Wing As It Was - another copy on Ebay

If any of my readers were bidding against Heather for the copy of Wing As It Was that was up on Ebay recently, you get a second chance. Someone else (and this seller is in Wing itself!) is now selling their copy. On average I see these come up for sale maybe once every two years or so.

Wing As It Was

Wing As It Was (and Wing As It Was vol 2) is a small book of postcards and photos of, well, Wing as it was! The illustrations are predominantly from the late 1800s and early 1900s. I own both these books and have indexed the surnames included for both volume 1 and volume 2 on the website.

Both books are now out of print but a copy of the first volume is currently up on Ebay should you fancy it. I'm not associated with the seller in any way.

World famous (in UK genealogy circles)

Progress report on the Moving Target list: nothing to report. Must try harder!

However I have looked at the BAILEY, INWARDS, and GOSS families in Wing over the last week, and I’m about to look at the PEASE family. If you are connected to any of these and haven’t previously been in touch, please email me.

It’s also been exciting times for one-place studies generally. Roy Stockdill’s article on one-place studies is in the current (May) issue of Family Tree magazine, so do grab a copy if you haven’t already seen it - as well as the physical mag you can also buy a digital copy at PocketMags, via iTunes app, Android, whatever! The article mentions me, and more importantly lots of others working hard on their one-place studies as well as the One Place Study website over at  http://one-place-studies.org/.

Wing As It Was vol 2

If anyone would like a copy of this out-of-print book, there is one currently for sale on Ebay via Buy Now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230731947124&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123
I'm not affiliated with the seller in any way.

This book contains various postcards and photos of Wing in the late 19th century. I have an index of names included on the website: http://www.wing-ops.org.uk/waiw2.html

Bookshelf: World War II London Blitz Diary by Ruby Thompson

I recently read a book that you, my dear readers, may also be interested in so I'm interrupting my Moving Target series to bring you my review from Goodreads:

World War II London Blitz Diary: A Woman's Revelations Enduring War and Marriage by Ruby Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This diary is a very illuminating look at what life during the London Blitz was like. Life-long diarist Ruby talks about both the external events of WWII and her personal experiences on a day-to-day basis living through the Blitz, as well as general family and society events and opinions. Being able to read something that was being written each day, without the benefit of hindsight as to what was historically significant, was very refreshing. The sheer repetitiveness with which the various air alerts each day are recorded gives you a real sense of what it might have been like - without going through the lack of sleep and shattered nerves, of course!

Ruby makes particular comment about how she fully intends her children to read the diaries some day so that they know a bit more about who she really was - the impact of various societal constraints meant she felt unable to truly be herself. This also gives the reader permission to experience her sometimes harsh comments about life and her husband without feeling that you are intruding.

The diaries have been edited by Ruby's great-granddaughter. She has let the content stand as is, and accordingly some comments will likely make modern readers cringe a bit, but thankfully there has been no editing to make the diary more dramatic, as a novelised version might have been. The copyediting could definitely be improved, for example there are a couple of sentences in two entries that were duplicates of other entries, and there are apostrophes where there shouldn't be. While Ruby's family members are listed at the beginning of the book, I felt it would have been more useful to the narrative to add these as footnotes or editorial parentheses as each new person (or place/issue of significance) was mentioned, to explain who they are and their significance in Ruby's life.

The content itself and the fact the diaries survive is a true gift to Ruby's descendants, and now to us as well. This is volume 1 of an intended 4-volume WWII set.

Superstar genealogy friends

Isn't it nice to have superstar genealogy friends? The kind that support what you're doing, think of you when they come across something that might be relevant for your research, and generally make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the genealogy community.

One of my superstar genealogy friends is Paul Brazell. Paul recently visited the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, and before he went he emailed me to see if there might be anything he could take a look at for me. I duly compiled a long list (you know, just in case there was some disaster that meant he might be trapped in there for days with nothing to do but photograph and scan records for me) and sent it off. And now I have photographs of the 1797 Wing inclosure map! This will be a great help to my current farm project and for general Wing research.

Did I mention that Paul had much less time at the Centre than expected, due to traffic snarlups? And that he doesn't live in the UK either?

A big public thank you to Paul, all my other superstar genealogy friends, and, indeed, everyone's superstar genealogy friends - you're awesome.

