That’s more like it…

Well we’re all still coughing and sniffling to one degree or another, but it was generally a better week than the preceding one. Megan’s toenail is a pretty shade of deep blue, but still attached to her toe and she’s back to school nursery today which has cheered her up. Mum can’t seem to shift her cough but a dose of amoxycillin has sorted out Dad (more or less!).

The Reds have suddenly remembered how to put the ball in the net, scoring eight goals in two games, and it looks like Clydesdale Vs could be heading for promotion after beating Giffnock (our nearest rivals) 2-1. There’s just two games to play and we’re sitting on top of the league…

We also finally received Samuel Meredith’s birth certificate, but it’s not really clarified anything for us. His mother is listed as Hannah Meredith (which we didn’t know so that’s something I guess) but there’s no father given – so we have to assume that the John Cook on his wedding certificate is his stepfather. Unfortunately it’s not given us any more to go on – there’s no sign of either Hannah or Samuel on any census before 1881, where Samuel appears with his new wife Lydia, so that’s a dead end.

We don’t know how old Hannah was when she had Samuel so finding her birth certificate will be tricky, and there’s no sign of a Hannah Meredith marrying a John Cook in the marriage index between Samuel’s birth and later marriage to Lydia Robinson. To make matters worse there’s more John Cooks than you can shake a stick at, and as we know he’s a waterman he could have been living just about anywhere when the census was taken – so that’s a dead end too.

Time to focus on a different branch of the tree I think…

It’s not been a good week…

Although Megan had a good time at her birthday party on Thurdsday, the rest of the last week has been one to forgot.

It started ok last Sunday, when we got the swing attached the new play house without too much trouble – but it went pretty much downhill from there. I was starting to feel a bit rough on the Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday were a complete wipe out – and i’m still recovering from a nasty dose of flu today. Angela started coming down with the same thing on Wednesday, and she’s just gone back to bed this afternoon feeling as bad as ever – so there’s no end in sight just yet.

Megan’s got a bit of a sniffle and a cough, but doesn’t seem to be suffering as badly as we are – but to add injury to flu, she manged to drop a (full) can of beer onto her toe on Saturday. It’s made a right mess of the nail on her second toe on the left foot, and caused some drama Saturday evening – we were about to take her to A&E as it had been bleeding for a couple of hours with no sign’s of stopping when she passed out on us. We had to phone for an ambulance but fortunately she’d come round again by the time they arrived – and after a thorough examination was passed fit enough not to need the trip to hospital. The toe’s still bleeding a bit though, so we might still need a trip tomorrow, to the doctor’s at least.

Here’s hoping for a better week this week…

The Merediths

We sent for a marriage certificate a few weeks ago, and its finally turned up – the GRO are obviously still a bit busy in the aftermath of the latest series of Who Do You Think You Are! Anyway it was for my grandad’s grandparents (mother’s side in both instances) – Samuel Meredith and Lydia Robinson. We knew they got married around 1877 but not much more than that, so the certificate confirmed the date of the marriage (6th May 1877) and the location – Church of St Mary in Widnes.

So far not so very interesting, however we were also looking for their father’s names in order to continue the search, and that was where it gets a bit more unusual. Lydia’s father is listed as John Robinson (a waterman) which is not to strange, but Samuel’s father is listed as John Cook (a coachman). So why is Samuel Meredith’s father going by the name of Cook?

The short answer is that I’ve no idea – I can’t find hide nor hair of Samuel on the 1871 Census or any earlier one, and there’s just too many John Cooks to bother with until we’ve more information to narrow it down.

I did track down a Samuel Meredith born in Runcorn around the right time (1857) on the index of births though, so I’ve sent for that certificate as well to see if we can shed any light on what’s going on.

Stansted and Swimming

We’ll gloss over the snooker last night – although all the frames were close again, and I managed to win the first frame of the night, it was basically down hill from there on with Darren winning the next five. That puts him 3-1 up in the series and leaves me looking for a good excuse for being so rubbish…

It was a chilly start this morning at 5:30am – and inch of ice on the windscreen and -6 on the temperature gauge – but I made it to Prestwick in time to spend six quid on a bacon roll and an orange juice before boarding. The flight was on time and with clear skies and a lot of empty seats it was great view all the way – the review went well but only lasted an hour and a half so a good hour was spent waiting for the return flight later. The return was interesting in that it was the same flight crew but a completely different plane, and for a couple of friendly mum’s on their way to the SECC for an exhibition – their company sells cotton nappies and baby carriers apparently.

Back in time to get some work done this afternoon, and still make it to Megan’s swimming lesson at the Vikingar. She’s coming on really well and was jumping in and splashing round like a natural – well apart from one jump that saw her swallow half the pool and then throw up. Some poor guy then spent the next five minutes with a net on a big pole fishing it out – nice job…

I’ve been certified…

I took my Oracle 10g exam this morning, to keep my Oracle Certified Professional status up to date, and managed to pass without too much drama. Updates on have been a bit thin on the ground recently as most spare time has been spent studying all the new stuff that’s arrived in 10g – I’d forgotten what it was like to revise for an exam!

Preparation wasn’t helped this morning by the dozy woman that ran into the back of me at A78/A71 roundabout. This is the third time that someone’s ran into the back of this particular car (since I’ve been driving it anyway) – you’d have thought it would be easy to spot a big red Volvo – and on each occasion it’s come through without so much as a scratch. The only noticeable difference today was that it had dislodged some of the dirt (really must give the car a clean this weekend) that had accumulated on the bumper. You have to admire the way they put the V70 together, when it happened to my old Rover (people do seem to enjoy running into the back of me, maybe I don’t drive fast enough?) the bumper practically fell off.

I’m jetting off to Stansted airport tomorrow morning to meet my boss for a performance review (can’t hurt having passed a 10g exam the day before) so it’s an early start for a 6:50am flight returning at 11:55am. I’ve also arranged to meet Darren tonight for a bit of snooker up at Renfrew – I’m 2-1 down in the series so need a good performance tonight to draw level…