General Chat

No I don't go with whatever is the new black this year unless it coincides with what I like anyway. In fact although some people wear a lot of black I don't actually wear it that much at all. I have held on to one or two good things from when I was at work as one of my choirs likes us to wear black for performances and we add either a red or gold sash depending on the concert, and the other likes us to wear anything black and white - but this one's only been going a term and a half and we are just considering adding some bright options particularly since the music is current and popular and a lot of fun.

I wear a variety of colours, but the colour that turns up most is green - lots of different shades of it - I particularly like limes and sages but am not so keen on emerald green to wear although I love the emerald stone. OH bought me a gorgeous ring that I call my maternity ring (instead of eternity ring) when I had our son and then earrings to match when our daughter was born.

Do you or have you ever been a member of a local performing arts group of any kind?

I wrote a whole screed on this at 9.15 and it just whooshed !!

Other than cards no !

Son and dau have money, with a few bits and bobs thrown in.
Only buy now for hubby and his brother.
Bil likes a Fine red wine or a good Malt whiskey ..no probs

Sister lives in the US,and we all decided that presses for nieces and nephews stop at 21. Bil is divorced and estranged from his 2 sons:(

Just off to write my Xmas card list .lol and see how many more I need, I buy some in the Jan sales, but always buy special one for family and close friends about now.
And no I don't buy in bulk for Xmas !

Forgot what my question was now .lol...

Do you have a fav colour for clothes or go with the current fashion ..?

I'm not a big fan of Halloween , took my 2 girls round the neighbours when they were little, then when they grew up I never bothered very much with it and there was no little children in our street,
But this year I now have a little granddaughter (13 months) and we dressed her up as a pumpkin, and daughter no 2 and her boyfriend decided to make a pumpkin lantern and put it in the porch and we had about 7 children in all who came to the door, my little granddaughter wouldn't come and say hello I think she was a little over awed at the different people at the door but watched them through the living room window going up & down the street,

Shops are full of christmas decorations, Have you started thinking about it yet ?

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a lazy researcher.
Dad born 1913 and he and his cousin had researched his paternal line,

I joined GR to put it onto the puter for him, when I mentioned this to my cousin a lot older than me, he gave me all the details and copies he had on my maternal grand mother's side
My dad's uncle married my mother's aunt,so there was a lot of info there too.
When I put my tree up I was contacted by a second cousin on my mother's side (mum had a very unusual name) who had fully researched my maternal grandfathers side, who again offered me all details and copies he had.

Most of the family are buried at the Parish Church where I used to live,about 8 miles away, so I do headstone rubbings and take photos which I pass onto my cousins who live way out of the area as a thank you for them passing on their research to me.

Did you have many ' visitors ' at Halloween..?

So far I have been lucky and only had 2 wrong certificates, the same names as my ancestors but the parents have been wrong, I have just kept them and put them in a folder somewhere.

Family history is an expensive hobby do you spend alot of money researching and how far have you ever traveled from home to do your research

Yes I have bought quite a few. I have my parents and grandparents. I have a few great grandparents and even some great great grandparents too where certification allows. I decided to stick to immediate ancestors and to seek as many of those as should have existed. It's quite an expensive business and I have a little list of a few more I've tracked down, but I think I may put that on my Christmas list for OH to get me.

Sometimes it has been hard to decide which of a couple of possibilities is the correct one to order - in which case I try to find other pointers so mostly I've ordered the correct one, but once or twice it was impossible to decide and so I've just had to pick one and wait and see. So I do have one or two incorrect ones, but luckily not many.

Do you have any wrong certificates and what do you do with them?

Yes and No..lol
I'll try to explain, I've seen them but can't be sure exactly which ones they are !
They were both born in the village in which I was brought up in, but mums b,cert says Near to post Office ( that was in many places til my paternal nan took it over )
Dad's b'cert says 'Railway view' which no one knows where that is... he never thought to ask his mother.
We guess where both of them were, both within 100yds of each other, dad remembered a few places he lived before my nan bought the 'big house' but the name was Railway View , no one in his or mums family seems to remember it , or where mum was born, except that the houses were close:)

I have all the original b.m.d certs of my parents and grandparents,
Do you , or did you have purchase any from GRO..?

no not really as I never knew them and never heard much about them.My mam lost her parents quite young and my dad lost his in their 50s .His dad in 1952 and his mam in 1958. I was born in 1957 SO HAVE NO MEMORY.
I recently viewed a photograph which was thought to be my dads parents but my cousin couldnt be sure.
I know my maternal grandfather was wounded in the first world war and walked with sticks.He died from TB in. 1929. my grandmother died from cancer in 1941. She had 5 children and struggled to make ends meet.
Have you seen the houses your parents were born in?

