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betweenthecracks.com
by Val Atkinson
Article ID: 39, First Published: September 2006Betweenthecracks.com
I’m not a great one for housework myself, but I do like to see the place clean.
I have numerous ways of bringing this to pass, none of which include my direct involvement in the process, but give me the same self-satisfaction as if I was.
I have a friend who also likes to see the place clean, but unlike me, she’s willing to do something about it, because vicarious satisfaction isn’t enough for her.
If ever you need a person to ‘bottom’ your house, then Janet is the one to do it. There’d be no loose soil (or ANY soil) on the bases of your house plant pots when she’d finished, the spaces between each bathroom tile would have been ‘seen to’ with a toothbrush, and the kitchen floor would be exhausted with scrubbing.
She doesn’t live her life for housework, but when it’s a housework day/week/era, you could wish she were in your house giving it the ‘once over’.
In other areas of my life I am slightly more organised, pedantic, demanding, dictatorial, thorough, controlling, and totally non-vicarious. I like DIY. When I research:
- There’s no soil on the plant pot bases because I’ve taken it away, and sifted, analysed, categorised and personalised each grain with the perseverance and tenacity of CSI
- The bathroom tiles gleam as on day one. NO they ultra-gleam
- Every grain of wood on the kitchen floor is individually identified, sanitised, and totally germ free
Research can be what I call a ‘POND ACTIVITY’ (Very Murky!)
In my ‘Research Long Run’, nothing and I repeat NOTHING escapes between the cracks.
I admit that in the short term, things can elude me, but I know they’re doing it because I sense that the research picture isn’t quite ‘right’.
Things can be elusive for years, but I do believe that one day they’ll rise to the surface, murky but recognisable.
I’ve been watching for ‘murky research bubbles’ in quite a few areas of my own genealogy, and I’ve learned the importance of patience.
Sometimes problems have to be put to one side and left to simmer a little.
In a previous article some time ago (Windows of Opportunity) I talked about
TROUBLING QUESTIONS:
- How can we interest our children/family members in this absorbing activity?
- Why are they bored by it? How can we help them see that it is absorbing?
- Why are genealogists considered as odd as (for example) train spotters?
- Why must we avoid saying the ‘FH’ (family history) words, and the ‘G’ (genealogy) word around our families?
CONCLUSION:
Be careful when speaking about family history if you want your family to hear the whole sentence!
Look for ‘windows of opportunity’ to further your cause and an ‘effectual door’ will be opened through which you can draw your families.
Recently, I told you about my niece Joanne who married in the dress of her dreams.
She and her husband stayed with me for a few weeks until their new house was ready, and in that short time a ‘window of opportunity’ activated for Joanne and her family history on her father’s side.
I’m the window and I’d been open for quite a while, but for the first time Joanne looked through, watched me at work, and she was hooked!
Before I knew it we were surrounded by pedigree charts/family group sheets and accessing the UK census for County Durham, and I let her get on with it.
Online there are indexes that assist research such as census listings and IGI (International Genealogical Index). These are marvellous tools, but they are NOT the researchers, WE ARE!
An example of an IGI entry is:
- Ann CROSBY Birth 8 May 1801 baptism 23 May 1801. Parents George CROSBY and Catharine LOCKIE
But the actual entry in the original parish records says: - Ann CROSBY born 8 May 1801 and baptised 23 May 1801 2nd daughter of George CROSBY Husbandman of Mardon, native of Donnington, by his wife Catharine Daughter of Samuel and Sarah LOCKIE native of Wooler
On her census information from online indexes Joanne had eldest child Robert born in 1872 which fitted very well with the 1870 marriage of his parents John and Jane.
However, when she accessed Robert’s baptism in the parish records, this is how the vicar had written it:
16 Dec 1872: Robert 2 son of John and Jane BOWMAN.
QUESTION: Where was 1 son?
Searching back in the baptisms she found 1 son:
18 Jun 1871: Thomas Edward 1 son of John and Jane BOWMAN
Searching forward in the burials she found:
19 Dec 1873 Thomas Edward BOWMAN aged 2 years
In terms of real life, little Thomas Edward BOWMAN existed for a pitifully brief time, but on online indexes his presence was non- existent. He was betweenthecracks.com
SUMMING UP:
Many thanks to the vicar and his numbering system!
Many thanks to the Windows of Opportunity that motivate us to action beyond the cracks!
Ten years between censuses is plenty of time for family events to briefly emerge and submerge. The ripples slowly run their course, reach the edge and the water settles, smooth, bland, and mill-pond-still. One family had 3 sons named Ralph. Two were born and died between censuses and only the last one showed up.
TRUST ME IN THIS:
Together we have discovered the real meaning of BURIED TREASURE.
PARISH BURIALS serve as a true ‘beneath the surface’ research tool.
Properly used and researched, they blast betweenthecracks.com out of existence, giving life to little Thomas Edward BOWMAN, and identity to each forgotten baby Ralph of this world.
