F for Family & Friends and A Family History Blitz - A-Z Blogging Challenge 2021

LIFE IN LOCKDOWN:  A-Z Blogging Challenge 2021  

Recording My Everyday Life  - A Picture for Future Generati 

F for Family & Friends and A Family History Blitz

FAMILY & FRIENDS Where would  we be without our family and friends during Lockdown to give both practical and emotional support.  I can only begin to imagine what life would be like for people shielding and without family and friends close by.   I know I am very lucky in this respect to have both. 

 

 

 

            Out on a weak with members of my Walk It Group - pre Lockdown.

 

 FAMILY HISTORY BLITZ

And where would I be without my main hobby?  If I had any positives from Covid,  it would be my family history activities.  The fact I had such an absorbing hobby, has been  god send - life would otherwise have been so dull. So what did I achieve? 

 

Completed  the final part of my Danson Family narratives,  This   had been high on my "to do" for a very long time - but at long last I did it! 

 

 

 

I joined the world of modern genealogy by  testing my DNA. I found the process with Ancestry easy to follow – ditto the presentation of results.  I was 73% English, (North West and West Midlands) which figures with my parents’ background.   but am puzzled by the 22% Scottish and 5%  Norwegian.  (My user name of Scotsue stems the fact I have lived in Scotland for 60 years and my working life has spanned Scottish tourism and archives. – so I would love to discover  some Scottish ancestry). 

I have spent a lot of time following up my DNA Common Ancestor . discovering distant cousins and as a result have been updating my family trees.   

 

I joined family history groups on Facebook linked with my family history e.g. .History of Blackpool, and Poulton-le-FyldePast, where I have enjoyed sharing memories and photographs of my birtnplace abd my mother;s family;   Wolverhampton Genealogy & Family Tree Help provided me with    background information on my father's birthplace;  and South South Shields Family History -  I still have to make full use of this site for my husband's research) .   

 

I was a late convert to Facebook, largely due to the frequent adverse comments about it in the press re trolls etc. But thanks to my blog colleagues, I soon realised I was missing out by not using Facebook opportunities, so now enjoy following many genealogy and local history groups.

I  posted  on Poulton-le-FyldePast, a photograph from my great aunt's collection of her father James Danson (my great grandfather).  He   is the merry bearded figure  sitting in the stocks in Poulton.  This posting received my best ever feedback with 201 Likes and 39 comments. 

 

  The only photograph I have of my great grandfather James Danson
   the bearded figure sitting merrily in  the stocks at Poulton-le-Fylde.

                                                        

I located an important record - My uncle Charles Weston  had been a Japanese POW  and I was delighted to find on FindMyPast a document, partly in Japanese, recording his time in capture – and was pleased to pass that onto Charles’ daughter.   

 

Other positives I would like to share are

• Researching and blogging about my father’s ancestry which had always been rather shadowy  with nothing much beyond names and dates interesting about it. So the challenge was to find out more to create interesting blog posts  e.g. finding out about where they lived and worked. The most colourful  character my great great grandfather whose life spanned 10 decades  and at the age of 54 married as his second wife a young widow, 18 years his junior, by whom he had his 8th child. 
  
   
• Researching and blogging about my husband's family where I discovered that his great great grandmother left her first husband and two young sons, took her daughter, moved across country and marired a second time  in what must have been a bigamous ceremony.
  

• Regularly contributing to  to the blog Sepia Saturday, with its weekly  photographic prompts.

• Compiling a blog post  and later an offline journal account on “Life in Lockdown”  the past year, sparked initially by prompts from CassMob (Pauleen). and Jill of Geniaus

 "I am so FED UP" - a frequently expressed comment about Lockdown when on the phone or meeting people on the street - yes,  I have had my moments too and am certain many other people have, but thank goodness for Family History for giving me enjoyment, satisfaction and a supportive network of fellow enthusiasts.    

**********

 

ONTO G FOR GARDENING, GOOD READS AND GRATITUDE