Tag Archives: Family History

Seasonal Musing and some Exciting News

by thehistoryinterpreter

Sorry for the long silence dear readers. It certainly hasn’t been because I have been idle. Although I am continuing to stay at home, I have been around the world virtually, Zooming into homes across the planet. I am pleased to announce that I have enough support to continue to present my ‘History Interpreter Online’ series of Zoom family and social history talks. This is deliberately a small group so we maintain a friendly, chatty atmosphere but we do have room for a few more, either as occasional visitors or ‘season ticket’ holders.

I’ll start with the exciting news. I have had the great honour of being awarded a certificate of achievement by the Society of Genealogists. These are awarded annually ‘in recognition of efforts and activities that have made some exceptional contribution to genealogy to the benefit of anyone wishing to study family history’. I know I am in some very illustrious company, so it did come as a bit of a shock. The precise citation is, ‘For long-term services to family and local history and encouraging the involvement of young people in history and heritage.’ The ‘long-term’ bit makes me feel very old but I suppose I have been seriously researching my family for 43 years so I guess it is justified! I am looking forward to the face-to-face presentation, which can hopefully take place in August next year.

Despite the ‘long-term’ research I have managed to add 9x 10x and 11x great grandparents to a branch of my tree this week so there’s always something new to discover.

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the fact that, in general, things have been on the gloomy side. Christmas, as expected, will be different this year. I had planned to visit the descendants right at the end of the school holidays, giving family members who are in school as much time as possible to develop any nasties they may have picked up. The freedom that we have to visit for five days around Christmas Day itself just doesn’t work for me, especially as we would have a 600 mile round trip to make and the world and his wife will all be travelling on the same days. It is a very long way to go to wave to your nearest and dearest from the other side of a chilly field, which is what it would mean if we went in early January. Although I would go to the ends of the earth to see my family, my head says that, having been so careful for nine months, it would be stupid to be reckless now. So, I will, regretfully, continue with my ‘just because I can doesn’t mean I should’ stance and make the most of what technology will allow.

It is, of course, that time of year when not just visiting but also seasonal gift giving is in our thoughts. Many of us are unable or unwilling to visit shops in person at the moment, so we are seeking other alternatives. Living, as I do, a distance from a shopping centre, relying largely on online shopping is the norm, although I do love the atmosphere of the shops at this time of year. I usually try to find a garden centre with displays of decorations. I am planning a swift visit to acquire a Christmas Tree but shan’t be lingering any longer than necessary. The added consideration this year is that gift purchases will need to be sent directly to the recipients or be easily postable. I am hoping to patronise as many small independent online shops and sellers as I can. If I was more talented, I would be hand-making gifts. I am also hoping that folk may want to relieve me of a few more books. I am happy to gift wrap these and send them straight to the recipient if you are looking for gift ideas. My fictional offerings are described here and for non-fiction you need to look here. I don’t charge for postage to the UK. Or you could gift a season ticket to my talks!

Zero progress on a potential new novel I’m afraid. My writing has been devoted to finishing a new course for Pharos and an article for Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, due out next year.

The next thing to look forward to will be getting the historic decorations out of the loft.

Family Stories: some books to get you thinking

by thehistoryinterpreter

Sometimes I review books on my blog. This is one of those occasions. I would like to introduce you to two offerings from The Genealogical Publishing Company, in Maryland.

The first is Roots for Kids: finding your family stories by Susan Provost Beller (2020). I am passionate about involving young people in exploring their history and heritage and I was intrigued to see what this 68 page book had to offer. I even managed to get past the use of the word ‘Kids’ in the title, which I must confess does tend to set my teeth on edge but that does not detract from the content. The author, very sensibly, focusses on family stories, rather than formal genealogy. The book is written by a US author, which means that some of the activities are not so appropriate elsewhere, or need ‘translating’. For example, there is an assumption that the reader will have immigrant ancestors within the genealogical timeframe, which is less likely in a European context. This might mean that it is not an ideal gift to a young person from outside the US but nonetheless there are some excellent suggestions that are universal. For the British reader, it is probably a book to be used as a source of activities for adults to present to a child. The book is enhanced by black and white drawings.

