confirming that goods to the value of twice your normal shop are on their way and you have no space in the freezer, because obviously the order is the following week and you daren’t even look at what you’ve ordered, as probably it includes stuff that your daughter, who eats funny modern stuff, ordered when she was here and a load of random things you don’t want. I never did look at the order, so Mr T****’s delivery man turned up with quite a lot of trays of stuff. Well, it could have been worse. Not too much frozen stuff, no weird modern stuff but I have all the ingredients ready for next year’s Christmas cake and puddings!

RootsTech Roundup Day 3 #NotAtRootsTech

by thehistoryinterpreter

On the third day of  RootsTech I had been really looking forward to Wanda Wyporska’s session (from late UK time on day 2) about researching women and was sad to see that it was not able to be recorded. As the custodian of ancestral christening gowns, wedding dresses and quilts Preserving your Ancestors’ Textiles and Handmade Treasures by Melissa Barker was another that was high on my ‘must watch’ list. Again, if you watch, you can skip the first 3 minutes 19 seconds of setting up chat. Sadly my house is too small to follow all of her advice. Interesting to learn that folded textiles should be refolded in a different way every few months to avoid deterioration along the creases.

Next, another talk from Diahan Southard, My Messy, Complicated Birth Roots Story. This was a fascinating and well-presented session, highlighting the problems of trying to identify DNA matches, particularly if you are related to someone through two different family lines. Highly recommended.

30 Fun and Meaningful Activities for Kids and Grandkids to Celebrate their Ancestors Sharlene Habermeyer was also on my watch list. Two minutes in before this one starts. I do appreciate and welcome the fact that these videos have been made available so quickly but wonder if a little editing out of the set up might have been useful. The presentation does what it says in the tin and Sharlene’s website has free downloadable resources http://www.growinglittleleaves.com/printables.html. A few are US orientated but there are others that are applicable to all. I did cringe however at her suggestion of cleaning graves and making rubbings of them. This is common practice elsewhere but is definitely not advised, or indeed legal, in Britain, where the lichens that grow on gravestones are protected. I did love the idea of sharing memorabilia; I just wish my grandchildren visited often enough to do this. Trying on ancestral wedding dresses or uniforms was another great idea, although I don’t see why this should be a gendered activity. Plenty of really good suggestions for using ancestral photos. I shall be reading the full details of the activities mentioned by Sharlene on her website and trying some of the ideas; first I think will be the talents and hobbies activity and the timeline. On a similar topic, I listed to Sarah Day’s short GenZ Genealogy presentation from 2022, outlining how we can support 10-24 year olds on the genealogical journeys. She also suggests what GenZ themselves can do. Pleased to hear that this included joining societies. Another catch up from last year was Write your Family Stories (in 30 minutes or less) by Brenda Hudson. Useful suggestions here for those who struggle with starting to write stories.

So that’s a wrap. I do still have a couple left on this year’s play list and few few lingering from previous years. I will no doubt add more when others share their recommendations. I will try not to leave it until next year to watch these. The dates for next year are announced – so make a note in your diaries.

RootsTech Roundup Day 2 #NotAtRootsTech

by thehistoryinterpreter

The second day of RootsTech began, which meant an opportunity to catch the sessions that had screened late in the US day on day one, if that makes sense. I decided to take a look at the virtual expo hall. Unlike what you might be used to at UK genealogy shows, the vast majority of the stands that are available virtually are commercial, with only a tiny handful of society stands. A couple of the stands did catch my eye. Artifcts, if you can get past the spelling contraction, is a great concept, encouraging us to tell the stories of heirlooms. This is a lovely idea but I need convincing that you need to do this via a commercial site; just tell the stories for yourself in what ever format suits. This is something I have been working towards for a few months but other projects, such as A Few Forgotten Women’s free online sessions for International Women’s Day on 8 March, have rather taken over. The RootsTech expo hall also led me to a really good offer price, for in-person and virtual attendees, from Family Tree Magazine for membership of their Family Tree Plus Club.

I also had a look at my Relatives at Rootstech, which is a bit of fun for those who have linked themselves to the composite tree at Family Search. This is available until the end of March and you can connect with other RootsTech attendees whose ancestry you allegedly share. I have to say that most of my contacts are 7th-9th cousins and some of the family trees delve into realms where I would not dare to tread but I am hopeful that my third cousin will respond to my message at some point.

