6 Years Blog Anniversary, Looking back and Forward, Back to Early Medieval Europe & Forward Planning

 

Daffs on our mantlepiece this evening

Well, I'm customarily late in writing this. In fact, our first daffodils of this year are in flower before I got this out. Ah well, I've always loved tradition...

The last while has been a lot, hasn't it?

I confess, 2021 has not been my busiest year for genealogy. I had a couple of commissions in the background, and I'm still pursuing my German descendancy project, which is technically, I think, as finished as it's going to be, but there are just a couple of 'not found' individuals that I'm still pursuing in the hopes I can fill out the set for my lovely client.

At home though, on our side, things have been fairly quiet. Mostly because keeping working, and a family together in body and mind under C-19 while cocooning throughout (this is day 700 cocooning for our family - and we still managed to catch 'Omicron' while we've been here. I became symptomatic on Boxing Day and have been poorly ever since. Spouse felt a bit tired and 'under the weather' for a few days, but is doing much better since) is... well, a lot of things from the relatives who lived 100 years ago is beginning to make more and more sense.

In other 'at-home' and social/family history news, my spouse discovered in April last year that it turns out that he/she (his/her preferred pronoun) is non-binary. This has given us some fairly unique things to think about in the context of our family history and genealogy, not least, we had to work out how to express his/her life in a way that online and computer based genealogy 'understands'.
we also welcomed two new members to the family this year, with the babies of a first cousin, and our nibling (is anyone else always tempted to write 'nibbling' too? ...or is that just me?).

I did also very nearly finish my 4 gen study - twice! First time round, our computer died and took my project with it. When I recreated it, I found that, in my sleepy, late nights approach (when will I learn?!), I did, recreate the project, but completely forgot about the research log, so I'm currently about half way through just re-doing it over again, as guessing on the log feels like cheating, so I'm starting from scratch. I've also changed my focus person from my maternal Great-Grandmother, to my Grandmother (yes, I have been on this assignment so long, that a whole new generation is eligible). With any luck, I will have that finished pretty soon (famous last words) and then it's just that licensing exam to sit. Perhaps this year. If our country ever becomes more realistic and less eugenicist in its outlook, so that it becomes safe to go out.

In recent activity though, we found another genetic cousin through one of the various facebook genealogy & DNA groups. It's looking like he and I are very probably 6th cousins once removed, but that depends on us tying my Catherine (only ever Catherine in her docs so far, and I'm not 100% settled on her parents yet), to his 'Kate', who is similarly always 'Kate' everywhere that he's found. It seems like a sound logical progression, but our DNA holds us closer (around the 4th cousin range), so there is an interesting thing to investigate there, because on our side at least, there's a possible sideways, double-related thing going on in this area of the tree, so that also requires some closer investigation.

There was also the very cool finding of all 4 of my grandparents (for the first possible time) in the 1921 census, and more information on their families (especially one GGF's extremely cool job!).

As with other years, my enthusiasm is high again. What remains to be seen is how much time there will be for genealogy & family history this year among other work. I still would rather be a slow and steady genealogist for the most part, than rush, because I know where that gets me (and we're not one of those families who can dash something off and it just works. Some of us, me especially, are cursed when it comes to anything administrative).

26th January was my 4 year blogiversary. Since I didn't do my customary look forward and back recently, I figured it's best to look cumulatively across the whole lifetime of the blog and see what's still outstanding, plus I have a couple ideas of directions I want to take the research this year if time allows.

Previous & New Targets (Oldest to Newest):	2022 and beyond...
Update the paper tree when all the online ones are fixed	Yeah, that's probably a never-never task, though I did at least design a frame I could keep it in, so that we could wall mount it and still have access to make updates, so that might be somewhere in the next couple years' projects.
Sit Licensing Exam	Still working at that. Fingers crossed!
The 'Bad Billy' Book Solve the Spencer-side mystery NEW: I want to aim for at least one post a month this year, but it's a compassionate goal, so I'm totally claiming this one for January (because who's to say we're not part Timelord anyhow?!). Push forward with the DNA side of things. Try and place some more relatives.	That second draft didn't work out either. I did, with the help of a lovely researcher in Australia, and a very helpful gentleman at 'Trove', plug one or two holes in the story, but really, what's needed at this point is: I either need to come up with an Edition 1 and just get it done, or I need to find some (legitimate!) way to access the Windsor Castle Archive and look over a particular document that exists only there. It feels like one of these is more achievable than the other, but in all honesty, I'm not sure which just now. Still no nearer on that one. Hopefully something gives somewhere soon. I've learnt that despite the best of intentions, I'm not great at follow through on the consistent blog challenges (not least because the platform shouts at me and makes threats at me periodically, and I don't have a clue how to placate it), so compassionate goals are going to have to be the order of business. That said, claiming this one, I have 1 out of 12, so that's 8.3% success, right? ...Ever an optimist! I also have a few ideas up my sleeve for future posts, but if anyone has some fabulous inspiration they want to share (with credit of course), I'd love to hear them! I've learnt over the lifetime of the blog so far, that coming up with something that would be interesting to anyone outside of our family (and in all honesty, sometimes only the fellow genealogy-nut relations) is the biggest challenge. I am currently working on a non-traditional version of the Leeds method to try to crack some of spouse's DNA matches, so perhaps there's a post in that, if it won't bore the pants off people? I currently have all 32 3rd-GGPs identified, so locating relatives up to 4th cousins is doable, and in most cases, there's a fair chance at placing a 5th cousin (though of course, our twin factor on certain lines does create some interesting effects). Out of 64 4th-GGPs though, I currently only have a firm handle on 40, plus 2 halves, so that makes the 6th cousin range a little more spotty, which is a shame when most of my matches coming up are smack-dab in that range. If we're talking 'faerie wand' type year, I'd love to firm up and figure out who the other 22 and 2 halves are.

