Roots Television - A look back at how we used to live

Today I watched a short film on Roots Television.
It was made in 1948 and was aimed at showing what life was like for a young boy growing up in York at this time.
This year I spent a week on holiday in York (not for the first time). It was interesting to contrast the picture I have today with that of 50 years ago.
The view from the city walls has changed remarkably little, possibly due to much of the area having protected status.
The railway station has changed and we no longer travel in trains with compartments (usually) as we did even in the sixties when I was a child. For longer journeys we even have air conditioning in the trains. Beeching cuts in the sixties mean we cannot get a train to Whitby from York so our journey this year will have taken a lot longer.
Whitby itself has changed in the number and type of boats in the harbour. The fishermen, if there are any left, do not sit there mending their nets.
I cannot comment on the schools.
However homelife has certainly changed as many families no longer sit down together for their evening meal and few that do would be listening to the radio.
Television would be more likely today and many will eat a meal with a tray on their lap whilst watching the television. The traditional tea will have been replaced by the ready made meal and the stove by the microwave. In our family for one we have not yet done away with the traditional cup of tea, still a firm favorite with many of the english.
Some houses still have the open coal fires so common in post war britain but with the creation of smoke free zones the majority of us now live in centrally heated homes.
How many of us or our descendants will look back in another 50 years and reflect on how life has changed?

What songs evoke memories for you?

I have just read a bit of one of Michael Hait's blogs after Thomas MacEntee posted a link on facebook.
In this he was asking what is your favorite song.
Rather than try and answer this question I will explain the title of my blog.
Last week as I got into my car to drive to work the Radio was playing a song I had not heard for a long time.
The song was "Love is like oxygen" by Sweet if you don't remember it here is a link to a YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BigTKLLV-8U
This was in the charts during my late teens when I was studying for my A levels.
It was one of the few singles I remember buying and hearing it again took me back to my college days.

Tribal Pages

Some of you may have had access to my tree on Ancestry.
My subscription has expired and I am not sure how much longer the tree will be available for you to view on this site.
I have a website at Tribal pages which I am hoping to update.
If you want to be able to access this can you contact me and I will send you an invite.
If you are yourself a member you will be able to edit your own family members.

Face to Face

Having read Dick Eastman's blog regarding a talk given by someone on the other side of the globe
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/01/affho-congress-continued-with-a-remote-lecturer.html
it set me to thinking about what we get if we attend Family History conferences/fairs.

The big show inthe UK is Who Do You Think You Are which includes talks if you can get a ticket.
I have not attended this but have been to the Hampshire Genealogical Society Annual Meeting and listened to someone speaking about how to get organised and what happens to your research after you have gone.

These talks can be very informative but do we get more out of these events than just someone giving us information.

My uncle has been tracing his part of the tree for many years. He also has at least one Victorian Magic Lantern and a large number of slides and has done a number of shows in various places.
Some of these places are in areas where our ancestors lived and he has been known to use these opportunities to talk to some of the locals who know the area.

I would therefore surmise that we may get more from these get togethers than we might think and that it is well worth attending local events to get a taste of the area.

Who knows you might even meet up with a distant cousin!

Those things we find by accident!

After reading Vicky's Blog at http://vickyscrazyfamily.blogspot.com/
I decided to add my own comment.
As some of you will know one of my best discoveries was when I checked out a settlement examination at Southampton Archives.
The first page told me very little. When it refered me to another page that was where I struck gold.
I had initially contacted the archives as I was after more information about the parents of Stephen Richard Buckle. They couldn't find any bastardy records but they mentioned the settlement examination.
To cut a long story short the second page revealed that Louisa's parents had married in Jersey but on returning to England and after Louisa was born her father's wife and children turned up.
Her mother later married in Titchfield and the marriage showed her maiden name and lead to my BUCKETT and WAITE research. (see my second post of 2007)

The Dash

I just found this after seeing a posting on the Hampshire genealogy rootsweb list.
I hope you find it as thought provoking and enjoyable as I did.
http://www.thedashpoemmovie.com/

igoogle and protopage

Moving to my new computer is taking longer than I hoped but I hope to get started on my first project soon.
This year I learnt about igoogle and protopage from listening to genealogy podcasts.
Both can be accessed on other computers and they are great for quickly accessing things that you use everyday.
I have links to podcasts,blogs and news items especially genealogy related items and either page can be set as your homepage with lots of widgets or gadgets available.
If you want to see what protopage looks like go to http://www.protopage.com/pharmer
and the password is the title of this blog.
I would love feedback on what others put on their igoogle or protopage.