Feb's Interesting Genealogical Blog Finds

British Newspaper Archive - Facebook in the Edwardian Era

We thought Facebook was a modern day social network but what was Facebook in 1902? Read this to find out!

Worldwide Genealogy Blog - Drawing a blank? What do you do when you find nothing?

Some inspiration for those of us who are drawing a blank and not sure what to do to continue with our research.

The British GENES Blog - New monthly subscription rate from FindMyPast.co.uk

Having to cut your costs, well before cancelling your subscription take a look at FindMyPast.co.uk's new subscription rates.

Worldwide Genealogy Blog - Playing with FamilySearch Family Tree

A refreshing new look at the FamilySearch family trees.

Rooted in Foods - How a 1946 'The Joy of Cooking' added to my family tree

A really interesting story about a lady who found her ancestors cook book in a bookstore but did not know it belonged to her ancestor at first...

Importance of a person's name?

I read this quote a few days ago and it really got me thinking...

"A person's name:

• REPRESENTS and PERSONIFIES a person's character and sets him apart from everyone else.

When we call someone by their name we are declaring something over that person's life..."

...every time someone calls my name "RUTH" which means "friend; companion; vision of beauty" they are declaring that I am a friendly, companionable, beautiful person and unique. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

Have you ever looked into the meaning of your name?

Information from: Baby Name Meanings - Ruth (accessed 25 Feb 2014)

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 25 - Love

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 25 - Love

What does love mean to me? Well, this is quite a deep question which involves quite a bit of thought and processing...

Firstly, I would like to share that my love language is serving. I love being a servant and serving others.

Cutting the cake at our wedding

I love my husband... he is my best friend, the man who has chosen to spend the rest of his life with me. We're still working out what this looks like together as the years pass and I must say that every year I seem to love him more. He is the person who I can talk to about absolutely anything, he listens, offers his advise and expertise and just accepts me as I am. I have shared many adventures and dreams with him and we have many memories. He has stuck by me through thick and thin and I know I can rely on him for anything. I love being able to serve him by cooking, cleaning and generally looking after him. I am proud to be able to say he is my husband.

I love my parents, brother and extended family... they have also been with me through the thick and thin of life. They are part of who I am and probably know me better than I like to think they do. They have sacrificed so much to care for me as a young child and have encouraged me to reach my full potential in life. I will aim to put them before anything else in my life and also love to help them as best I can with giving and sharing my skills and gifts to bless them. I want to walk through life with them close by my side and share life with them.

I love my extended family and in-laws... I know that they're always there should I need them. I am very grateful to all my in-laws who have accepted me into their family as one of their own. They inspire me and I love to know that they are happy and enjoying life. I want to help if they are going through hardships. 

I love my job... yes, I have just said that!! I work as an Optometrist in a local hospital. I love being able to help people and care for people. I love the interaction I have with people, the other members of staff and patients. I love the work and the fact that I am challenged and pushed to learn more and better myself. I must admit I am not always enthralled to be there for 37.5 hours each week, but is any job perfect?!

A Love for the Arts by Delacorr
(Image link: www.wikipedia.org, Author:
Infamous Hussy,  14 Sept 2006, accessed 22 Feb 2014)

I love my community and church family... it a blessing to live in such a close knit community, knowing their are people from all walks of life, working together to bring the community together with all of our own skills and giftings. 

I love genealogy... I love discovering new things about my ancestors as it seems to aid me in the discovery of who I am.

I love music... it inspires me and allows me to be creative.

I love travelling... I love seeing the world and learning about people from different cultures and climates. I love the differences in the beauty of creation across the world.

LOVE is... a passion, a sacrifice, living a dream, an adventure and a challenge.

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 24 - My Favourite Colour

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Bridesmaids at my wedding

Week 24 - My Favourite Colour

My all time favourite colour is purple, similar to Cadbury's purple, which was the theme colour of our wedding. We had a few purple flowers in amongst cream roses but our bridesmaids wore various shades of purple dresses and the men purple ties and waistcoats.

Cutting the cake at our wedding

I love wearing bright vibrant colours, but purple has to be my all time favourite colour, but I also like wearing turquoise, blues, pinks, but rarely wear bright green, red or yellows.


I love clothes that have a nice pattern on as well, and if I am wearing few colours I feel boring and very uninteresting, so may add a scarf with bright colours in it.

My husband's graduation

When I was looking through my recent Facebook photos I noticed that I was wearing the same purple dress on at the christenings of both my God-daughters, my husband's graduation, as well as many other gatherings. It definitely is one of my favourite dresses at the moment and think it reflects me well, with lots of pattern and purple with a bit of pink!

In my house, I also love bright colours on a feature wall and have a beautiful red living room and a turquoise and chocolate brown bedroom, but no purples.

I find purples are too cold in the house, they make the rooms feel cold, so I prefer warmer colours such as reds and oranges.