And in case you, my dear reader, find yourself at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies with some spare time up your sleeve and would like to contribute to the Wing One Place Study, here's the rest of my list:

* any tithe maps - I believe there's one for 1851 and I think there's some others as well

* D-X1099/1 (pp 129-205 are Wing) register of farm tenants of the Earl of Chesterfield c.1760-c.1792

* D-X1099/2  (pp 61-102 are Wing and hamlets) - survey including plans of farm tenants of Earl of Chesterfield and other landowners c.1778 - also on microfilm (M 42)

* D-X1099/3 (pp 10-39 are Wing and hamlets) - similar survey but in 1798

* D-X1099/4 (pp 28, 31 and 62-71) similar survey but in 1810

* D 94/48 to D 94/54 documents re properties sold to the Rothschilds 1752-1876

* NC 5/1 Burcott Congregational Chapel church book 1871 to 1913 including admissions and baptisms

* NC 5/11 Burcott Congregational Chapel notebook by Kate HELEY dated 1879-1890 "Scraps and Incidents and Notes of the Lord's Dealings" - would love someone to take a look at this and comment on the kind of things included as I'm very curious about it!

* NMP/401 register of marriages for Church Street Primitive Methodist Chapel 1902-1983

* QS/W/E/234  return of dissenting places of worship 1829

When chickens come home to roost

This week NZ booksellers Whitcoulls and Borders (both now part of the same Australian group) were placed into voluntary administration. Whitcoulls and its predecessor firms have been around for more than 100 years, so this is sad news. I worked for Whitcoulls for three years while attending university so I was predisposed to give them the benefit of the doubt when I experienced problems with their e-book retailing attempts since they launched this nine months ago. They've done a pretty good job of destroying all that goodwill though - here's a sample of my experiences:

* Inability to consolidate the two email addresses Whitcoulls held for me without going into a physical store and getting them to put in a manual request
* Inability to edit or remove an expired credit card attached to my account
* Inability to add a second credit card so that I could actually buy books after my original card expired
* Purchasing e-books that then never showed up in my eLibrary so that I could access them
* Purchasing e-books that then didn't have the advertised epub format
* Support requests being closed as "fixed" without notifying me that they had been closed or, indeed, actually fixing the problem
* Removal of some of the very useful functionality that the kobobooks.com platform has (the same platform that Whitcoulls adopted for their website)
* In-store display models of the Sony Reader with no books on them (because why would you actually want to see what it's like to read a book on it before purchasing one??)

Here's hoping the future for Whitcoulls involves new management that have a clue.

In the related realm of print marketing, this time specifically genealogical, could someone out there fill me in on why UK genealogical magazines arrive in NZ with entirely different names? Your Family Tree is on our shelves with a cover proclaiming it to be Your Family History. All the inside pages are still branded as Your Family Tree. Meanwhile, the magazine actually called Your Family History is on the shelves as Tracing Family History (again, the inside pages all show as the original name). These covers are clearly not specifically printed for the NZ/AU region as the pricing still shows in pounds. If it hadn't have been for the "from Nick Barratt and his team" on the cover of "Tracing Family History" raising my suspicions, I would never have realised that this was in fact the very magazine I'd been keen to see for months. Genealogical magazines tend to have confusingly-similar names anyway, so why oh why are publishers allowing this dilution of their brand?

Bookshelf: Village Sketches by Whitehead

Village Sketches descriptive of club and school festivals and other village gatherings and institutions
By TC Whitehead, M.A., Incumbent of Gawcott, Buckinghamshire
Published by Bosworth & Harrison (London) 1861
Available on Google Books

As I have an interest in 19th-century Buckinghamshire (ahem) this was a must-read. Thomas Clark Whitehead had been resident in Gawcott for a decade when he wrote this outline of his various initiatives to improve the lot of the residents.

One problem that has echoed through the ages has been the difficulty of keeping teenage boys out of mischief. In the time Whitehead was writing, boys would leave school at around the age of eight, and have a surplus of energy and nothing constructive to do with it after their day's work in the fields was over. In summer cricket was very popular (one chapter describes the big event of a match between Gawcott and "the small town of W____ about 7 miles off" - sadly this is not Wing, I suspect it may be Winslow as it does have a "Bell" pub as mentioned in this text) but in winter the boys were problematic. A Night Club was introduced whereby the boys could use the schoolroom for whatever they wanted, and it turns out what they wanted most, once they had been taught how, was to play chess!

Another fascinating snippet was the description of the boys attending astronomy lectures, followed by the use of a borrowed telescope to gaze up at the night sky. This is certainly not something I had envisaged our rural ancestors doing either.

