Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors by Guy Grannum

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Julie Goucher

A few months ago I was given the chance to review this book. I do not have any direct ancestral links to the Caribbean or West Indies, but in recent years I have established that an individual that slots into my One Place Study migrated with one of his children to Jamaica. Bearing this in mind I was interested to read the latest edition of Guy’s book, and I was not disappointed.

Firstly, this is not a how do you research your ancestry type book. It is a guide which really does provide a solid foundation on which to establish your research or interest.

The book is laid out into a series of 11 chapters. Starting with how to get going, then progresses the records of the Colonial Office, Migration, Life Cycle records (Isn’t that a nice way of putting Birth, Marriages and Deaths?), Land and Property records, Military Records, Slave and Slave Holder Records, Civil Servant Records. The final chapter that deals with the life in the Caribbean looks at migration from the region and then the final two chapters of the book feature each individual country of the British West Indies and records of the Non West Indies such as the influence on the region of Countries such as Cuba, Denmark and France just to name a few.

The book contains illustrations, details on where records are located, in many cases providing the classification number and then steers readers to further sources such as books, websites and societies. The final pages of the book provide a very detailed Bibliography, Name and Addresses section and a comprehensive index.

This is a great resource to those researching their Caribbean roots, and for those interested in general researching the region and for those interested in the social, and economic development of the Caribbean.

This is a revised edition and takes into account recent changes in access to documents and research in the region.

Disclaimer – I was provided with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher – National Archives Guide, Bloomsbury Press
ISBN – 9781408175699
Publication – September 2012, (3rd Edition) 208 pages

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Advent Calendar 2012 – Fruitcake – Friend or Foe?

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Julie Goucher

My Grandmother spotted this Christmas Cake recipe in a copy of Woman Magazine, and since then both my Mum and I  have used it.

The photograph is of the actual page from the magazine, which does look in rather a sorry state! The actual date is gleaned from a book review on the reverse of the recipe – 1983!

This post is also being shared with Weekend Cooking which is hosted by Beth at BethFishReads

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Book Blogger Hop

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Book Blogger Hop

Book Blogger Hop is the creation of Jen from Crazy for Books. Since October, the weekly hop has been hosted by a variety of book bloggers all across the globe and this week the host is Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

The question this week is a good one – I wish I had thought of it!
What bookmarker are you currently using? 

I love bookmarks.

They are easy to carry as a memorable present if you just want a little something to remember something by, without the fuss of a larger present. They are easy to carry and are affordable. I have quite a few book marks including a few with my name on and what my name means.

With that it mind, it saddens me to confess that my current read is The End of Life Book Club by William Schwalbe and the book mark is the Amazon invoice that came with the book.


I know, it is shameful!

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A Parcel of Ribbons by Anne M. Powers

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Back in the summer I had the opportunity to interview Anne M. Powers, author of the fascinating book A Parcel of Ribbons. You can read that interview HERE. 
Anne also very kindly sent me a copy of her book to read and review and what a treat it was! I am only sorry that it has taken so long to post the review.
The catalyst for the book was a series of letters that have survived the test of time. Anne was given access to these letters and they have been lovingly transcribed and form the foundation for the book.

What has developed, is a really beautiful story of the Lee family and their time in Jamaica. Their story has not only been recorded and survived, but has been further explored which absolutely enhances the experience of understanding the social, International and domestic situation of the time.

The book contains a few illustrations along with a very comprehensive bibliography and index.

The research has been thorough and there is a huge attention to detail within the confines of the cover. If you wish to research, record and publish your own ancestry then aspiring to produce a book just like this one would be a wonderful way to preserve your ancestry.

A Parcel of Ribbons – The Letters of an 18th Century family in London & Jamaica was published in July 2012 and is available from HERE
Anne’s website to accompany the book is at http://aparcelofribbons.co.uk/
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Postcard Friendship Friday – Santa Border Terrier

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Submitted as part of Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by The Best Hearts are Crunchy 

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Blog Caroling

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Inspired by a post at Footnote Maven. The idea is to share your favourite Christmas Carol.
Well, being married to a Christmas baby, I can not escape the almost weekly viewing of the film Home Alone. Four films were made, we have all four, but films one and two are the favourites. Anyway, one of the Carol’s sung on the film is simply lovely and I had a real challenge trying to find out what it was called and had to resort to getting the film and playing the credits!
Here is the details from YouTube – The Song is Carol of the Bells written by John Williams.
Here are the lyrics
Hark! how the bells
sweet silver bells
All seem to say
throw cares away.

