General Chat

no not really as I never knew them and never heard much about them.My mam lost her parents quite young and my dad lost his in their 50s .His dad in 1952 and his mam in 1958. I was born in 1957 SO HAVE NO MEMORY.
I recently viewed a photograph which was thought to be my dads parents but my cousin couldnt be sure.
I know my maternal grandfather was wounded in the first world war and walked with sticks.He died from TB in. 1929. my grandmother died from cancer in 1941. She had 5 children and struggled to make ends meet.
Have you seen the houses your parents were born in?

Yes and No..lol
I'll try to explain, I've seen them but can't be sure exactly which ones they are !
They were both born in the village in which I was brought up in, but mums b,cert says Near to post Office ( that was in many places til my paternal nan took it over )
Dad's b'cert says 'Railway view' which no one knows where that is... he never thought to ask his mother.
We guess where both of them were, both within 100yds of each other, dad remembered a few places he lived before my nan bought the 'big house' but the name was Railway View , no one in his or mums family seems to remember it , or where mum was born, except that the houses were close:)

I have all the original b.m.d certs of my parents and grandparents,
Do you , or did you have purchase any from GRO..?

Yes I have bought quite a few. I have my parents and grandparents. I have a few great grandparents and even some great great grandparents too where certification allows. I decided to stick to immediate ancestors and to seek as many of those as should have existed. It's quite an expensive business and I have a little list of a few more I've tracked down, but I think I may put that on my Christmas list for OH to get me.

Sometimes it has been hard to decide which of a couple of possibilities is the correct one to order - in which case I try to find other pointers so mostly I've ordered the correct one, but once or twice it was impossible to decide and so I've just had to pick one and wait and see. So I do have one or two incorrect ones, but luckily not many.

Do you have any wrong certificates and what do you do with them?

So far I have been lucky and only had 2 wrong certificates, the same names as my ancestors but the parents have been wrong, I have just kept them and put them in a folder somewhere.

Family history is an expensive hobby do you spend alot of money researching and how far have you ever traveled from home to do your research

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a lazy researcher.
Dad born 1913 and he and his cousin had researched his paternal line,

I joined GR to put it onto the puter for him, when I mentioned this to my cousin a lot older than me, he gave me all the details and copies he had on my maternal grand mother's side
My dad's uncle married my mother's aunt,so there was a lot of info there too.
When I put my tree up I was contacted by a second cousin on my mother's side (mum had a very unusual name) who had fully researched my maternal grandfathers side, who again offered me all details and copies he had.

Most of the family are buried at the Parish Church where I used to live,about 8 miles away, so I do headstone rubbings and take photos which I pass onto my cousins who live way out of the area as a thank you for them passing on their research to me.

Did you have many ' visitors ' at Halloween..?

I'm not a big fan of Halloween , took my 2 girls round the neighbours when they were little, then when they grew up I never bothered very much with it and there was no little children in our street,
But this year I now have a little granddaughter (13 months) and we dressed her up as a pumpkin, and daughter no 2 and her boyfriend decided to make a pumpkin lantern and put it in the porch and we had about 7 children in all who came to the door, my little granddaughter wouldn't come and say hello I think she was a little over awed at the different people at the door but watched them through the living room window going up & down the street,

Shops are full of christmas decorations, Have you started thinking about it yet ?

I wrote a whole screed on this at 9.15 and it just whooshed !!

Other than cards no !

Son and dau have money, with a few bits and bobs thrown in.
Only buy now for hubby and his brother.
Bil likes a Fine red wine or a good Malt whiskey ..no probs

Sister lives in the US,and we all decided that presses for nieces and nephews stop at 21. Bil is divorced and estranged from his 2 sons:(

Just off to write my Xmas card list .lol and see how many more I need, I buy some in the Jan sales, but always buy special one for family and close friends about now.
And no I don't buy in bulk for Xmas !

Forgot what my question was now .lol...

Do you have a fav colour for clothes or go with the current fashion ..?

No I don't go with whatever is the new black this year unless it coincides with what I like anyway. In fact although some people wear a lot of black I don't actually wear it that much at all. I have held on to one or two good things from when I was at work as one of my choirs likes us to wear black for performances and we add either a red or gold sash depending on the concert, and the other likes us to wear anything black and white - but this one's only been going a term and a half and we are just considering adding some bright options particularly since the music is current and popular and a lot of fun.