Other chapters cover the children's lending library, the village tea party (just how did you manage hot water for cups of tea for 230 people?) and school "treat" day which was an outdoor picnic with games, a penny bank, friendly clubs, and the village school.

I must confess I took the liberty of skipping the sermons at the end of the book. However the remainder of this book was an illuminating look into a rural Buckinghamshire village in the mid-19th century and I was surprised by how much I learned from it.

There are plenty of wonderful out-of-copyright books freely available online that can give you insight into the lives of your ancestors - what treasures have you found lately? Please post a comment and let me know.

Neighbouring Stewkley

Did your Wing folk wander over to neighbouring Stewkley? If so, you might be interested in this wee book on Ebay.

History of Stewkley by Mayne and Capp - good local names, those!

I have no affiliation with the seller (that I know of - I see they live in Wing), and they also have a copy of the 1951 Guide to Ascott House listed if that takes your fancy.

(I'm on an Ebay budget, in case you were wondering - well, more of a fast than a budget, things mount up quickly when you have to factor in overseas postage so I'm trying to resist temptation)

Home

"There is no end. There isn't, not really, is there? You could go on forever."

I've just finished reading Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived In Our House by Julie Myerson, which I came across by accident at the library. In 2003 Julie researched the various individuals and families that have lived in her Clapham, London, home since it was built in 1872.

It's a fascinating book, both for the stories uncovered and to see research in action. And there's that thrill of familiarity as Julie discovers sources that we know all too intimately! There are plenty of sentiments expressed by Julie, her family, and the people she encounters that I know you will all recognise, so do keep an eye out for this book.

Wing As It Was - copy on Ebay

If anyone has a spare 30 quid burning a hole in their pocket, there is a copy of the book Wing As It Was volume 1 currently on Ebay (Buy It Now option only). This has many postcards and photographs of Wing and its residents from the late 1800s/early 1900s. I have an index of the individuals either pictured or mentioned in the text of the book here: http://www.wing-ops.org.uk/waiw.html

The book listing can be found here (I have no association with the seller).

A Walk Home - postscript

My blog entry "A walk home along High Street" was chosen as the featured article in A Festival of Postcards' 2nd edition "Main Street". Thanks Evelyn! Thanks also to the other entrants, plenty of interesting postcards were contributed so do check it out.

As an postscript to that entry I'd like to post a back view of one of the postcards I used as it's quite interesting on its own.


"The Cross" postcard was published by Ernest Cleaver, the postmaster of Wing. My own copy of this postcard is unposted, but another posted copy has previously been up for auction on Ebay and I saved their scan of the back. That copy was postmarked Leighton Buzzard J[ul]Y 16 [19]12 11.15 am with a King George V halfpenny stamp (apparently His Majesty was a keen philatelist so I bet seeing himself on a stamp was a personal thrill), and is addressed to:

Mr Heather
Gas Works
Carshalton
Surrey

The text reads:
"Dear Dad
We are coming by that 6.42 train from Leighton arrive Euston 7.40. Frank is going to meet us at Euston so you might see him. We are going up Wing Tower at 11.15am, and then going to see the Hounds at 12. Yesterday went to Ascot [sic]. All the men rushed out to see us. Ethel had her camera in her hand. They all wanted there [sic] photos taken. Love Dorothy."

I'm not entirely sure what Dorothy means by Wing Tower - presumably the bell tower at All Saints Church. By "Ascot" she is of course referring to Ascott House, the home of Leopold and Marie de Rothschild on the outskirts of Wing. Foxhunting was a frequent pasttime here.

My favourite bit is the description of the impact Ethel's camera had on the workers of the Ascott estate - evidence that cameras were quite a rare sight around Wing back then!

Are there any descendents out there of these visitors to Wing? Looking at the 1901 census I can find two sisters Dorothy and Ethel HEATHER (both born Lambeth), with a gas fitter father, living in Brighton, which sounds like a likely match.

Bookshelf - Echoes of Old County Life

I'm currently reading Echoes of Old County Life by J.K. Fowler. Mr Fowler was a gentleman farmer type from Aylesbury, so this book is of particular interest to those with Buckinghamshire connections. There's interesting 19th century anecdotes in just about every chapter, although as with any book that covers such a wide range of topics there's bound to be passages in there you'll want to skip past! His commentary on poultry farming - "So long as you have to go out and buy food you are no longer likely to make a profit" - particularly amused me.

