Having tackled my Mother’s side of the family, via my Grandparents Ronald & Amelia Lish’s ancestors, it was time to turn to my father’s side.
The person I think of as my Dad, Alexander “Sandy” Cairncross, has a well-documented family tree – they even have their own website. The earliest Cairncross’s go back to 1200 and were at the court of David I, King of Scots (1124-1153). There was a Castle, Glendearg, but it’s in ruins now.
My particular branch of that family didn’t stray far from Montrose, in Scotland, and were fishermen, although you will see my Dad became an engineer in the Merchant Navy, travelled the world and now lives in New Zealand (for the second time).
While Dad was undoubtedly very Scottish and I’d always been very drawn to Scotland, I’d never FELT particularly Scottish, as if I was cheating a bit by drawing on my step-father’s birthright.
Dad (Sandy Cairncross) had met my Mum in rather unusual circumstances, while he was a Chief Engineer on a ship in what is known as the Merchant Navy. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…
Mum had been an up-and-coming dancer and singer in local then national Repertory Theatre and had even made it to the West End. She was in the Yul Brynner version of ‘The King & I’ in which I’m pretty sure she played ‘Little Eva’. She’s also danced in the ‘Dolly Birds’, a forerunner of Pan’s People, who I think danced on Lionel Blair’s show when UK TV first started. He wasn’t very happy when I told him that, when I met him much later in life! I think it made him feel old.
She had some pretty racy tales to tell, one involving my godmother (also a dancer), a lake in the middle of nowhere and Adam Faith!
I always thought her mother, my Nan, had forced her off the stage to marry when she got pregnant with me with my birth father Thomas, but looking at her marriage certificate, that was not the case. They married on 4th July, 1959 and I wasn’t born till late September, 1961.
That’s just the first surprise of this episode of the blog!
She married Thomas and moved back to Sussex, to Durrington in Worthing. After marriage, she worked in Durrington Telephone Exchange (which she hated) and lived on Greenland Road, just down the road from her Mum and Dad. We were to return to Greenland Road later in life, because, unless venturing north to Scotland, or west to Wales (both after meeting Sandy), Mum didn’t stray far from Durrington. I suppose, with her first husband Thomas away at sea, she wanted to be near family and then with two more children by Sandy, she needed help even more!
The Imperial War Museum’s website gives a short history which starts with “In wartime, Britain depended on civilian cargo ships to import food and raw materials, as well as to transport soldiers overseas, and keep them supplied. The title ‘Merchant Navy’ was granted by King George V after the First World War to recognise the contribution made by merchant sailors.
Britain’s merchant fleet was the largest in the world during both world wars. In 1939, a third of the world’s merchant ships were British, and there were some 200,000 sailors. Many merchant seamen came from parts of the British Empire, such as India, Hong Kong and west African countries. Women also sometimes served at sea in the Merchant Navy. “
Googling it, the uniforms were as smart as in the Royal Navy and standards and training were assuredly as high. Profits come first and all that!
As I sat and thought about it all, I realised that I WAS half-Scottish, due to my birth father Thomas being just as Scottish as Sandy was. You’ll laugh as we go through this story, how could I not have known? Iut in my defence, Thomas was rarely there and died when I was very young, under 10, so over the years I’d largely forgotten about him.
Thomas Clark Cochrane McKenzie
My birth father, Thomas Clark Cochrane McKenzie, was the Navigation Officer, also known as the First Officer or Chief Officer on the Ben Line Merchant Navy. My mother was on board to recuperate following an illness, as spouses of officers were occasionally allowed to accompany them on trips. There is much more to this story that I have time to go into here but I’ll write it up one day. Essentially she had electric shock treatment after post-natal depression with my sister Heather, and that led to her first episode of poor mental health.
Prior to all this, my mother was very glamorous, if sad. Thomas was a distant figure, a serial philanderer and presumably rather busy with his duties on board. She told us that when she was on that long trip, she hated spending time in the Officer’s Mess, finding them very stuck up, and over time got to know a load of the ‘below decks’ ratings and spending time down there. She ended up falling in love with Sandy Cairncross, the Chief Engineer.
Two officers on the same ship, on a round-the-world tour of duty. As my daughter, Phoebe would say, ‘That’s awkward.’
I only remember seeing Thomas once, when he came home from the ship. There must have been other occasions but this occasion stands out because he got very cross. Heather and I were squabbling over a chess board and Thomas threw it across the room in irritation.
We only visited my birth father’s home in Edinburgh once that I recall, at the age of around 5-6 years so it would have been the mid-Sixties. I remember it was a very small flat in a tenement block with lots of stairs. I met my Grandmother, whose name I don’t recall and “Auntie” May, who my sister Heather and I both recall vividly, due to the wealth of hairy moles on her seriously whiskery face. Grim.
Now I’m getting older, some of my moles are showing the same tendency and in memory of Auntie May, I’ve determined – no matter how shortsighted I get – not to let them get out of hand. I have a tiny great nephew now, Finn, and I don’t want to see him recoil when they say ‘Give your Great Aunt Nicola a kiss!’ if I can avoid it!
It took ages to track any information down about Thomas Cochrane McKenzie, he really was a man of mystery. I didn’t know about his other middle name Clark at this point.
He didn’t appear on any Census, there’s no birth record and if it wasn’t for their Marriage Certificate, which I held in my hands, I wouldn’t have known his father’s name or occupation. Mum did have one photo of him but that was long gone. I remember he looked a bit like my late partner Steve, which is weird but not when the psychologists say you are attracted to people who remind you, physically or emotionally, of one of your main carers.
The ‘Clark’ middle name was new to me – the photo I’d seen was inscribed ‘Thomas Cochrane McKenzie’, but if I thought this extra name would make my birth father or his father easier to track down, I was to be proved wrong. I have to say at this point the Ben Line were very helpful. I wrote to them and as I was able to give them lots of detail, they eventually sent me his service record, which was on four index cards. This provided some of his earlier and later addresses along with more details about how and where he died.
Thomas’ father William Matthew McKenzie was a Miller according to the Marriage Certificate, but he didn’t appear on any Census records either. In fact, I only stumbled across him when one of his brothers showed up. I don’t even remember how I came across his brother, but suddenly, there was William Matthew McKenzie large as life. It must have been a Census Record.
The McKenzie Clan
William Matthew McKenzie was born in 1907, in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father, William McKenzie Snr was a labourer, born 1863 in Moray, Scotland. William Snr was later listed as a ‘book canvasser / peddler’ in Edinburgh, so he was a door-to-door salesman. After the death of his mother Agnes in 1923, when William Matthew was 16, the family moved to 3A Cannon Street, in Edinburgh in 1925, then William joined the Merchant Marine in 1925 at the age of 18. That explains his lack of Census entries too.
Then, on 4th March 1927, after just two years at sea, William Matthew married Mary Burnie Waugh, a chocolate packer, in Lady Glenorchy’s Parish Church, St Giles, Edinburgh. William is listed as 20 years old on that marriage record, which confirms this is the right William, even though there is no mention of a middle name of Matthew. This is not unusual, however.
Mary Burnie Waugh had been born in 1909 and there’s a World War I Enlistment Record for her father, William Waugh, aged 36, where Mary is listed with the correct date of birth.
But I’ve been unable to pinpoint her exact date of death, as Mary McKenzies (as she would have been then) were fairly common in Scotland! There is a cremation record for a Mary B. S. McKenzie in Edinburgh in 1955 but I’ve been too mean to pay to see the cremation record. Also, I remember meeting Grandma Mary in the mid-Sixties so that ruled her out.
There’s a Mary B. W. McKenzie listed in the 1966 Census as living at 217A Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh. The initials make me think this is her as does the fact that I would have been able to visit this one. Google street view chimes with my memories of the buildings too.
Further investigation revealed that the men on the ships of both the Royal and the Merchant Navy were not counted in the census unless they were on shore on the day of the census. That would explain the lack of Census records for both William M. and Thomas as adults. But not Mary Burnie Waugh McKenzie and the young Thomas. He was born in 1937 so should have been included in two at least, as they are done every ten years.
This is the kind of rabbit hole you can end up in, on Ancestry.
Initially I didn’t want to assume Mary Burnie Waugh is Thomas’ mother, as the William McKenzie she married did not list a middle name and he was listed as a Railway Labourer at 20, but perhaps he joined the Merchant Navy afterwards.
There is also a family tree on Ancestry that lists the couple as having one child William, no mention of a Thomas. Mary Burnie Ward McKenzie is quite an unusual name, so it’s unlikely it’s another couple. So I’m contacting the owner of that other tree to see if she’s heard of a Thomas Clark Cochrane McKenzie.
Here’s a picture of Lady Glenorchy’s Parish Church by Stephen Dickson.
If Mary Burnie is Thomas’ mother, he wasn’t born until April 1937, which is 10 years after their marriage in 1927. This seems a long time to wait for a baby, until you remember William was in the Navy and away for long periods of time. Perhaps Mary’s fertile periods didn’t coincide with William’s shore leave!
Why are there no birth records for Thomas Clark Cochrane McKenzie? Was he illegitimate? Why wasn’t he registered at birth and how could he join the Merchant Marine without a Birth Certificate? Who were William and Margaret who, in some records are listed as siblings and offspring of William and Mary, but whom I have never heard of?
So many questions.
Eventually, I had to leave Mary Burnie McKenzie and resolve to come back later. The name Burnie was niggling away at me though, could I have heard it as a child? Grannie Burnie?
In the end, cruel as it sounds, Thomas’ mother is a bit irrelevant, as once past this slight hiccup, the McKenzie line rolled back in time, unfolding across one magical Sunday afternoon in Brighton, just before Christmas 2021.
