I have taken part in the A-Z Blogging challenge for the last four years or so and this year will be no exception. What is new is that I have linked the A – Z Challenge with the Book of Me.
Below is the presentation with the prompt hints along with the various links and more information.
Earlier this week I stumbled across a genealogy MOOC opportunity. The course starts officially on Monday 30th March, but is available for people to sign up and get familiar with the set up.The cost for the course is nothing, other than your investment of time.
The course is divided into four modules
Below is the introductory video
Something that is really useful is that you can join the course and submit your surname and location interests with any contact being made through the Canvas portal. It is certainly a great idea and I listed my interest in my two One-Name (Surname research) studies for the names of Orlando and Worship.
To sign up and take part visit – https://learn.canvas.net/courses/369
Sometime ago I came across today’s Web Wednesday topic and thought it was simply fascinating. Not just in terms of the actual project, but also the historical context and details behind it.
The project is called Willard Suitcases and the blog is capturing the very essence of the 400 suitcases belonging to former residents of a New York psychiatric hospital. The cases were put into storage when the patients were admitted, many contained belongings packed without the realisation of what it means to be institutionalised. The luggage dates from between 1910 and 1960 and in the cases of many of the patients they never left. Quite simply tragic.
 |
| Willard Psychiatric Hospital circa 1880 – courtesy of The New York Times |
Once the hospital was closed the luggage was salvaged and acquired by New York State Museum. The blog host, Jon Crispin was given the wonderful opportunity to photograph the luggage.
You can read more details about the project at
http://www.willardsuitcases.com/about. Jon’s introductory post can be found HERE. You can also read Jon’s blog and see the posts about the suitcases at http://joncrispinposts.com/
The tragedy in all of this is that many people were confined in institutions across the globe for conditions that were not diagnosed or treated. Conditions such as epilepsy for example. Conditions such as dementia was not acknowledged. In other instances wives were confined for perhaps having what we know now to be post natal depression, or perhaps confined so they could be replaced with a newer model!
Websites such at this one exists to honour those who lived in such tragic times. It is important that we learn from the material and data they left behind.
Further information
Back in 2013, I wrote a blog post for the In-Depth Genealogist, which can be read HERE. I talked about sourcing material from auction sites and alike. I still believe that is a good option, and that is my Tuesday’s Tip for this week, fuelled by my latest addition.
This lovely little beauty is made from reclaimed pine.
The moment I saw it, I had one of those I MUST have that moments, because apart from the surname, it fitted even the fish them!
The sides of the box are decorated with a fish and even my beloved said perfect! and now he is rather impatiently waiting to see if we can establish who the A L Goucher was in Yorkshire.
So do explore those auction sites, use the Evernote clipping tool to gather the information, so that you can capture the details without bending your credit card!
Many of those with One-Name Studies (www.one-name.org) do just that.
I had planned to share my Sunday Salon post with you today, but the plans of mice and men have prevented that so I am going to share the following YouTube video with you.
I have been reading this book for the last few weeks. Dipping in, making a few notes, reflecting etc. Then by coincidence I noticed that +Jennifer Ross who blogs at Organizing Jen (http://www.organizedjen.com/) had also read the book. I smiled when I spotted that Jen’s copy of the book was awash with post it notes too! The video below is Jen’s review of the book.
I expect to complete the book in the coming week (presentation writing and appointments allowing) and whilst I have stopped sharing many book reviews via this blog, I will share this review, because there is a rather interesting overlap with genealogy, tidying up and a whole pile of emotions as I still deal with items that I have inherited from Mum.
The website for the blog can be found at http://tidyingup.com/
Happy tidying!
This is one of my favourite cards of Wonersh. My several times Great Grandfather, John Butcher (1795 – 1877) inherited one of the cottages on the right hand side.
Early on in my career I worked in the next village. I would routinely walk between Bramley and Wonesh, past these cottages on my way to the Grantley Arms for a sandwich and drink. It always felt very “warm and fuzzy” to be walking along the path that John walked, around 150 years previous.
The March issue is OUT and the Across the Pond column continues with the featured look at occupations, especially those carried out in the City of London.
The March issue looks at the Worshipful Company of Carmen and can be found on pages 60 -63 of the magazine.
Also this month, making her début as a writer at IDG is the well known Australian genealogist, Shauna Hicks looking at genealogy Down Under!
To subscribe to the magazine please visit The In-Depth Genealogist website.
Although not especially old this scene represents a time when there was a military barracks at Guildford. I recall parades such as these from my childhod.
I grew up in Guildford in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was quite common to see the WRAC’s at the railway station boarding trains crying because they had been posted to Ireland and of course in this period the situation in Ireland was a fragile one.
Whilst this picture and the story I have shared is not especially it old, it does record a time in the Guildford pictorial history.
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 