There are suggestions for ways to approach older relatives, a section on surnames and hints for organising information. Despite the rather steep £14.78 UK price tag, this book would be very useful for adults working with young people and hoping to introduce them to genealogy, through the medium of family stories. It is probably best suited to the 8-12 age range.

The other book is a substantial volume by J Michael Cleverley, entitled Family Stories and how I found mine. I always recommend that my ‘Writing up your family History’ students read family histories by others, in order to see what they feel might work for them. This book would be particularly useful as it adopts a rather different approach. The author has obviously carried out an enormous amount of research into both his own family and the broader historical context. Spanning 900 years, the author recounts his own family story, setting it firmly within the broader history of the time. Unlike many family histories, the author tends to focus first on the broader history and then introduce the appropriate family story, rather than the more common approach of beginning with the family. This makes this family history a bit different and works very well.

The intrinsic family story is obviously of greatest interest to those who share this ancestry but it is definitely worth a read to find out about the background, which has a broader appeal and as a good example of how a family history might be approached.

The book is accompanied by outline family trees, giving names only. These were a little faint and would have benefited from including some dates and place names. The book includes an impressive bibliography, detailed endnotes and an index; all valuable additions to a family history. Again, this volume attracts a hefty price tag, £36.39, something for a family history society library perhaps.

I was given free copies of these books in return for a frank review.

Seeing double – when family history gets confusing

by thehistoryinterpreter

Since returning from the frozen north, in between wall-to-wall Zooming and another weird allergic reaction incident (see below), I have been revisiting a branch of my daughters’ ancestry. It is so long since I last looked at this family that the documents that I wrote, telling their story and recording my research path and sources, no longer open. Fortunately, I have hard copies, so can retype. My version of this line stops with Thomas and Sarah Kear of St. Briavels in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Other researchers have extended Thomas’ ancestry further but this was all I was confident of and indeed still is, although I am pretty sure where it goes next.

Newland Church

Looking again at the evidence, I realised that there were two Thomas and Sarah Kears in St. Briavels and neighbouring Newland, having nine children between them from 1765-1789. The obvious way to distinguish between the two families was to assume that those baptised in St. Briavels were one family and those in Newland were another and certainly this did not lead to biologically impossible families. By now some of you will be wondering if this was in fact all one family, as did I but it was definitely two families; there are two burials for both Thomas and Sarah Kears, all in Newland. God bless them, both Thomases and one Sarah left wills and this sorts t’other from which. One Thomas was a maltster and the other a coal miner. Although both have sons called Thomas, the dates of their baptisms and a property that continues through the family makes it clear that the St. Briavels Thomas and Sarah are the correct ones for my daughters’ line.

Next to look for marriages of Thomas Kears and Sarah …….. . Yes, as expected, there are two, seven years apart, both in Newland, both a year before the baptism of the eldest child and guess what both Sarah’s have the SAME surname – James. Then of course there are the two Thomas Kears baptised in Newland within a month of each other in 1745……… almost certainly neither of which are the one I want!

It is always worth returning to old research. This time I discovered the sad story of a family member who took his own life and was drowned, according to the coroner, ‘asphyxiated by upper dentures’.

Ignore what is below if you are just here for the family history.

Now the weird allergy thing, sorry but some people did ask (never ask, never). Some of you will recall that, earlier in the year, I received free (but unwanted) botox courtesy of an adverse reaction to who knows what. Friday I was happily Zooming away, looking as normal as I ever look. An hour later I went to drink a cup of coffee and realised that my mouth was seriously swollen. Ring 999 said Dr Google. I was reluctant to do this so went for 111 instead. The call handler quickly decided that this was above their pay grade and I was passed to a paramedic who actioned the ‘super-fast, highest priority’, emergency ambulance. I explained the difficulties with finding my house and precise instructions were relayed. By this time, I was sat clutching the emergency epi-pen that I’d been given last time and the paramedic talked me through its use, in case I needed to self-administer it. I was once trained in the application of these things but it was so long ago that I had retained nothing of this potentially helpful information. After half an hour, the paramedic says he will get off the line in case the emergency ambulance needs to ring. I ask how long it might be. ‘Any time now, you are top of the list, as if you are having a heart attack.’ I have packed my emergency ‘going to A & E’ bag. I have arranged back up if I don’t get back in time to host a meeting in the evening and I am sat on the stairs with shoes and coat on and the door open. I debate how bad one has to be to use the emergency epi-pen. I can still breathe and talk, so I am thinking not now but of course once one isn’t breathing …….. After an hour and a half, the ambulance arrives, they’ve been deployed from another area due to volume of calls. Don’t get me wrong, I love the NHS and they do an amazing job in the face of ridiculous underfunding. I am also aware that the downside of living in the middle of nowhere is that emergency services don’t get to you so quickly but an hour and a half for absolute highest priority does seem a tad overdoing it. Just as well I wasn’t having a heart attack.

