‘Ten green bottles hanging on the wall…’ You know the song, numbers go down to nine, then eight, seven and finally none. Families and surnames may experience a similar decline; some survive, others die out. Someone asked me recently about the Orkney surname Fea which I knew of from history but could not recall anyone | more…
Catholic Europe has celebrated fatherhood since the Middle Ages on 16 March, St Joseph’s Day. Here in the UK Father’s Day is much more recent and falls on 17 June this year. There’s practically no-one in my tree with a birthday on those dates or called Joseph, so in the spirit of commercialism, which now | more…
Longevity is the theme for this week’s #52cancestors challenge. So did my direct ancestors reach their three score years and ten, 70 years in other words (Psalm 90:10)? And if they did, how typical were they of their time? Walterina Nicholson, my paternal grandmother, was the oldest direct ancestor that I know of. She died | more…
