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With easy access to the new Family History Centre in Myddleton St, I've been spending quite a lot of time working on my family tree again this year. But as well as the FHC research, I've made some new online contacts, particularly with the Canadian branch of the Edgar family, which has been nice.
I've also been having fun looking for Ed's grandad on the Ellis Island Website for US immigrants. Most people look for their immigrant ancestors, but William DOUGHTY was a mariner aboard several of the transatlantic liners. One of his ships was the "Adriatic", below, built in 1907. (I discovered that William was only about 5'2" tall! I say "about" because his details were usually filled in by his captain, so not only did he get older and then younger on successive trips, but he grew and shrank in height at random too!) Ed has become quite fascinated by the history of the ships of the White Star Line - he's found lots of websites with pictures and details of them all.
We went to see Arthur (who's birthday it was in Septmber, 35 years on from the wedding snap of him, above left) and Margaret, and got lots of family documents and photos from the 1930's and 1940's.The handsome young lad above right, showing a great family likeness to Arthur, is Arthur and Ed's Uncle Billy, who died at the age of only 20, of his war wounds. We got a copy of his school-leaving testimonial, which only emphasised the sadness of a life cut off before he had a chance to reach his potential. Ever since we found out Ed's grandad was in the Coldstream Guards, we've been interested in that regiment. We went to the Guards' museum, and found out what their uniform is like.
They are differentiated from the other guards regiments by a red cockade worn on the right side of their bearskin cap, and by their jacket buttons being arranged in twos. We don't know, though, if Ed's grandfather ever actually wore this full-dress uniform, as he was in the guards only during the first World War. I've written to the Regimental Archivist about it, but haven't received a reply yet.
We've been doing lots of non-genealogy stuff too, of course. In March it was Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding anniversary, and we went to help celebrate at their party.
Peter, Jackie and the kids were up for the long bank holiday weekend in May. We had glorious weather the whole time they were with us. This was at Standen, the Arts & Crafts style house with the William Morris interiors.
In July we went to a Campaign Paintball day with a crowd from Mitsubishi. We had to don camouflage gear and full-face goggles and run about some woods pretending to be commandos. I was lured there under false pretences - when we arrived, there were hundreds of young men, a handful of older guys, a handful of girls and me. It was all good fun, but painful when you got shot by an exploding paintball fired from a semi-automatic compressed-air gun.
As last year, I got a lot of pleasure in the Spring and Summer from pottering about in my garden.
We had a smashing holiday in Keswick with Mum and Dad at the end of July and took a few pictures. Joan and Ted came too, for part of the time and we were lucky with the weather, so it was a memorable week.
In August I abandoned Ed and went a trip to Holland via the Eurostar to Brussels, with Corrie Harris-Langenberg. We toured round Amsterdam, the Hague and Delft, before visiting her lovely family in Noord Brabant
From June to October, we followed the progress of Don and Linda Laing, via internet, as they set out to sail their catamaran Te Kore from Jordan, West to Australia. They got as far as Mallorca, in the Balleriacs, but then decided to give up. Meanwhile, Don's No1 son, Jude, fetched up on our doorstep, for a planned stay of a couple of months. Very different from No2 son Lewis, whom we had as a lodger in 1999, but equally welcome!
Like the rest of the world, we watched appalled the events in Manhattan on 11th September.
I discussed the events with a class of 4 year old nursery children, and led them in a two minute silence with the nation at 11 o'clock. Seeing their faces when I asked them to imagine that their mummy or daddy didn't come to collect them from school and they would never see them again, brought home the horror of the families for whom this is no fantasy.
On a personal level, we were delighted to hear from Carmen Fraguada, Ed's old secretary, that although she now works in lower Manhattan, she was safe, and went back to work Monday 17th.
We had some new members born into the family this year. Meet Jacob Alan Maddison, born on 26th August 2001. This picture of Rick, Ed and Vince was from our visit to Westhoughton to admire Jake, back in mid-September.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Margaret were celebrating the safe arrival of their second granddaughter, Keith and Ana's Heather del Carmen Davies.
We entered the Man v Horse (William) Hill Marathon in Llanwyrtyd Wells on 13th October, which is a 22 mile cross country race with 3,000ft of ascent en route. Ed completed the first 8 mile leg, and retired to an early bath, thus enabling him to take these pictures of Richard and I struggling home after 5hours and 12 minutes.
The first 15 miles went to schedule - we averaged 5 miles an hour, and got there in 3 hours, but it all fell apart after that - we ran out of legs, adrenalin, breath, and finished on willpower, 3rd from last. But the last 2 were 20 minutes behind us, and the man just behind us, we'd overtaken, lying flat on his back and moaning, on the last mile! The winner did it in not much over two hours, but was beaten by the first horse home. All good fun...
And then, the next week, we were off to Tuscany, with some of OCH3. Again, we were really lucky with the weather, which was mild and generally dry, but not too hot for some strenuous walks over the hills, and visits to San Giminiano, Florence, Sienna and Pisa. We stayed in a youth hostel in Castel Fiorentino, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Ed went off to Bangkok on the 2nd of November, initially until Christmas. Here he is having a farewell glass with his department staff in Croydon.
I went up to Cleethorpes in mid December to stay with Mum and Dad, and also saw Grandma, who, at the young age of 88, has been awarded a certificate in Computer Skills. It's never too late to learn...
December saw us celebrating our Silver Wedding. We didn't have a party, as family and friends are so scattered, but Rick and Nic took us out for dinner and a film ("Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone") which was lovely. He bought me a ring, and I bought him this oil painting by Ben Maile, which doesn't photograph well.
We had a lovely Christmas with Mum and Dad, and New year at Marion and Vince's. We didn't take too many pics, but this is the sprogs on Christmas morning. See others on their pages.
I was contacted by Roslyn Elliot (nee Saunders) in December, from the Friends Reunited Website (see Links page) with a lovely (!!!) seasonal pantomime picture of St.Peter's School production of Cinderella, c1962. I was the Fairy Godmother and hated my outfit, which was obviously a recycled wizard's cloak - I wanted wings, with sequins and tulle. Roslyn is 3 along from me. Cinderella was Suzanne North, Prince Charming David Stagg, and the Ugly Sisters David Bates and Alan Dawes.
Richard is fine - here he was in Kefalonia with Nicola in August. When they got back, they left their individual flats, and moved in together, in the ground floor of a victorian terraced house in Hammersmith. It's clean and decently furnished, and they've made a nice little home there.
Read my 1999 newsletter.
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