More family located

Several months ago I corresponded on Genes Reunited with a gentlemen who had posted for information on a person with my mother's name. He allowed me to view his family tree which showed his great grandfathers and great grandmother's names to be the same as my mum's mother and father. In checking further it showed the children of the grandparents to be the same as my mother's siblings. The gentleman then informed me that he had received wrong information; when he checked his grandfather's marriage certificate it showed a different name for his father.

About a month ago I looked and found another gentleman looking for a person with my mother's name. To make this story short he is the brother of the previous gentleman I mentioned and he told me that for some reason his grandfather had put down a wrong name as his father on his marriage certificate. He also checked his grandfather's birth certificate to make sure and it did indeed show his father's name as the same as my mother's father.

These two gentlemen are my mother's great nephews and my 2nd cousins. Hopefully they will keep in touch with me as I want to find out all I can about my mother's life before she married my Dad. I don't know if they can shed any light on that as all of my mother's sibling are deceased; but maybe they will have some "stories" to pass along.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year.

Lovely Day

I know this sounds strange but today in Los Angeles is, to me, a lovely day. 7am this morning is was raining and the temperature was about 55 degrees. When I left the house at 8:30am to run errands and get my morning Starbucks the rain had stopped however it was quite cold and breezy. Home again at 11am, still dry until 12pm just as my groceries were being delivered it started to rain and continued until 2am. It has stayed dry but cold, 63 degrees at 3:30pm. I much prefer this type of day as my energy level is higher. The hot days of "summer" make me very lazy.

The only draw back to the rain is my dog Monte prefers not to venture out to do "his business", however he does in his trench coat and we pretend he is Sherlock Bones when he investigates every bush and plant; "hot on the trail my dear Watson".

As most animal lovers know, especially those without children, treat their dogs/cats as their "children".

Well, I will now wait for some more rain to arrive, should be tomorrow night according to the weather man.

SIBLINGS

I have mentioned many times that my family is in the UK or Australia. I have two siblings still living. I realize how lucky I am that I have nephews and nieces close to my own age. I feel they are more like siblings than nephews and nieces as I can communicate with them on the same level (age wise)and discuss the "trials and tribulations" of aging. I do communicate with some of my great nieces and nephews but not as often as the "age gap" is a little more noticable. They also are busy with their professions, where as my nieces and nephews have been fortunate enough in life to retire at a reasonably early age.

Talking about family, I must get busy and write some emails.

Facebook

I have been a member of Facebook for approximately 1 year. Facebook is probably very "exciting" for up to 30 years of age after that I think it becomes "boring".
I base this thought on several friends/family members I have communicated with (by email or phone). Like me they gradually just don't bother to log in to Facebook.

Emails are private; if anything to do with the computer can really be private. I have thought about unfriending all of my "friends" on Facebook to see if anyone would start to communicate with me personally via email at least. I know certain members of my family would use email as they have continued to do rather than connect through Facebook. Others I feel would not communicate directly but continue to post all of their "thoughts and escapades" on Facebook.

All I have to say is "God, bless them" and hope that nothing they have put into "cyberspace" comes back to bite them in the bum.

Ta ta till next time.

Days of Rememberance

Today, 9/11 is indeed a very important, yet sad day of rememberance, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families/friends affected by this tragedy.

Yesterday was also a day of rememberance for me in a different way. I have been emailing back and forth with my UK high school friend since locating her a month ago. I spoke to her on the phone yesterday for an hour and we still didn't get anywhere near making a dent in the "catching up" of the past 50years.

I received the year book pages and recognized names of teachers and some of the classmates. I have to ask my friend about a few of the names I don't recognize. My friend had also sent me a copy of a copy of a photo, which unfortunately was not very clear. We both "think" we recognize ourselves; she is going to check for the original photo. Neither of us recognized others in the photo and we think it was a photo of "prefects" and not of classmates.

We also talked about how sad it is when friends, either from school or workplace part and promise to keep in touch and very rarely do. I have experienced this with many work friends/associates. In this day of the email it wouldn't take but a minute to say "Hi, how are you doing?"

The most important things in life are: Family - Friends and health.

