Catching up....

So, a larger than usual gap between posts, sorry.  I'm house-sitting in the wilds of the county at the moment and, although that means I'm away from my databases, I have spent some of the time checking the info on my website.

Quite an interesting exercise ..... you notice all the references that are missing and the events which simply could not have happened but that you never noticed before!  I would recommend it to fellow genealogists but most of you probably checked all the info before putting it on the interweb!

Anyway, must go as the house-sitting includes looking after two cats who have, during my sojourn here, brought me a decent variety of wildlife.  Mostly small, I grant you, but some of it was still alive.  House has been cleansed of the feathers.....

More soon.

A whole lot of Bull ....

Exciting time this week - I managed to throw away another two sheets of paper from the corner of the desk and one from off the floor!

I also went over to St Ives to finally meet Sue and her husband Rob.  He's my second cousin once removed, and Sue & I have been emailing for a number of years.  An excellent guided tour of the Hemingfords first, which included Common Lane .... a road where the only "common" thing is the grassy field at the end!  

And then Sue let me loose on the photos ..... I love old photos, any old photos, but I particularly enjoy old photos of people to whom I am distantly related.  Sheer joy, then, to finally see a decent photo of Albert (Dick) Culpin & his wife Florence (nee Measures) and their three daughters.  And Henry (Bob) and his wife Grace.

And Sue & Rob were kind enough to give me the letter my grandfather wrote to Florence when her husband, his uncle, died.  That's the first time I've ever seen his handwriting and it will be much treasured.

Oh, and, I had a (reasonably) close encounter with a bull.  The family has a farm and the bull needed moving from one field to another.  I volunteered to help and was equipped with a bit of blue plastic tubing and the instruction to make myself big.  I understood entirely what was meant but wasn't really prepared for the size of the beast.  Or the fact that he was a little bit frisky.  And he spotted me.

Fear not, loyal reader, my hosts intervened before my safety was threatened but I would like to point out that this bull is, to use an agricultural term, a bit of a big b****r.  Rob gently told me that, actually, the bull is only two-thirds of its adult size!

So, exhilarating.  Certainly made my heart beat faster.  But no experience is wasted and I shall know next time: keep out of the way!  I had a lovely day and was made most welcome.  I was drinking coffee yesterday when I got an email from Sue, with an attachment .... a picture of the bull!  Coffee went everywhere as I laughed out loud.

More soon.

Much confused ...

I've spent the last three hours adding Culpins various to the databases.  Some of the notes have been around for a while so it was good to find the writing was still legible and the ink hadn't faded too much! I'd found some obits online a few months ago and was able to claim a couple of them for the family file so that was good. But one note which has led to much scratching of the head. 

On the "iannounce.co.uk" website, I found Reginald Culpin enlisted in Loughborough and was in the Leicestershire Regiment. At the time of his death he was with the Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in Flanders on 14 July 1918 aged 19 years. He is buried in an unknown grave and commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, Panel 129, and Kegworth Church. And his service details are on Ancestry: Reginald Henry Culpin. Son of Arthur Biddle Culpin and Frances Ellen, nee Heighton. And on the CWGC website: son of Arthur Riddle and Frances Ellen. What's a B or an R between friends? 

But .... and far be it from me to question the authorities here ..... I think he's actually Richard Henry. Born 1899 and the right age. Just to confuse me, he has a brother Reginald Arthur, born 1905. I did wonder if the real Reginald joined up under age but records show him getting married in 1932 and dying, at the right age for his birth, in 1968. So, I think it really was Richard Henry (I'll say his name again) who joined up and gave his life. Wonder why he was registered in the army as Reginald? And how does this error carry on? Surely someone would have corrected it by now? 

Maybe the clouds of confusion will lift if I stop thinking about it .... 

More soon.

Sidetracked again ....

Wondering what or who to write about yesterday, I thought I'd use the new Calendar page on my website.  A choice of William Wade, George Debney and George Blaydon; I discarded the two Georges and went for Mr Wade.

He belongs to the "Langford" side of my ancestry, being the son of Edward Wade & Phebe Bigley, born in Chatteris.  And I didn't have much about him.  So I set to, websites on every tab, and discovered him marrying (Mary Hurry), having children (11:7:4, according to the 1911 census) and ultimately dying in Peterborough in 1925.

