A birth certificate has 10 numbered columns for information, the unnumbered column on the left is a filing number. . A birth certificate is often the first document to launch you onto that journey into your family’s history. The document provides a birth date (column 1) and sometimes even a time. The timing on aContinue reading “To begin at the very beginning (a very good place to start)”
Category Archives: My blog
Great Aunt Fanny could tell you a tale or two about the olden days
Although family history is based on provable facts it does not mean you should ignore individual memories or family stories which have been handed down orally over generations. A senior member of a family, a grandparent born in the 1930s or 40s could give you a direct link to someone alive during the reign ofContinue reading “Great Aunt Fanny could tell you a tale or two about the olden days”
If you want to get ahead get a hat, or two, or four, or even more
Who among you has never collected things – from cigarette cards to Pokemon cards; postage stamps to old coins; autographs to train numbers? You may even have become a collector by accident, or by just not throwing things away when other tastes change. There are even unconscious collectors. You buy a book and because youContinue reading “If you want to get ahead get a hat, or two, or four, or even more”
Who’s book began like that?
I hope you enjoyed the book quiz. Here are the answers: A “The boy with the fair hair . . .” was the opening of Lord of the Flies, the masterpiece about how quickly we could return to savagery, written by William Golding. Following a plane crash, a group of schoolboys find themselves on aContinue reading “Who’s book began like that?”
First and last in new book quiz
Sorry about the absence for a couple of days. I’m adding something new to the mix. A little literary quiz based on well-known books and their first and last lines. See if you know the book each one is from and the name of the author. It’s just for fun but if you want toContinue reading “First and last in new book quiz”
Getting off on the wrong foot as my cinematic world turns upside down
The first day at a new job, or even, when I was a lot younger, a new school, never bothered me. Even interviews were not a problem because I always took the attitude that if I didn’t get this job then there’d be another one coming along soon. Mind you my first day as anContinue reading “Getting off on the wrong foot as my cinematic world turns upside down”
Nothing like a goode booke as long as it all makes complete sense
By now you must know how much I like (like? LOVE) books and hopefully understand why my Christmas and birthday lists always have at least one (most times many more) request for a book. It could be a classic, a thriller, poetry, or more. For Christmas I listed a book I have been meaning toContinue reading “Nothing like a goode booke as long as it all makes complete sense”
Walking into a lion’s den and out again with a smile on my face
The blue plaque on a building in South Street, Mayfair, which was once the headquarters of the Rank Organisation. It was a delight to pick my old Morris Minor up and it didn’t take me long to drive from Colchester to Basildon where I was greeted by the three young ladies in my life. Sarah,Continue reading “Walking into a lion’s den and out again with a smile on my face”
A brief break in my old haunts then home again, home again, jiggity jig
After the tour it was a change to have a good Sunday roast with my parents and a very comfortable bed to sleep in that night, but no rest for the wicked, as they say, not that I consider myself wicked of course. Bright and early Monday morning, well not long after 9am, I wentContinue reading “A brief break in my old haunts then home again, home again, jiggity jig”
No more Izzy Wizzy it’s time for me to say ‘bye bye everybody, bye bye’
The time had finally come when The Sooty Show turned its back on the South and East and headed North – which for Harry and Sooty was really going home because Harry was a Yorkshireman to his boots, despite his time down in the West Country. We had six venues left on the tour butContinue reading “No more Izzy Wizzy it’s time for me to say ‘bye bye everybody, bye bye’”
Robin's Nest 