When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on - Franklin D Roosevelt

Yesterday was 'one of those days'. If I am honest those difficult days seem to crop up with surprising regularity and just occasionally I find myself wondering if things will ever get easier. I am not usually an Eeyore type, I try to have a positive outlook, but everyone has their moments. 

We all have our own ways of dealing with a bad day, some people distract themselves with a shopping trip, but I prefer to log on to the computer to spend an hour or two working on my family history. I enjoy finding out about the lives of my ancestors and it helps to put things into perspective. However difficult things seem to be for me, I know that I have it easy in comparison to many of my ancestors. 


I have been working on a very faded photograph of my grandma and a group of other people. With the help of a couple of other people I have managed to restore the photo and I have been trying hard to identify the other people in the picture. It is strange looking at a photo of my grandmother as a young woman, no older than my children are now. I remember her as a strong and rather formidable old lady, but looking at the younger photo I saw a gentler face full of youthful hope. It must have been about 1911 and I realised that dreadful worry and sorrows lay ahead of her. There must have been times when just putting one foot in front of the other and getting on with life was almost impossible, but she did it. Her life experiences gave her the inner strength and determination that I remember so clearly.


She had many little sayings, one of her favourites was 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. I didn't realise it at the time, but she was living proof of that. Thinking about my grandma reminded me of a framed verse that she kept on the mantelpiece,"Four things come not back, the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity". I didn't understand the truth of it at the time, but I do now. I will not allow the worries and aggravations that come my way to cast a shadow over the many good things in my life. People may have cause to regret underestimating me, I come from a long line of strong women and I don't give up!

Magna est veritas et praevalet     

Family History - Expect The Unexpected

I have been busy working on my family tree, it really can become addictive. I had hit a brick wall with one person but finally I managed to find the missing information and within a day I had gone back another two generations.

Tracing your family tree is an absorbing and rewarding pastime and with so many online resources it has never been easier to trace your ancestors. There will almost certainly be some sad stories and you should be prepared for some surprises including some that may take a lot of getting used to.

Read the full article here

Back to Normal

It was half term last week and I enjoyed a week off with Sam. I didn't manage to do any of the things I had planned to do because the week just seemed to fly past. Come to think of it I seemed to get through money at an alarming rate too, why are teenagers so expensive!

During last week I allowed myself some time off from my normal writing work to work on my family tree. I was able to make a lot of progress with finding information about a relative who worked in Birmingham as a policeman at the time that Jack the Ripper brought terror to the streets of London. I was even able to find a photo of him and his wife, it is very special to be able to show the children a photo of their great, great, great grandparents. It is such a good feeling when you make progress after coming up against a brick wall for so long.

A Well Travelled Weekend 20.01.08

I haven't updated the blog this weekend because Robbie has been distracting me. He has caught the family tree bug and I have been busy checking census records and adding information to his tree. I wonder if we will find anyone else quite like him - somehow I doubt it! He has made contact with a distant cousin in USA and that seems to have fired his enthusiasm to continue his research, or to put it more accurately he is filled with enthusiasm for me to continue his research!

Robbie and Sam had a busy day yesterday, they made an early start and went to Walsall to meet the gang, but the Wild Woman is playing silly games again so Sam and Robbie had to rethink their day. After visiting one of Robbie's favourite cafe's to sustain themselves the embarked on an epic journey. They had already travelled from Northampton to Walsall via Birmingham, they then headed to Wolverhampton and back to Birmingham New street. They caught a train to leeds Leeds, changed trains to Bradford, their destination was the Media Museum - they liked it so much they stayed until it closed! On the way back from Bradford they became stranded at New Pudsey because a lorry had bashed into the railway bridge. They were rescued by one of Robbie's 'women' from Northern Rail, she picked them up and drove them to Leeds to continue their journey. According to Sam, Robbie talked non stop all the way to Leeds - sorry Jill! They resumed their rail journey from Leeds to Birmingham New Street and then back to Northampton. It was past 11pm when the bleary eyed pair got home - but they were still talking non stop!

They had a brilliant time at the film museum. They were both very impressed with the animation gallery which explained the evolution of animation from the earliest film cells to Wallace and Gromit. They were able to find out about various film illusions and tricks in an area called Magic Factory. I think Robbie liked the TV Heaven section best, it gave the history of British television and you could go into different booths to watch snippets of old shows. They saw Zippy and George from Rainbow, the Playschool toys, Gordon the Gopher, Captain Scarlet, Captain Black and one of the Thunderbirds puppets. There was loads more to see, but by the time they had told me that much I couldn't take in anymore information!

After their busy day yesterday Robbie and I were in no hurry to get up this morning. It was nice to have a bit of 'us' time, but Robbie managed to spoil it by choosing the most inappropriate moment to inform me that East Midlands Trains are proposing to run an additional service to and from London which starts and terminates at Kettering. My life is so much richer for knowing that!!