Tag Archives: genealogy

#RootstechConnect Ramblings Part 1

by thehistoryinterpreter

I have to congratulate the #RootstechConnect and Family Search Team for an impressive feat of organisation. The day began with a Zoom breakfast chat with the lovely folk from Family Tree Magazine (UK). It was great to see so many familiar faces. I was able to become part of the ‘What Family Historians Like for Breakfast’ poll.

I then started making my way through the playlist that I’d made from the 1500+ sessions on offer. This proved not to be as daunting as I’d thought, as some were less than two minutes long and none were more than twenty minutes. There doesn’t seem to be a way of knowing how long the session is until you open the video. I started with Why Family Search has a shared Family Tree with Brad Lowder, worth watching for the hilarious opening but I might dispute his reference to it as ‘the most accurate tree’.

I tried looking at Thru Lines and Genetic Clusters with Nicole Dyer, then watched Penny Walters’ more substantial Adoption sessions. Having had fun with Relatives at Rootstech, I tuned in to Mike Sandburg’s session, which was accompanied by rather a lot of background noise. I learned that you could filter the relatives by maternal and paternal lines. Only 20% of mine are on my mother’s side.

I then decided I’d better see what was on offer in the Expo Hall and maybe pick up some bargains. I was tempted to upgrade my Family Tree Maker at a seriously discounted price, although the person I ‘spoke’ to seemed to think it was a better idea for me to use the existing customer discount, which is substantially less than the show offer. I then tried to get a reduction for my soon to expire Ancestry account. Having got rid of the virtual assistant I got a real person who offered me 30% off but I would have to ‘ring this number’ as they couldn’t process payments on chat. I duly rang that number and spoke to a ‘customer solutions agent’. I was a bit surprised to find the person on the end of the phone had absolutely no idea what Rootstech was. She kept telling me that Rootsweb was different! ‘You know’, I said, ‘big virtual conference, half a million people.’ It appeared to fall on stony ground and I couldn’t get a discount as I had no record of the ‘conversation’ I’d had online, not much of a solution there then.

Some ‘proper’ sessions next. Maurice Gleeson on Y DNA for surname research, Sylvia Valentine’s Children in Care and Debbie Kennett’s Secrets and Surprises, followed by the briefer 10 Virtual Family History Activities to Connect with Family from Shenley Puterbaugh. I watched and enjoyed Sunetra Sarker’s live keynote session but I will give the other keynotes, none of whom I’ve heard of, a miss. I am afraid I just can’t get my head around using non-historians/family historians as keynotes, although that’s just me, other people love these sessions and find them inspiring.

I then had fun with My Heritage’s new Deep Nostalgia feature, which animates old photographs in a somewhat creepy fashion. This is another marmite thing and I have misgivings about tampering with the original evidence but this didn’t stop me giving it a go.

I finished the day with a brief visit to a virtual genie pub.

All in all, great fun. I hope you are joining the party. Now all set for day two. What will that bring?

Facts, Figures and Fiction: having fun with Relatives at #RootsTechConnect

by thehistoryinterpreter

Today came the excitement that we can see who our Relatives at Rootstech are. I now have 71. Not unexpectedly, 65% are living in the US, 16% in Canada, 10% in Australia and 9% in the UK.

The closest relation, who remained so about as long as my alleged relationship to Prince William lasted (see yesterday’s blog), was a third cousin. Some more tree surgery and now she is correctly labelled as a 5th cousin once removed. I have four of these and these are the closest Relatives at Rootstech. This is about par for the course given my dearth of cousins. Amongst the Relatives at Rootstech, I have six sixth cousins, fifteen sixth cousins once removed and seven sixth cousins twice removed. Then follow various seventh and eight cousins. The most remote relatives identified are nine nineth cousins, five of whom descend from the same couple.

What was most interesting, was which branches of my family were and were not, represented. I should say that, apart from one brick wall great great grandparent, my tree is fairly evenly populated, with many lines back to 4x or 5x great grandparents and beyond. I looked at my Rootstech relatives and which of my eight great grandparents they linked to. As expected, no one was connected to the brick wall ancestor. I have now added the people who I believe to be his parents and the ancestry beyond that, to see if that makes any difference. Much more surprisingly, two other great grandparents were not represented at all, although I suppose one was called Smith and others may not have had much success tracing them. Given the high levels of emigration from Devon and Cornwall, I was expecting many of my relatives to link to that quarter of my ancestry. What I wasn’t prepared for was quite how overwhelmingly this was the case. 72% of my Relatives at Rootstech come from this 25% of my ancestry. An overwhelming 38% of my Relatives at Rootstech come from just one line, although I must say that I believe the earliest generations of this tree to be speculative. I suspect that US descendants of this line became adherents of the LDS church, which might account for the high number of matches.

