CS1 posts

[Moonwatcher]

Heather,

Okay, ah gie up! Whit's a PMQ?

Bob.

[HK]

Sorry everybody.PMQ:Post Marital Quarters,better known as "the Qs"
HK

[CatrionaL]

Following a major operation, early retirement became a wise option. It seemed the right time to transform a rather dull room into a study, where I could contentedly work away at my family research. Pale yellow walls and paintwork capture the morning sunshine, when there is some but also make the dullest days more cheerful.

One wall houses a tall set of drawers next to a computer desk. At the other side of the desk a small two-shelf table holds printer and scanner, with alongside it a CD stacker. Two woolly sheep, that have been living here since my last visit to Scotland, keep an eye on me from the top of the set of drawers.

On the opposite side of the room, bookshelves hold my few genealogically related books. Living in a non English speaking country is a great way to economise on book buys. These shelves also hold my precious family files, in blue, green, red and yellow, a colour for each major family. Brightens up the study, but also helps me enormously to organise my materiel. The plastic envelopes, into which I slip all the “waiting to be filed” info, are also coloured according to the family. The bookshelf also houses numerous photos of the present generation.

A room divider behind which I hide vacuum cleaner and other “best out of the way” articles, holds a large Family tree chart, allowing me to see at a glance what has been and what is to be done. There are plants everywhere, couldn’t live without them,. On the walls: an old map of Fordel, Dalgety showing the Henderson mines where my ancestors worked from the late 17th to mid 19th century, a 1891 picture of Edinburgh, Princes Street and several framed “collages”(done on the computer) of older generations of the family.

There are however days when the study becomes a laundry room or a playroom for the grandchildren!

Thanks to all who’ve let us get to know you better during these visits to your homes and especially your Geneology corner.

Tout de bon.

Catriona

[Moonwatcher]

Hi all!

Ah'd jist like tae echo Catriona's comments and thank everyone for inviting us into their homes. It's the best Furst Fittin session ah've hid in minny a year.

Thanks again.

Bob.

[JustJean]

It’s all so nice of everyone to invite us ‘round. I’ve been hoping in all this to read of someone as crazy as myself but just maybe I have the market cornered on that. I’ll let you be the judge….

Just over two years ago I took on the genealogy of my family. I say took on as my dear Aunt had spent her retirement years handling the family historian role with finesse and much determination. I never realized it at the time but I can see it plainly now that she had been grooming me to step into her shoes when the day came. And sure enough it came to pass as I took over her care giving and subsequent estate handling. Not only did she leave me her unfinished works but two households of family artifacts to treasure (and the one house that held them). Now I already have a regular job that includes regular weekly tasks and employees that look to me for a paycheck. Add to that a house of my own, husband, and daughter in college. Then frost it all with lots of community and church volunteering. Hard to see the free time for genealogy isn’t it? Nevertheless I never back down from a challenge unless I know I’m licked.

Living in a cozy New England cape codder doesn’t give you spare bedrooms and much room for expansion. A lovely country sized kitchen with eat in dining alcove and an oversized front to back living room with fireplace, piano, television area, music area, sitting area. The only other downstairs room is the den with the pullout sofa for guests and corner that is already taken over by my husbands computer and work at home space. Don’t forget the combination bathroom/laundry room that I already have utilized as a tiny space for sewing and craft projects. Upstairs is even cozier with just the two bedrooms and full bath.

I could see my window of opportunity for a place of my own in which to spread out my papers when during the senior year of my daughter’s high school education I was helping her do over her room. We painted and rearranged and got some nice accent pieces. Out went all the remnants of a little girl and what emerged was crisp and contemporary. Definitely a place where I could retreat I’m thinking to myself. So what if I have to share it when she comes home from college between semesters? No problem. Just like a whirlwind the days flew past and she was off to New York for college. I didn’t lose a second moving in and hanging those new roman shades I’d been eyeing for months!! Ahh….it was bliss! The new shelves we’d installed held everything nicely. Her computer desk was perfect and I even splurged on a new chair and another bookcase for my expanding collections. So where’s the problem you ask? It’s called home for the summer!! I forgot just how long May – August is. Much as I love her with all my heart there was just no way could we share that space for those long summer months. It was bad enough battling for internet rights….no way we could battle for room space too. So I opted out and packed it in and moved into a corner of the master bedroom. Gave up all those lovely shelves for stacked cardboard storage boxes. Sacrificed the computer desk for a 4 ft folding table that is sorely undersized. Did keep my chair though!!! Come August it was too much work to think of moving it all back in only to move out again so here I sit in my lowly corner…..except when I leave to go to work. This entails a short commute of 2 miles to an office connected with my business. Of course there is no spare space there for genealogy trappings but I do carry files with me every day in my bag just in case I find a slow time where I can indulge my passion.

The other house you ask? What did you ever do with the other house? This is where the crazy part begins. Nothing. I’m still working on sorting through the personal scraps of the lives of 2 families with deep roots in Scotland. I don’t have room to move everything to where I live and a good portion of it is so personal that I’m not sure I can sell it. So I make nearly daily visits by there to make sure the furnace is still working and the pipes haven’t frozen or in summer to mow the grass. I also search for books or maps or photos or sometimes just stare at the ornately framed family portraits of my Gr Grandmother and Grandfather that still grace the sitting room. The corner shelf tucked with knickknacks that’s become darn near a shrine…the Burns paperweights, the figurines of Souter Johnnie and Tam, the souvenir from Carnegies birthplace and of Rabbie’s cottage too. Across the room on the opposite wall the unsigned oil landscapes supposedly from or of Scotland I’m really not sure which. Especially the small one done in muted tones of grayish green with the figure of a man with a pack over his shoulder as he crosses the ancient and arched stone bridge. He looks contented at the end of his day. If I listen really hard sometimes I can catch a bit of the tune he’s whistling over the gurgling sound of the stream and then underneath it all the steady sound of his step as makes his way along the well known path to his own house higher up on the hill....

