Beyond the Internet Week 5: Off to Schools

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Julie Goucher
I can remember starting school, just before my 5th birthday and knowing how to write my name and read. I was greatly encouraged by my Mum and my Grandmother. I have wonderful memories of sitting on my Grandmother’s knee and her reading to me. 
I went to the same primary school as my Mum. We were even taught by the same teacher. My Grandmother went to a church school. One of the things on my to do list is to seek the school records and see what I can establish. One of the things my Grandmother told me that that her Mother had a cousin who was a school inspector. He would call and say “Mrs Matthews, I am here to discuss…..” My Great Grandmother would always apparently interject and say “What have my boys been up to now…..”
On reflection, I don’t know I have waited so long to find the school records, and now on remembering this I really ought to try and establish just who this cousin was.
Inspired by Family History Across the Seas
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Tech Tuesday – Blog to Book

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Julie Goucher

I read an interesting post on the JLog blog last week and that got me thinking about this blog and the fact that over the last few weeks I have been focusing on my Family History Writing Challenge posts and my plans for them.

I went off to explore the site BookFabrik. This site specialises in turning your blog quite literally into a book, either a real copy with paper or a PDF version. You can request a proof in PDF and see what it looks like. This blog came out at over 1500 pages, but it is 10 years old! That is all published posts and those that I have written and scheduled to post. The proof was interesting, and some adjustments would need to be made. Further exploring of the site and there are options to restrict some posts and tweak what you want to appear in your book. There is no blanket upload of your material, it can be as specific or general as the author wants, using the tags from your blog.  There also the ability to change the writing layout of the book cover, in both terms of photographic design and author. I also set the parameters to use every blog post on a separate page. There is the option of printing in order of posting – newest or oldest first, the date span.

This is certainly food for thought. I have yet to explore if there are other companies or facilities that are offering the same, I suspect that there are. At the point where you can download your PDF proof, there is also the option to purchase the actual book in both PDF and paper version. The costs are displayed in Euros – but for this blog the costs were around 80 Euros for the paper version and 5 Euros for the PDF. Which actually seems reasonable to me, given the work load that would be involved otherwise.

Further consideration is that if I decide to use this company, I shall go back through all my posts and ensure that the correct tags are added to the posts. I will then print the book to include all those with that tag. I am sure that those without tags are not included, but I would need to investigate further.

Cropped picture showing the book details and a link to this blog

I picture above is a photograph of the screen showing the first page – with the details of the book and a link back to this blog. The details on the right are the description for this blog which you can see above.

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Suffield Lane, Puttenham

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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Guest Post – Ann Summerville

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Julie Goucher
Tell us a little about yourself?
I grew up in London and lived in Cornwall for about ten years before moving to the U.S.
What do you miss most about England?
When I lived and worked in London I loved wandering around the backstreets and researching history. I read any book I could get my hands on by Jean Plaidy and Anya Seton and tried to find places mentioned in those books. (There isn’t anything very old here in Texas.) Moving from the city to a small village on the coast of England was a big adjustment. Everyone moved at a much slower pace. We lived in a cottage on the cliffs overlooking a beach that had three miles of sand when the tide went out. Village life is so different. Everyone has a connection and there is such a sense of camaraderie. I used my experiences moving from London to Cornwall in my book A Graceful Death, which is the first book in the Lowenna series. (Lowenna means joy in Cornish).
In one sentence, how would you describe your latest book, The Berton Hotel, to someone who knows nothing about it?
The Berton Hotel delves into the mystery of a woman, who disappeared in the 1930s from a prominent Texas hotel, and her great-granddaughter’s quest to find out what happened to her.
Where can we find out more about your book?
Website –  www.annsummerville.com
Blog – www.cozyintexas.blogspot.com
The book is available on:
Amazon (USA) in paperback
Amazon (USA) for Kindle
Amazon (UK) in paperback
Amazon (UK) for Kindle
Other e-reader formats are on Smashwords
What is your favourite character in The Berton Hotel?
I grew attached to all the characters, but I think Truitt is my favourite because despite the changes around him, he stays constant and neither tries to impress anyone, nor change to fit in. He is confident without being conceited and who doesn’t love a cowboy?
Excerpt from The Berton Hotel:
Welcome to Crystal Wells. Lily glanced at the sign, wondering if her great grandmother, Ermenia, had passed here before leaving and if she’d thought about the young daughter she’d left behind. Vanished, without a trace, disappeared into thin air. Lily conjured up all the phrases used when her great grandmother was mentioned.
She’d had three days of driving to think about her decision. But what was the force pushing her toward this desolate town? To solve the mystery of Ermenia’s disappearance, to get away from a disastrous relationship, to advance her career? Lily was still unsure.
The Darth Vadar theme blasted from her bag, and with one hand on the wheel, she fumbled between the lipstick case, receipts, antibacterial gel and credit cards before feeling the smooth mobile phone.
“Stop calling,” Lily yelled into the phone without connecting to the call. She snapped it shut with a finality she did not feel.
As far as she was concerned there were two types of men. Deserters like her father and control freaks like Eric. Lily tossed her phone and it fell amongst the jumble in her bag.
What’s new for 2012?
I’m currently working on the third book in the Lowenna Series, Gwinnel Gardens. It’s about overgrown gardens in Cornwall that the villagers are uncovering and of course there will be a murder that Gia and her friend Holly will be involved in solving.
Thank you, for inviting me today, I look forward to dropping by your blog frequently to see what you’re up to.
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Puttenham Cemetery Circa 1935