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 23 - Memory Board

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 23 - Memory Board

I do not have a current "memory board" as I would call it, but as I was reading this prompt I was staying with my brother's family and I noticed that both my brother and his wife have a memory board in their joint office (which is also their spare bedroom).

My oh so disorganised Memory Board

It is a great idea to have somewhere to pin up memorable things such as event tickets, photos of family and friends and reminders of memorable events. On my brother's he had a medical card which my mum had kept from when he was born as well as lovely photos of memorable occasions.

I do have a cork board in my kitchen which is not very well organised and contains all sorts of pieces of paper pinned to it, from drawings from our sponsor child in Brazil, to the wifi password, the local doctors surgery leaflet, swimming timetable from 2011, my husband's paintings, letters we receive from family members, photos people send us of their children, etc. I am not sure I could call it a "memory board" as it is so disorganised and overflowing that no one can see anything clearly on it!!

Reading this prompt has inspired me to do something about our kitchen corkboard, either buy a larger one or to organise it better and take off the outdated information attached to it.

If I made a new one, I would like favourite photos of family and friends, event tickets, etc and any recent paintings my husband has done (you can see some of his art at his blog Found in Praise) as well as having an area of important information such as wifi password or doctors surgery leaflet. I think this is a task which will be put on hold until we move house and then I can buy a new board bespoke to fit in our house.

10,000 blog pageviews

Congrats
(Image link: www.wikipedia.org, Authors:
Photographer: Warren Denning, Creative Director:
Stan Weir, Marketing Director: Tim Vlamis,
May 2002, accessed 8th Feb 2014) 

WOW, I cannot believe I have finally made it to 10,000 pageviews on this blog.


The blog has been active for about 22 months, yet I have only been blogging actively on it since January 2013.


It has been hard work keeping up with the blog, alongside writing a book about my Davidson ancestors and still researching my family tree.


I am really grateful to all my readers and followers of this blog and hope that I can keep you interested to 20,000 pageviews!!!!


Some of the all time favourite posts on this blog are:

• Origins of Surnames in the UK
• Finding a Marriage Certificate for your Ancestors (post-1837)
• Lincs to the Past
• Help required....what is the occupation?

My favourite posts:

• Origins of Surnames in the UK
• Weekend Family Finds
• Traditional English Naming Pattern

Ancestry.co.uk West Yorkshire Tax Valuation 1910

On Facebook this afternoon I noticed Ancestry.co.uk advertising that they had put online the West Yorkshire Tax Valuation records to search...

Facebook - Ancestry.co.uk (accessed 7/2/14)

...as many of my ancestors lived in West Yorkshire in 1910, I decided to test the new record set and searched for my great, great grandfather - Frederick Slater Poole born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1860 but living in Horsforth nr Leeds, West Yorkshire in 1911.

I found him at 2 Rose Avenue, Horsforth nr Leeds, West Yorkshire...

West Yorkshire Tax Valuation - Ancestry.co.uk (accessed 7/2/14)

...interesting to know who owned his house and where he was living in 1910 but unsure what else these records might be able to tell me.

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 22 - Daily Routine

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 22 - Daily Routine

I love being in a good routine, as it generally means I am efficient and effective with my time. There is much more routine during the working week as life can get somewhat hectic, so having a fixed routine gets me through it and helps me get as much as needs doing done without getting too stressed. Weekends are much more relaxed and much less routined.

Part of me also love spontaneity and flexibility so that we can squeeze extra exciting things into the week if required, but weekends tend to be my spontaneous, flexible, fun times. My husband is also much less of a routine-y person as well so he keeps me flexible.

My parents when I was a child were very routined which is why I probably do like a routine to follow. As me they liked to be organised and life was always very busy with one thing or another so routine was important.

My current weekday daily routine consists of:

• 6am - GET UP, have breakfast, shower, read, etc
• 7:30-45am - leave home for work
• 8:30am - work starts and my morning clinic starts
• 12-1pm - lunch when my clinic finishes
• 1-1:30pm - afternoon clinics start
• 4:30-6pm - when clinic finishes pack up and come home
• 6-7:30pm - cook dinner and eat, make lunch for next day
• 7:30-8pm - if we're going out (probably 3x a week) we go out for an hour or 2 and if not we might watch some TV or write blogs or just generally chill out
• 10pm - BED!!!!

January's Interesting Blog Finds

Angler's Rest - Genealogical Proof, Fact & Sourcing

A really great blog post about the importance of sourcing where you find your facts!

Geneabloggers - 2014: Putting the "Gee" Back in Genealogy

A great blog post to inspire you about the family history research you were beginning to find a burden.

Slate - Jewish Surnames Explained

A really interesting read about the origins of the Jewish surnames, not desimilar to the origins of British ones, but still interesting to know where some quite common European surnames are derived from.

The British GENES Blog - Ancestry uploads English and Welsh PCC Wills

Keep up to date with new uploads to the big genealogy search websites. Could be a really useful one to search for your ancestors!

Blogher.com - Blogger Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Photos You Don't Own On Your Blog

Be very aware about what images you can use legally on your blog.