So, that's about the shape of it at the moment.
How about you? How's your new calendar shaping up for this year's genealogy adventures?
x

Just 28 Days (on time and DNA testing)

We're finally really getting down to doing our DNA testing. I can hardly believe the thing we've talked of for so long (especially for himself and his Italian side) is actually happening.

In the end, we decided that the best one for us at this time is the My Heritage kit (which is currently on special offer as it happens). We got a fantastic deal and the test is beautifully low-tech in that it's a really simple cheek swab.

Should you have an opportunity to try one, I highly recommend it. I think most of us have had those times where a place or activity has been somehow familiar and then we've later gone on to find that we had ancestors in that place or doing that activity. It's like it resonates with something deep within us. Stating my bias here, I'm extremely interested in the notion of collective/generational memory. I also highly recommend reading some of the scientific investigations around it if you're interested too. They're an absolutely riveting read.

It was very peculiar to sit there last night, watching a digital clock display on the computer counting off the seconds to one minute either side, rolling that swab around.
Of course there's nothing to see and very little sensation - it's a bit like if you've ever had a piece of cotton wool brush against the inside of your cheek, but it's a strange and oddly confronting thing to sit and think 'what would even my grandparents think of this?'
We are in an age of more scientific privilege than ever before and progress is so swift. Isn't it frightening to think that there are now University graduates who couldn't, without help tell you what the relationship is between a cassette tape and a pencil?!
...these are just a few of the thoughts that raced through my head while performing my test.

It was such a small thing and a large thing at the same time. Stupidly, I felt a little under-dressed for the occasion sat at my desk in sweater and jeans. Though for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what would have felt more appropriate. As though somehow, magically, it might improve the test I also felt as though I should be thinking 'good thoughts' of all my ancestors (though truly, I haven't yet found an ancestor I haven't at least fallen for a little bit). It's a huge responsibility in some ways too. I found myself thinking: "What if my DNA's broken, or damaged? What if there's not enough of it? What if it doesn't carry enough information to be worthwhile?" I had to give myself a stern talking to on that and as with this blog, I called to mind the future ghost of some downward descendant who's often with me when I'm tracking our family's history and remember that as much as genealogy is a pursuit for one's own edification and pleasure, potentially some point down the track, it may also prove to be a tiny treasure for those who come after, particularly for those of us who bridge the gap between the analogue and digital eras.

Now there's just that four weeks wait for results. That in itself is an odd thing. In today's world it seems like such a long time, and yet, four short weeks ago from today I was back to work following time off for our wedding (separate post on that sometime soon. You've probably noticed it takes me a while to get the words to come together) and four weeks from now it will almost be Samhain and the Celtic New Year, which is one of my most favourite holidays in the world.
I'm also remembering back to childhood. There was a book that used to be put out (by Royal mail I think) that covered all kinds of interesting and educational activities that, if you liked the look of them, you could send 28p and however many stamps and in "just 28 days" you'd receive a parcel - honest-to-goodness exciting post. That time just used to seem to fly by, so I think I'm going to have to remind myself that it's "just 28 days" and contain my soul in patience. After his and my results arrive we have to do it all over again for the other members of our family who've kindly agreed to test as well.

I'm excited with the potential learning opportunities from this experience. On my father's side, my cousin has kindly agreed to test, which is lovely as we are sadly low on males to test on our Laity side now. I'm aware of other males who have tested up our common lines, particularly the Spencer/Spencer-Churchill side & I believe there is someone out there who tested some Hobbins Men also. On my mother's side, my two second cousins have agreed to test with me. This will be interesting for all of us as their maternal grandmother and my maternal grandmother (Olive and Edna Dawson respectively) were identical twins, so we're expecting that between us, we may have some very interesting results.


Have you done any DNA testing? What was your experience like?

2017 Looking backwards and forwards

Happy new calendar.

Wow - 2017. The year that not so long ago felt like it would never get here. Don't you just love time? It fascinates me endlessly.


Up until only very recently, I've had something of a funk with my genealogy pursuits.

