Sunday, November 3, 2013

Source for the goose

To source or not to source ...etc

Those a lot written on genealogy message boards with the suggestion that those who do not show their sources on public family trees are somehow guilty of shoddy research.

Not so!

When I started well over twenty years ago I did not record my sources.  The simple reason was that I knew where I had got the information and did not have to prove anything to anyone else.

The method was quite simple really.  If I recorded a full date and place for a birth then it followed that I had a certificate.  Likewise for a marriage, christening or a death or burial.

If I put in "about". Then I didn't know or it came from a census.  For census info then it went into the notes that on the xxxx census they were living at .... so that is clear that the approximate dates for that family came from the census.

I have had folk complain about this lack of sourcing but I just point out that I am not doing "GENEALOGY" but family history.  If they have dates etc which differ too mine, then they can do the same kind of research that I have done and possibly come up with the same results.

Professional genealogists have a different criteria.  They will need to show to fee paying clients that they have done the job properly.

I don't have to prove anything to anybody except myself


Monday, November 5, 2012

Free Web hosting

One of my first attempts at creating a website was to create a place where people researching their ancestors with the surname WORSFOLD could share their experiences and hopefully help each other.  This was in Geocities one of the earliest free host sites as far as I know.  Well that worked quite well for a few years and then Geocities got swallowed up by Yahoo and my Worsfold page disappeared,

I then reconstituted the page on Bravenet, another free server and that also worked well for quite a number of year,but suddenly (I am not sure when it happened) my links the page have come upwith a virtually blank page saying that the page had expired,

No explanations on Bravenet website, the4y now only list their paid hostings.

OK, so I wasn't paying anything and a commercial company has no obligations to non fee paying customers, but at least they could have made an announcement before pulling the plug, to give folk the chance ti move their web pages elsewhere and repair links which would be broken when a page disappears,

Unfortunately my pages on Bravenet were not important enought tio be archived on the way-back machine.

we live and learn, or do we.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Two Hundred Years Ago

Two hundred years ago my Great great Grandfather, Balthasar Dietz was born in the small village of Nordeck, Hessen, Germany.

This was the year of the virtual defeat of Napoleons army at Moscow, haveing captured the city, he found it burned out with none of the anticipated  supplies for his army of half a million men.  Being faced with the prospect of the advent of the Russian winter there began the great retreat of his army , commemorated in the 1812 overture.

One Hundred Years ago

A hundred years ago, my dad was aged twelve and spent his Saturday in a barber shop in Old Gravel Lane, as a Lather boy.


Most of the customers were dockers who worked a five and half day week, and went into the barber shop on their way home from work to have a shave, before the Saturday afternoon bath.
 Most of them did not shave during the week, so had a weeks stubble to be lathered up ready for the barber to shave them with the cut throat razor, normal in those days.  In order to speed up the process the lathering was usually done by a lather boy who spread the lather with a brush onto the face, and then used their fingers to massage the first lathering into the stubble to soften them up for the razor.  Dad commented that the tips of his fingers were red raw by the end of the day.

Not many men go to the barbers for a shave these days, and even those that do would not expect to be lathered up by a young boy. Those familiar with shaving in a modern barbers will understand that at George Warner's shop in Old Gravel Lane, Wapping he could not afford to supply all the little niceties that happen today.  Not for a halfpenny shave !!  That's right halfpence. (or appence)

So it didn't start with hot towels and then on to moisturiser before the lather brush.  Oh no, there was a saucepan of hot water simmering on a gas jet in the corner with a tub of liquefied soap alongside.  Dad had a variety of brushes to choose from and he never mentioned how he chose which brush to choose, perhaps there was no system, maybe the one that wasn't used on the previous customer.  So after putting the apron round the customers neck, there was a quick dip of the selected brush in the hot water, a swish around the soapy stuff and then straight onto the face for the first lather around.  Then came  the hard part.  rubbing the lather into the bristles in the hope that they would be softened up ready for the cut throat razor.  Dad was of the opinion that this to help George make his razors last longer rather than for the benefit of the customer.  Then it was on to the next customer to lather up and rub in with the fingers.  Back to the first one for a second lathering and the hope that George was ready to do the shaving, otherwise another rub in with the fingers would be needed.

