ancestry

Oh, it feels good to be clean.

Today we had one of our family get-togethers. My Dad's youngest brother and his family live up north, in Warrington, so it was decided that we would all meet up halfway between here and there, as many of the family as we could get together. We ended up at a country park on the outskirts of Birmingham, Lickey Hills. Lovely place, on a sunny day, I'm sure. Alas today was not a sunny day. It was cold and wet. We all got very muddy. Very. But it was good to see everyone, and the kids had a blast: in the end we managed to get together sixteen out of however many of us there are, six of them aged 12 and under.

One day we will manage to arrange one of these things for a day when it is actually possible to see the sun!

Thinking about it, I'm not sure I've ever been to Birmingham when it hasn't been raining. Maybe it exists in a damp little micro-climate all of its own. Or maybe my visits have just been really badly timed.

Yesterday was another family-oriented outing. My Mum has done a lot of family tree research - originally she set out to look back through her own ancestry, but kept hitting dead ends with those who came over from Norway and Ireland in the 19th century. My Dad's family have been rather easier to trace back through a good two or three centuries, however. Yesterday we went on a mini-pilgrimage to the town of Thornbury in Gloucester, where the one branch of the family to ever possess money came from. Way back in the 18th century, John Salmon was Mayor of Thornbury. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, his family made their fortune on the sugar plantations of Jamaica - apparently, Salmon is still a common name in Jamaica today. I've no idea what happened to that family fortune - it certainly never found its way down to us! But it was the family memorial in St Mary's Church, Thornbury, that we visited yesterday.

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Also today, my sister was feeding baby elephants in South Africa. Her holiday-of-a-lifetime is almost over now. I hope they've had a wonderful time!

ancestry

Oh, it feels good to be clean.

Today we had one of our family get-togethers. My Dad's youngest brother and his family live up north, in Warrington, so it was decided that we would all meet up halfway between here and there, as many of the family as we could get together. We ended up at a country park on the outskirts of Birmingham, Lickey Hills. Lovely place, on a sunny day, I'm sure. Alas today was not a sunny day. It was cold and wet. We all got very muddy. Very. But it was good to see everyone, and the kids had a blast: in the end we managed to get together sixteen out of however many of us there are, six of them aged 12 and under.

One day we will manage to arrange one of these things for a day when it is actually possible to see the sun!

Thinking about it, I'm not sure I've ever been to Birmingham when it hasn't been raining. Maybe it exists in a damp little micro-climate all of its own. Or maybe my visits have just been really badly timed.

Yesterday was another family-oriented outing. My Mum has done a lot of family tree research - originally she set out to look back through her own ancestry, but kept hitting dead ends with those who came over from Norway and Ireland in the 19th century. My Dad's family have been rather easier to trace back through a good two or three centuries, however. Yesterday we went on a mini-pilgrimage to the town of Thornbury in Gloucester, where the one branch of the family to ever possess money came from. Way back in the 18th century, John Salmon was Mayor of Thornbury. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, his family made their fortune on the sugar plantations of Jamaica - apparently, Salmon is still a common name in Jamaica today. I've no idea what happened to that family fortune - it certainly never found its way down to us! But it was the family memorial in St Mary's Church, Thornbury, that we visited yesterday.

( More )

Also today, my sister was feeding baby elephants in South Africa. Her holiday-of-a-lifetime is almost over now. I hope they've had a wonderful time!