Back To The North Of Scotland
Just to recap, Thomas’ dad was William Matthew McKenzie, so his grandfather was William McKenzie, born 1863 and married to Agnes Marshall.
William Snr’s dad was William Brandon McKenzie (b. 1837) who married Helen Hislop. William Brandon was an agricultural labourer living mainly in Forres, Moray.
His father William McKenzie (b. 1810) lived in Urquart, Elgin and was listed on the Census as a mason, so at least he had a skill. William married Christine Ramsey and they went on to have 12 children!
The next generation back stuck with tradition and William’s father was also a William (b. 1783) who married Margaret Rhind (b. 1788). Christmas for this pair must have been expensive with 12 grand-children! William & Margaret lived at Phimisters Houses, Moray, Scotland and he was still in the Army!
This is where we depart from the McKenzies temporarily but not the Williams, because Margaret’s father was William Rhind (b. 1751) listed as a Farmer, and her mother was Rebekah Falconer. It is unknown if he owned his farm or was a tenant farmer but it’s a step up from the generations to come! The more I delve into all this, the more I realise that the key to prosperity is having some land, whether you own it or rent it. As people moved towards the cities, most tended to get poorer, in so many ways.
Again, my spidey senses started twitching, as when you come across a surname like Falconer, you are getting close to someone who may have been a Falconer to a nobleman or even to Royalty, as people tended to be named after their professions. Rebekah Falconer was my 5th Great Grandmother, just to orientate ourselves on how far back we are.
The Falconers of Moray area, although fairly ubiquitous, didn’t get any real fame until Hugh Falconer (1808–1865). He was a contemporary of Darwins and became a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam,Burma,and most of the Mediterranean islands and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium. He studied the Siwalik fossil beds, and may also have been the first person to discover a fossil ape. He and his businessman elder brother created the Falconer Museum, which has sadly closed due to lack of funding. It’s still there but closed for now.
Rebekah’s father, John Falconer (b. 1727) although of interesting ancestry if you go far enough back, married Marjory Kaenock, who had another intriguing name (spelled many different ways) and she’s the more interesting leg of the family here. The Census hadn’t started in Scotland by then, so I’m assuming that everyone from here on in were landowners.
Her father Thomas Kynock (b. 1702) married Margaret Sinclair, whose parents were Mary Duffus Sutherland (b. 1682) and the very grandly titled Sir James Thomas 7th of Mey & 4th Baronet Sinclair. Now they wouldn’t have let Margaret marry any old hobbledehoy, so Thomas must have had decent prospects.
I was getting excited now. I had to get up and make tea.
There was a castle!
Here it is, the Castle of Mey, Caithness (Barrogill Castle). And what a very fine Scottish-looking castle it is, so much so it caught the eye of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
In 1952, HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother saw what was then known as Barrogill Castle while staying with Commander and Lady Doris Vyner at the House of the Northern Gate on Dunnet Head, a short distance to the west. Despite its poor condition, Her Majesty purchased the castle that year and set about renovating and restoring both the castle and its gardens and parklands, which extended to about 30 acres. She also restored the castle’s original name changing Barrogill Castle back to The Castle of Mey.
Sir James Thomas, 7th of Mey & 4th Baronet Sinclair’s father was the 3rd Baronet of Mey, Sir James Richard (b. 1655), who married Dame Margaret, Lady Duffus Mackenzie (so there was more Mackenzie blood that far back!).
I was excited to google them and find a picture of Dame Margaret, my 9th Great Grandmother. I think you get a real sense of her from this picture, the artist must have been very good. She was a Lady in her own right, before she married the 3rd Baronet. Her parents were Lord Kenneth, the 4th Earl of Seaforth. He married Lady Isabella, seen here on the right. The family nose is alive and being carried down the centuries.
Scougall, David; Portrait of a Woman; Thirlestane Castle Trust; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/portrait-of-a-woman-211052
Wikipedia reports “A longstanding view of the Mackenzies’ history has often highlighted the demise of a once powerful Clan while also reflecting a popular misconception of the Highlands in general as something of a benighted backwater.
Although the Mackenzies’ roots were indeed essentially Celtic when traced in the direct male line, being effectively an offshoot of the ancient Scottish royal family, early intermarriages ensured that they remained part of a highly cosmopolitan network of kinship, both Gaelic and Norman, that ruled Britain and France in the Middle Ages. After a complex series of changing loyalties, which did not always follow the interests of the Crown, a subsequent strong allegiance to the House of Stuart was established under the leadership of the Clan’s 15th-century chief, Alexander “the Upright”, from whom most Mackenzies living today are descended. This secured the family’s impressive ascendancy as one of the most powerful clans in the Highlands as well as in Scotland as a whole.”
The Seaforths created the MacKenzie tartan and commanded an imposing force of men. To the right you’ll see what looks like a 14-year-old but is actually William Dubh Mackenzie, the 5th Earl and 2nd Jacobite Marquis of Seaforth.
The formation of regiments, most notably the Seaforth Highlanders, the building of great canals and railways in Britain, the surveying of the oceans and of India, and the exploration of Canada are among the remarkable achievements of this innovative family, whose ties of kinship have long persisted across oceans and hemispheres and indeed continue to do so to this day.”
This was getting silly now, I was torn between finding out about each of these people and just rolling with it, because Ancestry was feeding me parents and grandparents thick and fast now.
I decided to keep going with the male line and come back to follow the other threads later. I was also finding Coats Of Arms galore so my Tree was starting to look very colourful.
Sir James Richard Sinclair, 3rd Baronet of Mey was born to James Thomas Stewart 4th Earl of Moray, 9th Earl of Argyll, Duke of Richmond & Lennox (b. 25 June 1608) and he married the rather nicely named Anne Margaretha. They had many children.
James Thomas’ father was Lord James Stewart (b. 1581), 3rd Earl of Moray, Doune, Strathearn, and Abernathy and he married Anne Gordon followed by Elizabeth Stewart.
James Stewart’s father was another James Stewart, (b. 1568) entitled the ‘Bonnie Earl Of Moray and he was the 2nd Earl Of Moray and Lord Dune. He also married an Elizabeth.
Phew, let’s take a breather.
And appreciate the Bonnie Earl. Perhaps the nose is a bit too long for him to be considered ‘bonnie’ nowadays but I’m sure a few titles made up for it.
Let me tell you, it was a real headache trying to untangle all these Earls and Ladies. For a start, the boys all seemed to adopt a different name when they inherited the Earldom and they were often intermarrying with families of very similar names. Only the birthdates kept them apart and as long as the dates made sense, I felt sure I was on the right track.
That, and of course, the fact that gentry’s births, marriages and deaths were well recorded so Ancestry was doing a good job of combing the records and filling in the blanks. I was cross-checking with Google, but I found you can not always trust Wikipedia and some of the online blogs were worse!
Sir James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was born in 1540 and married Margaret Campbell. He might sound a bit plain, after the fancy titles of the other, previous Earls, but James’ father was James V, King of Scotland, (b. 1512•Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland). His mother was Margaret Erskine.
Now we are on a roll with the Royals. James V’s father was James IV (Stewart) King of Scotland (b. 1473) and he married Margaret Tudor, Queen Of Scotland (b. 1489) – that’s her on the left.
James IV’s father was James III (b. 1451) and James III married Margaret of Denmark. Margaret of Denmark was a real catch, because her father was King Christian of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. He’d actually united those three countries for the first time.
So I had Viking blood too.
James III’s father was James II (are you getting the hang of this yet?) and he was born in 1430 and married Mary of Guelders.
James II’s father was James 1st (b. 1394) and he married Joan Beaufort. James II only became King because his twin older brother Alexander died shortly after birth, making James the heir.
There are pictures of all these people. Well, paintings and drawings of varying quality. As I googled them and downloaded their photos, I looked in their eyes and thought, you are related to me.
More tea was required. I felt just like Josh Widdicombe, a working-class comedian, who found out his line went back to Edward the Confessor and beyond.
It all felt a bit surreal. I was all on my own, nobody to tell and anyway, I wanted to be sure that I’d done it right, before I said anything.
Could it get any better than this? Although the Stewarts were not thought to be the best kings, several royal great-grandads and grand-ma’s would do, surely?
Fortified with tea, I started again.
I’ve got quite a good grip on history, at least Tudor history but we were way past that.
James Stewart, James I of Scotland, had parents I hadn’t ever heard of. His father was John Stewart (b.1337). John became Robert III, King of Scotland. He married Annabella Drummond (b. 1350).
John (aka Robert III)’s parents were Robert II, King of Scotland (b. 1371 and he married Elizabeth Mure around 1348, legitimising their four sons and five daughters. His subsequent marriage, after Elizabeth’s death, to Euphemia de Ross in 1355 produced two more sons. Robert II was a virile man.
Robert II’s parents were Walter Stewart b. 1296) 6th High Steward of Scotland and Marjorie Bruce (b. 1300)
Now, hold on! You can’t mean…
Yes, you’ve guessed it, Marjorie (left) was the daughter of Robert I of Scotland, also known as Robert De Bruce (b. 1274). Marjorie’s mother was Robert’s first wife, Isabella of Mar. Sadly Isabella died, shortly after childbirth, before Robert ever became King Of Scotland.
(Incidentally, this was all happening about 200 years after David I, King of Scotland reigned, who included among his Lords, one of my Cairncross ancestors by marriage).
At this point, Ancestry baldly informed me that Robert The Bruce is my 22nd Great Grandfather. I’d sortof grasped there was a connection but there it was in black and white.
I was a bit vague about the details of Robert The Bruce beyond what we had been taught in primary school so I turned to Google.
“Robert the Bruce is a fitting name for the king that fought for Scotland’s independence, even if it’s a coincidence that stems from his family name “a Briuis” or “de Brus.”
Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English. The king who won Scotland’s independence—it’s no wonder he lives on in legend as a national hero.”
I sat back and googled Robert The Bruce on Google Images, only to find he looked nothing like Mel Gibson. I’d never seen Braveheart but always assumed it was about Robert de Bruce. He looked more like the King Of The Dwarves in Lord Of The Rings.
It turns out the film Braveheart was about the legendary thirteenth-century Scottish hero named William Wallace.
“Wallace rallies the Scottish against the English monarch and Edward I after he suffers a personal tragedy by English soldiers. Wallace gathers a group of amateur warriors that is stronger than any English army.”
Grrrr, I wanted to know more about Robert de Bruce. I knew he’s lived in a cave at some point and by watching a spider spin a web, he learned that you should never, never give up on your dreams.
In my further Googling, I found out Robert de Bruce WAS the real Braveheart. From the website Ranker.com
We all know that historical movies can be inaccurate. Sometimes, they get historical figures completely wrong – for example, Pocahontas was a child when she met John Smith, and so was Isabella of France when William Wallace was alive. Still, most historical movies don’t make executions less gory as was the case with William Wallace’s execution in Braveheart, and they don’t make real historical figures less intense. But Braveheart is guilty of both.
Just look at how Braveheart portrays Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. In real life, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace were allies, openly fighting together – but in the movie, Robert the Bruce betrays Wallace. That couldn’t be more wrong. Robert the Bruce was so committed to Scottish independence that he offed his rival in church to crown himself King.
In fact, Robert the Bruce is the true Braveheart. He fought for Scottish independence even when it cost him his family and nearly his life. In order to win back his wife and daughter, King Robert chopped a man in half. And you’ll never believe how he got the nickname Braveheart. Needless to say, Braveheart ‘sequels’ about Robert the Bruce were long overdue. “
And the best was yet to come.
“According to a 14th-century Scottish chronicler named John Barbour, Robert the Bruce always regretted that he never went on crusade. On his deathbed in 1329, Robert asked one of his knights to take his heart on the crusade so that it could fight against God’s enemies. The knight, Sir James Douglas, carried Robert’s heart in a silver case, riding to Spain where war raged against the Moors.
In the heat of combat, Douglas was killed in a surprise attack – but before riding into battle, he reportedly threw the urn containing Robert the Bruce’s heart at the Muslims, shouting “Lead on brave heart, I’ll follow thee!”
The heart was returned to Scotland after the battle, where it was later interred at Melrose Abbey in Scotland.”
I loved that story, it’s appropriately bonkers.
So What Does All This Mean?
Quietly digesting all this new information over the next few days, I realised firstly that there was a rich seam of Christmas Presents for the kids. The McKenzie tartan was rather splendid – blue and green with a thin red line – and so I purchased a few choice items for stocking fillers. Mugs and scarves, I restrained from buying kilts and heraldic pins.
Then I realised that I was starting to feel differently. As well as realising why I’ve always been drawn to ginger men!
I’d taken a bit of a kicking emotionally during lockdown. I absolutely cannot bear unfairness or injustice of any kind. Things that are illogical drive me mad, so you can imagine how I was struggling with all the nonsense rules being inflicted on us. Being made to walk a certain way in pubs or stand 2 metres apart. None of this had any roots in science, they were just making it up and people were going along with it!
Not to mention people dying in hospitals of ineffectual treatments while governments banned doctors from using what worked, and nurses made TikTok videos. Grandparents dying alone, in nursing homes, not being allowed to see or hold their loved ones. Australians and Canadians being unable to leave their country, or move from state to state, while losing their jobs if they didn’t get jab after jab after jab.
My own brother Alex had died in hard lockdown in Sydney just that monthand even if his 3rd experimental jab didn’t kill him, the sheer isolation would have for sure. His mental health was seriously shaky, to say the least.
Deep down, I was scared, really scared, about the way the world was going.
The thought of forced jab mandates was terrifying, the thought of the world – our world – being dictated to by a bunch of unelected billionaires and politicians (with Eugenicists in their immediate family) was terrifying. The thought of the supply chains breaking and the huge inflation and the food shortages to come was terrifying. I knew about the consequences of lockdowns and money printing since around April 2020 as more clever people than I, had pieced it all together already. While we were expecting a war of some kind, as a massive diversion, nobody foresaw the suicidal sanctions on Russia and the subsequent energy crisis these actions would precipitate.
Most of all, the knowledge of what the experimental jabs were doing to people was terrifying. Mass media were censoring all of that and I was running the risk of losing my social media accounts because I couldn’t help sharing the stuff I learned, in the hope of making a difference to just one life.
Outside my head, everyone was looking forward to Christmas and the end of lockdown, while inside my head Armageddon was coming.
What Would Robert The Bruce Say?
Now, this is weird, I know, but when I realised that I had the actual blood of Robert The Bruce running through my veins, I started to feel immediately braver!
When I imagined what the legendary Scottish hero would say to his 22nd Great Granddaughter on hearing her woes, I knew it would not be ‘There, there, yes, it’s awful dear!’.
No, he would be disgusted at what a wimp I was being.
I was, after all, a grown-ass woman of 60, overweight but healthy, living in a luxury flat in Brighton with many, many skills and resources that most people have not.
What on earth was I feeling miserable about?
At least I didn’t have to physically fight any battles (yet), my family were not locked up as political prisoners and I didn’t have an infant daughter to worry about.
My two were all grown up and – as they kept telling me – willing and able to take the consequences of any stupid decisions they make.
I resolved, there and then, to start living my life again as a brave woman would.
As the 22nd Great Grandaughter of Robert The Bruce should.
Till next time!
Nicola
p.s. Why not come over and visit me at my YouTube channel? You can connect with me there (or in the comments below). Do say you came from my Family History Blog!
I’m on a quest to track down the various branches of my family tree and then write it up in a format – perhaps a picture book – that my kids can show their kids!
After she told me that there was a blown up picture of Overington’s Forge in Durrington, I said to Sarah, I wonder if I can contact Tesco’s and find out if they have an original of that picture with my great-grandad Albert Edwin Lish in?
She replied “Yes, or perhaps you could contact that Worthing Historian chap, Chris Hare, he might know.”
“Chris Hare? That sounds familiar. Let’s Google him….OMG I know him…he’s the bloke I used to sit RIGHT NEXT TO, in Political History, at Durrington High School, back in 1977-78. How weird is that?”
So I dashed off an email to Chris, with all the usual chitchat, asking if he knew how the photo of Overington’s had come to be used in the Tesco’s foyer, and if he knew where I could get a copy.
Bless him, he emailed me straight back, telling me about his book and attaching a copy of the photo. He could even let me have a print if I wanted one.
So my grand-dad, Ronald Lish, had a father Albert Lish, a blacksmith, who married Rose Hillman. Tracing the Lish family back over the centuries, to 1625 and Johanis Lish, it seems as if they didn’t stray far from Worthing. Many lived in the surrounding villages, particularly Henfield and Poynings, and many lived and are buried in Steyning.
I turned my attention to my Nan, Amelia Lish. I knew nothing about her beyond that she’d been in service since she was about 14 (Wiston House?), had met Ron on Worthing Seafront and that she came from Suffolk. Her marriage certificate had come back and given me a couple of bits of new information. The certificates not only list info about the person concerned (date of birth and maiden name) but the two fathers of both bride & groom, so are well worth the £20 odd you pay for one.
Amelia & Ronald’s certificate confirmed her maiden name was Moss and her middle name was Martha (new information to me). She was born on 22nd September 1911. I remembered that was her birthday because it was exactly one week before mine on the 29th. She married Ronald James Lish in April 1934 in East Preston, Sussex and he was listed as a bricklayer, living in Durrington.
Nan and I used to spend a lot of time together, as my sister Heather and I used to go there most days after school, and even lived with our Nan and Grandad for a couple of years. Another story for another day. She liked to teach us skills and we spent many happy hours cooking, sewing, knitting, crocheting and banging together bits of wood in Grandad’s garage. During these times, we talked and suddenly I remembered that she had said her mother’s name was Winifred. I’d laughed as it was SUCH an old fashioned name.
Amelia’s dad is listed as William James Moss, a clerk, and the Census records say she may have had a sister called Edith W. Moss who lived with them in Worthing for a while, shortly after Ron and Amelia got married. I do recall she had a relative who she used to visit in Partridge Green, perhaps that was Edith?
Now to find William James, who must have come from Suffolk, where Nan had told me she was born. I had no more info than that but this is where the Ancestry magic clicked in. As soon as you start plugging in people’s names and guessing at their birthdays (assume everyone lives 50 odd years and allow 20 years between generations as everyone married young) then it gives the software enough to go on. It will start suggesting people from the digitised Birth, Marriage & Deaths records, parish records, not to mention the cataloguing of gravestones in graveyards, that has been going on for many years now. This process can take a few days, so if you don’t start getting suggestions immediately, don’t despair, give it time.
According to Ancestry, William James Moss was born in 1890 in Suffolk; his father, Charles, was 22 and his mother, Annie, was 21. He had one daughter, Amelia, with Winifred Florence Hawes in 1911. He died in 1976 in Bucklesham, Suffolk, at the age of 86, and was buried there. No mention of an Edith. W. Moss though, although the W suggested she might have the middle name of Winifred, their mother. She could be an aunt, as an Edith appears in the generation before.
Now here’s where things get even more interesting. If you just follow your family tree up, as far as you can go on each side, you come across some interesting characters and sometimes mysteries, and the Moss / Hawes family had plenty of both..
Winifred was born in 1892 in Athlington, Suffolk. Her father, Frederick, was 35, and her mother, Eliza Hawes, nee Whatling, from Hoxne in Suffolk, was 37. Winifred was 19 and single in the 1911 Census, listed as living at Fur House, Athelington, Eye, Suffolk, with her father, mother and sister Emily who was 26. Frederick was listed as a farmer so the name Fur House is interesting.
