Notes of Life

While looking for Christmas presents for various friends and family members, I have come across this book that looks to be a must-read.

Potty, Fartwell and Knob: From Luke Warm to Minty Badger - Extra Ordinary But True Names of British People

It’s written by Russell Ash. He’s trawled through 900 years worth of parish registers and census records to present us with quite unlikely but true British names (you have to feel sorry for some of these people!). Each name has been checked for authenticity and it’s source is given, including extra notes where further fascinating illumination is possible.

It was published in hardback format (256 pages) on 14th November.

ISBN: 9780755316540

This

This might be worth checking out. Tin Man (you may recognise the character’s name from The Wizard of Oz) is a new mini-series about to be shown on the Sci Fi Channel in the US. After spending time looking around the website, I’m hoping it comes to the Sci Fi Channel (or any other channel) in the UK. It looks to be a lot darker than the original book/film, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to sing “We’re off to see the wizard….”!

A colleague recently went to see Wicked the musical in London and has been raving about it, so I’ve got a bit of a feeling for all things Oz at the moment. I’d love to see Wicked and from what I’ve seen and heard, it’s well worth going to see.

That

I’ve been looking through the 100+ photos I took at Take That’s concert on the 17th and decided to upload two or three more.

The rest can be found over at Flickr and here.

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Wish Lists. So here’s my Genealogy Christmas Wish List:

Dear Santa,

1. Great Grandfather Alfred’s birth certificate
I have found birth certificates for several of his brothers, including his eldest and youngest brother, yet Alfred’s birth certificate seems to escape me. I know it was in the early days of registration, but surely his birth was registered if his brothers’ births were registered. The closest thing I have to Alfred’s missing birth certificate is a copy of a Parish Register page which includes his baptism. I also have a family bible in which Alfred’s birth date is noted, but it was written in many years after Alfred was born and the birth year looks to have been edited. I’m guessing he as baptised the same year he was born, but still I can’t find his birth certificate.

2. For my Great Grandparents’ Gravestone to be restored
When I found my Great Grandparents’ (Alfred & Mary) gravestone in Malpas, some of the letters were missing. I would dearly love to restore the headstone to it’s original condition.

3. Great Great Great Great Grandfather James’ death certificate
I only recently discovered James, but I would dearly love to find his death certificate. He disappears from the census records and his wife Jane remarried, so I have a window to work to, but I’ve still not been able to find the right death certifiate. I ordered one a few weeks back, but it turned out not to be his. Why did he die young? If you could find it for me, could you send a copy to my distant cousin in Australia who would also be very grateful.

4. To be able to put names to photos
I have a big box containing photos of family, soldiers and friends of the family. Dad can put names to some of them, but who are the others?

5. A time-machine
Imagine how much research I could do with one of these!

I know one or two of these wishes are impossible, but maybe one or two could be completed. I have tried to be good this year.

Yours faithfully,

Nikki-ann.

What would you put on your wish list?

Submit your Genealogy Wish List here.

What a great weekend this is turning out to be! Yesterday I went to see Take That at Birmingham NEC and today it’s snowing! It’s been snowing for a couple of hours now. It isn’t sticking to the roads at the moment, but it is starting to stick to the roofs, cars and fields.

So, last night… was amazing! Take That just keep getting better and better. They’ve always put on a good show, but they always manage to out-do themselves.

Take That had 2 support acts last night, the first of which was Brown:Music. They’re a talented band and certainly worth checking out (Tash is Jason’s vocal coach). The second support act was Sophie Ellis Bextor. As Sophie is already a well established artist it’s quite surprising to see her as a support act, but she was certainly welcomed. If only we could all carry off the dress she was wearing!

I had a brilliant seat (Block A Row G) made even better by the shape of the stage, but even those sat near the back had a great view because once again Take That had a ‘B’ stage in the middle of the arena. Those in aisle seats had it even better… Take That walked from the ‘B’ stage to the main stage through the crowd. They obviously didn’t mind being groped when they did it last year!

Take That certainly put on a show. They had plenty of dancers (including Gary’s wife, Dawn), flames (they even set fire to various parts of themselves - covered in fire-proof clothing, of course), and sang old songs as well as new. They just keep getting better and better!

I took plenty of photos (of course), so I’ve picked out the best and uploaded them to Flickr.

Nordic Blue has tagged me for a meme, so here goes!

The Rules

Pick up the book you are reading, turn to page 161, and divulge the contents of the sixth sentence on that page.

The Book

I’m currently reading ‘White Night‘ (The 9th book of ‘The Dresden Files’) by Jim Butcher. To tell the truth, I’ve been reading it for a while now. I usually can’t put The Dresden Files books down, but I’ve been so busy with work in the past few months that I’ve just not had the energy. Still, as usual, Jim Butcher has excelled himself. His books just keep getting better and better. Some of you may have seen the TV series on the SciFi channel (it’s a shame there won’t be a 2nd season), but you really should read the books. I definitely recommend them!

Page 161 - Sixth Sentence

“Elaine just stared at the women for a long moment, then at Thomas. “Olivia,” she asked. “Is he telling the truth?”

I know that’s slightly more than a sentence, but I thought I’d bend the rules slightly!

Tags

Now I’ve got to tag 5 people. I choose:

• Karen
• Craziequeen
• Bobkat
• Simply Pink
• Miss M

All done!