Published in 1892, it is freely viewable/downloadable from Internet Archive.

(There was a sequel to this book of particular relevance to Wing, so watch this space!)

Wing War Memorial

I received some excellent news today. The renovations to the Wing War Memorial are about to begin. I know those of you that have visited All Saints Church and seen the memorial in the churchyard in recent years have been saddened by the damage time has done to it, and will be happy to see it restored. (If you would like to contribute some funds toward this, please let me know and I can put you in touch with the appropriate people).

In other news, I now have the December 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine, which mentioned the Wing One Place Study in its article about researching in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire - thanks, Family Tree Magazine! The entire issue was full of interesting articles so I do recommend that you pick up a copy.

Family Tree Magazine and The National Archives Podcast Series

I understand that the Wing One Place Study website was mentioned in an article in the December 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine. A big hello to any new visitors that find me that way! I hope you find the site both useful and interesting, and please do email me to let me know which families in Wing you are connected to.

The mag won't have arrived here in NZ yet - I will have to trot down to the specialist magazine shop to find out whether that particular publication generally comes into the country via airfreight, otherwise I won't see it for months, if at all!

A few posts ago I mentioned that you need to be careful if looking at the WO364 series of army records at Ancestry, as the first page it displays isn't necessary the first page of that soldier's record. I've been catching up on The National Archives podcasts, and I see that tip was also mentioned in their discussion about that series (which was of course digitized from the originals they hold). If you haven't discovered those podcasts yet, head on over to check them out - they're also available via iTunes if that's easier for you than downloading the files manually or using another podcatcher.

Wing wives and postcards

Another five pages checked in the 1891 census, which makes 10 out of 62 done. Time to pick up the pace! Five or six a day for the next ten days will see the checking complete, so that's the pace I need to aim for in order to be ready for the September update.

In one of the pages I checked today, the enumerator had accidentally written "Wing" instead of "Wife" for Elizabeth ROSE's status. I know how he feels.....

And in other news, I received today a postcard I'd purchased on Ebay - it's a nice colour one of All Saints Church in the early 1900s showing the old gate and fence (since replaced with the lychgate memorial to Rev Tatham). But the message on the back was just as interesting! Posted in 1910, it reads:

"Dear F [Miss F East of Camberley Surrey] - Just a line to let you know that I have got a job: after three weeks at "Ascott" Leighton Buzzard Bucks L De Rothchild. Yours truly W Morgan".

Anyone recognise these MORGAN and EAST correspondents? And does anyone have any Wing postcards to or from their family members in their collection?

1891 census - progress so far

I've been very slack unfortunately - progress seems like too strong a word! And it's already half way through the month, so it may be another month before you see the 1891 census up online. I shall blame the seed catalogues - in the last couple of weeks the new year's seed catalogues have been released so we can spend our winter evenings picking what to grow once spring hits. It's taking me a while to narrow down the tomato selection!

In other news, I've finally managed to get my hands on my own copy of the book Wing As It Was. This features postcards and photographs of Wing and its inhabitants in the late 1800s and early 1900s (there's an index to the names in the book on the website). It's long since out of print, and it's only the second copy I've seen pop up on Ebay in the last three years, so I'm very happy to be the lucky winner this time round.

ANZAC Day

Here in NZ it is ANZAC Day, the equivalent of the UK's Remembrance Day. I'll be finalising the military pages ready for the May update, and continuing to read Juliet Gardiner's "Wartime - Britain 1939 to 1945". For anyone who didn't live through it, this book is a fat but engrossing read and I recommend it.

I may even make some ANZAC biscuits to nibble on while I read.

Calling all newbies

One of the Canadian magazine publishers is about to launch a new magazine aimed at newbies to genealogy - its a good mix of generic articles and pointers to specific resources including UK ones. I know this because they've made a sample issue available to download in PDF form. If you're a newbie, you could do worse than spend some time over the upcoming Easter weekend reading some of the articles!

Discovering Family History

Hope you find something of use in it :)

Unsavoury allegations

Have been browsing some historical newspaper reports this morning, and am saddened to report that there appears to have been another immoral clergyman in Wing besides the forger Dr William DODD who was hanged in 1777. Curate William EYRE, who was in Wing some forty years after Dodd, apparently had a liking for young girls who he would adopt out of the workhouse and then turf out some years later once they'd become pregnant.