In preparation for our Forgotten Women Friday on 24th March, when some of the women needing research are of Irish origin (volunteers welcome for tracing these and those from England), I began by listening to Brian Donavan’s Irish Family History is Easy. Seriously!. He focussed on using FindmyPast and Irish Genealogy. Definitely a great introduction to Irish research and I hadn’t realised so much was on FindmyPast. Next, I chose Hidden Stories Discovered in just Three Documents by Patti Gillespie, which sounded intriguing. Be warned on this one, the talk doesn’t start until four minutes twenty seconds in, so don’t be put off by the long silence. I liked her phrase ‘compassionate context’; our ancestors’ lives and life decisions should viewed in this way. Patti also emphasises the importance of citations. She regards any system of citation that will allow another person to recreate the research path as being adequate; a woman after my own heart.

I then watched Meet Storied; the next chapter in family history with Brandon Camp and Finn Larson. Storied is one of the sponsors of RootsTech. Their product is a way of encouraging and preserving stories and there’s a good deal on if you sign up during the RootsTech period. Whilst I am one hundred percent behind the principal, I can’t help feeling that, a bit like Artifcts, you could just write it down for yourself. The software also has a feature whereby artificial intelligence can assist you with your story. This is impressive but I do have some reservations about this. I suppose it might be useful for those who have concerns about their writing skills. There are some real plus points to the software though. I did particularly like their emphasis on including information about those with whom we have non-familial relationships, such as friends, neighbours and co-workers. In addition, there is the opportunity to capture relationships to communities, be that a village, a workplace, a church or other institution. The software even supports the inclusion of pets. There is a free account option, which seems to include quite a few features. The paid version include access to records but these are all US based.

That was all I had time for yesterday but there is no rush as the presentations remain available for you to watch at your leisure, I am still catching up on 2021 and 2022! If you didn’t think to register in advance for the free virtual event there is still time.

RootsTech Roundup Day 1 #NotAtRootsTech

by thehistoryinterpreter

Yesterday saw the beginning of the genealogical extravaganza that is RootsTech. I am attending virtually, which is free and there is an unbelievable variety of presentations to choose from, with over 1300 speakers from across the globe. My playlist is best described as ‘eclectic’ and it reflects my particular interests, so I thought I’d share those I have watched so far, in case there’s something that appeals to you too. As I am in the UK, some the talks I am hoping to hear from day one are a bit late in the day for me but I will catch up on those today and there were plenty to choose from in the ‘On Demand’ section that I could watch yesterday. I could also catch up on a few from 2021 and 2022 that I didn’t manage to listed to then. I decided not to offer any sessions myself this time but two of my sessions from 2022 are still available, How to Handle Sensitive Topics in Family History and Family Photographs and a Sense of Belonging.

I began with Davina Wilson’s, Considering Age When Researching Your Ancestors, stressing the importance of age and giving a summary of key dates in English and Welsh research. This is an interesting and important topic and something we should all be aware of. I followed this with Help! My Ancestors were related to each Other! by Diahan Southard, as my Smith and Seear ancestors have first cousin marriages in two successive generations, which probably accounts for a great deal. Diahan gave a clear explanation of the difference between multiple relationship, pedigree collapse and endogamy and the impact that these have on our DNA. The advice to focus on our  ‘best’ DNA matches, those with the largest longest segment, particularly was useful.

Something a little different next, with Judy Nimer Muhn’s introduction to The Argyll Papers at Inverary Castle: the family and estate archive of the Duke of Argyll and Tackling Photo Albums: identify, preserve and share with Maureen Taylor

While I was waiting for the time difference to catch up, I looked back at some 2022 presentations and found Penny Walter’s Damnatio memoriae: condemnation of a person’s memory to be a thought provoking presentation about iconoclasm, selectivity and the considerations for family historians when dealing with difficult ancestral connections; definitely worth a listen for us all. Another presentation from 2022 was P J Elias’s How can FANs give context to your Ancestors’ Lives? Using his Polish-American family as examples. It is so refreshing to listen to presentations from young genealogists.