That whole wikitree struggle I was having in the summer - that sapped a lot of my enjoyment and desire to do anything genealogical in company for really, most of the summer and autumn if I'm honest. 
However, with the help of a really lovely chap who's one of their senior bods, I managed to get things on the road to sorted out, so that's awesome.

One thing that's definitely come out of that whole experience: If your ged.com fights with their system the way mine did (and seemingly, several others too), then it turns out the important thing to know is, that the proper advice is: Don't panic and put everyone up then go back with sources, they'd much prefer if we all add up single individuals with their sources one at a time, even if that means it could take forever to get anyone up there.


Then, later into the Autumn, following a tip, I treated myself to a copy of the subsidies of land grants in Cornwall made by Henry VIII (I will definitely do a post on that resource at some stage this year - it's awesome). Together with cousin Russell (who's a 'proper' genealogist and one of my favourite relatives in the extended family) and a couple of others, we managed to push our Laity family lines further.

Up until now, the earliest we'd managed to find was Richard Laytye, whose son was baptised in 1563. Over the last three months we've managed to flesh that out with some sibling information, worked out how some of the main sections of the family intersect AND we've found and confirmed some information on his parents, so allow me to introduce my newly found 11th Great-Grandparents:

John Laytye b 1500 & Elizabeth 1505 - 1 Aug 1570

Given how the summer and autumn went, there hasn't been much new action in other lines. We're still searching to prove out or not the theories for the Hawley and Spencer lines, and my search for the missing time with William Hobbins continues to be unfruitful just now...
...and then, in a 'funny five minutes' as my Grandad would've said, a couple of nights ago, I started playing with one of those ''which in/famous person are you (vaguely) related to'' things while killing some time waiting for himself. That threw out a gateway in amongst Mum's Heeson branches that connected to the HOWARD family. Interesting in itself as we seem to have more direct Howard links in a different line that I was aware of. Since I was messing around killing time, in light of recent discussions with genealogy friends around where searches of branches can/do/must end, I thought I'd take a quick few minutes and (I must stress this is NOT sound genealogy and I don't recommend it as a methodology - it was fun though...) click around to see *POTENTIALLY* where could that line lead me.

Turns out, there's truth in that saying about never ask a question unless you're ready for the answer. My clicking adventure wandering through time along that potential line took me first to Rollo of Normandy.
- For those who, like me, don't watch ''The Vikings'', he was apparently the one who ended up taking his boat up the Seine (as you do) and demanding land from the King of the Francs. ...okay, so that puts my ''Bad Billy'' even more into perspective. 

It seems that things don't even stop there. - I estimate it'd take me at least 35 years to get all that lot properly researched and traced ...and that would be assuming I have a total personality transplant and don't get distracted with anything else at all, but if I were to be on-task enough that far, it seems that there may even be sagas etc that would take us back to roughly 100 CE. Weird huh?! - I can't decide how I feel about that potential yet. 

Back to 2017 then and there's just so much going on. Our wedding is set for later this summer so there's A LOT of new relations (to say nothing of whole new language and culture) coming along not so far over the horizon. Also, a first cousin just got married and my little sis got herself engaged to her lovely fella over the holidays, so our little bough of the family Oak is set to sprout madly!

There's just so much, so I figured I'd join up for 2017's 'blog a month' and have another crack at it, starting with a look back to this point last year and see what I can come up with for this year.

2016 Target:	2017 and beyond...
2016 Monthly blog challenge	Signed up again for 2017. Already have a post for Jan, so already doing better this year!
Sort out why my GedCom isn't being 'liked'/accepted by certain platforms.	Have that pretty much sorted out. It’s just TOO huge for some systems. I see more manual data entry in my future this year.
Continue working to copy all the existing ancestors across to all platforms (I currently have fragmented information spread across RootsMagic, GenesReunited, Family Tree Circles, GeneaWiki and various other places). In an absolutely ideal world, it would be great to have everything match absolutely, so that I can really work on pushing out to new generations.	Getting somewhere with WikiTree finally. So glad I made a note of the other places I’m behind on.
Update the paper tree when all the online ones are fixed	Yeah. Whenever that happens.
Figure out some kind of nice mounting system for the current paper tree so that we can display it properly.	I have this figured out too. To make it happen though, any one of three things needs to happen: * I get cast in something that makes serious money * I find a craft or genealogy customer prepared to pay me in a custom size piece of perspex * I meet an art or woodwork student prepared to take on the challenge as part of their coursework.
Finish off my four generations project for my licensing exam. - Shooting for sitting the May level 1 exam if at all possible.	I REALLY have to sit down and actually write this up. I’d love to shoot for the May sitting again, but realistically, that’s coming up FAST, and we’re getting married in August, so I guess I’m aiming at the November sitting.
Craft something involving my genealogy.	The MKAL for my shawl design on ravelry last year was really cool. This year I have to either finalise or kill the design idea I started last summer. I’d also like to do something else crafty that’s genealogy involved.
	Start to write a book on Bad Billy

What are your genealogy targets for 2017?