Been a bit quiet this rate, aside from the odd rant. Just watched an excellent England performance this morning against Sri Lanka - it's good to see the young bowlers making an impact. Plunkett has been the pick with three wickets, but Mahmood has impressed me from his first ball, culminating in a richly deserved wicket to signal lunch three balls early.
Away from work-dodging activities like the above (helped by the fact I've just discovered one of my deadlines is for a week later than I thought), I've also been busy with a new hobby this week. Well, I have been writing for Your Family Tree for three years now, so it's only fair I actually practice what I preach. I've signed up for a year at Ancestry.co.uk and decided to go a-hunting for ancestors who lived during the 19th Century.
It's quite an addictive pastime once you get going. Because I'm limited to post-1800 records (specifically the censuses between 1841-1901) I've got a narrow time frame to look into. I'm also not slavishly following one line back - if I get sidetracked by an interesting-looking brother or sister of someone then I'll have a sneak peek at them too. So far I've traced the Peers side back to Nantwich in Cheshire where Frederick Peers (b1831) and wife Emma Crane (b1834) spent all their lives. I think I've found Frederick's father - one James Peers who was born in the 1790s, while Emma's father William Crane comes from Worcestershire stock. Dad reliably informs me that it was the Cranes who were the rich ancestors - apparently one of them gambled away the family fortune the previous century.
Frederick's son John - my great grandfather - married Margaret Phillips. Her family is more difficult to trace, although I've found her father (John) and his father (James) as residing in Pembrokeshire. The mystery is that both of Margaret's parents are missing in two of the censuses. John left Pembrokeshire for Lancashire and ended up in Tredegar where Margaret met John Peers, who had left Nantwich in 1890 with his younger brother to move into the household of his eldest brother William after both his parents died in the 1880s.
On mum's side of the family I've started with the Hirons clan. I've traced four generations back from my great grandfather Harold William (b1897): his father George - who presumably my grandfather was named after - was born in 1867 in Thurlaston, Warwickshire. George's father - William Hirons - was born in Thurlaston in 1833 and appears to have spent all his life there. He was still alive in 1901, and still in Thurlaston. The 1841 and 1851 censuses also record details of his father - Thomas (born late 1780s).
So far on the Hirons side I've only been side-tracked by George Sr's wife - who was a Docksey from Staffordshire.
The fascinating thing is tracing marriage and birth records as well as census information. You can build quite a picture up very quickly. I'll say one thing for my so-far thoroughly working-class roots - they all bred like rabbits!
Other than family history, what else have we done this week? Oh yes, we've been down the allotment twice - a much larger area is now covered with carpet and the stuff we bought from Wickes, and it's weighed down with bricks and other junk to stop the wind wreaking havoc with it. I'm currently mowing it once a week using a fellow allotment holder's petrol mower. It's amazing what bribery can achieve - I think they're on the verge of accepting we're not fly-by-nights now!
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