My car’s been in for a service today, and fortunately they didn’t find too much wrong despite the 78000 miles that are on the clock.
A good job done by Parks Volvo in Ayr, even if they were a bit late picking it up this morning – it was returned serviced (and as clean as its ever been!) before they’d even rung up to ask for payment.
I sent for a replacement wireless card just it case the hardware was faulty – but the replacement will not install properly either.
Looks like there’s a problem with Windows 2000 (as installed on my laptop) and the Netgear drivers – I think I’ll either need to upgrade to XP or get a new laptop…
Champions of Europe
Well I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that.
Three Nil down at halftime and they manage to come back and win it on penalties – you’ve got to love this game! 😀
They’ll be talking about that one for a very, very long time…
I’ve been on the road again (Newcastle this time) so there’s not been many updates this week.
We did see the final Star Wars movie at the weekend though, and I thought it was pretty good – tied up all the loose ends neatly and was quite entertaining. I’m sure the critics will give it a panning, but what do they know…
A three and a half out of five for me.
I’ve been in Aberdeen most of this week and when I got back on Friday I finally had my ISDN connection to work upgraded to 2Mbps ADSL – so now I have two ADSL lines!
The BT engineer was pretty efficient but I spent most of the rest of the day trying to get to grips with VPN solution that’s been implemented – it’s a bit restrictive, but I think I’ve worked out how to make the most of things now.
I’ve also just purchased a Netgear WG511T wireless adapter, but it’s refusing to install on my Windows 2000 laptop – I’m not sure if it’s a dodgy card or the drivers are just not happy with the latest security patches from Microsoft. I guess i’ll just have to send it back… 😦
We’ve made some progress on our investigations of the Holmes family – and it turns out that the Ellis we found on Anglesey was a complete red herring!
Searching through the 1861 Census the family have turned up living in Tranmere but the key bit of information this has given us is their ages – this census shows William Holmes (the head of the household) to be 42 and Margaret Holmes (his wife) to be 35.
The 1871 Census was never very clear – someone had drawn a line right through his age – but it looked very much like he was 32 and considerably younger than his wife Margaret. Now we can be reasonably confident that his age in 1871 was actually 52 and so other things start to make much more sense.
For example Ellis Holmes – the eldest son – is shown as 23 on the 1871 Census and would therefore have been far too old to have been William’s son. Now we can resonably assume that Ellis is the son of both William and Margaret and we’re not looking for some third party to explain the discrepancy in their ages.
More good news is that the place of birth for both Margaret and Ellis is actually legible on this Census – both are shown as being born at Mostyn, Denbighshire on the North Wales coast.
As both William and Margaret were born long before Civil Registration in England and Wales, this at least gives us a starting point when delving into the world of Parish Registers…
A pretty meaningless end of season fixture saw Djibril Cisse score a couple of goals as the Reds secured 5th spot.
He’s staked his claim for a starting spot and if nothing else it will make the team selection for the Champions League Final next week a little more interesting…
As many of you are aware, Megan attends the local Community Nursery which is run as a Charity. There is a committee (of which I am now a member!) of mums who run the nursery and do all the fundraising to keep the doors open.
The Nursery Manger, has been donated a piece of land from the local council, on which she would like to build a purpose build nursery so we can take in more children.
The nursery is currently run in the local community centre, but the rooms must be cleared after each session for others to use the rooms, not ideal.
Plans have been drawn up, but unfortunately we were turned down last year for lottery funding. So, we are looking at new ways in which to raise the funds ourselves. This is where I come in…
The children are doing a sponsored walk of 1 mile and Megan is joining in, so if anyone would like to sponsor her, it would be appreciated.
Look out for more emails asking for donations…
Angela
Another birth certificate arrived this morning, this time for Sarah Ellen Cross – my mum’s maternal grandmother.
As reported earlier there was a bit of mystery surrounding Sarah, we thought she was the daughter of Richard Cross and Sarah Burgess but on the 1881 Census she’s listed as being their niece. Well the certificate that arrived this morning show’s her mother to have been Martha Cross (who at this stage I’m assuming is Richard’s sister) but no father is listed.
Sarah Ellen was born in 1873 in Chorlton upon Medlock and on the 1871 Census i’ve found a Martha Cross born in Plumley in 1841 (where Richard Cross lived) who was a general servant to the Brown family at what looks like Brislington Villa in Victoria Park, Rushholme – a neighbouring district.
The plot thickens… 😀
We’ve finally got the birth certificates for John and William Holmes from the Holmes family we found living in Bebington on the 1871 census – and it’s at least confirmed that we’ve definitely got the right family.
Unfortunately it’s shown their mother’s maiden name to be Margaret Williams – and as just about all we know about her is that she was born somewhere in Wales (there’ll not be that many Williams in Wales will there?) around 1827 (conveniently before the start of Civil Registration) this could turn into a bit of a dead end. The only possible lead we have is the eldest son on the 1871 census – Ellis Holmes.
He’s listed as 23 years of age, which is only 13 years younger than William Holmes – which would suggest to me that he maybe William wasn’t the father!
He’s also shown as being born in Wales like his mum, and is listed as ‘Crippled from Birth’ – which may explain why Margaret left Wales and married a labourer from the Wirral.
After a length search I can find no Ellis Holmes on the index of births, but there is an Ellis Williams registered in Carnarvon (born on Angelsey) at around the right time. It could be a completely different Ellis, but it’s probably worth sending for the certificate to find out…
For all your Pele, Amsterdam and Ian Prowse solo news
Just because something is obvious it doesn't mean it's true
The Bambers 