Long Live the Queen

Queen Elizabeth will soon be the longest-lived British monarch ever.

She overtakes the record set by her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria.

Victoria, who was born on May 24, 1819, died on January 22, 1901, having lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days or 81 years and 243 days.

According to Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, who was born on April 21 1926, beats her ancestor's record at around 5pm on December 20. [Link]

Here's a list of British monarchs since 1603 ranked by longevity. The key to Elizabeth's longevity? She's never eaten a surfeit of lampreys.

Mysterious Memorials Contest

The National Archive of Memorial Inscriptions and BBC History Magazine have launched a Mysterious Memorials contest to find the "most surprising, enigmatic or bizarre historical gravestone epitaph in Britain."

Contenders so far include one from Eshness in the Shetlands that reads: "Donald Robertson, born 14th January 1785. Died 14th June aged 63. He was a peaceable, quiet man, and to all appearances a sincere Christian. His death was much regretted which was caused by the stupidity of Laurence Tulloch of Clothister (Sullom) who sold him nitre instead of Epsom Salts by which he was killed in the space of five hours after taking a dose of it."

Another from All Saints Church, Darfield, Barnsley, states simply: "The mortal remains of Robert Millthorp who died September 13th 1826 aged 19 years. He lost his life by inadvertently throwing this stone upon himself whilst in the service of James Raywood or Ardsley, who erected it in his memory". [Link]

Was the Queen Mum Born in Transit?

I don't remember hearing this when the Queen Mother died in 2002, but apparently there was some question where she was born.

Not a little mystery surrounded her birth. A plaque in the 12th-century church of St Paul's Walden proclaims that she saw the first light of day on her parent's Hertfordshire estate, but that has proved not to be the case. Later in life she was told that she was born at their London home in Grosvenor Square. There was even a family story that she may have been born in a horse-drawn ambulance - or even in the back of a taxi. When told that it was entirely possible, the Queen Mother is supposed to have put on her best Lady Bracknell voice - like her grandson, the Prince of Wales, she was a good mimic - and exclaimed: "In a taxi? How quaint!" [Link]

It's Their Third Bird

You have to admire the British government's commitment to both genealogy and ornithology. Their DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events) project is progressing nicely, with 40 million of 70 million historical UK birth records now included in the EAGLE (Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events) database.

Yet another bird's name has been chosen as the acronym for the third project - MAGPIE (Multi Access to GRO Published Index of Events). This will provide online indexes to the newly digitised records, and will be accessible via the internet, hopefully by April 2008. [Link, via Featherstone Genealogy]

Their fourth project will undoubtedly be dubbed "PELICAN" (Project to Encourage Licentious Implementation of Cute Avian Names).

Alphabetize Your Tommies

Ancestry.co.uk has begun adding World War I British Army service and pension records, starting with 100,000 records for A and B surnames. If your ancestor's name began with "zed," you might have to wait until 2008.

They reveal intriguing personal details, such as how Pte Thomas Beedham, a 34-year-old fitter from Leicester, was "admonished" and fined four days pay for absenting himself from a draft on Aug 28, 1916. The forms also show how Pte John William Ballinger, of 1bn Manchester Regiment, had a "distinctive" scar on his right leg and how one soldier was almost 64 when he fought. [Link]

To the question "Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" the British Army evidently answered, "So long as you fit the uniform."

An Odd Requirement for Entry

South African teenager Reggie Erasmus was kicked out of the UK because he couldn't remember when his sister was born.

Reggie said passport control officers at the arrival counter became suspicious of his reasons for entering the country when he could not remember his sister's birth date. He was taken to a back room where spent the next 12 hours.

"The lady would hammer me with questions and then leave for an hour before coming back again. I was given documents stating that because I didn't have enough money to support my stay, they were deporting me." [Link]

I guess they won't let me into the UK either, because I have no clue when Reggie's sister was born.

The Grass is Always Greener in Ireland

A third of United Kingdom residents suffer from "plastic paddy syndrome," according to a recent survey. There is no known cure.

The survey, commissioned by Rankin Selection Irish Breads, found that nearly half of all English, Scottish, and Welsh people would prefer to be Irish.

Welsh emerged as the least popular with only 13% choosing it, while English was just in front with 14%. Scottish came second with a modest 29%.

A mutual love between the Irish and Scottish was also revealed with 58% of Scottish people choosing to be Irish and 72% of Irish people opting to be Scottish. [Link]

UK Outlaws 'Marriage'

From LifeSite:

UK Orders Registry offices to Remove All References to “Marriage” due to Civil Partnerships

By Gudrun Schultz

UNITED KINGDOM, England, January 16, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Registry offices in the UK are taking down all signs referring to “marriage.” The Government has advised regional councils to change sign wording in case gay couples are offended. Homosexual relationships can now be registered as Civil Partnerships, under the UK’s new legislation.

[snip]

The Government-issued Civil Partnership checklist, which contains the signage recommendations, also suggests registry offices change the heading of their stationary packages from “Your Wedding” to “Your Ceremony.”

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

UK to Aussies: We've Changed the Locks

From The (Melbourne, Australia)Age:

UK may abolish ancestry visas

By Annabel Crabb
Age Correspondent
London
October 27, 2005

GRANNY'S British birth certificate may no longer be the ticket to an overseas working holiday for young Australians.

Changes to the British immigration system, under consideration by the Blair Government, may include the abolition of the "ancestry visa" scheme.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Censuswhacking and Other British Diversions

From the BBC News of June 13, 2005:

The kinship of strangers
By Rob Liddle
BBC News website

What do family historians do when the trails for their own kin go cold? They join forces to uncover the life history of a randomly chosen individual from the past.

Pursuing one's ancestry used to be a labour-intensive affair - all packed lunches, trips to dusty records offices and unseemly fights over tomes with other frazzled researchers.

[snip]

Now, with a wealth of genealogical information available online and an explosion in the number of people eager to research their roots, family history can be a completely different experience.

You can access birth, marriage and death indexes and census details instantaneously and quickly link up with people who have other useful resources at their disposal or specialist knowledge.

Random number

And with these developments a new breed of genealogist has emerged - ready to root at will and for whom the process of recreating people's lives and times is an end in itself.

Members of the 16,000-strong Rootschat forum now take part in a monthly challenge, in which an individual with whom none of them has any known connection is randomly selected from the 1881 census.

The job is to find out as much as possible about the mystery person within the next four weeks. It's pot luck - the person could have died a week later - but there's always something interesting to discover about them.

"I suppose it's almost like getting a bit of a hit," explains Sarah Mackay, who with partner Trystan Davies set up Rootschat, which attracts up to 140 new members every day.

"People doing their own family may get stuck for years, but it's very addictive and when you can't get any further yourself, you're still quite desperate for the same hit.

[snip]

Censuswhacking

There is a serious side to the project, and the hope is that the randomly chosen person will fit into another researcher's family tree - something which has actually happened on each occasion so far.

Researcher Paul Etherington, who initiated the challenges, sees the site as a "truly altruistic experience".

[snip]

Paul also came up with the idea of censuswhacking - searching for a first name, surname or occupation that appears only once in a given census (as transcribed) - which has proved a big hit on the site.

Where else would the lives of Ginnie Pig, Spud Murphey and Alfred Goold - 1901 occupation "living on condensed milk" - be recorded for posterity?

[Read the whole story]

The thread from Rootschat may be viewed here.