I began, as you do, by madly and randomly clicking on the various listed relatives. The I went through them methodically, making a note of all the names, so, if the number goes up, I can tell who is new. I have also listed the relationship, the common ancestors and where the relative lives. I then went through each one, to see if they featured on my list of DNA matches. Of course, I only picked this up if the user name was similar or recognisable. I thought I might identify the connection for some of those DNA matches with no Ancestry trees, or private trees. I was surprised and disappointed find just one Relative at Rootstech who was also a DNA match, and I had already identified her place on my tree.

Relatives at Rootstech by Great grandparent

If you want to join in the fun, there are three stages to the process. You need to make sure you have signed up for RootsTechConnect using the same email address that you use to log in to Family Search. You have to have some kind of tree at Family Search and you have to have opted in to Relatives at Rootstech. I would love to find out that I am related to someone I know.

The Power of Blogging and Being in Two Places at Once

by thehistoryinterpreter

There have been some more excitements on the family history front lately. Having discovered new third cousins, just a week later, I was contacted by the great niece of my father’s life-long best friend. The best friend had written his memoirs, mentioning my father and my contact also had photos that I didn’t have. As my father died when I was nine, these memories were particularly precious. The way in which she found me was also amazing. She didn’t go searching for the descendants of my dad, instead she had Googled a place name, where her great-uncle had been during the war. On last year’s VE day anniversary, I had blogged about my dad’s wartime experiences. He and his friend had joined up together, so the place was mentioned and my blog came up on her Google search!

Along with half the genealogical world, I am signed up for next week’s RootstechConnect. If you haven’t yet registered, go ahead now, it is free. There is an unbelievable amount on offer. An optional aspect of this is to join ‘Relatives at Rootstech’ via the Family Search website. This means that, during the conference, you can contact those who appear on the same composite family tree as you. This tree is hosted on Family Search and for it to work, you have to have a least an outline tree there. This was something that I had resisted up until now but as I lack any living ancestors, I thought I would go for it. It actually doesn’t take long, as you only have to add three or four generations before you link up with the worldwide tree that is already there. There are minor frustrations, as you have to lop off some of the wildly speculative connections that others have added but this was soon accomplished. As of today, I have 69 relatives at Rootstech.

Adding to the Family Search tree also enables you to have a bit of fun seeing if you are related to anyone famous; although many of the possible celebrities are American. I really don’t subscribe to the cult of celebrity and I would far rather be connected to interesting lesser known individuals but it seemed rude not to give it a whirl. For about ten minutes I was Prince William’s tenth cousin once removed. I was mildly interested enough to see if the suggested link held water. It didn’t. After a bit more pruning, I was left with an alleged relationship to an obscure US President. Suffice it to say, that was wrong too but by then I’d lost the will to conduct any more tree surgery.

I have been revisiting one line of my daughters’ ancestry and have been able to add a few generations. When one of them was very small (I won’t say which one to project the guilty) she decided that she was going to name her future children water filter and fish tank; this decision passed into family lore. So there I was, delving into a Wiltshire parish register, only to find that her x times great grandfather had the christian names Fish Coppinger. I checked the original and also a military record and that really was his name. I hoped that would be a clue to earlier relatives but although Fish Coppinger (in this case Coppinger was the surname) was a notable individual, he certainly doesn’t seem to be a relation of the Wiltshire agricultural labouring family that I was researching. I suspect they named one of their fifteen children after the local landowner, in the hope of preferential treatment.

FindmyPast are rolling out new ways of viewing documents. I haven’t had much change to explore yet but after the initial, ‘oh no this is awful’ reaction, that usually accompanies anything new, I have discovered some distinct advantages. I am a fan of the new ability to go straight from image to transcription without going back out to the results. Moving to adjacent images is also now easier.

Oh and the being in two places at once thing. This is an art I appear to have now perfected. I was giving a Zoom talk the other day, whilst my friends were in a meeting of a different society. It seems that someone in their audience was multi-tasking, as they were able to hear a snippet of my talk being relayed by someone who hadn’t muted themselves and was in one meeting, whilst listening to mine.

The really exciting news is that I will be joining the ranks of the vaccinated next week and just to prove that spring it on the way, this lone daffodil has been bravely blooming in my garden for the past couple of weeks.

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.

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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