As well as not shaving for a week, most of the customers  didn't
change their shirts or vests either.  Imagine the sweat resulting from  a week working at the bottom of a barge heaving coal up to the dockside.  Then there were the carmen who brought in a week of working with horses and who didn't smell any sweeter than their charges.   All hard graft in those days.  Carrying a hundredweight of coal (over 50 kilos) up staircases or from the bottom of the lighterage barge up to the dockside was no joke and it was a while after finishing work before the good humour of these men returned.  And it was no joke either for the lather boy close up and personal to all this, on the go for the whole time to earn sixpence from George and whatever tips the customer would hand over.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

eating out with smokers

Well not exactly eating with smokers, because we don't smoke and don't know anyone who does, but going out to eat where there are smokers is a bit of a problem.  We are on Gozo as a change from Malta and went out to eat the other night to a very nice restaurant with a roof top garden setting.  We are always aware of the fact that eating out of doors these days could be a pain if there are too many smokers around.  Here on the Maltese islands smoking is not permitted inside a restaurant, but come the summer all the tables are moved outside.  Tables inside mean that the smokers have to put on their hard done by act and go outside for a fix.  When eating outside of course they can assert their god given right to smoke as and when they please and if you don't like sitting next to them then hard luck.
Well anyway the other night we had barely sat at the table and looked at the menu before we were assailed by a positive smoke screen for two adjoining tables, so we had no alternative but to give up and leave.  The Maitre D. apologised, it wasn t her fault anyway, and said that they are not allowed to ask diners not to smoke, except that on one occasion they had asked one diner not to smoke his cigars.  I suppose it is all a question of degree, there are some who would find cigar smoke more offensive than cigarettes.  I wonder how she would have reacted to my Dad's smelly old pipe !

Still only another few weeks of summer here in the Maltese archipelago and some of the tables will be migrating back indoors.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Maltese Surnames

Most interesting article about Maltese Surnames at
http://www.geneanum.com/malte/documents/genealogie/les-patronymes-maltais.html

It is in French but your browsers translator should handle it no problem.

the article containsa table of the frequency of Maltese Surnames which shows that abhout 25 percent of the Maltese population are named Borg.


I have copied the table below:


BORG is leading the Past ... a Maltese on 25 carries this name.
Following: VELLA , FARRUGIA, Camilleri and Zammit
The table below provides the prizes for first 120 names:
1
BORG
21
CALLEJA
41
AZZOPARDI
61
BONELLO
81
CILIA
101
PULLICINO
2
VELLA 
22
PORTELLI 
42
Psaila 
62
FORMOSA 
82
CURMI 
102
AXIS 
3
FARRUGIA 
23
GATT 
43
VASSALLO 
63
CASHA 
83
Teuma 
103
GAFA 
4
CAMILLERI 
24
GRIMA 
44
ZAHRA 
64
Ciantar 
84
GRIST 
104
BAJADA 
5
ZAMMIT 
25
Bugeja 
45
Saliba 
65
ZERAFA 
85
BALZAN 
105
Pulis 
6
GRECH 
26
MALLIA 
46
CACHIA 
66
TONNA 
86
AZZOPARDI 
106
Abdille 
7
GALEA 
27
MIZZI 
47
Azzopardi 
67
DALLI 
87
DINGLE 
107
GRECH / GREG 
8
CARUANA
28
BUSUTTIL
48
MAGRO
68
CHETCUTI
88
SAyDS
108
Fiten
9
AGIUS
29
Sammut
49
MANGION
69
FRENDO
89
CAMENZULI
109
GERADA
10
CASSAR
30
ABELA
50
BARBARA
70
Darmanin
90
PARNES
110
CASSIA
11
ATTARD
31
GAUCI
51
MAMO
71
BONAVIA
91
CUMBO
111
RIZZO
12
MICALLEF
32
FALZON
52
BARTOLO
72
TANTI
92
CREMONA
112
CORDINA
13
MIFSUD
33
Xerri
53
Bezzina
73
CALLUS
93
ABEJ
113
DELIA
14
SPITERI
34
XICLUNA
54
XUEREB
74
SANT
94
CATANIA
114
Ciappara
15
PACE
35
BUTTIGIEG
55
ZARB
75
FELICI
95
CARDONA
115
Coleiro
16
MUSCAT
36
CAUCHI
56
Cutajar
76
DE BRINCAT
96
Cuschieri
116
SULTANA
17
BONNICI
37
AQUILINA
57
BUHAGIAR
77
Briffa
97
CINI
117
Bigen
18
FENECH
38
ELLUL
58
DIMECH
78
CHIRCOP
98
GALDI
118
Stival
19
SCHEMBRI
39
TABONE
59
MERCIECA
79
PISANO
99
SACCO
119
SOLTANI
20
Debono
40
Xiberras
60
BALDACCHINO
80
SEICHEL
100
REFALO
120
XIRIHA