Family history

    I have a copy of The Oxford Guide To Family History by David Hey into which I have hardly delved. I hadn't consciously thought that I am the last male Richardson of our corner of that family until I signed my niece's guest book at her wedding earlier this year. I haven't paid much attention because I loosely subscribe to the idea that tracing a family tree is a bit pointless as one either runs out of public records or reaches a point in the family tree where nobody cared about such things or the oral history is lost. Or why must one be a slave to the patriarchal system and only follow the mail (Freudian slip?) male line. One only has to go back four generations, to great-great-grandparents, to then have the task of following sixteen families. The book talks about something far more interesting than the bare-bones genealogy and that is finding out about the lives of ancestors, their occupations and social milieu.

    The only things I know about my grandfathers is that one served in the RAMC during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and was a postman in civilian life; and the other was a Gloucestershire wheelwright; and that family names include Coates, Farmer and Gaze. But my sister, being much older than I am, might put me right about some things. Of my grandparents only my paternal grandmother was alive when I was born.

My century plus one

A few years ago several people listed 101 things about themselves. The idea may be ready for a little revival.

I started worrying that I don't have much to say about myself at the moment. I wondered what relevance noting what I have done in the past has to do with who I am now. I was thinking categories: physical characteristics, likes, dislikes, recreations, vocations for example. I think I just need to make a list , one of many possible lists . . . this might take a few days.

1. I have acted in amateur community theatre productions.
2. I practise playing various musical instruments.
3. I have short legs and a long back in proportion to my height, otherwise known as a short arse.
4. I weigh 12st 12lbs or 180lbs. Don't ask me what that is in kilos.
5. I like to read - almost anything including cereal boxes.
   
6. I hate repeatedly starting sentences with the first person singular.
7. Blue is usually my favourite colour.