Winifred married and had one daughter, Amelia, with William James Moss in 1911. She died in 1950 in England at the age of 58.
But when I looked into Winifred’s father, Frederick Hawes, born in 1857 in Athelington, Suffolk, it got a bit more confusing.
A picture appeared and as you can imagine, pictures of working-class people are few and far between. My interest in Frederick was piqued. This is a blown-up section, in the original photograph there is a woman and child. But in the one I saw originally, he’s surrounded by a large family and lots of children. But hang on, I thought he only had two daughters, Winifred and Emily?
From the ‘Births, Marriages & Deaths’ records, Frederick appears to have had three wives, Alvina Jennings, Eliza Whatling and Eliza Skinner. According to Ancestry, when you plug all those wives in,Frederick apparently had seven sons and 12 daughters.
According to the 1987 Census, he did live in Hoxne, Suffolk at that time, so that must have been where he met Eliza. He is listed as getting married in October in Hoxne but also to Alvina Anna Jennings, on the 1st or the 10th of October, in Stradbroke, Suffolk. Did he then go on to marry Eliza Skinner? More work to be done here I think. Frederick died in April 1943 in Suffolk at the ripe old age of 86.
Robert Hawes, Frederick’s father, was born in 1809 to Robert Hawes (born 1767) and Elizabeth (nee Bains). Keeping track of birthdates is sometimes the only way to keep track of individuals through the generations, especially where families have the habit of calling one child after the father!
Robert’s parents were Thomas Hawes and Elizabeth (nee Shadwell), Thomas’s parents were Robert Hawes and Mary (nee Walker) and so on backwards in time, but then it gets interesting again.
Robert’s parents were Ambrose Hawes (born 1654 and Susan (nee Crouching). Now, in my short experience of doing this, when you get an interesting name, you are getting close to something with potential. Why would a family break with habits of several lifetimes and call a child Ambrose? Where did that name come from?
While Ambrose’s dad was another Robert Hawes (born 1630), who married Ann (nee Gay), and Robert’s dad was another Thomas Hawes (born 1605) married to Mary, Thomas’ dad was yet another Thomas (born 1573) who married a Lettice Underwood.
Bingo! Letice, Lettice and any other spelling permutations was a name most favoured by the gentry, as Queen Elizabeth’s cousin once removed was named Lettice Knollys, the one who had an affair in 1565 with Elizabeth’s much-beloved companion Lord Robert Dudley.
Lettice Underwood was born to Sir George Underwood and Alice (nee Brockett) in 1575, in Weston, Hertfordshire, England.
Weirdly, the other person who used to sit on our set of 4 desks at school in that history lesson was Peter Underwood. He was a large, rather volatile chap and I was quite scared of him. (The fourth was Leonard Paine, who I had rather a crush on!). I’ve never met an Underwood since.
Back to the 16th Century… Sir George Underwood could trace his lineage back to Sir Thomas Underwood who, around 1500, married Isobel de Weston, whose father was Sir Thomas Weston and her mother was Lady Cecilia D’Irmingland.
Lady Cecilia had been born in 1457 in Sharrington, Norfolk, England, just next door to the county of Suffolk, where my grandmother had been born.
Rather taken with that name, I did a bit of digging online and found out that Lady Cecilia had obviously been considered either important or beautiful enough to paint, as a slightly fuzzy portrait can be found online. Please let me know in the comments if you know where I can see the original or if you know the artist.
The style of the time was very much the High Renaissance of famous Italian painters like Da Vinci and Michaelangelo but was slowly evolving to include the more formal ‘Old Master’ style and German and Dutch painters were starting to make a name. Many artists painted portraits to keep bread on the table but it was considered a distraction from the grand works – usually religious or classical – they all craved to paint for grand patrons like the Church or aristocracy.
The Irmingland family seat was Hastings-Hall Manor, as detailed in this online history, “Edric a Dane owned Irmingland at the (Edward The) Confessor’s survey, and it contained two carucates, one belonged to the lord in demean, and the other was in his tenants hands, the whole was then of 20s. per annum value.”
…but it was no more, sadly, “as in 1433, Agnes, widow of John Hoddys of Buxton, daughter and heiress of William Hastyngs of Irmingland, and Cecily her daughter, released all right to John Bettes, senior, of Irmingland, and so it became joined to The Manor of Whitfoot’s-Hall, Which anciently belonged to a family sirnamed from the town; in 1196 Warine de Irmingland (fn. 8) and Godfry de Irmingland held it at the 3d part of a fee, as parcel of the honour of Clare; he was son of Ralf, and father of that Ralf, that was lord here in 1249. In 1302 John de Ermingland had it, and in 1315 Ralf de Irmingland and John aforesaid, whose family continued long here, and had lands; but the manor was sold by Ralf in 1327, to Thomas Whitefoot and Alice his wife; Robert Whitefoot, parson of the moiety of Reepham St. Mary, John his brother, and Margaret his sister, all of Reepham, being trustees; and in 1336, Godfry(fn. 9) son of Ralf de Ermingland, released all his right; in 1394 Henry Whitefoot had it, and he and his feoffees in 1396 mortgaged it to John Spoo and Nichola his wife; and in 1410 released it to Roger Taylor of Wulterton, and John Mertoft; Richard Whitefoot had it, and Joan his widow in 1422 released it to Taylor and Mortoft, and in 1423 Taylor, Mortoft, Spoo, and his wife, sold it to John Bettes, senior, and his trustees; and in 1427 Robert, son and heir of Henry Whitefoot of Gressenhall, released all right, and so Bettes became sole lord, and afterwards joined the two manors, as they now remain.”
Notice that a Nichola Spoo lived there in around 1396. Life is full of spooky co-incidences. There is an Irmingland Road, just north of Norwich, which I imagine might be the area where Lady Cecilia lived until she married Sir Thomas Weston.
“Edward the Confessor was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeeded Cnut the Great’s son – and his own half-brother – Harthacnut.” The popular tv series “The Last Kingdom” covers this time and all the colourful characters in the most entertaining detail.
I was pretty excited now and, fuzzy or not, very happy to find Lady Cecilia – my 14th Great Grandmother – in my family tree and to be able to share her with my family. The best bit is that she is related to both parts of my family, as she comes down through our Mother’s side.
My plan is, once I’ve finished the family tree, to go on a driving tour of England and Scotland and visit all the most significant places. As one of the fixtures on my must-visit restaurants is Moreston Hall, Norfolk, owned by Chef Galton Blackiston, I’m delighted to see that is just up the road from the location of Irmingland Road and the rather austere Norman church All Saints, which must have seen some Irminglands in its time.
I’m all fired up now, remembering how much fun this is, several months later.
Tune in regularly to hear the next, possibly the most exciting part of my family history discovery journey.
Certianly the one that had the most positive personal impact on me, just when I needed it most.
Back in the lockdown, in an attempt to distract myself from what’s going on around me, I started watching “Who Do You Think You Are?” on BBC iPlayer. There are some on YouTube too, but uploaded in a very odd way, so they play out of order, so work through the Player ones first.
I really enjoyed most of the episodes, being a mix of social and political history, detective work and titbits gleaned of famous people’s lives, homes and families. There was one painful series when people had to wear masks and socially distance (even when meeting mothers they hadn’t seen for 50 years) but luckily that was only a few episodes.
My interest was really piqued with Danny Dyer’s episode, an actor most famous for starring in Eastenders, where he found that he was related to royalty going back hundreds of years. My ex-husband’s mother had told me a great story of her Russian refugee background and also, I suddenly remembered that my birth father (who died when I was very young) had a rather fancy Scottish name, which might lead to something exciting.
From Danny’s episode, it was obvious that it’s much easier to trace your ancestors, once you hit a toff or two, because their births, marriages and deaths were better chronicled than most. How else would you keep track of your property and assets, or grow them for that matter? Generations of peasants are more difficult, especially as they tend to repeat Christian names, but still, Parish Records are all online now so it makes it much easier.
I decided to invest some cash and get involved after watching Josh Widdicomb’s episode though. If you have not seen this, it’s worth watching even if you are not particularly into genealogy. His reactions to the amazing revelations as they unfurled were absolutely priceless and I laughed out loud on several occasions.
Laughter is very good for you and it’s been in short supply recently.
So I set up three accounts with the leading software companies and added in the immediate relatives and went off to make some tea. A really good idea for when you get stuck, I discovered as it gives the databases time to whizz-bang-whirr about sorting, sharing and making connections from the info I’d just added.
A bit later I came back to have another go. I was delighted to see that Ancestry had started adding ‘hints’ in the form of bright green leaves to the people I’d added so far. There were also ‘parent hints’ where they suggested parents for the people I’d added. It was a much nicer looking interface than the other two, as well. I cancelled the others and added some more people.
Just to give you an idea of my starting point, I’ve included a picture (above) of where I was starting from. On my side of the family there was a mother, Patricia, who had been ‘on the stage’ in, among other things, The King & I in the West End.
I had a birth father, Thomas, I never knew, a step-father Alexander (aka Sandy) Cairncross, whose family tree has been traced around the world by very keen amateur geneologists, and two maternal grandparents – Ronald & Amelia – but nothing further back than that. My ex-husband’s grandparents were a complete mystery and he’s asked me to keep his side of the family private.
My starting point ooked like the picture above (without the photos which I added in later)
I had an idea that my grand-dad, Ronald Lish, had lived around Sussex most of his life and that Amelia’s family had come from Suffolk. She came to Worthing to work in service in a big house locally and met Ronald on the seafront one Sunday. She told me frankly that “…I knew he wasn’t a looker but he was very, very kind” and she just knew he’d look after her. We have a beautiful pic of their wedding day which I must dig out.