As well as taking the opportunity to listen to presenters who are now to me, it is always a pleasure to catch up with talks from my world-wide genealogy friends. I couldn’t resist another listen to Michelle Patient’s heart-warming Finding Frank story from last year. I love case study stories and this is a great one.

Better still, we do it all again tomorrow.

A Week in my Life: of free events and family history

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week. Monday began with some work on a new Migration course that I am writing for Pharos Tutoring and Teaching. This is going to be presented in May, so I need to get the Is dotted and Ts crossed. Then there was finishing off the Brick Walls presentation for Devon Family History Society. This is where we dig out our magic wands and try to solve members’ genealogical conundrums. The day was rounded off with a committee meeting. Tuesday was spent sorting some Forgotten Women biographies ready for uploading and reading through my Pharos Writing your Family History course to check for any necessary changes. This starts online in a couple of weeks and last time I looked there was room for a few more to join the fun. Next, a Cornish lesson and then chatting about Illegitimacy and Insanity etc. to the lovely Huddersfield and District FHS.

More migration course work on Wednesday and a typed chat with the students on my Discovering more about your Agricultural Labourers course. Then there was trying to master an online computer game that I have been playing with some of my descendants on an almost daily basis. Thursday was definitely Forgotten Women day, with two chats preparing for future events and the sudden realisation that International Women’s Day was almost upon us and we really needed to do something that we could prepare for quickly. Bear in mind that my fellow Few Good Women, who oversee this project, have lives that resemble mine for activity. Thursday evening found me, aided by Mistress Agnes, talking about seventeenth century gardens to a Zoom audience of 175. It was a Norfolk Family History Society meeting with Devon folk in attendance as well. Friday, I had my local history hat on and went to see the deeds of a local property. Then there was a small group meeting to run for Devon Family History Society in the evening. At these meetings we get together a couple of dozen people with an interest in a small group of Devon parishes. As usual, several attendees found common interests.

Oh good the weekend, a rest maybe? No, dear reader, you would sadly be wrong. More plans for the Forgotten Women event. This will be on 8 March and consist of three free Zoom sessions, when members of the team will share the stories of some of the women we have researched. Bookings are open and you can find details here. Then there was presenting the Brick walls session for Devon Family History Society, followed by another chat with those hunting down their agricultural labouring ancestors. Sunday, the day of not much rest. Thanks to one of our team’s efforts, our 8 March event was safely loaded on to Eventbrite. More stories were prepared for the Forgotten Women website, which also needed rearranging, as we’ve already, after just ten weeks, got more stories than we could present in the previous format.

So will this week be any calmer? Well, hardly. To begin with, there is Rootstech. I decided not to offer to speak this time but I will be attending virtually, for free and so can you. There are presentations by speakers across the globe on every subject related to family history that you could possibly imagine. My playlist of sessions I want to listen to is already ridiculously long, There is a facility called Relatives at Rootstech, which means you can see if any distant relations are amongst the attendees. Just this morning, I was excited to find that a previously unknown third cousin will be there. Third cousins are practically my closest relatives, so that was exciting. This is on the Smith side, which reminds me, I have a presentation to write about the Smiths. I need to organise my contributions for 8 March, I have more chats about agricultural labourers, I have talks to give about young people and genealogy, about twentieth century sources and about plague and so it goes on. Please don’t mention things like cleaning.

Irish Adventures

by thehistoryinterpreter

No, this is not me trying to learn another language. The Cornish continues (note I didn’t say progresses) and I will report on that another time.

I had a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime holiday touring the whole of the island of Ireland planned and booked. What could possibly go wrong? What went wrong was that the holiday was planned for May 2020. It is always difficult to arrange to spend long periods away from home but finally, later this year was to be the time for the rearranged Irish holiday. I do like everything planned in advance. Some call me organised and in a sense I am but this is not a virtue, it is a coping mechanism. I revisited the 2020 itinerary, tweaked a few things, made sure the tourist attractions we planned to visit hadn’t permanently closed and prepared to re-book everything.