However, as often happens, I didn't stop to actually tell you all about him.  Having discovered seven children (remember: 11 born of the marriage, 7 still alive, 4 died), I wanted to find out who the "still alive" ones were.  So far, I have proved that Harriet (born 1878 in Warboys, married Charles Baxter) was in Goodyer's Yard, Peterborough, in 1911 with husband and five children; Minnie (born 1883 in Peterborough, married George Ashpool) was in North Street, Stanground; and Hannah (born 1887 in Peterborough, married Charles Carley) was in Henson Street, Peterborough.

Add to those three, their sister Ethel (born 1892 in Peterborough) who was "assisting mother" at home in 1911.  So we're up to four.  But, if Ethel was born in 1892, where was she in the 1901 census?  

And what happened to Caroline (born 1894 in Peterborough)? Seven years old in 1901, she would be old enough to be out as a "GSD" (general servant domestic) by 1911 ..... can I find her?  How many different ways are there to spell "Wade"?  Or Caroline?  Doubtless, I'll have a better idea later today!

And did William, the only brother, marry Louie Apthorpe in 1909?  Probably more than one William Wade in Peterborough at that time ...!  

All this really is to say that I set out with good intentions ..... but, hey, better late than never ...?

More soon.

Foreign Parts

OK, so I'm not terribly keen on the new layout of FamilySearch most of the time but today I simply love it!  I've found India ....

Well, I knew India exists, obviously, and I also know that some of my rellies soldiered out there.  But today I discovered someone marrying out there, having a child out there and, by inference, dying out there (his young bride marries again, three years after marrying him, and is listed as a widow).

Jaazaniah Culpin, for t'was he, was born in Ketton cum Tixover, Rutland, in 1824, the youngest of the eight children of John and Ann and was christened in the parish church.  And that's all I knew about him, until today.  I'd thought that his unusual name would help me keep track of him ...... yeah, right, I was quite naive back then!  I have to think about how to spell it so I don't imagine it appears the same way twice.

Anyway, I'm very pleased to have found him and his son, named after him poor boy, but then he dies so soon .  Not unusual, I appreciate, but my experience has always been that the wife dies first!  Still, being a soldier was undoubtedly an occupation which was hazardous to health so I shouldn't have been surprised.

Let's hear it for FamilySearch .... and I'll try harder to like the layout.

More soon.

All over the place

Yep, that's me - all over the place again.  

I've finally entered into the database some newspaper articles which I transcribed over a year ago ..... can't rush a good thing, I think!  These were about Vic Martin, late of the parish of Girton, who was a West Ham legend and played in the White Horse Cup Final, as well as for England.  Seems it had occurred to the villagers of Girton that some manner of remembrance was required and they duly erected a plaque, appropriately enough at the football club.

And I've also been following a friend's distant relative who I discovered, in the words of Mark Knopfler & James Taylor, "sailing to Philadelphia" (great song, by the way).  Once I'd switched my remaining brain cell on and realised that Philadelphia is a town, not a state (I have some fairly dumb moments), I went off to the central library and settled down in front of Ancestry.com for an hour "in the USA".

Only one problem ensued ..... how can someone be christened, in a different country, before they claim to have been born?  The index of West Yorkshire Births & Baptisms, on ancestry, gives a christening which is a good six months before he admits, on the US Federal Census on 1920, that he was born.  Good trick if you can do it!

On the positive side, and almost nullifying the above problem as far as I'm concerned, is that three of the family applied for US passports ..... and therefore there are photographs!!!!  Excellent!

So now I'm going to go and enter all this data before the golf comes on.

If the golf comes on ..... it didn't half rain up in Inverness yesterday.

More soon.

The fourth estate down under

The roof's on at Wimbledon and the rain is thundering down here too, complete with celestial fireworks.  Just another summer's day in Britain!

Anyway, I'm going to continue my praise of the Australians and their Trove newspaper site.  Go to: http://www.trove.nla.gov.au to see what I mean.  I have had just *so* much fun with it!

The latest discovery was one of quite a few detailing the life and loves of one of the Pioneer families of Western Australia.  Not within my tree, alas, but no less fascinating for being antecedents of one of my friends.  I'm deliberately not mentioning names at this point because the "latest discovery" was three articles questioning whether one of the sons had actually abducted a young girl .....

Quite heart-rending, actually, as the girl herself was an orphan who was being treated badly by the woman who had taken her in. The first article rather suggested that the young man was a peeping tom, as well as a child abductor, but I recognised other names and realised he was just looking to see if his sister was at home!

In the end, all charges were dropped against him, although I feel sure he was warned to be more careful in future!  Sadly, I don't recall whether the girl's life improved ....

My strawberries and (free) cream are calling to me.

More soon.