Amelia worked all her life as a ‘char’ cleaning for Dr & Mrs Binks and other middle-class people locally. Grandad did their gardens as well as working as a market gardener in the orchards in Durrington, which was to become West Durrington.
They were poor but ate very well because of Grandad’s gardening skills and Nan’s brilliant cooking, baking and preserving skills. She had a great book of hand-written recipes from the time she was ‘in service’ as a young girl and she referred to that all her life. She was also a demon flower-arranger (is there a word for that?) and once got banned from her local Women’s Institute because she just kept winning.
None of this was very helpful to my genealogy search, but it was stirring it all up in my mind, one day the nugget dropped into my brain that Amelia’s mother’s name was Winifred. But what was her maiden name? I ordered the marriage certificate that Ancestry found for me and sat back to wait for more info.
Meanwhile, I went to visit my sister Sarah and she reminded me that Ronald’s Dad had worked at Overingtons, the forge and hardware shop in Durrington where we grew up. She thought there had been a picture of him outside, blown up large in ‘The Big Tesco’s’ as the locals called it, built on those very orchards where Ronald had worked.
Business owners are more beleaguered than ever. From lockdowns to double-digit inflation on things you need to buy, to astronomic energy bills, the obstacles to business success are growing larger by the day.
However, by investing in YOURSELF – and we are talking time not money – you can make sure that you make the right decisions while under pressure and give your business the best possible chances of surviving & thriving through the next few years.
Not convinced? Here are 3 reasons I urge you to think of books as your secret weapon in your fight for business excellence.
You can listen as well as read, if that’s your thing. Not only do most books go to Audible quickly now (including my own ‘The Money Gym‘ but there are browser plugins that will read articles, blog posts and the rapidly becoming essential alternative media ‘real news’ channel Substack out loud to you. My mate Andy sets his for double time so he gets through longer articles and news even quicker!
‘Leaders Are Readers’ says Tim Sanders, author of ‘Love Is The Killer App’ and when I’m listening to podcasts, what shines through is that the top people are either reading (or listening) to biographies and ‘how to’ books.
Suddenly, all that boring dead time while working out, folding the washing, being a taxi for teens or walking the dog is now a portable classroom.
Being very creative and highly visual, I get easily overwhelmed by lots of information. So I like to divide my activities into three main areas; mindset, marketing & money. There is a place for business skills too, but they usually fit under one of those three and if you don’t get those three right, you can have as many business skills as you like, but you still won’t succeed. Unless you are running a company FOR an entrepreneur.
3 Crucial Business Books To Ensure YOUR Business Survives This Recession
So here are my ‘3 Crucial Business Books’, carefully culled from a much longer list so don’t miss these, read / listen as soon as possible. One book in each of my three main areas. First up, Mindset!
I could have gone with another top favourite here, ‘The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ which was an absolute game-changer for me in my late 30’s but I’m going to assume you have read it already. No? Run, don’t walk to get that one.
Can I be blunt? You are never going to succeed in business unless you sort yourself out. If you have low self-esteem, you don’t believe that you are worthy of success, if you cringe when you talk about money, if you think sales is a dirty word, if you are carrying baggage and resentments, you are on a hiding to nothing. Might as well shut up shop now.
My really tippy top-notch favourite book on mindset is actually written by a close friend of mine, Andy Shaw.
I’ve watched him go from strength to strength personally, while people from all walks of life in over 150 countries in the world have had their lives changed by this, and its companion book ‘Using A Bug Free Mind’.
Not to mention that I’ve read both books twice now and it’s certainly changed my life – and my business – immeasurably.
While keeping your head straight is lifelong work, you’ll be wanting to test your big idea now (also known as your Irresistible Offer).
The ONLY way to really test an idea – and get an honest response – is by trying to sell it to someone. In less than 30 seconds ideally. This can be as simple as explaining it to your Nan, your best mate or someone in your business community.
If they don’t get it immediately you’ve got more work to do on your offer. But once you’ve cracked it, it’s time to set up a marketing funnel and a sales system, so you never miss a potential sale.
Marketing & Sales
‘Predictable Revenue‘: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices Of Salesforce.com’ by Aaron Hall
In order to make it in business, you need to know how both sales & marketing work. While great marketing is popularly thought to make sales redundant, you do need to know how to encourage people to make that buying decision (and how to make it easy for them).
This is the first book I came across that covers the two together, creating a simple, easy-to-follow system to set up both successfully in your business.
What to do, what not to do, what to do if you sell products versus services, how to sell high ticket versus low ticket, how to DIY and how to run a sales team and marketing department – it’s all there.
It’s also surprisingly fun to read, with Aaron sharing lots of anecdotes to illustrate his point.
If you’ve ever wondered how to write a short, brilliant, easy-to-follow business plan THEN actually follow it and track your progress regularly, look no further.
I absolutely love this book and use their Meeting Agenda with my Mastermind clients every quarter.
This is written in the format of a self-help book but if you prefer a story, then click through to ‘Traction’ and then look for ‘Get A Grip’ by Gino Wickman – an excellent follow-up to ‘Traction’ driving home the principles in ‘case study’ kind of format.
Again, combining solid practical ‘how to’ with templates and anecdotes from Gino’s own experience of working with many different types of business.
As I can’t leave any list without covering all three of the areas essential for business success, I’ve decided to give you a bonus book – all about how to handle the money in your business! I’d already been tracking my cashflows weekly – personal and business – and so it was just a matter of absorbing the principles and re-arranging the rows a bit.
Billed as “How to Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine” this book is a must for all small business owners. It is not right for bigger ambition fast-growth companies that don’t care about profit because they are aiming to attract Venture Capital. Unless they want a Plan B, which is not a bad thing in this day and age.
Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability.
Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales – Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren’t always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales – Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. Using Michalowicz’s Profit First system, readers will learn that:
· Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances.
· A small, profitable business can be worth much more than a large business surviving on its top line.
· Businesses that attain early and sustained profitability have a better shot at achieving long-term growth.
With dozens of case studies, practical, step-by-step advice, and his signature sense of humour, Michalowicz has the game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make the money they always dreamed of.
Why Did I Put The Books In This Order?
Because there is no point in writing a business plan unless you have your head on straight personally and you have an ‘irresistible offer’. Find out more about that here. Similarly, there is no point in learning how to manage the money until you have made some sales. I have over 52 years experience of business as an entrepreneur (yes, I started at just 8 years old!) and I’ve put this list together in the order I would have liked to get this info. Now, tell me…
Would You Like My Full List Of The ‘Top 10 Crucial Business Books To Ensure YOUR Business Survives This Recession’?
Just put your email address in the box below. Your email is safe with us and you can unsubscribe at any time.
I’m back in Shoreham-By-Sea, a lovely little town between Brighton and Worthing. What many people don’t know about Shoreham is that it’s not only got a great beach, often much quieter and cleaner than those of it’s neighbours, but it’s got a river. An estuary no less, which means it’s tidal and it’s never the same from one hour to the next. I thought I’d share some photos as I take them, where I’m hoping to get some crackers to put on my walls.
One of the people I’ve been privileged to work with over the years is the mega-successful entrepreneur Neil Asher. Here he shares an important message about how important it is to reward yourself when you achieve a goal and another crucial secret as a bonus.
Tomorrow morning at 9am I collect the keys for my new flat. At 9.30 the removal people bring my goods and chattels out of storage.
At 3pm I start a live online workshop with a US based instructor, Justin Brooke, that will last for 5 hours, on and off.
Why have I taken this madness on, you might ask yourself. I certainly have asked myself that question, over the last week.
The flat moving day could not be changed, the workshop is one I really want to attend. It’s live, and while the recordings will be available afterwards, due to editing time they can’t say when. I want the info now.
It was an irresistible offer, you see, made by someone who I know, like and trust. Someone from whom I’ve bought great training before. I had no hesitation.
My lack of hesitation was because it is teaching something that is just right for me in my business, right now, at the right price, in a great live format (you get to ask questions on the spot) and when I signed up the time of day was perfect.
Last month it would not have been an irresistible offer because I was still deliberating about what I wanted to do next. It may not have been right in a month or two either, because I might already have been going down a different road. But when I read the workshop info last Saturday (yes, Justin is a great copywriter but that’s not all of it) I knew it was the right offer for me right now.
So many marketing lessons to learn here.
This last bit alone reinforces the idea that you have to find a fun, effortless way to regularly keep in touch with your potential future customers – Justin wrote a blog post about the workshop on Facebook. He may have sent an email, he could have posted on LinkedIn, he could have Tweeted, or Instagrammed the info, but I saw his FB post.
I’ll recap the marketing lessons at the end of the post for your convenience.
So I’m going to cram it all in somehow. The chattels will arrive, I’ll do the minimum like make my bed, get the kitchen basics out to make tea and coffee and then I’ll sit down at my newly arrived dining room table and give the course 100% of my attention.
“What on earth can you possibly need to learn so urgently, Nicola” one of my business mentors asked me this morning when I told him what I was up to.
“It’s not so much that I don’t know the basic contents of the workshop, although I do expect a couple of good surprises. I’m just really interested to watch how he does it, and get his templates on how to set it all up. He’s also covering how to get new traffic to your offer using paid traffic too so that’s always valuable. I need some new prospects to my mailing list and blogging & podcasting builds relationships, it does not bring hordes of visitors. In fact, I expect that bit to pay for the course!” I replied.
I hate SEO keyword research! Actually, I hate any kind of research as you will learn as I continue the story of my recent travels.
Essentially, by signing up for a good training, that gives you recordings and resources and cuts your research time, you are signing up for a franchise! You don’t have to figure it all out yourself, step by step, and you get someone to ask your burning questions to.