Goosebumps upon goosebumps

In researching for my book I decided to get some detailed information on my "high school" called North End Secondary Modern on Leigh Road in Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK. I decided to register with Friends Reunited where I could put in the name of my school and hopefully see some names of people I knew back then. One name has been on my mind since starting my book so I put that name in and SURPRISE it "popped up" showing the school and age which would be correct SO I sent a message. I received a reply to my message and sat with my mouth open and yes, tears in my eyes as the person responding was indeed my old friend and classmate of 45 plus years ago. Even bigger surprise is she has been living in the United States since 1979 in So. Carolina. My friend mentioned a few things in her message that brought back memories I can use in my book. She has our 1959 year book with my signature in the "middle" of the back page. She is emailing me the class picture and back page of the yearbook. I am anxiously waiting for the email and attachments, BOY she will get a very long email reply.

I hope the above makes sense as I am so excited about getting in touch again with a friend.

Now I have to wait for the email. HURRY, HURRY. I am glad I do not have to wait for snail mail.

More Memory Joggers

Friday I received an envelope from one of my nieces in England which contained more items/photos to jog my memory.

The envelope included three certificates I had received while in school in 1959. The certificates were from: Pitman Academy, both were for typing - one in the elementary exam and one in the intermediate exam. The third was from The Royal Society of Arts passing the elementary level of typing with credit.

Another item in the envelope was my ration book from WW11, for sweets, tea etc. What memories. My niece also included some copies of old photos she had found. One in particular I was happy to get was of my younger sister Ruth. I believe this was about the only photo of her as she only lived 9 months. Now I have a photo to go on her information page of the family tree.

The above items have now inspired me to "get cracking" on finishing my book. Hopefully this will be done in the next couple of months.

Family findings

I have finally connected with a relative on my Dad's side of the family. She is the grand daughter of one of my Dad's brothers (my Uncle). I know this for a fact, not just because of the names in her family tree but a photo she has attached to her grand father's information. The photo is identical to a photo I have and similar to one my oldest brother used to carry in his wallet. I never met any of my Dad's or Mum's brothers and sisters. Everyone says it is because of WWll that everyone drifted apart. It appears that most of my parents siblings stayed in the London area.

My "immediate" family is quite large; brother, sister, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, even some great, great nieces and nephews. Unfortunately they are in England and Australia therefore I don't get to see them, thank goodness for email. I am seriously thinking about connecting to Skype, but then I would have to get the family to do the same.

I am still writing my book while researching my family history. My book will probably be a few more months in the making; every time I either talk to or get an email from family members, another piece of my memory gets "jogged" and gives me more information for my book.

What research can do!

The type of research I refer to is looking for ones family. I have been working on my family tree which crosses over to several family trees: two of my sisters married to brothers therefore my brothers-in-law's family become in essence part of my family. I contacted a gentlemen who was looking for information for his family tree regarding one of my brothers-in-law and strangley he had the same surname as Uncle Henry. The gentleman is a couple of years younger than me and remembers my sister Rita's wedding (I was a bridesmaid at 6yrs old)and he was there. He turns out to be the grand-son of Uncle Henry. He is also the second cousin to three of my nephews and one niece. Uncle Henry was not related to me but back then out of respect for older relatives of friends (his sister-in-law was my god-mother) the title of Uncle or Aunt was used.

I was really "blown away" as today I received an email from another one of my nieces with some questions she had regarding her childhood and she mentioned that she remembered Uncle Henry!!!!

This whole family thing started because I decided to write about growing up in the UK with my family, the more I researched the more amazing things I discovered - thanks to the internet and a little help from my eldest living sister and brother.

One regret I have and that is not asking/listening to my elders when I was younger when they started telling their "stories".

Family History

I have had a lot of fun these past few weeks. I had a small article published in a community paper in the UK where I spent part of my childhood.

I put aside writing my murder mystery and started writing about growing up in the UK. I have done a lot of research on the places I lived and in doing so have connected with people in those areas and some I knew as a child. I thought adding "a little" history on the places would be interesting to the reader. The history on most of the places goes back to AD43 but I will not "bore" the reader with too much history.

Another exciting happening was I was friended on Facebook by my nephew, his wife and their two children. As I have said before, it is good to keep in touch with family.

I have also been making a family tree and possibly have connected with some "long lost" relatives. We are all Londoners and most of us were evacuated during the war and then lost touch.

