A Plethora of P's

I am enjoying participating in this series from Aona at http://www.gouldgenealogy.com/2012/05/take-the-family-history-through-the-alphabet-challenge/.

 
Passion and Pleasure - at the core of our family history activities.

We need Patience to track down that elusive ancestor or break through the proverbial brick wall.  We also need Precision in taking down notes or making transcriptions.  I admit to the mistake of rushing to scribble down something when I have limited time at an archive centre or library - then get home and have trouble making head or tale  of my notes. 

  

Where would we be without  Photographs to enhance our family history stories?  They make such a difference in bringing our family "alive" and making them real people .  It is always so sad to hear of photographs being thrown out,  as has happened in branches of my family.  

Right - John Moffet (c.1814-1881) mariner - my husband's great great grandfather,  in a Napoleonic pose.
This is the only 19th century ancestral photograph held by the family.




Postcards in my collection are amongst my most treasured heirlooms - sent from Flanders during the First World War by my grandfather, William Danson,  to his family back home.

I was too intent on the past and never thought about recording my own Personal Memories until I started  blogging and was inspired by  the many blog prompts.  It has been  great fun to recall my childhood and write such posts as "When I Grow Up..." and "Speccy Four Eyes".

I cannot let P pass by, without focusing on my ancestral home - Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.  At St. Chad's Church (left) my Danson ancestors were baptised, married and buried.   

Poulton was the social and commercial centre for the surrounding small hamlets and the market cross, stone table for the selling of fish, the whipping post and the stocks remain as symbols of Poulton's past. 

The only photograph (below)  I have of my great grandfather James Danson shows him sitting merry in the old stocks in the Market Square. What a character he looks!

Family history takes us in so many directions - You can explore and experience:

Place Name StudiesI love the images conveyed by certain place names - Applegarth and Applethwaite in the north of England bring an image of rosy cheeked women outside a cottage garden with trees full of blossom - shades of romantic fiction I know!   On the other hand would I want to live in a place called Boghall?               

My husand's great grandfather George Hibbert was a miner hwo in the 1891 cesnus was living at Snowdrop Terrace, Barnsley, Yorkshire.  given the living and working conditions of miners, it is doubtful if this address lived up to such a picturesque name.

My own area of the Scottish Borders is full of  place names that roll off the tongue  - such as Wolfcleuchhead, Deanburnhaugh,  Priesthaugh, Ramseycleuchbur,  Blackcleuch  and Muckle Knowe.

ch and gh are pronounced as the ch in loch.
haugh means - low lying meadow by a river
cleuch means ravine, gorge, cliff, crag
knowe means hill
muckle means large


Plus:

• Population Studies
• Police Records
• Prisoner Records
• Poor Law Records
  
  

So  Perseverance is called for to Progress with all these Paths

on our family history journey.