Are you selling a product or service right now?
If so, what could you take from this story to improve your offer and make it irresistible?
Judith and I talk about how to create a compelling offer (and the sales pages to sell that) in Episode 86 of Own It! The Podcast so you may enjoy that.
1. Keep in regular touch with your potential future customers, find them where they are at different times of day. Share the info about your offer everywhere, more than once. One of my forthcoming workshops will be all about how to do that in just 30 minutes a week 😉
2. By offering something live, with immediate support, but recordings later, Justin nudged me to make a decision. I wanted the info right now, so signed up for the live workshop. I fully intend to participate fully, even though it’s moving day.
3. He explained the product simply but clearly enough that I grasped that it would solve my immediate problem (what to offer my prospects next) and save me time and work.
4. The price was very reasonable anyway but then he offered a ‘50% quick action takers discount’ which pushed me over.
5. That your offer should include resources that will save your customer time / money. In my case, Justin’s offering templates on the ‘how to’ and he’s also sharing his research on the keywords – a pearl beyond price for me.
I hope you enjoyed this insight on how to sell me stuff well and I look forward to seeing your offers!
Agios Nikolaos Harbour | 0930 hrs | Yes, the horizon’s squint but I’ve tried several times to fix it so…
I had just settled on my AirBnB sofa, with a glass of Cote Du Rhone (bit early for red, but I can’t be arsed to drive down the Valley) to watch Jeff Berwick & Lucy doing their latest walk’n’talk, when I suddenly got struck by The Muse AND Guilt at the same time. Painful.
Yes, lovely readers (and Chris D. from the other side of the world), just at that very moment I felt the urge to write a blog post. Chris was very nice to me on a webinar about my three latest blog posts, so I do feel encouraged. So I got up, brought my glass over to the little table in the corner and here I am.
The last three posts were monsters, creatively speaking, involving many words and pictures and I’m working up to my next one, all about what happened in Mexico and that’a a tale of disaster, adventure and delicious prawn tacos, so I’ll probably write that over the weekend.
I wasn’t going to write today, having wrassled myself into exhaustion with various new car documentation then government and utility websites regarding my new flat, into which I move on Wednesday. Amazing views, but I’ll save that till I’ve got pictures.
If you enjoy this blog, please consider forwarding the email or blog URL link to a friend. With social media censorship getting beyond draconian now, that’s the main way my readership grows. Or if you just got this forwarded from a friend you can subscribe to updates free here!
At one point, I thought I might have to give up and go to the pub in the village here, I was so incensed and discombobulated. When I confirmed my tenancy, I was offered the chance to set up my power with Scottish Power, who presumably are the current suppliers. They made me so hopping mad by offering me 100% green energy (with a suitable picture of a wind farm) at an inordinately outrageous price, that I nearly lost the plot. No option to choose cheaper not-so-green energy then?
Don’t you know who I am? Scottish Power particularly should know…
(In case you don’t, having missed that blog post or maybe I didn’t finish that blog post series) I’m the 22nd great-granddaughter of Robert The Bruce, the first King Of Scotland (left).
This means I’m also the granddaughter of all the Stuart Kings and, through Robert’s mother Margaret, granddaughter of Christian I, the first king of Denmark, Sweden and Finland (right). Now he was a looker!
Not that the Vikings are offering gas & electricity deals, more running headlong into the arms of the WEF at the moment.
I clicked SKIP in my fury, before realising that not ONE other energy company was going to offer me an account. Come to that, when I realised my error, going sheepishly back to the Scottish Power website, even they didn’t want to offer me a quote online.
Anyway, I’ll tell you the outcome of that one in another post, if you can bear the excitement. Today I wanted to make a start on what I’ve learned on each leg of my journey. My late partner Steve had several pithy sayings, one of which was ‘Every Day’s A School Day’ which somehow made one feel better about cocking up somehow. So here goes mine for Greece…
GREECE
I’m pretty much greek myself now, I’ve been there so many times. It really does feel like home now and I know so many people in Stoupa and the surrounding areas that it holds few terrors for me.
Bar the usual insects, of which I only encountered a few this trip. A large buzzy thing drove me out of the bedroom at the second accommodation, Stavros Apartments (highly recommended if you want something basic, clean, affordable, traditional and very near the beach). Lovely people too and Alexandra chased said buzzy thing out for me.
This was my view from my bedroom when I opened my shutters in the morning btw.
However, at my first place, I did run into an old adversary, a complete lack of both internet and mobile signal, so no data. While I was able to piggyback onto a local hotel (naughty) this stopped me in my tracks with regards to blogging so I just gave up on that, thinking that you have all seen all my photos and videos of Stoupa before. Suffice it to say it was as beautiful as ever.
So what did I learn while in Greece?
That I’m not so scared of the dark as I was, for sure.
That I’m feeling my age – my feet swelled up and even on the biggest settings of my Birkenstocks, I had to go barefoot for nearly two weeks until much water drinking brought them down again.
That you should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS break in new Birkenstocks before wearing them, the blisters added to my misery.
That people do remember you and if you were friends before, you are still friends. One barrelled up to me on my second night and with no chat preamble offered to lend me a car for a couple of months while they were in the UK. All I had to do was drive them to Kalamata Airport on their departure day.
That even people who are on the opposite side of opinion to you when it comes to Covid, are able to shelve their misgivings and we could spend time together without mentioning it. More to come on that topic another day.
That when you discover people who you never really knew before are 100% on the same page as you, on lots of different things, it opens up new friendships which can also shortcut a lot of the ‘getting to know you & your values’ time we usually spend with new people.
That I always want to form my own opinions about people, rather than relying on what other people say, as you never know both sides of a story if it’s third-hand.
So that’s me for tonight, I feel good for having done that and made a start on the ‘what I learned’ part of the process.
I was going to share another couple of gratuitous pictures of my favourite place in the world – having lunch at the very upmarket Stoupa Restaurant.
But the internet has stopped loading pictures from my Instagram so you’ll just have to go there to have a look! I’m back to Jeff, who looks at world events in a humorous way, so he never brings me down while keeping me up to date on World events.
Talk soon & I welcome your comments, questions and shares!
Nicola
p.s. Just got this forwarded from a friend? Send an email to subscribe to updates free here!
I’m afraid, dear reader, that I took the wimp’s way out and decamped to a special deal in a local 5* hotel. It had a great view of the Bitcoin Volcano too, the one that President Bukele is going to use for cheap energy for Bitcoin Mining.
I’m just too old and apparently not cut out for roughing it in hostels (even upmarket ones with lovely people) anymore.
While there, I had a real good think (while it rained and rained all afternoon and evening again) and decided to cut my losses, go to Mexico as originally planned and wait out the rainy season, coming back in November for the Lightning / Bitcoin Conference.
(If you enjoy my blog, please feel free to share it by forwarding it on to a friend. That’s the main method by which I grow my audience nowadays, with social media shadow-banning being rife since 2006. New round here? Subscribe to get updates free here!)
I was going to head straight for Puerto Escondido, down on the coast in Oaxaca State, which my son said was the best place he’d visited in his several weeks in Mexico (although that was by no means an exhaustive trip, he said he could have spent months traveling around Mexico alone).
This involved a layover in both Panama City and then Mexico City so I booked a bog standard 5* in Panama City as I wouldn’t have time to enjoy anything else, then for Mexico City, I booked a hotel as close to the centre as I had some time the next day to enjoy a bit of a wander. It looked very arty but still up market. I was using an app called Priceline to book flights and hotels with a bit of Booking.com mixed in.
I arrived in Panama City to find that they had booked my check-in luggage right through to Mexico. This was a bit of a disaster as all of my clothes and toiletries were in that suitcase, with only a packet of wet wipes and the bare minimum of contact lens-related stuff in my handbag. The carry-on bag I never check has all my computer & podcasting equipment in it, as I hate the thought of that getting thrown around!
Putting a VERY brave and cheerful face on now, I asked the lady at check in at the hotel if they had any emergency supplies or if there was a chemist open that late (it was about 9.30 pm by then) and luckily she did. A toothbrush kit, tiny deodorant and the usual shampoo, conditioner and shower gel supplies saw me through to the next day.
I made a small list of vital essentials to pack into my carry-on bag/handbag for emergencies in the future. Once burned, as they say.
Arriving in Mexico City, I got in an official airport taxi (more expensive but it’s got to be safer surely?) and he hurtled me through Mexican rush hour traffic to very near my destination. He threw me out at the end of a small square and pointed at my hotel.
Casa De La Luz.
While my suitcases had wheels they were not up to the potholed street I was confronted with, the pavement being full of people and small vendors selling street food. I spotted a bank at the end of the street and breathed a sigh of relief, as I had no Mexican pesos, which I would need in the future.
As soon as the doormen spotted me, obviously heading their way, they came and greeted me and whisked my luggage into the hotel, while I checked in.
Well, while I was greeted by a polite, perfect English-speaking young lady with a cold drink in hand. She could barely get any sense out of me, because my jaw had hit the floor at the sight of the lobby and I was having trouble winding it back up again.
Sitting in Reception
The front doors were huge, as was the doorman/security
The restoration of the house was amazing, with as much of the old stonework uncovered again as possible.
My bedroom looked out onto this lightwell with stunning semi-circular windows and glass with many patterns – you can see that in the video below.
This hotel was AMAZING! Jaw dropping. Beautiful. Comfortable. Luxurious. Historic. Words fail me so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
When Jesus and I got to my room (yes, you read that right, the bellhop was called Jesus, pronounced HayZoos) via a very modern lift I was glad to see, the stairs looking very daunting, I was even more blown away. We are talking a top end boutique hotel but in a really ancient building which turned out to be the original house of Hernán (also known as Hernando) Cortés.