I was treated in the ambulance for an hour, give oxygen, medication was organised and as I didn’t seem to be getting worse, I was free to go, with strict instructions to seek urgent help if it recurs. Still absolutely no idea what is causing this and this time the rash (which came first last time) developed later and much less severely. Next step will be parting with copious amount of blood to see if they can work out what is going on. Ah well, life is never dull.

More Gravestones, Ancestral Homes and Non-roads

by thehistoryinterpreter

The holiday is over but due to the non-existence of the caravan site’s internet for several days, you think I am still stranded in Northumberland. All this happened a week ago; I promise you will catch up eventually.

What is life like in the frozen north? you ask. Bracing, I think would be an accurate term; windy, a bit drizzly and about 10 degrees. It turns out that the car’s funny noise means it needs a new alternator and that is booked in for four day’s time. Now all we need is for it not to break down completely in the interim. We drive out to the edge of the Keilder Forest for more gravestone hunting of ‘almost certainly my ancestors’ the Newlands and the Corbitts. All I can say is that I have not inherited their hardy gene. They must have been very resilient, trying to eke out a living here 300 years ago. The landscape is inspiring but forsaken and bleak. All I need to do is to find a tiny bit more evidence to confirm that John Hogg really was the son of Robert and I can claim this area as an ancestral home. All the evidence suggests that John son of Robert should be on my family tree but I am waiting for something further (which I may never find) before I ink him in.

Another day and more ancestor hunting. This time though in a town, so slightly more adventurous. I enter the large town churchyard in search of a grave. I have no burial plan and there are hundreds of graves. What I do have is a photograph with a tiny bit of background that I am hoping to identify, in order to take my own photo. I pause just inside the entrance and hold up the blurry picture to indicate to my companion that we are looking for a grave near to a fence and a lamp post. I look at the grave immediately in front of me – and it was the one I sought! It also contained information that wasn’t legible in the photo. Definitely a win this time. For those who have been following my recent family history adventures, this commemorates Peter (he of the pig and the 5 women) his parents and two of his children, one of whom I had not been aware of before.

This success was followed by my first visit to a supermarket in more than six months. It was a smallish supermarket and it seemed to pass off without incident but I will be relieved to get back to home deliveries.

After braving the town, we feel in need of a socially distanced day, so it is off to one of my one-places for some covert photography of people’s houses. We are used to narrows country roads but my proposed route does take us to some ‘interesting’ places. Despite the fact that my companion is very keen on his ‘new to him’ car, he bravely goes where no self-respecting driver has been before. This is clearly not the place for the alternator to expire completely.

The non-road takes us past the ruined peel tower that might have been the home of the Hoggs who I hope are my ancestors. Some of the one-place farms are too far up drives to be photographed. Although my partner-in-crime expresses a willingness to turn up a front doors of strangers when we are in an area where visiting other people’s homes is forbidden, I am less keen. I am already aware that we have zoomed in to take pictures of farms displaying large ‘cctv in operation’ signs. I suspect the local farm-watch hotline is already buzzing with our descriptions.

This is the day when I should have been doing my alternative Race for Life. Given that my back is still not conducive moving much, I have decided to postpone my 5km run/jog/walk until I am nearer home. I have been ridiculously poor at asking for sponsors too, so if anyone has a few pennies to spare this is where to go.

