I reached a milestone birthday a couple of weeks ago! There’s nothing quite like a surprise party with guests from all parts of your life, to remind you of your own history. It was wonderful to see everybody from old schoolfriends and family to teaching colleagues and fellow writers. A few connections from afar (and even as far as the States) dropped in online as well !
My blog this month has focussed on ways of finding out more about unknown fathers in your family history. Check out the snippets that start with Who Was The Daddy ? Snippet 1: No Father Recorded on your British Birth Certificate – searchmyancestry – Ruth A. Symes Of course, only DNA testing can prove paternity beyond doubt, but there are many other ways in which you might discover something about missing fathers using records. And speculation backed up by detective work is always fun!
I’ve also participated in a couple of lively meetings with the North-West branch of the Society of Authors who meet in the Social Refuge Café on Great Ancoats Street, Manchester (usually once a month). We discussed ‘collaboration’ at one and had a very interesting discussion with Isabella Barber from Comma Press (www.commapress.co.uk) – a not-for-profit publisher and development agency at the other.
Book Corner: I’ve been reading some great books with an historical flavour this month.
Following on from the marvellous BBC production of The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow. I’ve been enjoying the book that inspired it. Apart from its literary merits, the story shows just how difficult life could be for our female ancestors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, if a suitable marriage didn’t present itself quickly.
I’ve also very much enjoyed Queen Lucia, by H.F. Benson. Written in 1920, this is a satirical and humorous look at life in an English country village where snobbery reigns. If your family history includes the lives of the British middle classes in the first part of the twentieth century – this might just be the book for you. It’s also one of six volumes, so I’m very much looking forward to reading more in the near future.
Happy researching and reading,
Ruth
Family History Research Services.
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