Jean

[sporran]

Hello Jean,


so are you looking for a housesitter/genealogist/handyman for the Cape Cod area? Offer an air ticket and pocket money and watch the scramble!


Regards,

John

[JustJean]

Hi John

Land sakes alive man!! Were you thinking I was made of money now?? With every spare dime going to the pockets of Scotland for my own research and all! I was rather hoping someone would rather pay me for the chance to live there!!

Would be a stretch to say it was near Cape Cod but not out of the question to drive there.

Jean

[Jean Jeanie]

When our youngest son fled the nest 5 years ago, we then got back the 2 bedrooms he had been using. One for sleeping in, the other was his den, full of T.V. computer and audio equipment which all went with him to his new home. I decided that now that I was retired. I wanted to learn to play the piano. Bought a piano, found a lovely old Welsh Gentleman, Henry, who was willing to take me on as a pupil. Really enjoyed my new found hobby.

We duly decorated the 2 rooms and turned them into spare rooms for the grandkids, when they come to visit.

About 4 years ago number 3 son decided I needed a computer. Why? I asked. Just because you do, was the answer. He duly ordered all the parts on the internet from his home in Germany and boxes of "stuff" arrived here in England over a period of 2/3 weeks. Number 3 son, wife and family arrive for a visit a few weeks later and he builds me a computer in my kitchen. I tell him I can't have it there as it takes up too much space in the corner, especially as he has it sitting on the kitchen table! "Where do you want it then" Answer "I really didn't want the b thing in the first place"

However, he agreed to move it to the bedroom that had been number 4 son's den, as there was a telephone point in that room. He went back to Germany. I went back to my piano playing.


A year or so later I decided that I really should do something about the machine in the bedroom. So started messing about on it. Never did very much. Made Xmas card lists and other mundane things. Then youngest son was getting married and the lady who was doing all the name cards, menus etc got stuck in Carlisle, having given birth prematurely. Youngest son comes here in a panic. What can you do mother on your computer?

Short story is we did it between us and gave me the "shove " to experiment further with the machine.

Now I have a webcam, scanner, digital camera all connected to the thing. Three months ago I started on the family tree. Well, what can I say. I spend so much time now on this that the piano has taken second place!

Blue folders for my husband's family. Red folder for mine. Purple folder for information sent to me by others, relating to all families. Silver folder for "related, but not sure where they fit in to the grand scheme of things"
Black folder for bits and pieces that might have some relevance somewhere.

On the walls are pictures of number 3 and 4 son's passing out parades. Two chests of drawers are full of CD's. Spare ink cartridges(as these are used at a great rate of knots these days) I do like to have hard copy. Reams of paper, pencils, pens, etc. A waste bin is beside the computer and is filled regularly.

A bed still remains in the room for the grandchildren. However it is usually covered in paper in little piles. 1. Must look further into this on SP when I have enough background information to warrant buying yet another 30 credits 2. Re-read this as there must be something I am missing. 3. Information found and verified and to be added into the ever growing tree, or forest, as my husband now calls it.

Number 3 son was correct, the machine was necessary. I really don't know how I managed without one.

Funny how things turn out!!!!!

Really must do a bit of piano practice soooooooooon.

Jean

[Tracey]

My oh my what have i been missing ? To my shame i have never read these and discovered them this Sunday when rugby was on yet again - so thanks rugby. I would like to print them all off and read them after i've finished reading "Small Island" on the train journey into work.
As ive started from the begining i am replying from the begining...
Office for me (in bedroom) is 3ft for desk and pc and 3 ft for shelving of a 12ft long built in wardrobe. The other 6ft for clothes. The previous 6ft's worth had to be packed away to make room
Decided on this for pc as i cant stand clutter and can close the door on pc as if its not there. On my desk i have my 15 inch LCD flat screen and two flat speakers (still covered in plastic), a massive work diary that usually gets filled with FH notes that i no longer remember why they were written or who about. A 1950's grey and black biscuit tin depicting an olde worlde picture of the River Thames that holds pens paper clips ect, Collins English dictionary and a Scottish one published by The Scotsman ! , an English A-Z, a calculator for working out those year differences, TV remote control and two mobile phones and a few of my now favourite cd's for when i think i can concentrate and listen to music at the same time (Bob Marley, 2Pac, Bowie, Metropolis, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dinah Washington and Classical at present and soon to be Walk the Line film sound track )
Depending on what time of day it is when i read these Cyber Seance's there will also be either a big cup of Earl Grey or a small bottle or Cabernet Sauvignion i expect my parrot (who is always with me) to be fluent Scottish by the time i have finished reading

Looking forward to the read although i might have to get a more adequate Scottish dictionary

[Bertha]

Good Morning
You all seem to have a lot more space than me no matter what part of the house! My so called study was inherited from my son, who when he bought a computer wanted it locked away where his grubby little sisters couldn't get their hands on it! This space was found in a cupboard under the stairs! Hubby put in ventilation and electrics, I did the painting.
Funny thing is it never did get locked!
I now hide away in here doing my tree even though we have no less than 2 sittingrooms (one for TV) and a spare bedroom said son now having flown the nest. Hubby won't let me convert this spare room into a study as he says the less space I have the less junk lying around!! Its warm and cosy on cold winter days though as there are radiators backing onto the walls from other rooms and its the warmest place in the house!
Bertha