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I’m Only Going To Say This Once

by Val Atkinson

Article ID: 40, First Published: February 2007

I’M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE!

My son joined the army at the age of sixteen, and arrived for his basic training along with a hundred or so other young hopefuls.
Later on, he rang and told me his first military ‘story’, of the short/concise/painful variety.
When the training sergeant came on the scene, he ordered all the boys who had their hands in their pockets, to get down there and then, and do fifty press-ups on the railway station platform, in front of all the passers by.

I said: ‘Did you have your hands in your pockets?’ and he answered: ‘I did that time!’

The years have rolled by. He’s now a training sergeant himself, and not long ago I watched him receive his long service and exemplary conduct medal. In that time I’ve heard many more military stories, and he’s been in several war zones, but he never has his hands in his pockets.

I admire a person who learns a lesson first time, and I’d like to be the same. I firmly believe that no one with any sense does fifty press-ups on a station platform more than once, but from a research point of view there are many ultra-fit researchers with thousands of press-ups to their credit.
Some lessons are easy to learn and shouldn’t be made into a repeated ‘press-up experiences’. The following ‘Part One’ orders can help us avoid painful repetitions.

RECORD CLEARLY AND AVOID MURKY ‘POND’ GENEALOGY:

Our ancestors obtain identity through crystal clear recording of their life and times on pedigree charts and family group sheets.
Develop and put in place an effective recording system with a beginning and middle.
Always remember that research doesn’t have an end!
Group your people the way they lived: as families
Become an example of efficiency, purpose, identity, usefulness, and magnificence, so your Family History can be read like an interesting story in a book.

KNOW WHERE YOU ARE AND KEEP AN EYE ON THEM:
A while ago I talked about the feeling I had on the way to Durham County Hall for research. When I passed the sign: ‘Welcome to Durham the Land of the Prince Bishops’, I felt a massive emotional response of identity, patriotism and belonging.

Watch your ancestors and their ‘places’ like a hawk.
Don’t let them escape into a black hole.
Track them on census and map, and remember: We move about, and so did they!
Watch for place names wrongly spelled or transcribed, and take the time to correctly identify them.
The one I like the best of all the strange place names I’ve come across is the Durham place ‘Yooey Heeds’. This was eventually identified as ‘Ewe Head’, and the phonetic spelling gives a good indication of the dialect in the north east of England.

Our British ancestors stated their birthplaces on the various censuses, and often people say they cannot locate these on maps, even old maps. This is because these places weren’t actually ‘places’. Often people named as their birthplace the pit their father was working at, rather than the town the pit was in.
For example, I have ancestors born in Old Rows/New Rows/Middle Rows. These aren’t towns, and you won’t find them on maps, because they are the terraced houses miners lived in. HINT: Find out which town your Old Rows was in. (Can be Tricky!)

Examples local to me are:

The Lawe Top, which takes its name from Lawe Road. The road winds to the top of a hill. Obviously when you get up there, you’re on the LAWE TOP. Not exactly Rocket Science, but keep it in mind. PS No one lives ‘at’ the Lawe Top, they all live ‘on’ it.
The Lonnen has become an ‘area’ in my town, but it is actually a long winding avenue of bungalows. ‘Up the Lonnen Way’ is an oft-heard expression.

KNOW WHO THEY ARE AS WELL AS YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE:
Call your ancestors by their given names and maiden names where appropriate. It’s sensible, and it dignifies them. Allow them their identity and the emergence of their life’s pattern by giving them a place in the family group. Allow them to pass on their heritage intact, and avoid stranding them as lone castaways on nameless islands.
This is particularly the case with women who tend to get submerged in the family network and become Mrs Johnson or Granny Woods. Hiding inside Mrs Johnson is Mary Alice Gertrude Tulip, and Granny Woods still wants to be Rebecca Blake.

WE AVOID UNNECESSARY ‘PUBLIC PRESS-UP’ RESEARCH SITUATIONS WHEN:

We have a simple and effective way of recording that is readily understood and easily passed on.
We know our places.
We know our people.

RESULT: We will know ourselves better because our own identity comes from them