THE WEDDING

Well the big day has come and gone. I was anxious to see the brides gown,head dress and veil. A couple of months ago my husband and I had dinner with another couple and while the two husbands were talking business another friend showed up and the subject of THE WEDDING came into the conversation. As I am from the UK I was asked my opinion about everything "wedding". The only comment I had was I hoped the wedding dress,head dress and veil would not be in the same "mode" as Diana's. I thought her dress made her look very "frumpy" and did nothing to "show off" her beauty. I described what I thought would look good on Catherine - which was basically what she wore; something very simple and elegant. Catherine looked very comfortable in what she was wearing. Of course Catherine is 10 years older than Diana was when she got married so that could also have a lot to do with the comfort level.

I would also like to add my thoughts and prayers to the people in the States that have been so devastated by the Tornadoes, god bless and keep safe.

Finding "old" friends

I recently was doing some research for a book I am writing about my childhood memories growing up in England. I thought it would be a good idea to include the history of the places I lived. One place mentioned in my blog "Small World" was Paulton. I contacted the historical society for Paulton to find out about the house I lived in. I had been told quite a few years ago by relatives that a childhood friend and her husband had purchased the house. Anne the lady from the historical society said my friend still lived there and they were friends. Anne lived in the house behind the one I lived in. Anne also sent me a copy of an article my friend had written regarding the history of "our" house to include the names of my god parents who owned it at the time I lived there (this was right after the war). I am hoping Anne will let my friend know that I was making enquiries and hopefully I will hear from my friend.

Talking about "old" friends. I don't really do much with Facebook but a couple of days ago I found a friend I worked with approximately 17 years ago. This is one young lady I can truly say was/is a friend and I am looking forward to receiving an email from her with the updates in her life.

FISH ARE LIKE RABBITS

Why are fish like rabbits you wonder? I will tell you my thoughts on the subject; The end of 2010 my husband bought me a flower arrangement, the vase looked like a small goldfish bowl. My husband and I had the same "brilliant" idea to get a Goldfish or a Beta to put in the bowl, we finally decided on a Beta as they came in various colors. Well the we went "through" two Betas then decided to upgrade the bowl to a 1 gallon tank. This was not successful as we lost another two Betas. Then next came the 5 gallon tank complete with heater, filter and live plants. We also added some Beta friendly fish to the tank. Needless to say we also lost the Beta, however the other fish survived. The other fish consist of 4 black Mollies (2 male/2 female), 4 Plateys (again 2 male/2 female),2 aquatic frogs and 4 Neons. Well now we have a total of 12 baby Mollies and 3 Plateys, all are doing well. The Mollies "arrived" in two groups of 6 each so some are bigger than others. It looks like we might get some more Plateys soon. Hence the title "Fish are like Rabbits", due to the above fish population explosion.

Small World

I thought the world was "small" back in the 80's when I purchased a new car from a salesman who was from Chandlers Ford in Hampshire, UK; that is were I lived for many years prior to immigrating to the United States. Seeing the advertisement recently for the movie "Hop" and having watched "Alice in Wonderland" with Johnny Depp and other such movies started me thinking about the books I loved as a child about "Rupert Bear". I discovered that "Rupert Bear" had been around since November 1920 as a comic strip in the Daily Express newspaper. I had a brilliant idea that this would also be a wonderful movie idea. In my research I found that the movie rights had already been"spoken" for back in 2005. Since 2008, Stuart Trotter has been the pen and illustrator for "Rupert Bear". In researching Stuart Trotter I found that he was introduced to the world of children's books when he worked for a company called Purnell in Paulton, Somerset, UK. Paulton is a small village between Bath and Bristol. Upon reading the above information is when the world got really small for the following reason; from the age of 5 yrs to 10 yrs I lived in Paulton, Somerset. My mother worked for Purnell and also did some piece meal work at home in the evenings and weekends. My sister and I would help our mother with her work which was taking pages that would later make a pop up book (new at that time), we would have to press out the perforations and fold where shown to make the "items" on the pages "pop" up. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?!!!!

Lazybones

I sometimes think I might be getting lazy. I sit with my Nook and read. Currently I am reading a book called Lazybones a murder mystery taking place in the UK. Very good so far, I am about a quarter of the way through.