Mills, Castles and Elusive Gravestones

by thehistoryinterpreter

Having arrived in COVID central, on another lovely sunny day, we set off in search of the many local mills once worked by the Eadington family. We wander round Lesbury and then on to Alnmouth, which is very pleasant. We have reasonable success in locating the sites on our list and most are away from the crowds anxious to enjoy the last day of summer. We get stuck behind a flock of sheep, some of which have gone rogue and broken away in the opposite direction. One man and his dog, or in this case quad-bike, it is not. ‘Hunt the mill’ does take us to places other itineraries do not reach.

The next day and the temperature has dropped by ten degrees. Undaunted we venture north in the footsteps of my great great grandparents who travelled across the border to Lamberton Toll for a Scottish irregular marriage. I am pretty sure they would have taken the coach that ran up what is now the A1, from close to their home right to the Toll. I know that the toll house no longer exists but allegedly there is a plaque marking the spot. Fail on that one. It must be a very well-hidden plaque. Heading westwards, we call in at Norham Castle, built in the C12th for the Bishops of Durham as an entertaining space. It was here, in 1291, that Edward I and his advisors chose John Baliol, from thirteen contenders, to be the Scottish king. There was significant re-building following damage in the 1510s when the Scots got a bit troublesome. It had been subject to many sieges over the centuries. My ancestors lived close to this castle and would have known it when it was a little less ruined than it is now. Until it came under state ownership in 1929, it had not been maintained since the Union of the Crowns reduced the threat from the North.

Then it is off to Norham church to search for some gravestones. This will be fine, we have plot numbers and a plan. We know where row one is, what we don’t know is which end of the row is number one, nor is it quite clear what constitutes a row amongst the randomly scattered stones. More by luck than plan, we locate two of the four. What I have neglected to do, is note the names on stones surrounding the ones I am interested in, which might be more legible. We have phones, in theory we should be able to find the website and look at the transcription. In practice, neither of us has mastered using the phone for internet searches so that is not an option. In any case the stones I am missing are 1720s and the transcription was probably done in the 1980s so it is likely that they are no longer standing or legible.

Home via a couple of Scottish churches which involves a gate-related incident. Mindful that we are in a COVID hotspot, I attempt to hook the gate open with my foot. I achieve this and my companion exits the church yard. As he does so, he pushes the gate open further. Sadly, my foot is still wedged in it at the time. As I am wearing wellies in order to scour wet churchyards, I fail to hop backwards sufficiently swiftly and end up sinking to the ground grabbing the gate that I had been at pains not to touch in the process. It really is easier to stay at home. Fortunately, we have plenty of hand sanitiser. The car is making a bit of a weird noise. It is going and there are no warning messages but it looks like tomorrow will involve a trip to a garage. We do have form for getting stranded miles from home.

Family History Excitements and Jumping on the Scottish Bandwagon

by thehistoryinterpreter

My book launch two weeks ago seems to belong in the dim and distant past now. It went very well thank you, with 120 Zooming in. Thanks go to Devon Family History Society for hosting. The book is selling steadily and I am starting to get some lovely feedback. If anyone could face popping a teeny review on the dreaded Amazon I’d be grateful, as this open doors to other reviews. You don’t have to have bought the book from Amazon, you just have to have bought something from them. Reviews elsewhere are also welcome of course. In case you’ve missed all this book news and if so where have you been? details are here.

Plenty of news in the Family History world. 2021 is going to be exciting. Rootstech, for which I am an Ambassador once again, is to be virtual and free. This really is a chance to embrace the Rootstech experience without going to Salt Lake City. 25-27 February are the dates to save and you can register now. I am also proud to be joining my down under friends as a speaker for the Family History Down Under conference in March. This too is a virtual event, with a great international line-up.

Then those of us who have done Ancestry DNA tests had our ethnicity estimates updated. These are of course just that – estimates but it seems that the whole world is now Scottish, not just me. My own estimate changed very little, 5% moved from England to Scotland but there are many reports of increased Scottishness appearing in people’s estimates. See here for my take on ethnicity estimates.