Here’s a short video walk around my bedroom!
The walk-in shower was the biggest I have seen yet, and I thought the one in the Dominican Republic was spacious.
Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador, or conqueror, who is best remembered for conquering the Aztec Empire in 1521 and claiming Mexico for Spain. He also helped colonize Cuba and became a governor of New Spain, a vast area that included large parts of North, Central and South America, as well as several Pacific island archipelagos. “Like many explorers we know about today, Hernán (also known as Hernando) Cortés’s role in the Age of Exploration was influential but controversial,” said Erika Cosme “He was a smart, ambitious man who wanted to appropriate new land for the Spanish crown, convert Native inhabitants to Catholicism and plunder the lands for gold and riches.”
There was a restaurant and bar in the hotel, I was glad to note, and I was offered a complementary cocktail. I was glad about that as when I’d mentioned going to the corner to get some cash, one of the doormen cum security guards said he’d come with me. My ideas of having a wander tomorrow were fading fast.
So after freshening up, taking & uploading many photos of my room, the stairs, the bathroom etc., I headed up to the bar with my complementary drinks card (in a cute little envelope – it’s the small things that make the difference!) and there I was blown away again.
It was raining again (obviously a bit of rainy season in Mexico City too) but there were covered walkways to the bar and when I got in there, not only was I blown away all over again, but I went on to have my most fun evening since leaving Greece.
Semi-open air, the staff were all very lively and did a great job of looking like they loved their jobs. Quiet at first, the place filled up gradually and it was obviously a ‘destination’ venue, with young couples and families celebrating special events.
I ordered a margarita which was one of the most lovely I’ve seen, before becoming aware that this was NOT my complementary cocktail.
Darn it, I’ll just have to try that now. This involved some theatre with the lighting of the rosemary twig and the wafting of the smoke towards me so I could inhale the aroma while drinking my cocktail, which looked like beetroot juice and champagne.
I’m a sucker for this stuff!
There was also lady who was hand-rolling taco shells to order. When my complementary taco arrived, my waiter insisted in pulling a trolley over and then grinding & mixing my ‘special sauce’ to my very own taste!
However, it made me very sad that all the servers had to wear tight-fitting black masks the whole time. I wondered if it was just this hotel and asked the waiter. He said everyone in hospitality had to wear them still, which is madness as they are proven to do no good, in fact to harm the wearer and even the corrupt CDC have dropped all mandates on wearing them, globally.
For dinner, I had an octopus ceviche taco (below) for a starter which was fresh and delicious with lime and heat, followed by some spice-rubbed short ribs and a side salad.
Wine was a Mexican red, which was initially unusual and ultimately delicious. I loved it that all the wines were Mexican and I’ll certainly seek that out back home.
Then I rolled off to bed, happy and positive, looking forward to sleeping in that amazing bed, in that amazing room.
All was well, in my world.
For now…
I’ll fill you in on the rest of my adventure tomorrow!
(If you enjoy my blog, please feel free to share it by forwarding it on to a friend. That’s the main method by which I grow my audience nowadays, with social media shadow-banning being rife nowadays)
Till tomorrow!
Nicola
p.s. Just got this forwarded from a friend? Subscribe to updates free by sending an email here!
This second part of the trip was a bit of an all-around disaster to be honest, and I have only myself to blame.
(If you missed Part 1 of this blog post series, check it out here)
I totally ignored the main reason I’d originally decided to go to Mexico first, then to El Salvador for the Lightning Bitcoin Conference in November.My reasoning was that, as El Salvador was where I really wanted to be, why not go there first, and then go onto Mexico (in time for the whale migration in January).
I somehow totally managed to forget that the main reason I’d planned it the other way around, was because of August to October being the RAINY SEASON in El Salvador.Which I duly arrived smack bang right in the middle of!
What was I thinking? How had I forgotten something so important?
Perhaps it was the unexpected and last-minute trip to the Dominican Republic that had scrambled my thought processes.
Perhaps it was the excitement of being around all those Bitcoiners at Tone’s Financial Summit?
Whatever happened to my (admittedly sketchy) plans and thought processes, I chucked it all up in the air and booked a flight from DR to El Salvador, via Panama City at the end of the Summit.I even met a lovely professor on the plane, who lived there and approved of my choice of first location.I told him all about Bitcoin and we swapped email addresses.
I was further lulled into a false sense of security as I arrived in El Salvador, as the sun was shining and my friendly taxi driver practised his English on me.Did I want a coconut drink? Lots of vendors by the side of the road smiling at the airport taxis as they sped past.
A lush, green countryside could be seen, dotted with fairly poor communities made of corrugated iron painted bright but fading colors.People stood under the shade of bridges over the road, presumably to wait for a local ‘chicken bus’ as they are called.It reminded me of some parts of the Caribbean I’ve visited.
The sun was still shining as we drove into the centre of San Salvador, the capital city, and then into the San Benito residential area, which I’d been assured by my guides was the best part of the city to stay.I was a bit disconcerted to find a residential suburb, not the bustling inner city area I’d been expecting.Lots of trees, nice houses behind high walls, but no shops, restaurants and definitely nobody walking around.
Why was I even contemplating staying in a city, you might ask?I am not massively keen on cities mostly (for more than a night or two anyway).Except for London, where I lived in my twenties and thirties, for fifteen years, so it feels much friendlier to me than most people experience.
Because I was working with a local Guide, Diego and on our two hour Zoom call, he’d recommended staying in San Benito initially, as I was really looking for somewhere to live, potentially for the next few years.I knew there was a beach resort called El Zonte about half an hour from the city, but I also knew it was very rustic there indeed.The city seemed like a better option initially, with regards to choices in places to stay, events to go to, Bitcoin people to meet.
Why was I looking for somewhere else to live, away from the UK?
I couldn’t go back to Greece as the ’90 days in every 180’ rules had kicked in post-Brexit.I tried but failed to get residency while out there, there being only one option left, the Digital Nomad Visa, which had to be applied for from the UK.
However, there are strong signs that Europe is falling into a deeper and deeper authoritarian rule, with the so=called Leaders looking like they are going to impose more mask mandates and lockdowns, possibly even forced experimental injection rules on it’s member countries.
I know a huge financial cataclysm is coming, as part of the Dollar collapsing as the World Reserve Currency (as set out by many eminent macroeconomic experts and explained so brilliantly in Mike Malone’s “Hidden Secrets Of Money” videos on YouTube).I know that the World Economic Forum are now trying, after having trained and placed ‘Global Young Leaders’ in most western Governments, to finally implement their ‘Great Reset’ also known as the ‘4th Industrial Revolution”. This is no theory, it’s laid out on their own website and we hear it talked about openly by everyone from Prince Charles and Boris Johnson, various unelected Euro politicians, to Justin Trudeau, the increasingly erratic Biden, Jacinda Ahern and the rapidly becoming monster Premiers in Australia.
That means lots of things most ordinary people don’t want, such as more control of the ‘useless eaters’ as they call us, via AI and face recognition surveillance and a Chinese style social credit system.Leading to less food, less energy, less healthcare, less travel, less anything that makes life fun and worth living.Not to mention more man-made disasters, engineered pandemics and more dodgy mRNA so-called vaccines, possible even forcing the latter on people, using the social credit system and our own money, via CBDC’s to coerce us to comply.
Having been in the UK unexpectedly for the two years previously, my mental health suffered in spite of a couple of re-readings of my mate Andy’s “Bug Free Mind” books, so I wanted to find somewhere to live where further restrictions, mask mandates and lockdowns were unlikely, come Autumn.I didn’t want to go too far, so that meant Central and South America.Poorer but self-sufficient countries who are not under the thumb of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) who can enforce compliance with the WEF and CDC ‘mandates’ because of enormous debt owed to the IMF.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele had said several times publicly, that he would not enforce lockdowns or so-called ‘vaccine’ mandates.The jab was there for those who wanted it but not enforced. The Mexican president Andrés Obrador has also never subscribed to the lockdown & jab mandates, according to several people I know that live there.The latter is coming up for an election soon so will, no doubt, be replaced by a World Economic Forum puppet, but for now, all is well.
i also wanted to find somewhere warm (so that the inevitable massive energy price hikes would not be so punishing) and cheap to live, with a beach ideally, and affordable great fresh food, as I wanted to save as much of my hard earned cash (and my brother’s inheritance) as possible.Nowinvested in ‘real money’ not dodgy fiat currency, so that when the inevitable dollar currency collapse comes, I’d be set up for life.Set up and able to help my friends and family, who will by then, need some help, being oblivious to my warnings of what is to come.
On another note, on my ‘bucket list’, I have always wanted to see the mother & baby whale migration up the Pacific coast to Alaska and beyond and both El Salvador and Mexico have an active whale watching scientific community and boat trips.
So, as I’d now got it into my head that El Salvador would be cheaper to live in, rather than a beach resort in Mexico, I set off there first.
El Salvador
El Salvador is the home of Bitcoin – it’s legal tender all over the country – and Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert love it. They visit regularly and are even becoming residents, if not citizens.Something the President vows to make much easier, as he’s hoping to attract business and financial talent from around the globe.Following the recent massive gang arrests, there are many new tourists visiting and adventurous people moving there apparently.
But I got off to a very bad start when I couldn’t find the entrance to my AirBnB, in spite of extensive instructions from my host (who was on holiday in Europe).It was in a gated community and the fact that a gated community was even necessary, with such extensive security that we couldn’t find out way in, spooked me a bit.
Now what I should have done next was look up the nearest 4* or 5* hotel, to book into for a few days to think my next moves over in luxury. In fact, I would recommend that to everyone travelling as the whole process is tiring and fraught with sub-conscious fears and you need a period after arriving somewhere to acclimatize, get the lay of the land and catch up on your sleep.