Just had two lovely days to myself, the boys were in Palm Springs on business.

Day 1: I decided after vacuuming upstairs and downstairs to shampoo the carpet downstairs. While that was drying I dusted the bedroom and office then cleaned the bathroom. I had lunch then cleaned the downstairs bathroom, kitchen, living room and washed my floors. I finally sat down about 4:30pm, got up 1/2 hour later and I hurt, apart from having a little arthritis in my shoulders I had also added the muscle pain from all of the cleaning. I always say I am going to take the two full days to clean when the boys are away but I never do; once I get going I can never stop.

Day 2. Cleaned my oven; fortunately I have a self cleaning oven however it does make it hot as it takes 4hrs 20mins. I open up the windows and front door and thankfully the rain held off long enough, the temperature was only 60F. I did my ironing, then some reading and actually watched a good movie on TV.

Well the boys are back - mid afternoon I will take my buddy, Monte for a walk which he will enjoy.

I still have some resting up to do - poor aching muscles and back!!!!!!!

RAIN

Once again a day I love, with rain and dark skies as mentioned many times I feel very homesick. This is a perfect day to:
Go for a walk with my friend Monte, he doesn't mind the walk in the rain as long as he wears his "Sherlock Bones" raincoat.
Use the crock pot to make a beef stew - lovely.
Get all my chores done, sit down and read my current book "Syndrome" by Thomas Hoover. This book is very interesting regarding stem cell research that goes wrong. This will give many readers food for thought regarding this type of medical advancement. I can imagine the good and unfortunately I can also imagine the bad.
Well, lunch time for me and my buddy Monte, then get the fixin's together for the beef stew.
Toodles or TTFN.

Family

It is very important to keep in touch with family especially as we get older. I just sent an email to my brother in England and I have two more emails to send today: my niece (one of two) in England and my nephew in Australia, then to the snail mail for a letter to my sister in England. I find it very comforting when I have sent these emails/letter and I anxiously wait for the replies.

Spring is starting to be evident as I walk my canine friend, Monte. We see the daffodils blooming and on a rare occasion someone has planted crocuses. I do miss walking in the woods (my childhood in England) and seeing the primroses and bluebells growing wild for everyone to pick.

My husband and I were having dinner with some friends this past Thursday and I was telling the friend's wife how sad it is that a lot of children in Los Angeles haven't even seen a "real" cow/lamb/pig. I realize how lucky I was to grow up in the "time" I did and in the country. Everything was so much easier for children, we were able to be "children". No pressure from our peers, drugs were not readily available and gangs were not so prevalent although they did exist.

Well I must get back to the present. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people affected by this latest disaster.

It never rains in sunny California

But it pours, yes it pours. I love it. Makes me very homesick. At least here we have at least one or two days in between to dry out a little. I feel bad for the people in the flood areas however they knew the chances they took when living in those areas. We should all be thankfull we don't live in the mid-west or back east or even Europe with the snow and blizzards. My family all live in the UK and they have had very bad weather. I prefer the cooler weather to the 90 to 100 degrees we get in the summer. Why don't I move because when I came to the U.S., I made Los Angeles, California my home. Maybe sometime in the future my husband, our dog and myself will pick up roots and move but we have to decide where!! When I walk my dog in the rain he feels very important as he has his trench coat on and he acts like "Sherlock Bones" sniffing and investigating every bush and even every blade of grass. Well must get back to my Nookbook. As an avid reader it was the best Christmas present my husband could have given me. I like being able to download a book 24/7 and the prices are reasonable, there are even free books that are not bad reading. Plus I don't have to give away books to make room for more, I just store them in my Nook library just in case I want to read them again or even "lend" one to a friend.

Readingt

I haven't been "musing" too much lately. I have been doing a lot of reading. I received a Nook book for Christmas 2010 from my husband and haven't really put it down. I have been reading books by the following authors: Albert Simon - Sue Grafton. I have also been downloading free books from Harlequin.

One book I was disappointed in was "Don't Blink" by James Patterson. In reading reviews after buying the book I realized he co-authored the book. I had also downloaded a free preview which turned out to be about 1/3 rd of the book therefore making the purchase price of $14.99 rather high.

Well I guess I should get back and start working on my book a little more. Writing is not easy especially if you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off.