Yes, both of my paternal grandparents and my grandmother lived to see our 3 sons although they don't remember her as they were too young. On my mother's side only my grandmother who was divorced from my grandfather, he was a violent alcoholic not helped by the fact he owned The Silverhill Tavern in St Leonard's on sea,so had unlimited access to drink. My grandmother had a sad life she had 5 children and lost two sons to meningitus in the same year. She had put her home in storage when she left my grandfather and when she went to retrieve it he had sold everything leaving her without anything.

Did you know much about your grandparents' lives ?

No ...............(if you discount when I was at Uni )

Family home from birth to marriage
Current home from then til now:)
Love my bungalow, had 2 extensions and also 2 children.lol

Did you know your grandparents ?

As a very small child I stayed with my mother at St Michaels, Tenterden, Kent for a few years when dad was in the army. My great Aunt owned a small holding bought by her husband when retiring from the police force, it cost him the grand sum of £650.00 pounds, recently it came on the market for £650,000 and we would love to have bought it. Although we live in an expensive area [not out of choice] this was still beyond our means.

Have you moved house many times in the past?

when I moved from a town in 1978 to where I live now it was a real old pit village. Plenty of allotments and seats to sit and watch the world go by.It was surrounded by fields. But today it is full of housing estates,less shops but lots of take aways. Ideally I like the old village green type places but not too far from a town with a decent hospital etc

If money allowed would you move to another area?

Absolutely.....
I live in a semi rural area, but family home is 5 miles away in countryside with loads of small lanes often with grass down the middle.
My boss had to do accompanied visiting with me and I used to scare him to death taking him along the back lanes.lol I'd go anywhere in my little Corsa, even hubby's Vectra,at that time. He used to say ' do you think you have an off road 4 x 4 ?'
Only scared myself twice ! Once on a tiny single lane mountain road, with a shear left hand drop..only went up there for a nosey.lol
and second time wasn't my fault, was driving the Vectra up a small bendy country leafy lane, when a farmer in a Land-rover came hurtling towards me. I slammed on the brakes ( wasn't going fast ) threw it into reverse and the farmer ended up skidding into the bank...not me thankfully! as it was hubby's car not mine.

Given the choice where would you prefer to live, village, town or city..? Why ?

I don't travel by train that often any more and when I did it was commuting from Essex to the City of London. Not a wild journey although it occasionally had its bits of interest. But I do remember a couple of train journeys I very much enjoyed.

The first was on a school trip to Italy where we took the ferry to France and the rest was done by train and coach. As we reached Basle there was an almight thunderstorm over the Alps which was quite spectacular. I'm sure the train was leaning to one side with us all hanging out of the windows watching.

The second was in my first job out of uni when I had been involved in organising a conference in Edinburgh. We had to travel from St Pancras and that is a lovely journey through some lovely countryside.

I enjoy driving and now we've moved from London to Wiltshire I like pootling out to find out about my new county. When I have time I particularly like just spotting a lane on my journey and finding out where it goes. Sometimes I end up on rarely used lanes that have grass down the middle and no passing space. Always good fun if you meet a tractor or a herd of cows. Then if I found somewhere really good I get OH in the car at the weekend and take him out to show him and for walkies. Lovely.

Anyone else do anything like that?

Not usually but last week while in Kent we travelled on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature steam railway.We find the best steam railway journeys are in Scotland because of the beautiful scenery.

If you have travelled this way what is your favourite journey ?

I think I was fortunate..( well compare to my hubby ) from a baby,( I am the youngest of my cousins) we used to have a caravan holiday , my mum her sister and us kids in Porthcawl in S. Wales for 3 weeks during the school hols, a real extended family holiday.lol then when dad was able to take his hols from work we had a fortnight in Tenby. We did later venture further to Devon before the first Severn bridge was opened.. took ages to get there.lol

Do you ever travel by rail..?

We had far more freedom than today's children and whole days were spent exploring Fairlight Glen or spending the day on Hastings beach in the school holidays.We were fortunate in having both sea and country to explore. Picking primroses in the spring and gathering chestnuts plus blackberries in the autumn kept us busy for hours. Family holidays away on the Norfolk Broads for a change of scenery.

Where did you usually spend your family holidays ?

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If you count jumping into the turquoise sea from a Greek pleasure boat, when you are a very poor swimmer (to say the least) well yes it was adventurous. I can only swim the width of a pool and that is either a very haphazard overarm or backstroke, can just about tread water but for how long I've never timed myself . Hubby ,a good proficient swimmer had already dived in from the deck, I jumped in from the bottom of the ladder.lol
I enjoyed the risk tho, knew hubby was around if I got into difficulties:))

Did you ever go out up the mountain or local area with a a picnic and stay out all day when you were a child..? We used to most of the summer!

OH and I once did a 20 storey abseil for cancer research. It was at the weekend and we thought it would be off an office block that would be closed, but when we got there it was off a block of flats and as you went down people were hung out of their windows asking "You alright love?" as you went down. My legs were jelly by the time I got to the bottom. I had done some small abseils before with Scouts and got to quite enjoy it but nothing approaching this height - it was a completely different proposition.

Have you ever taken part in any adventurous activities?