 Christmas is here
bringing good cheer
To young and old
meek and the bold

 Ding, dong, ding, dong
that is their song,
With joyful ring
all caroling

 One seems to hear
words of good cheer
From everywhere
filling the air

 O, how they pound
raising the sound
Oer hill and dale
telling their tale

 Gaily they ring
while people sing
Songs of good cheer
christmas is here!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!

 On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home

 Hark! how the bells
sweet silver bells
All seem to say
throw cares away.

 Christmas is here
bringing good cheer
To young and old
meek and the bold

 Ding, dong, ding, dong
that is their song
With joyful ring
all caroling.

 One seems to hear
words of good cheer
From everywhere
filling the air

 O, how they pound
raising the sound
Oer hill and dale
telling their tale

 Gaily they ring
while people sing
Songs of good cheer
christmas is here!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!
Merry, merry, merry, merry christmas!

 On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home.

 On, on they send
on without end
Their joyful tone
to every home.

Taking part in Blog Caroling, hosted by Footnote Malven

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Library Loot – 12 – 18th December

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Julie Goucher

This week has a tiny library loot of just one book!

My local book group meets at the local library. In December we do not discuss a book, instead rolling over the book to January as in December we have a rather civilised Christmas party.

Anyway, someone suggested that as our next meeting is at the end of January that perhaps we could have an extra read, which is how come I managed to be controlled enough to just have one book.

Inheritance by Nicholas ShakespeareThe book in question is Inheritance by Nicholas Shakespeare, an author that I recognised from our recent trip down under.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Head over to The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader to share your loot this week.
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Advent Calendar 2012 – Traditions

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Julie Goucher

Back in 2010 I wrote this post.

Traditionally, in my profession the lead up to Christmas is frantic, and this year will be no exception. I have to say, writing this post three days later than scheduled that if I see another prescription I shall go mad – well, at least until tomorrow! There is this endless thought process that I must have every drug ever prescribed dispensed before Christmas, and purchase every imaginable food for the Christmas period. Why is this the case?

I shall purchase my food shopping in the wee hours of 24 hour grocery shopping. Then get up and go to work as usual. Christmas Eve will be spent working with it going quiet around 2pm. Because of the field I work in closing early is not an option and I shall spend the last few hours working quietly, catching up on a few bits before closing and then coming home for the festive break.

As a child we always had gammon on the evening of Christmas Day. As time progressed, I have always cooked the gammon and had that for dinner on Christmas Eve with the remainder on Christmas Day during our finger buffet in the evening.  A colleague has suggested to me that a local pub has a Christmas Eve sing song around 6pm, so we thought that we might go, just for an hour and then head home.

How will you spend Christmas Eve? Do you exchange gifts on Christmas Eve?

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Sunday Salon – Books Down Under!

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Julie Goucher


We recently spent 5 glorious weeks in Australia. One of the things I noticed was how expensive books are. I had no idea!

Being concious of the weight of books and the allowance I had for the plane I made a note of books I came across in book stores and in some cases took photos of the covers!

Here was the list of books I spotted, all linked to either Amazon or Fishpond.

  1. The end of your life book club by Will Schurable
  2. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
  3. In Tasmania: Adventures at the End of the World by Nicholas Shakespeare
  4. The House of Memories by Monica McInerney
  5. Ghost Gum Valley by Johanna Nicholls 
  6. Sincerely, a New Collection of Correspondence from Women of Letters by Michaela McGuire & Marieke Hardy
  7. The Shelly Beach Writers’ Group by June Loves
Some great books and I had to be so controlled! Since I have been home, I have obtained two of the books. The first is Shantaram and the second is The end of your life book club which I have seen get some great reviews and I look forward to reading over the festive season, if I can wait that long!

I did purchase two books, one that was a very slim volume based upon a true story of a convict and a book written and published privately about our Ellis ancestors that migrated to Victoria in 1854.

Until next time, happy reading!

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Advent Calendar 2012 – Grab Bag

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Julie Goucher


A few years ago, I stumbled across a rather nice set of mugs made by Spode. Each Christmas, from 1998 until 2004, Spode released one mug featuring a Santa from a different Country.

Here they are in more detail –

In 1998 the First of the series was the British Santa

In 1999 Spode released the German Santa.

In 2000 Bishop of Myra was released.

Then in 2001, The Russian Santa was release, the only one that I am missing from the set.
In 2002 The Norwegian Santa made an appearance

In 2003, The French Santa was released

And finally, in 2004 to complete the series, the American Santa was released.

I think of all the set that I currently, have my favourite is the American Santa, because of the vibrant, festive colours. Which one is your favourite?

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