But I was trying to travel fairly frugally, beyond my longest flights, so while a hotel occurred to me, I did have another option.
Eventually, I asked the taxi driver to take me to an upmarket hostel nearby, recommended by my local guide.They were wonderful, taking me in and finding me a full room with bathroom and mini kitchen.It was at the top of the house, but Brian seized my two suitcases and hauled them up there.I sank gratefully onto the brown leather sofa and turned on the air-conditioning.
It was spotlessly clean but the whole room was clad in dark wood and tiles and definitely sloped downwards from one side to the other.Dark wood is not great for spotting insects approaching. (Did I mention I have a spider phobia?Even typing the word makes me feel a bit sick).It was bright, having windows on three sides, but looked over a four-lane highway at the front and a large 5g tower at the back.
I went downstairs and sat in the communal dining room, overlooking a cute little outside courtyard and wondered where I could get some lunch. Brian helpfully told me that the nearest restaurants were either up or down the hill a bit.Might as well have been on Mars.Even an umbrella wouldn’t cut it in that rain.
Then the light changed to a strange yellowish hue and the rain started.O my, what rain!
Being at the top of the hostel, I was right under the roof which sounded like it was corrugated iron.It was LOUD.It was the kind of rain that I’d only seen in Greece once or twice, where the heavens open and a lot of water falls out of the sky, and I mean a LOT.The kind of rain that flattens plants and people alike.The kind of rain you need to avoid being out in, at all costs.
I went back upstairs to wait for the rain to stop and fell asleep.
Several hours later the rain stopped.It was early evening now and I was very hungry.I’d had no breakfast, there was nothing on the plane from Panama City to El Salvador and I’d been too busy since then, finding somewhere to sleep.
I ventured downstairs again and n very halting and broken Spanish (I’d been learning on DuoLingo for weeks now but it was still woefully inadequate) I enquired about food deliveries.After several attempts to get the local equivalent of Deliveroo going on my mobile, the young lady behind the desk told me to walk down the hill and I would find a couple of places to eat.There was nobody about but I bravely walked purposefully down the road, dodging cars and puddles.
I found a Pizza Hut and gratefully sank into a booth to order, by pointing to my smiling waitress, a pizza and Heineken.Never have I been happier to eat a simple pizza and drink a simple beer.You always feel much better after a sleep and some food.
The rain had started again but it was only spitting so far, so I put up my tiny umbrella and walked up the hill again, watching out for potential gangsters and kidnappers.I have never been more aware of my rather unfit, 60 year old state, but I figured I must look poor enough to ignore.
Very breathless, I arrived back at the hostel and climbed back up to my room.The rain got harder again and continued all night.
Loudly.
The next morning, the ever-helpful Brian knocked on my door and asked, did I want breakfast as it was included in my room rate.
I ventured downstairs to find some really friendly locals cooking up a storm in the kitchen and I ordered a traditional breakfast; scrambled eggs with onions & peppers, lumps of cheese, refried beans and fried plantain (yuk!), orange juice and a very weak milky coffee.
Double yuk on the plantain and milky coffee.The juice, eggs and beans were nice though.
I went back upstairs and talked to Diego, arranging to go to a Bitcoin meeting the next evening and have a little tour of the City.
I talked to my daughter who was enjoying hearing about my adventures. She said “You got this Ma!” but I was rather afraid that I did not!
I talked to my son who had just come back from Mexico and various other Central/South American countries and who had a blast. However, he was 24 and travelling with another guy as tall and tough looking as him.
The problem was, the longer I sat on the brown leather sofa trying to be brave, the less I wanted to be there.
Should I go to El Zonte (the beach area where Bitcoin adoption started) next?
Should I stay in the City and tough it out?
Was I justified in finding everything threatening and scary? Was the barbed wire everywhere really necessary?
Was I just too old to be doing this? Had I morphed into a permanent 5* kinda gal?
Eventually, I reached a decision just as it started to rain again.
Hard.
What do you think I chose, dear reader?What would you have done?
P.S. If you enjoy my blog please feel free to share my latest post with a friend, that’s the main way I grow my audience. If you have just received a link from a friend, you can subscribe free by sending an email here!
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
The person I think of as my Dad, Alexander “Sandy” Cairncross, has a well-documented family tree – they even have their own website. The earliest Cairncross’s go back to 1200 and were at the court of David I, King of Scots (1124-1153). There was a Castle, Glendearg, but it’s in ruins now.
Mum had been an up-and-coming dancer and singer in local then national Repertory Theatre and had even made it to the West End. She was in the Yul Brynner version of ‘The King & I’ in which I’m pretty sure she played ‘Little Eva’. She’s also danced in the ‘Dolly Birds’, a forerunner of Pan’s People, who I think danced on Lionel Blair’s show when UK TV first started. He wasn’t very happy when I told him that, when I met him much later in life! I think it made him feel old.
My birth father, Thomas Clark Cochrane McKenzie, was the Navigation Officer, also known as the First Officer or Chief Officer on the Ben Line Merchant Navy. My mother was on board to recuperate following an illness, as spouses of officers were occasionally allowed to accompany them on trips. There is much more to this story that I have time to go into here but I’ll write it up one day. Essentially she had electric shock treatment after post-natal depression with my sister Heather, and that led to her first episode of poor mental health.
There’s a Mary B. W. McKenzie listed in the 1966 Census as living at 217A Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh. The initials make me think this is her as does the fact that I would have been able to visit this one. Google street view chimes with my memories of the buildings too.
Rebekah’s father, John Falconer (b. 1727) although of interesting ancestry if you go far enough back, married Marjory Kaenock, who had another intriguing name (spelled many different ways) and she’s the more interesting leg of the family here. The Census hadn’t started in Scotland by then, so I’m assuming that everyone from here on in were landowners.
Sir James Thomas, 7th of Mey & 4th Baronet Sinclair’s father was the 3rd Baronet of Mey, Sir James Richard (b. 1655), who married Dame Margaret, Lady Duffus Mackenzie (so there was more Mackenzie blood that far back!).
The Seaforths created the MacKenzie tartan and commanded an imposing force of men. To the right you’ll see what looks like a 14-year-old but is actually William Dubh Mackenzie, the 5th Earl and 2nd Jacobite Marquis of Seaforth.
Phew, let’s take a breather.
Now we are on a roll with the Royals. James V’s father was James IV (Stewart) King of Scotland (b. 1473) and he married Margaret Tudor, Queen Of Scotland (b. 1489) – that’s her on the left.
Robert II’s parents were Walter Stewart b. 1296) 6th High Steward of Scotland and Marjorie Bruce (b. 1300)
I sat back and googled Robert The Bruce on Google Images, only to find he looked nothing like Mel Gibson. I’d never seen Braveheart but always assumed it was about Robert de Bruce. He looked more like the King Of The Dwarves in Lord Of The Rings.
I’d taken a bit of a kicking emotionally during lockdown. I absolutely cannot bear unfairness or injustice of any kind. Things that are illogical drive me mad, so you can imagine how I was struggling with all the nonsense rules being inflicted on us. Being made to walk a certain way in pubs or stand 2 metres apart. None of this had any roots in science, they were just making it up and people were going along with it!
I’m on a quest to track down the various branches of my family tree and then write it up in a format – perhaps a picture book – that my kids can show their kids!
So I dashed off an email to Chris, with all the usual chitchat, asking if he knew how the photo of Overington’s had come to be used in the Tesco’s foyer, and if he knew where I could get a copy.
Winifred was born in 1892 in Athlington, Suffolk. Her father, Frederick, was 35, and her mother, Eliza Hawes, nee Whatling, from Hoxne in Suffolk, was 37. Winifred was 19 and single in the 1911 Census, listed as living at Fur House, Athelington, Eye, Suffolk, with her father, mother and sister Emily who was 26. Frederick was listed as a farmer so the name Fur House is interesting.
But when I looked into Winifred’s father, Frederick Hawes, born in 1857 in Athelington, Suffolk, it got a bit more confusing.
Lady Cecilia had been born in 1457 in Sharrington, Norfolk, England, just next door to the county of Suffolk, where my grandmother had been born.
I had an idea that my grand-dad, Ronald Lish, had lived around Sussex most of his life and that Amelia’s family had come from Suffolk. She came to Worthing to work in service in a big house locally and met Ronald on the seafront one Sunday. She told me frankly that “…I knew he wasn’t a looker but he was very, very kind” and she just knew he’d look after her. We have a beautiful 
pic of their wedding day which I must dig out.
None of this was very helpful to my genealogy search, but it was stirring it all up in my mind, one day the nugget dropped into my brain that Amelia’s mother’s name was Winifred. But what was her maiden name? I ordered the marriage certificate that Ancestry found for me and sat back to wait for more info.
Business owners are more beleaguered than ever. From lockdowns to double-digit inflation on things you need to buy, to astronomic energy bills, the obstacles to business success are growing larger by the day.
I could have gone with another top favourite here, ‘The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ which was an absolute game-changer for me in my late 30’s but I’m going to assume you have read it already. No? Run, don’t walk to get that one.
‘Predictable Revenue
‘
Bonus Book: “
Tomorrow morning at 9am I collect the keys for my new flat. At 9.30 the removal people bring my goods and chattels out of storage.
(In case you don’t, having missed that blog post or maybe I didn’t finish that blog post series) I’m the 22nd great-granddaughter of Robert The Bruce, the first King Of Scotland (left).
I’m pretty much greek myself now, I’ve been there so many times. It really does feel like home now and I know so many people in Stoupa and the surrounding areas that it holds few terrors for me.
So that’s me for tonight, I feel good for having done that and made a start on the ‘what I learned’ part of the process.