On the subject of Scotland, I still haven’t added any ‘born in Scotland’ ancestors to my tree. It looks likely but I am waiting for more supporting evidence. Really exciting news though. After more than forty years of searching, I have found that my great great grandparents did get married after all – sort of. In preparation for heading north, I reviewed my Northumbrian ancestry for the nth time. This branch is the one that gets stuck first. I am pretty sure who my 3x great grandparents are, I just need more evidence (a bit of a theme you’ll notice). For those who’d like all the details of this sorry search, I’ve written about it before. My great great grandparents, John Hogg and Elizabeth Pearson, were not married in the 1851 census and apparently married by the time their daughter was born in March 1854. Despite four decades of not finding the marriage, I am always optimistic so I tried again. This time though a glimmer of hope. Family Search led me to a notice in the Newcastle Chronicle recording a marriage of Mr John Hogg and Miss Elizabeth Pearson on the 13th April 1853. The names and date were right but was this my great great grandparents? They were not of the class to put a notice in the newspaper and they were in the Morpeth area not Newcastle. Finding the actual article was a challenge. It didn’t show up in a newspaper search on FindmyPast; I had to look for the individual newspaper and then find the page. The column was one of those in a margin, so distortion meant that it was not picked up by OCR. The snippet made it clear that this was the right couple as both were ‘of Espley’, a small Northumbrian hamlet where I knew they were living in 1854. Helpfully, it gave the place of marriage ‘Lamberton’. A quick google revealed that this was not the breakthrough I had been hoping for. Lamberton Toll was the location for Scottish irregular marriages; a less well-known Gretna Green. I suspect they travelled there because he was 23 years her senior, with children as old as his new wife and she had already had two illegitimate children. Perhaps that was why they put the notice in the paper,because they didn’t have an official certificate. It was an odd paper to choose though, why not pick a Morpeth paper, which was their nearest town? Some records of Lamberton Toll marriages do survive, sadly not for 1853 though, all that there is is an index. So there is my hope of confirming John’s father’s name gone (I was so hoping that it was Robert). The only faint chink in the brick wall is that John’s first marriage is also missing, was that another irregular marriage?

The moral of the story is don’t give up. At least I have a date and a place for the marriage if not the vital father’s name. The next post may come from the wilds of ancestral Northumberland, might just sneak in a quick trip to Lamberton!

Lamberton Toll

The Tale of Peter Pig-owner and should I buy a kilt?

by thehistoryinterpreter

There’s so much going on at the moment, of which more another time but for today a tale that shows you can still find something new, even after over forty years of family history research.

Yesterday I should have been giving my presentation ‘Madness and Melancholia: the mental health of our ancestors’ a final run through (incidentally still time to come along to this one if you cross my palm with £2.50) but my early morning email trawl dictated otherwise.

An email from My Heritage ‘You’ve got Record Matches’. Sorry My Heritage John Parr of Devon and Johann Jakob Parr are not the same person. Nor is Richard William Braund of Cornwall the one in Melbourne. Their third offering did catch my eye. An extract from a history of Alnwick, Northumberland, published in 1866, referring to Peter Eadington a miller. Now, lurking on my tree is 4 x great grandfather Peter Eadington, miller, not of Alnwick but of Norham, some thirty miles north on the Scottish border. I knew that Peter’s daughter lived in Alnwick after she was married but it hadn’t occurred to me that there might be an earlier family connection.

Although my DNA and tree have been uploaded to My Heritage, I don’t have a subscription so couldn’t look at the record but I found a free copy of the book online and could see that this was too late for my Peter Eadington. Nonetheless it set me thinking. about family connections with Alnwick. Firstly, my Peter Eadington was a bit of a lad. He was a miller in Norham between about 1788 and 1805, during which time he had six children by three different women. One, Alice, he appears to have been married to, although no marriage record has been found. His two eldest daughters were probably born within weeks of each other. His story, as was, is available here but now of course it needs updating.

So, the whole of yesterday was spent following this Bright Shiny Object, with some success. During the course of twelve hours’ research I found, amongst other things, that Peter, whose baptism and marriage still elude me, was sometimes called Patrick, as was his first cousin Peter/Patrick, who was also his brother in law. Ancestry tree owners have these two beautifully muddled and today’s task is to decide which of the two married Sarah Dodds. I am almost certain it is my Peter, in which case he lied about his age on his marriage bond, probably because he was nearly twenty years older than Sarah. Personally, I would have been a bit more worried about his chequered past but hey. Unfortunately, this makes him the right age for cousin Peter/Patrick. The will of his father, David, freely available on the North East Inheritance database, was key to all this but because it is not on Ancestry, it has been ignored and therefore the Peter/Patrick name change has not been picked up. Also key is a family gravestone in Alnwick cemetery. The great piece of luck is that all this came to light BEFORE I am due to stay just outside Alnwick. With the luck of 2020 it would have been after, although there is still time for a regional lockdown to sabotage the trip. The bad news is that there are nearly 600 gravestones in Alnwick cemetery – ah well at least we will be socially distanced.