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Julie Goucher
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Beyond the Internet Week 4: Donations and Subscriptions

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Julie Goucher
I can not recall where I have found any evidence that my family made a donation to a public subscription. So I shall use a modern example.
A few years ago, I found on line a reference made to an ancestor – William Arthur West. William had been in the Army and was stationed in what was known at the time as Zulu land. His wife accompanied him. While in South Africa his wife passed away and is the only white female buried in the cemetery. 
The reference I found on line was in relation to the Rotary Club for the town where William lived in England with his second wife after he left the army. The Rotary Club had links to the town in South Africa where William’s first wife was buried. As you might expect, modern provisions and schooling in the local area is not brilliant. I had reciprocated the details with the Rotary Club about William and when I sent off the CD of data for their archives enclosed a cheque in memory of William and his first wife. The Rotary Club has strong links with the local community and has provided financial assistance in relation to the school and running water. 
A second modern example is The Families for Genealogists Project organised by Judy Webster. I joined the team back in October and knew that I wanted to contribute, but I also wanted my contributions to mean something. My first loan was made in December in memory of my Grandmother’s 99th Birthday and I plan to commemorate various family events during the year. To join the project click HERE.
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100 Word Challenge – Week 29

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Julie Goucher

Joining the weekly 100 words challenge for Grown ups. This week the prompt is to use the following with no more than 100 words.

……..Wednesday…..

Wearing her favourite aquamarine hat with a purple coat and red stilettos she entered the restaurant. She asked for a bottle of her favourite red wine. After an half an hour her lunch engagement had not shown up.
Reaching for her diary she spotted the name and number of her contact under Wednesday. Her eye caught that of the waiter and he came over.
Excuse me, what day is it? She asked, her voice every so slightly slurred.
Tuesday, he replied. Embarrassed, she made her way to the desk to pay her bill. She would come again tomorrow.


Taking part in the 100 word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week #29

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NaBloPoMo – February 2012 – Relative! – Day 4

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Julie Goucher

Imagine. A dining table laid for guests. The table set with the best china, sparkling wine glasses and the very best cutlery. Who could be coming for dinner?

What if you could invite a series of your ancestors to dinner? People that had lived and died long before you had been born? Who would you invite?

  • I would invite my 6 x Great Grandfather – Henry Budd (born circa 1700). Please confirm that you were born in Shackleford. I can’t check as the original records have not survived!
  • I would invite both of my Grand parents – Lilian Butcher nee Matthews (1912-1995) & George Butcher (1908 – 1974) Just to have one more conversation with them.
  • I would invite my 5 x Great Grandfather John Elstone (1737 – 1799) because I want to understand more of the Paper making business he owned.
  • I would invite my Great Great Grandfather John Matthews (1848 – 1927)  – I have a few questions…..
  • I would invite my Great x 3 Grandmother Emaline Luff (1797 – 1856) –  Why did you say you were born in Bramshot? I did eventually find you in Lurgershall Sussex
Hopefully, we would have a lovely dinner – probably roast turkey as this would be a celebration and turkey would have been expensive during their lifetimes (exception here would be my Grandparents). We would hopefully chat and I would be able to ask them all the questions that I would like to. I wonder what they would make of me and my home, with running water, electricity and all the modern technology…….
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Family History Writing Challenge 2012 – Day 3

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Julie Goucher

I kept thinking of John Matthews and is death caused by “senile decay”. Death certificates often indicate senile decay where death occurs as a result of old age. Do I really believe that?

