Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Ooh! Pastures! I would just love to take you abroad somewhere, and watch all your reactions to things, starting with the airport! :j :j
I can see a Bill Bryson-type book in there somewhere! 'Experiences of a Holiday-Abroad Virgin', or something more tasteful!
Seriously, though, it would be an extremely interesting thing to do.

On the telly I've caught a few episodes of "Idiot Abroad" - that's fabulous - and I've sat and watched it in the past and thought "I'd think that"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Idiot_Abroad

Pyxis wrote: »

(I rather suspect you'd fall in love with the experience, and then there'd be no stopping you! )

Er .... cash availability is a great limiter of choices

I'd rather have, say, a rug and a coffee table than a weekend in Bruges... you can keep the rug/table for life and know what you're getting.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

On the telly I've caught a few episodes of "Idiot Abroad" - that's fabulous - and I've sat and watched it in the past and thought "I'd think that"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Idiot_Abroad


Er .... cash availability is a great limiter of choices

I'd rather have, say, a rug and a coffee table than a weekend in Bruges... you can keep the rug/table for life and know what you're getting.

'Idiot Abroad' was very funny!

Yes, I understand about the rug and table. However, I now get far more pleasure from experiences, and the thing about experiences is that they do last a lot longer than the pleasure from new things, in most cases.
Ok, yes, some holidays turn out to be duff, but even those experiences are useful, in the overall scheme of things.

However, holidays that are based on things you enjoy, or want to try out, can be much, much nicer and more successful than just going to a random resort. For one thing, the other people on the former type of holiday already have something in common with you, which makes things so much easier.

I wonder if there are holidays to do with genealogy?
Or how to use a torque wrench?

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Yes, I understand about the rug and table. However, I now get far more pleasure from experiences, and the thing about experiences is that they do last a lot longer than the pleasure from new things, in most cases.

There's a place for experiences ... when you've got your home sorted.

I'd like it to look like a home - and not a "half inhabited house, with a strange hoarding hermit sitting inside it".

To get to that stage, money needs to be spent on other stuff ... blinds, lampshades, a coffee table .... a rug ....



The list is quite long. I've no curtains in the 'spare bedroom' (junk room) - which I'd like - and I can't buy those until I've a curtain pole fitted. There is one there, half hanging off the wall, so, for now, I've got some random lightweight net curtains hanging off it.

In the kitchen I'd like a table and a "bit of sort of built in seating" for that.

Then there are blinds required for all the other windows... and a pair of curtains for the living room.

And ... well ... just "stuff". Stuff so I'd not be embarrassed to say to somebody "come over". It looks a bit like a squat awaiting eviction a lot of the time

When the house is sorted/finished (this time next year?) I do plan a brief holiday ... not far, it'll just take a small ferry to get there ... and it's all English.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

There's a place for experiences ... when you've got your home sorted.

I'd like it to look like a home - and not a "half inhabited house, with a strange hoarding hermit sitting inside it".

To get to that stage, money needs to be spent on other stuff ... blinds, lampshades, a coffee table .... a rug ....



The list is quite long. I've no curtains in the 'spare bedroom' (junk room) - which I'd like - and I can't buy those until I've a curtain pole fitted. There is one there, half hanging off the wall, so, for now, I've got some random lightweight net curtains hanging off it.

In the kitchen I'd like a table and a "bit of sort of built in seating" for that.

Then there are blinds required for all the other windows... and a pair of curtains for the living room.

And ... well ... just "stuff". Stuff so I'd not be embarrassed to say to somebody "come over". It looks a bit like a squat awaiting eviction a lot of the time

When the house is sorted/finished (this time next year?) I do plan a brief holiday ... not far, it'll just take a small ferry to get there ... and it's all English.

Hahahahahaha! That sounds just like my place! :rotfl:
Can't have anyone round as there's no where to sit...... every chair has things on it!

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Can't have anyone round as there's no where to sit...... every chair has things on it!

You're lucky to have chairs!

When I first moved in, somebody from one of the NP threads came and stayed the weekend. I had a garden lounger and a folding chair in the living room - and she slept on the carpet of the empty 2nd bedroom. I had the blow up airbed in my room. Michaels found me a bed to buy online about 2 years ago, so I do have a proper bed now. I've kept the airbed "in case" as there's no 2nd bedroom bed ... so if anybody did ever come round I'd like to at least be able to offer them a foot pump and airbed.