I now know that he, or possibly cousin Peter (I need to check who was at which mill and what time) owned a boar that, when killed, weighed 52 stone. Thanks British Newspaper Library. The ubiquitous Ancestry trees claim Scottish ancestry for both of Peter’s parents. I still have to satisfy myself that this is correct. If it is, they will be my first direct ancestors born outside England, which is very exciting.

Beside this, last week’s discovery that my grandfather’s first cousin was an actor with the fingers of his right hand missing, who performed with Cary Grant, pales into insignificance. William Smith is, after all, a bit harder to trace. So don’t tell me your family history is ‘finished’ there is always more to uncover.

Now back to who married Sarah Dodds?

St. Michael's, Alnwick

St. Michael’s, Alnwick

Book Launches, Boats and a side dressing of Crime

by thehistoryinterpreter

Busy, busy, busy. It has not all been work though. I spent a week going out with half my family; some weird activity that I’ve not done since March. This involved a spectacular face-plant (mine) on the football field, building sandcastles in the drizzle (effective for social distancing) and watching an excited boy catch his first fish. This particular expedition did involve running the gauntlet of a crowd of irresponsible idiots who clearly felt that being on holiday entitled them to abandon any concept of COVID awareness but we survived. Although it was lovely to see the sea, I am still much more comfortable staying at home and have no great longing for meals out, the pub or the hairdressers. I did get Martha to hack a bit off my hair while she was here but I could have managed without. It went like this – a little more off this side to even it up, oh now a some more off that side, oh and a bit off just here but she did a good job.

DSCF4414.JPG

This week it has been full on book marketing. Only three days until the big day and the excitement is mounting. Devon Family History Society have kindly offered to host my launch talk, when I will be describing how I researched the story of a seventeenth century town and its inhabitants, in order to write Sins as Red as Scarlet. This means spaces at the talk are available, so contact me now if you want the secret code to attend via Zoom. Those on the Devon Family History Society virtual talks mailing list will get the link automatically. Not only does Sins as Red as Scarlet greet an unsuspecting public on that day but an audio book version of Barefoot on the Cobbles becomes available too. Thanks to the lovely folk of Circle of Spears who have done a brilliant job. I seem to have cracked uploading to Amazon so Kindle versions of Sins as Red as Scarlet can be pre-ordered now and print-on-demand paperbacks for those outside the UK are in the pipeline. You will be able to order UK paperback versions but please don’t. Come to me instead, you’ll get a better quality, signed copy and I’ll pay the UK postage. Or go to a bookshop or my lovely publisher.

There are other exciting things on the horizon. On 5th and 6th of September, I am joining other local authors for two days of talks about various aspects of crime. My session will focus on the C17th but there are sessions that will appeal to lovers of history, folklore, literature, psychology, vampires, Agatha Christie and much more. At £5 for a ticket to listen to as many of the sessions as you choose, that can’t be bad.

I will also be giving two presentations for the Institute for Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in early September. The seventeenth century again and one-place studies in the C19th. Places are limited on these so book early etc. etc..

As for the autumn, wait and see!

Book Launches, Blogs, Being Online and Breaking Free

by thehistoryinterpreter

Sorry for the long silence. It isn’t that nothing much has been happening, rather that life has been hectic, mostly in a virtual way. Firstly I need to say that this blog has been listed in the top 100 Genealogy blogs site. So, thank you to the compilers for that. Do go and check out the other great blogs on that list.  I am at number 131, so not sure how that works (maybe it is a bit like the ‘100’ years’ war) but I am grateful for the mention, especially as I ramble on about things as well as genealogy. I also have no idea who moved North Devon to New Brunswick – it wan’t me.