My Grandmother said many times that her Grandfather was a “dirty old man” –  he would often forget to wash and would wet himself. She recalled this from her early childhood, when he would have been late 60s or perhaps early 70s. I wanted to explore the potential options that perhaps he had what we now know be Alzheimers or dementia.

Both are known to occur in families – driven by the essential facts of Chromosomes which are inherited. We each generally have 23 pairs inheriting half from our mother and half from our father.

My Great Aunt, John’s Grand daughter developed Alzheimers. She died in the early 1980s and had always been very much like my Grandmother. Fun loving and very affectionate. When she was in her mid 70s she started to forget things, the usual sorts of things – after all she was elderly! She then started forgetting more serious things, such as forgetting to turn the gas off and would leave the front door open. Eventually she forgot who she was and every one else. It was truly soul destroying. I was an teenager at the time and didn’t really notice an awful lot. Reflecting now I realise just how dreadfully sad things were.

In the mid 1990s my Grandmother developed something similar. Whilst her family history made her more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimers, she had in fact a brain tumour, which is fairly common in patients that have had a primary cancer. It would though have been quite easy to have made an assumption, based upon the family history. The doctor in this case explored all options open to them at the time, which would have been a lot more than in 1927!

Whilst the death certificate is absolute, sometimes we need to look at the history surrounding the cause of death. Establishing what it means and try to understand it. After all, we seek to explore all the data of our ancestors and their death is the final fact.

Word count – 369

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Beyond the Internet Week 3: Houses wrapped in red tape.

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Julie Goucher
I stood in the archives building, in the days of when Surrey Archives were divided between Guildford and Kingston. I had called for a document – I can’t even recall what it was. I waited, not exactly patiently. You know how it is, you get a thought flowing and the document has to be NOW! While I was waiting, I went over to the huge index cabinet. A lovely wooden unit, within each draw a metal rod which held the index cards.

I flicked through to the surname of Butcher and meandered through the forenames. I got to John and read the card. I am sure my heart stopped beating. On the card in front of me read “John Butcher 1877 house documents”. The archivist returned with my request. I saw the look of irritation as I said, do you think I could order this please? and presented him with a request slip. He placed the archive I had originally requested on the table and took the slip from me. 
I read through the document in front of me and made various notes. When he returned with my new found treasure I ordered a copy of the original document and started looking and absorbing the new document. In front of me was the details of my 3 x Great Grandfather John Butcher (1795 – 1877). 
The document was actually a series of papers. Held together by a dark pink ribbon. The ribbon and documents had a musty smell and were faintly dusty, but I didn’t care. I undid the ribbon and read the note that accompanied the documents. The details it revealed was that the documents had been found at Wonersh post office and had been submitted to the museum for general keeping. Interesting. I wonder why?
The documents revealed John’s will including the original envelope. 
Envelope containing the will of John Butcher
Surrey Archives PSH/WON/20/19
It identified that the house that had been left to him by his father would in turn pass to son Henry. I descended from John’s son Charles. It also revealed what I had already established. John had been illegitimate. Born to James Butcher and Sarah Woolgar in 1795. In 1801 James and Sarah would marry and in 1802 they had another son Thomas. Thomas was recognised as James legitimate heir to his father’s estate. John inherited a cottage in Wonersh Street and a few hundred pounds. 
There were a series of other documents –  I ordered copies of the lot. There was a strange sentence within the documents – “A son born of blood”. An indication that John was indeed the son of James Butcher. His birth is recorded as John Woolgar, but he spent the rest of his life, as was indeed his right as John Butcher. It does seems sad, that until the end, despite his parents marrying he was in fact illegitimate.




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