Is it any wonder that so many incautious, unsuitable and downright disastrous relationships begin in spring, when heads are turned by the prospect of a little romance to clear the winter cobwebs from the heart? These relationships are often doomed to be…
Read more
The significance of Harris Tweed woollen cloth lies not only in its authenticity as a long-established hand-made product from a limited geographic area, not just in its legally protected status, but also in its resilience and enduring popularity as a…
Read more
Every relationship, be it a budding new love, a serious affair or a lifelong partnership, can be invigorated by doing romantic things in spring, Nature’s own season of love. The gloomy days of winter are yielding to the fresh delights…
Read more
February 9, 2015 Relationships and Family - Other
If your house begins to look a little down-at-heel and in need of cleaning, what is you first thought? Do you immediately plan to move to another house, or, even worse, destroy your house because it is no longer perfect? …
Read more
December 3, 2014 Communication
All work and no play makes Jack and Jill a very dull pair indeed. The secret of success on every level – business, personal and financial – is balance. Although the demands of modern life dictate that we must spend…
Read more
Genealogy used to be a profession for experts or a hobby requiring infinite patience on the part of the amateur. It involved writing letters to strangers, often in overseas destinations, and then waiting weeks or months for a reply which…
Read more
Adult loneliness can be even more tragic than the same condition in childhood. A lonely child has no-one to play with or share their mysterious secrets, no other child with whom they can just be a kid. Yet a lonely child…
Read more
March 9, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
Anyone who has lived (and slept) with a loud snorer knows that the first problem to be overcome is to get the snorer to admit their guilt. It begins with outright denial (“I don’t snore”) and may proceed to blame-shifting…
Read more
During the past two decades, a strange phenomenon has arisen in the English-speaking world of Anglo-Saxon heritage. Departing from the tradition of being reserved and undemonstrative, except in their personal relationships with immediate family members, many people have become suddenly touchy-feely, kissing…
Read more
Before you begin to research your family history you may envisage that the product of your efforts will be a simple family tree showing a number of marriages and the resulting offspring, going back a hundred years if you are…
Read more
Newspapers are an often neglected mine of information for genealogists. Easily overlooked in the thrill of discovering statistical information in civil records of birth and death, or church documents about baptism, marriage and burial, newspaper entries about your ancestors are…
Read more
It is unfortunate that most people do not begin to research their family tree until it is too late. Often too late, once they have reached late middle age and have time on their hands to devote to genealogy, to…
Read more
December 30, 2013 Communication
When a close member of your family moves overseas on a temporary or permanent basis, it can seem as if the bottom has dropped out of your world. The relationship you previously enjoyed seems threatened by the tyranny of distance….
Read more
December 23, 2013 Marriage and Divorce
The Internet is a magnificent tool for inter-personal communication. It offers us e-mail, social media like Facebook and Twitter, chat rooms and forums where we can converse with like-minded people who share our interests, ways to reconnect with old friends…
Read more
The vast majority of people have the good fortune to be raised by caring parents who give them the gift not only of their love but of their time as well: time spent in playing with them, preparing food, tending…
Read more
A person’s last name may also be referred to as a surname or a family name. This is because in most (but not all) parts of the world, a last name is a name shared by members of a family…
Read more
There are now so many online resources available for helping you to trace your ancestry that you can afford to be choosy. Instead of just clicking on the first site that comes up when you type ‘free ancestry charts’ in…
Read more
December 3, 2013 Marriage and Divorce
Blended and single-parent families are now so commonplace that it is easy to forget the confusion created in the minds of young children when they see adults parting after a long-term relationship, and the genuine trauma they experience when the…
Read more
November 14, 2013 Communication
For many people there is nothing more terrifying than the prospect of having to stand up and speak before an audience. If you are one of those who would prefer to be initiated into base jumping rather than commit to…
Read more
A name is the first truly personal gift everyone receives, usually from their parents and often given months before they are born. In conjunction with their family name it defines them as part of a social unit and at the…
Read more
There are various times in most peoples’ lives when they need to turn to family members and relatives for assistance, comfort and advice. This kind of support is welcome when truly necessary or actively sought, but it can become intrusive…
Read more
In days gone by, the average person had little hope of tracing his forebears without long and expensive correspondence with a professional genealogist, or spending precious vacation time doing the rounds of dusty records offices. However, thanks to the Internet…
Read more
A family tree can be a mere list of names and dates, full of information but about as interesting as a page of statistics on the comparative drying speeds of various brands of paint. Yet if you follow a few…
Read more
Researching your family history can be a fascinating and rewarding experience. History comes alive when it revolves around you, your parents and grandparents, and where you all came from. So it’s not surprising that genealogy has been transformed, from the…
Read more
Genealogists pounce on a marriage record with glee, and milk it for every ounce of information it can yield. Not only does it offer a certain amount of reassurance, since children born within the confines of a marriage are more…
Read more
Assembling all the elements of your family history research into a cohesive whole is rather like adopting a very unconventional approach to a jigsaw puzzle. You don’t start in the usual way at the outer limit, the perimeter of the…
Read more
A first date can be a time of magic or misery. It could become an anniversary to celebrate, a circled number on the calendar every year, a day when you and your partner become misty-eyed and say “Remember when…?”. Alternatively,…
Read more
For many centuries family lineage was recorded on enormous paper charts, with lines connecting generations and hundreds of names recorded in minuscule handwriting or print. In the 21st century this tedious and inflexible method can be abandoned, because there are…
Read more
When you’re home alone with empty hours stretching ahead of you, the last thing you will feel like doing are the mundane jobs and pastimes that normally fill your day. You need something to occupy you that is either a…
Read more