I’ve been Zooming away across the globe, chatting family history to anyone who will listen, including a great session with my ‘down-under’ genealogy friends from Talking Family History and several sessions both as speaker and as host for Devon Family History Society, including a breaking down brick walls session for a bumper audience of close to 200. Bit of a shame therefore that my magic wand appeared to have gone awol but we did make some inroads into a few tricky genealogical problems. My own history interpreter sessions are being well received. These continue through to the end of the year and there’s plenty of opportunities to join in the fun, so do take a look what’s on the programme.

I’ve also left home, not once but twice. For someone who hadn’t even been for a walk or to a shop since mid-March, it did feel a bit odd. Two trips of 300 miles each way with the caravan, so effectively taking our own room, in order to sit at a social distance from the two twigs on my family tree. Definitely worth it though and it is surprising what fun you can have from the opposite ends of a garden.

On the book front, what I hope are the final edits on a school text book that I was commissioned to write are done. Now it is all systems go for the appearance of Sins as Red as Scarlet in 32 days’ time. I am expecting about 40 boxes of the same to be deposited on my driveway any day now. The troops are assembled read to lug them into the house. Where they are going once I get them in the house, is a logistical problem of mammoth proportions that is still to be resolved. I also have to make space for potential socially distanced visitors. Maybe we can use boxes of books as a barrier. People have been very kind and relieved me of copies of my other books in a last-ditch attempt to make more room but ………. .

I have been writing the talk for launch day – 29 August. You are welcome to come and join me as I describe the family, social and local history research that underpins Sins as Red as Scarlet. Here I am reading a few extracts on cover/title reveal day. To be in the virtual audience on 29 August, 2pm British Summer Time, you just need to contact me and a few days beforehand, I will let you have the link to the Zoom presentation. There is also an offer available for those who pre-order the book.

3d and Kindle

And there’s more. If all goes to plan, the audio book of Barefoot on the Cobbles produced by the awesome Circle of Spears Team will also be available from 29 August. Plenty of excitement here therefore although I now have to bite the bullet and try to remember how to upload the file for those who might want to order a Sins ebook, or to order from outside the UK. As usual, I issue a plea for those in the UK to order directly from me, my publisher or an independent book shop. Not only do you get a better quality book, rather than print on demand but it helps reduce my pile.

In other matters, I have discovered how difficult it is to  Zoom quiz when your other team members have Whats App and you don’t and despite living in the C17th, I am hazier about English Civil War battles than I should be. Fortunately, this did not feature in the above mentioned text book. I’d much rather concentrate on all the lovely social history than the political stuff.

Mostly about going Virtual – Isolation day 93

by thehistoryinterpreter

With all the awfulness that is going on at the moment, I am sure this should be a deep and meaningful commentary on current affairs. It isn’t. Not because I don’t feel strongly about things. Not because I don’t care. I am an historian. I should have something to say. Not least about what some claim is the erasing of our history. Indeed I do have thoughts and opinions, it is just that they are not yet fully formed and putting them into words requires more emotional energy that I have at the moment. So I am sorry if this seems a bit like I am burying my head in the sand and ignoring world events but just for now, I am retreating back into the everyday, whilst I process everything.

There haven’t been many posts lately because, to be honest, most things are just jogging along in much the same way as they have for the past few weeks. The weather has turned a bit and the garden has reached a plateau. Plenty of baby blue tits to watch but not much else to report. So far, the relaxing of lockdown restrictions has not made any difference to my life, so I remain here in my own little world, making contact online. I have been invited to do several online presentations and have attended a lovely school reunion and several Devon Family History Society meetings. I took part in Crediton Literary Festival, talking about Remember Then, which was fun and there is also a YouTube video of me, with a very croaky hay fever voice, reading from Barefoot on the Cobbles. I will be reading for Exeter Authors’ Coffee Time Sessions on Thursday at 12. I have decided to run my own series of family/social/local history lectures, as well as provide a four week continuation of the family history course that I ran for Crediton library. There are still spaces if anyone is interested in any of these.

Tomorrow is the cover/title reveal for novel #2; so anyone who has been waiting for more news will learn more of what it contains. I am attempting to read some extracts from the book at 11am via Facebook Live. That’s another whole new learning curve. Now to create my ‘set’, which so far involves some red material, a sprig of bay and a noose …….hmmmm.

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