When you are touring, three days here, four days there, everything hinges on the start date. This means I needed to begin by confirming the ferry. I didn’t do a year long course with an Irish University without learning how beautifully laid back the atmosphere is in Ireland (and no, still no certificate, one month after it was posted), so, in early January, it was not a surprise to learn that bookings had not yet opened for the ferry crossings later in the year. ‘Try next week’. After several ‘next weeks’, finally, a confirmed ferry booking.

Next step, caravan sites. Some of those we’d hoped to stay in were no longer running, others didn’t open until May and weren’t taking bookings yet. I know, I know, ‘’Twill be grand’ and all that but I really do like to know that we will have somewhere to pitch the van. Sites don’t seem to be anything like as plentiful as on mainland Britain, so arriving somewhere and hoping for the best is definitely not a great idea, at least not if you are me. Wild camping is illegal on the island of Ireland, or perhaps it isn’t, Mr Google is unclear on the matter. Having read ‘it isn’t strictly legal but you’ll probably get away with it’, I know this isn’t an option. The one person who won’t get away with it will be me. So back to trying to book sites. It was a real mixture, some online booking forms wanted to know the equivalent of the inside leg measurements of all guests, other sites took days to answer emails. We still can’t book a site for the end of the holiday. It was difficult enough finding one anywhere near the right place. Some only took motor homes not caravans, some closed for the season before we wanted to stay. In the end, we’ve had to settle for ‘just turn up no need to book’, which really doesn’t sit well with me. There are fifty odd pitches on this site, what happens if fifty one someones ‘just turn up’ and we are number fifty one? We had a site issue in Canada, two sites that we had booked had decided to close early for the season, leaving us in the lurch. Really hope this doesn’t happen again.

Tours then, booking tours is particularly important as we are only in a place for two or three days, so if we can’t get a ticket on a particular day, we can’t just go the following week. Surely we can book tours to things that say ‘early booking essential’? It seems not. ‘Early’ seems to equate to a couple of days in advance, which means we will already be away and I will have to struggle to do this when we have wifi or by phone, deep joy.

After a hectic week of googling ‘touring caravan site near x’ we are as prepared as Ireland will let us be. Apart from regular checking to see if ‘early’ is now, all that is left is to anticipate the trip and keep everything crossed that fire, famine, plague or earthquake don’t mean we have to rearrange again.

Forgotten Women, Lost Ancestors and a few Other Things

by thehistoryinterpreter

I am still recovering from our Few Forgotten Women Friday back in January. In the end, fifty three of us each took one or more of the girls from the Leeds Industrial School and attempted to find out more about them. Given that we had a zero budget (though a few of us did succumb to buying a certificate or two) and were restricted to what we could find online, we were remarkably successful. Of course there were those for whom very little could be found and others where we found someone of the right name but couldn’t be sure we had the right person. The nature of the lives that these girls and their families led meant that they were likely to avoid appearing in the official records, or did so under an alias. Nonetheless, some fascinating stories are emerging. Sadly, many of them did not end happily but some of the girls did seem to turn their lives around. The stories are gradually appearing on the website, so do take a look. There’s a now a new Forgotten Women Friday on the horizon in March. So do get in touch if you fancy honing your research skills on an inebriate woman.

Every now and then I revisit one of my family lines to see what more can be found. It is currently the turn of the Smiths of London (I know – someone has to take one for the team). I have (possibly rashly) agreed to make them the subject of a talk, focussing on the possibilities when researching the country’s most common surname in the most highly populated city. It is surprising what a range of sources can be used, both for the genealogy and the contextual history. I am getting lost down more rabbit holes than you can imagine.

Whilst on the subject of elusive ancestors, I have been working on a new course for Pharos Teaching and Tutoring about Migration and those ancestors that just disappear. A positive warren of rabbit holes here. If any of you have managed, thus far, to escape being drawn in to the obsession that is family history, despite reading my blog, now is the time to start. Pharos have just launched a two-part Foundations of Family History course that can be taken at any time; ideal for those who are just stepping their toes in the water but be warned – there is no going back. While I am on the topic of courses. There’s another chance to take my online ‘Are you Sitting Comfortably? Writing and Telling your Family History’. This usually runs twice a year but this will be the only chance in 2023 and there is an option to submit a piece for me to feed back on if you wish. The course starts with Pharos Teaching and Tutoring on 13 March.