I wear a variety of colours, but the colour that turns up most is green - lots of different shades of it - I particularly like limes and sages but am not so keen on emerald green to wear although I love the emerald stone. OH bought me a gorgeous ring that I call my maternity ring (instead of eternity ring) when I had our son and then earrings to match when our daughter was born.

Do you or have you ever been a member of a local performing arts group of any kind?

Funny you say that about greens Dizzie Lizzie, it is my least fav colour,tho would wear emerald green.lol.

Well I've always sung since I was 5 (known first performance,dad still has the cutting from the local paper 'Postmaster's 5 yr old steals the show'...blushes now !!
In senior school 4 of us formed a girl band 2 on guitar and myself and best friend since infants school, doing the vocals.
It started in the first yr following the annual Eisteddfod, I won the solo competition, one girl an excellent musician won the piano, and it went from there, we were all friends anyway. We performed in all the school events and social evenings for youngsters, unfortunately we all went to very different parts of the country when we went to Uni, whilst we keep in touch we did our last performance on our last day in school. 6 yrs of fun.lol

Just looked in the mirror.. it nearly cracked..horrified at state of my hair !
How often do you go to the hairdressers ..?... I hate going hencethe nearly cracked mirror.lol

I used to only go occasionally when I could find the time and the money so I used to get quite shaggy too. Where I live now the price is half what it was in London for a similar quality cut. The kids are both moved out now and I'm not working so I have the time and I treat myself every 6 weeks now. Sometimes it goes a little bit longer if something clashes with the usual time but rarely longer than 8 weeks. I've always loved having my hair done, not that I'm any great one for glamour. It's not the style so much as that I find it very soothing.

Another thing I have started treating myself to is a fortnightly massage, sometimes it's my back, sometimes it's an Indian head massage and sometimes it's reflexology which is my favourite.

Have you tried anything like that and if so did you enjoy it?

Only a foot and back massage and yes I did enjoy them:)

Do you still have fireworks going off..? Will probably last to the new yr !

not now lol thank goodness
Do you celebrate new year?

BC ...before children, we always went out for New Yrs Eve now we mostly stay in ([children] are 24 and 22 ) or go to friends.But yes we do stay up to see in the new year :)

I'm on the lappy on au and it's old GR for me at the mo .lol

What do you think of the new format of GR?

I'll answer my own question.lol................

Got used to it quickly, but don't like the reply box at the bottom of the page, and when the first line under the headings index seem to change to a later posting and not the first.
My 'Hunger thread 'did that and I had to fiddle around to get it back to what it was originally.

Topical but maybe boring
How is the bad weather affecting you..?

Not badly at all here. Yesterday we had our second very light covering of snow which mostly thawed during the day. It was milder this time, my small bird bath if it did freeze overnight was thawed when I went out to check it and the bigger one was slush so didn't need to do much to thaw it. It's very patchy, a friend said she had to work from home yesterday but her workplace told her they had nothing to speak of. It's forecast for tomorrow again here so we'll see how we go then.

Is there anyone else out there who's had little snow?

Our part of Berkshire has been very lucky so far with only a little snow yesterday and none today. The roads were also well gritted as it was very cold, our ponds were both iced over and the two cats didn't spend much time outdoors, Amy, the boxer however was in her element with a long walk in the forest where two deers were spotted.

Has anyone actually been snowed in and unable to get to the shops ?
I saw Rothbury [one of our favourite holiday spots] on the news yesterday they had caught it really badly

no-one I know of. Do you know of anyone who has fallen and injured themselves in the snow/ice this year?

I was visiting my son in Guys hospital the other day (he was there for another reason) and a man arrived on the ward with his head bandaged to within an inch of his life because of a fall. Poor chap.

Because we're not doing the entertaining this year I am in the happy but unusual position of having finished my Christmas shopping. How are you doing with yours?

Everything sorted this year for the first time ever, handing out Christmas cards at work today and hoping to see the pantomime we have on in the Theatre. I have shopped on line and the final food delivery is due tomorrow.

Do you cook Christmas dinner or have you made plans to go out?

For yrs we've had Christmas dinner at home , and will this yr.
When we were first married the family (sister and our hubbys) went to our parents . Mum then fell ill and until my sister emigrated in 1984(?)we alternated which sister did the Xmas dinner.The only exception was when my step bil ,a Scicilian(sp) opened a restuarant(sp) just before Xmas and we dined there.
Hubby was the bar man for most of the day, but it was great fun.:)

Do you have a real Xmas tree or and artificial one ?