We moved the shed into its new position! It was quite a performance involving crashing through undergrowth and nearly getting stuck behind the shed, as we attempted to get it as far back as possible, without knocking next door’s fence down. We had to do a bit of random shoving of bits of wood and stone under the corners to get the doors to open and close. There was plenty of ‘a bit more under this side’, ‘no a bit more under that side’, rather like cutting a fringe and trying to get things level. Getting the pipe we’d rolled the shed into position on out from underneath it was a challenge. It ..read more

This is mostly the tale of two sheds but first, the other gardening news. I’ve been working on keeping the flowerbed, that has been cleared so far, in a reasonable state and I am pleased to relate that the bird table is back in situ and can be seen from my settee. The snag is that, now that it is sometimes a little warmer, I am opening the door between the living room and conservatory, which creates a different ‘view of the bird table’ obstruction. Not sure if it is best to move the bird table again or the settee. On the subject of birds, there’s been a great deal of interest in the two, very ..read more

This story relates to my 4x great grandfather William Seear. Marriage of cousins in two successive generations not only accounts for a great deal and makes DNA research ‘interesting’, it also means that William is my 4x great grandfather three times over. He is also an insurmountable brick wall and has been since I first discovered him more than forty years ago. So what do I know? Ten children were baptised to William and his wife Mary between 1782 and 1797, nine in Stoke Newington, London and one middle child in neighbouring Hackney. Two of these children are my 3x great grandparents (one of ..read more

Having acquired some plants more than a fortnight ago, rain and a bad back stopped play, so I am only just getting round to planting them. I did go to a willow weaving course to make bird feeders. This was great fun but I am not convinced by the scale of some of the feeders that resulted. Unless you have fat balls the size of footballs, or ostriches visiting the garden, I  foresee a problem. They will find a place nonetheless. Before utilising said feeders, there was a plan to move the bird table. This was inherited and had been screwed to the wall that retains the raised bed. This is a g ..read more

I didn’t get the chance to watch as many presentations as I’d like on Day 2, as life got in the way but I have reduced my playlist to something more realistic, partly because some of the talks I’d earmarked are not available virtually and were live at times when I wasn’t available, or was asleep. It is great that so many can be watch online, especially as they are free of charge. So this is my round up of Days 2 and 3. I enjoyed giving my own Marginalised Ancestors talk live but remotely and thankfully the technology behaved itself. This is one that is available for you to watch when you have ..read more

Day One of Rootstech is over and I have a bulging playlist that I want to work through. Fortunately, there’s plenty of time. I have to admit I do still have a few lingering in my playlist from previous years. I have my usual mix of presentations by people I know, topics that appeal and a few random additions to take me out of my comfort zone. My aim is to keep on top of the playlist so that it doesn’t get longer and longer, as I add recommendations from others. I began with Nicholas Dixon’s ‘Metropolitan Ancestors: finding families in Georgian and Victorian London’, which contained plenty of u ..read more

Rootstech is round the corner and with it the option to see if I am related to any of the many lovely fellow-attendee family historians that I have got to know over the decades, both in person and online. Along with thousands of others, I am attending the mega international conference virtually, from the comfort of home and I’m looking forward to learning new things. As well as the ‘Relatives at Rootstech’ fun, there are options to see if you are related to famous people. Allegedly I have connections to a few. Most of these relationships are based on some seriously speculative genealogy. So, a ..read more

To be honest, it hasn’t really been the weather for fair-weather gardeners like me, or indeed any sort of gardener but yesterday the sun came out and the temperature was in double figures, so I ventured forth. The previous owner of my garden had left me numerous pots containing plants in various stages of liveliness and an eclectic selection of garden ornaments. I decided to triage these into ‘will keep’, ‘will humanely dispose of’ and ‘not sure yet’. Plant wise, there are more exciting finds as the year moves on; today’s included hellebores and miniature daffodils. We began to trim back the w ..read more

I can’t pretend other than that one of the downsides of the new house is the conglomeration of concrete and sheds that constitute the ‘garden’. In estate agent speak, it is more of a courtyard than a garden, or perhaps we just term it that valuable commodity ‘outside space’. Having left behind what I felt was an attractive cottage garden, a wildlife haven, I was aware that this was a compromise but assured myself that it could be improved. Having gone through some seriously stressful battles with the technology associated with the job I must not mention last year, I steeled myself not to walk ..read more

So the Rootstech schedule is now available and the excitement is building as we can begin to plan our time for the three days of intensive family history fun from 29 February to 2 March. Do you need to head off to Salt Lake City? – no – although I am sure in-person attendance would be great. Do you need to part with large sums of hard earned cash? Again no, if you are attending virtually, as I am, absolutely free. If you haven’t registered yet you can do so here. I’ve been trawling the schedule of online talks deciding how to spend my time. It has required tricky choices, as there are often cl ..read more