I've got a chair (free from next door when they bought new stuff) and a sofa (2nd hand, £40) ... and I probably intend to buy a corner sofa next year, when I see "the right one at the right price" ... but not before next year. And it could be 5 years, have to see how this current sofa holds up and how soon a suitable replacement presents itself.

Four bottoms could sit themselves down on a proper chair/sofa here... after that it's a folding chair, a garden lounger, or bring your own.

vivatifosi

Pyxis wrote: »

'

I wonder if there are holidays to do with genealogy?

As you know I have done a lot of research on the family tree of my good friend in America.

He and his family came over 4 years ago and I took them on a couple of tours of their family history. They were originally from Worcester, so I took them there for the day, showed them around.

They lived there in late Tudor and early Stuart times, and fought in the Civil War. The house that they lived in has long since been knocked down, but I took them to a nice example of a Tudor House, plus the Commandery where their family would have met, plus the Cathedral where the son fought in battles.

Then we went to the archives and looked at documents relating to the family.

In London, I showed them where the brother lived and ran the trading business back and forth to Virginia, the church where they worshipped, and one of the wives of the Virginian man and possibly one of their forebears was buried (not possible to tell whether she was the mother, records aren't good enough). Plus the sign on the wall that relates to the brother.

I don't think I'll being arranging tours relating to most of my ancestors though, giving that half of them lived no more than 15 miles from here... It would be like going on holiday to the local Girl Guides camp.

Pyxis

How fantastic! And how lucky for them to have a friend willing to go to all that trouble!

It must have been the holiday of a lifetime (or 10) for them!

Deffo a holiday to stick in the memory forever!

vivatifosi

We had a wonderful time. And a lovely lunch in a cafe recommended by Doozer, close to the Tudor house.

My friend's Mum is very religious, so seeing the church where her ancestors worshiped and were baptised/married/buried was also very special. They still talk about it and crack the pictures out when I see them.

There is one little bit of their chart that I can't resolve, that may require a visit on my part to the Worcester archives.

I cannot prove who the grandfather was. If he is who I think he was, circumstantially, then that opens up all sorts of avenues. If I can solve that, they could be able to trace their family tree back to Edward I, which will give lots of very exciting real estate to visit.

Essentially there is no direct link found between the line that he is in (in Worcester) and one a few generations prior (in Herefordshire). However, land from the Herefordshire family does turn up in the Worcester family's will. But I can't prove that they inherited it rather than buying it (still, what's the chance of someone with the same surname buying stuff). If I can prove it, then the maternal line goes back to many of the European grand families too. Including the somewhat brilliantly named Wilfred the Hairy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_the_Hairy

Pyxis

Some days I feel as if Wilfred the Hairy must be prominent in my family tree, too.

PasturesNew

In my tree of local interest ... during the Civil War there was a famous Castle siege ... barricaded up in the Castle, the soldiers helped themselves to the local church and squatted/lived there while they waited it out for six weeks. During their occupation they destroyed all the records, the rotters. My lot would've been inside the castle - and sitting outside in their homes wondering what'll happen next.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/corfe-castle/features/brave-dame-mary-and-a-castle-under-siege

There's also a hand written journal that was recently transcribed/put online that mentions another chap in my tree (somewhere) ... who played off two potential mayors against each other. He was the Deputy Bailiff of the castle in the 1760s. In 1763 a wealthy man who wanted to be Mayor bribed my chap to fix the Mayoral election. There were papers sent out by the current Mayor to dismiss my chap, but they had to be served PERSONALLY and he was hiding ... in the end though, what he did was reversed and the "proper candidate/jury/Mayor" were appointed.

https://s28.postimg.org/cdktz9bsd/1763.jpg
... being a bad scribe and much given to drink ....
I think everybody was back then!

He's not my direct upline, he's just "on the tree"... somewhere. A brother/cousin of an upline somewhere...

Additionally, there's a "blank patch" where a town burnt in a huge fire in 1762; many records were lost in that too.

I suspect many of my dead ends are due to these two large events.