Writing has mostly been about finishing the draft of the non-fiction book I’ve been working on for the past year. I’m afraid the title is embargoed and it may be a year before copies hit the bookshelves but it has been great fun to write. I am now dealing with the dreaded task of sourcing copyright free illustrations. There are plenty of documents I’d love to include but the responses are usually along the lines of ‘that will be £200 please’, which means it will cost me a fortune to produce the book. I accept that, if it sells well, I will be making a few pence an hour for writing it but that really is, literally, a few pence, so shelling out to use illustrations is not an option. Despite what trawling the internet might suggest, you really can’t just use images as and where you please.

I’ve been keeping in touch with my lovely colleagues from the Experimental Archaeology Course and there was great excitement three weeks ago as certificates marking our success began to be delivered. I eagerly searched my doormat – nothing. Days passed – still nothing. I know I live in the back of beyond, where postmen rarely dare to tread but certificates have reached Australia and I still don’t have mine. I have asked the powers that be and am now anxiously awaiting a reply as well as a certificate.

I’ve been giving talks here and there, in person and on line and had a chat about family history to Radio Devon last week, as you do. Everything you know about family history in ten minutes was a tad of a challenge but always a pleasure to speak to the lovely Pippa Quelch.

Signs of spring are wonderful. I just wish the sun could shine without showing quite so much dust.

Looking Forward – Looking Back – mostly family history and a few other things thrown in

by thehistoryinterpreter

The holiday season is over, although I have to confess that I still have Christmas cards and a Christmas tree to take down. Bearing in mind that half the cards didn’t arrive until January, it seemed a shame not to display them for a while. I am probably risking the wrath of the bad luck fairy that dictates that decorations have to be away by the 6th (or is it on the 6th – who knows?) but I’ll survive.

I was away from home at New Year, so didn’t do the typical old year reflection/new year plans post. Better late than never – highlights of last year (in no particular order): spending time with friends and family; visiting some beautiful English coast and countryside; working on the revamped Braund Society website; being part of the Few Good Women group and launching the Few Forgotten Women project (another website created); passing (just) my grade 1 piano exam; passing (with rather more success) my postgraduate certificate in Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture; starting to learn Cornish; creating a living willow chair (even though ‘living’ is up for debate), some fused glass and learning to plait straw; making two separate, exciting family history discoveries in asylum records.

Plans for 2023: more of the same and finishing some projects started in 2022 including a book to complete, a dedicated family history website to launch, a course to write, Ivy’s biography to finish and a new one to create; Ireland to visit (postponed from 2020); more Cornish to learn, speaking in sentences would be good!

Even though I have only had a few days back in the old routine, there has been so much going on. My article The Family History Revolution, looking back over five decades of the world of family history, with thoughts on what may come, has appeared in Family Tree Magazine. The book I am writing is finally nearing completion, with half a chapter an introduction and a conclusion to go. It is a non-fiction family history book. I can’t announce the subject yet but you won’t be surprised to learn that it isn’t all sweetness and light. There is some overlap with my work on the Few Forgotten Women Project. What fun that is proving to be and it is such a lovely group of ladies to be working with.

Just before Christmas, some of our Forgotten Women team chatted to Helen Tovey of Family Tree Magazine and the podcast has just been released. Our next venture is a joint research project on Friday 20 January, dedicated as what we hope will be the first of a series of Forgotten Women Fridays. We are going to look at a particular set of records that feature forgotten women and collectively research those ladies on that day. We are inviting family historians to help us, so if any of my genealogy readers want to give us a hand, we’d love to allocate you one of the women from our chosen list. You have a day to find out as much as you can, using what is available online. Keep an eye on the Few Forgotten Women website on Friday for full details.

Another collaborative project: our local history group is preparing for a cemetery workshop at the end of the month. We are trying to compile mini biographies of those who are commemorated in our churchyard.

As part of my preparation for my, as yet to be revealed, website showcasing my own family history, I was looking at the surnames of my direct ancestors and created this using Wordclouds. There is a choice of outlines and colours. It includes the forty nine surnames I’ve discovered in my direct ancestry, back to my 4x great grandparents. I could have included the other sixty eight names from earlier generations but I rather lost the will. In theory, the names that feature in my more recent ancestry should be larger but that is not exact.