Continuing the weekly thread organised by Michelle at The Turning of Generations.
The biggest risk historically was those horrid photograph albums that had sticky backs and then the plastic you placed over the photo. Thankfully, we dealt with our three albums of this kind a few years ago. My main issue is making sure that all photographs, not just genealogical ones are scanned, dated and archived. The originals archived with information and dates. I still have some older photographs, pre digital that need to be scanned and then uploaded to Flickr.
The other risk issue is piles of research papers. I am still working through the boxes and piles of papers. The risk is that loose papers get moved and then perhaps lost. Worse still to have drinks spilt on them. So,the best way of making material safe is to avoid piles and put files & papers away when they are finished with!
My senior school has formed a Alumni Society. I became aware of it a few years ago via Friends Reunited, where the groups seems rather active. They also have a Facebook page. They have recently starting sending out newsletters by email and I noticed today on the website there was a few I had missed, so I caught up on my reading. The was a summer reunion of all pupils last year, which I missed as it clashed with our holiday, but I have plans to attend this year and am looking forward to it.
A few years ago I was researching a suburb of Guildford called Merrow. The area is situated on the outskirts of Guildford and was the home to some of my Elstone ancestors. The records centre was then based at Guildford and when I called for some of the Parish Registered for Merrow it arrived with some of the school records. I went through the school records and made notes for all the related surnames. I still have those notes I made that day and from following visits. I suspect that I may transcribe what Merrow information I have and place it upon a blog in the future.
What does sadden me is that whilst I have those details for a more distant relative I have no references to my Grandmother’s school years at St Nicholas School. I know that my Grandmother left the school when she was 14, in 1926. I know nothing of my Grandfather’s school years, in fact now I think of it I don’t know where he went to school and despite the series of notebooks of questions and answers to my Grandfather’s sisters, all now deceased, I still don’t know. It was a question that I never asked.
In Surrey, during the 1950s a two school system was operated. My Mum went to Sandfield Primary and then onto Stoke Secondary School. There are no school photographs, but Mum’s school reports have all survived.
By the time I went into the education system in Surrey in the mid 1970s there was a three tiered system. I like Mum, went to Sandfield Primary, then Holy Trinity Middle School and finally Guildford County School. From my School days I have rather a lot of information including some that I had forgotten I had!
From my school days I have every school report. This photo shows the reports from my first two schools.
Reports from my Senior school, Guildford County were presented in a small booklet format with an apple green cover on the front. I still have those, but they are in a box that I can not reach!
Guildford County issued pupils with commendations at the end of each term. Here is a photo of all mine!
I also have the programme for Prize Giving Presentation and for my success in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme. I still have the little green book and badges also awarded to me. I had forgotten about those, but now recall they are with the County school reports
I really enjoyed this week’s prompt. A trip down memory lane and sad wishes of questions that I wished I had asked.
Despite the forecasts there has not been the truly bad weather of the last few Winters here in the UK, or at least not in my part! Despite that I have not been out and about much, because of my back, but there is light at the end of a long tunnel! My walking is slightly more than a shuffle still, I am though able to do go around the block accompanied by hubby when walking Alfie. Otherwise, its the car for everything and then a short shuffle into various buildings. Very frustrating when you are used to racing about and standing for hours on end with the day job.
I finally got my appointment to the Spinal Clinic. It was OK; I wasn’t enthralled with the specialist, but you can’t like everyone! I was referred for a MRI scan and was told that the waiting time was now 8 weeks. Now, I have been waiting for the Spinal appointment for almost 3 months, and it was fairly clear that a scan would be needed. So, I telephoned the hospital and told them it simply was not good enough. When the head of Radiology was no help, I managed to get the attention of the Chief Executives Office….
Within 10 minutes of that telephone ending I had a further call and suddenly was offered an appointment for the following day. I have mixed feelings. I should not have to phone and make a fuss in order to get an appointment, nor should my profession influence the speed, but for goodness sake the NHS, whilst is a wonderful service is not fit for purpose. Too many managers and to few staff. From looking at a recent health professional journal, the new health proposals are not looking like improvement. So scan over and a week later, I now have the results. Now I am waiting another month for an injection into my spine that will hopefully do the trick. If not, then I need to do some serious thinking about the future.
Moving onto much more interesting matters! I was approached a short while ago by the on line Surrey Life asking if they could permanently link to my Guildford and District Blog, which is great news. Not such good news, I see this morning that the last week of scheduled posts have not published, which is slightly irritating on my post card a day theory! So that needs to be fixed.
I often write posts several weeks in advance. I have been working on two projects for this month – The Family History Writing Challenge and the NaBloPoMo theme for February which is the word of “Relative”. Whilst the posts are written in advance I am now catching up with proof reading them, before publishing. So expect a bit of an influx over the next week! Next up will be the A-Z Challenge in April.
I have written two guest posts for this month, one published on Catholic Gene, the other to be published next week. Keep watching the blog for details. I have also appeared on the Genealogists for Families Project blog. This is a really great project, whereby you loan $25 through the Kiva system and then are repaid. If you are interested click HERE to read more and join! I decided at Christmas that I would link my loans to genealogical and family dates.
February has always been a month of two special birthdays – My Aunt who passed away in December 2010 at 95 and my Mum. Their birthdays only a few days apart. So, I plan to make a commemorative Kiva loan in memory of my Aunt,who was such a inspiration to me and a very special lady. I also plan on making a further Kiva loan to celebrate Mum’s birthday. So that will happen over the next week.
Last weekend I had a spell of unwanted comments on this blog. So for a time I went to moderated and I wrote to Google. Since then, fingers and legs crossed I have been unwanted posts free! Welcome to the new followers to this blog. I am always delighted when people want to read my posts and make comments. I am quite behind on replying to comments at the moment!
I have also had a few nice comments about the Anglers Rest blog, (blush!). Last year we spent two separate weeks in the Channel Islands, on the super Island of Jersey. I have blogged about the first week and I am about to restart about the week we had there in the Autumn. You can read the Jersey posts HERE
Just before I go, Alfie has not made an appearance for a while, so here is a photo snapped last week.
Until next time!
Judy, who is the project developer and coordinator at the “Genealogists for Families” Project invited me to be a guest on the project blog today.
You can read my Guest post HERE.
To find out more about the wonderful project click HERE. We care about families (past, present and future).
The Anglers Rest blog first went online at Blogger in 2002. At the time of transfer, the counter was at 349,463.
It was moved to this site on 18th December 2015 when the counter was reset -:(
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 