A Calm, Quiet Place

Walosi

Walosi

Joined
Jan 10, 2001
Messages
2,618
Once in a while, after some stuff has hit my fan, I need a place of peace and quiet, just to sit and clean off my fan blades. Dsn't make me sane again, but it does tend to even me out. This is my favorite - the island of my English ancestors. Dave Parker, the site owner, is quite a guy. I've known him in web terms for about two years. He is the stand-out version of the modern Englishman - father, family man, prize photographer, meteorologist and enhusiastic about English gardens, railroads and busses. Pretty much my opposite :) If you are interested in England (not the tourist version) take a look at his sites. There are literally hundreds of photographs on all of the above subjects, and more. Do it on a slow weekend. The total is huge. Dave asked me to reassure him that our media had really given time to show how strongly the English public is behind us, and how much they share our grief. I have done so, as well as thnk im for allowing me to sit on his park bench, cool down, and watch the sea tides go by.

http://www.invectis.co.uk/iow/

Try it - it is a good journey.
 
With all due respect to my father Wal, I must claim that it is my belief that my ancestory comes from Ireland and not the Isle of Wight :D . After spending my entire lifetime thinking I was of Irish/Cherokee heritage, Wal sprung on me a year ago that he had found the family was really from "English" territory... I think what really happend was his meds got to him and he made a wrong turn on the net while researching the family tree... :) .

I intent to take another look at the family here shortly to see if in fact Wal did make a wrong turn (you should never research your family while medicated) and ended up in the wrong spot. If they did in fact come from IOW, I'll be content to just live the rest of my life believing what I want to... denial is such a happy place :D:D:D

Alan
------
Clan Cian-Carroll


BTW... the IOW site is really a gorgeous trip!
 
This is a very fine gift, Walosi. I only just now had a minute to visit but have already learned that the isle is the birthplace of canned beer. I'm going for a more extended visit in the wee small hours tonite.
 
You buy their books. You send them to school. And all they do is chew on the books. James Carroll arrived in Isle of Wight County, Va., in 1640, along with others recruited on IOW by companies. There is no record of him on IOW previously (there aren't many records of commoners prior to the "Domesday Book", a tax roll). There is no record of him leaving the IOW (ship's manifests, etc.). I think he probably had someone after him (not uncommon in our family) and swam away from the Isle. At night. That might make him Irish ;)
 
Mochiman:

Here is another good pictorial site on the IOW. Go to their Pub Page, and you will wonder how they ever got their hands on enough beer to do the canning experiments :D

What does this have to do with Khukuris? SIMPLE - It gots BEER in it :rolleyes:

http://home.clara.net/groover/index2.html
 
Hey, everybody could be right.

I grew up thinking part of my family was from Wales. Then I discovered that part of Isle of Sky was linked to clan Mc Donald of Slead, another part to McCleod of Lewis, and my father was named Donald Lewis Slate ( the english spelling for Slead ) and actually traced our ancestry back to the Caskeys of Balleymoney, ten miles inland from Bushmills on the Protestant Irish North coast. It turns out that the Irish Caskeys are a sept of McCleod of Lewis which began with one of the last Norse Kings of the Isle of Mann, who gave his two sons part of Sky and the Isles of Lewis and Harris. On the other hand, the bulk of the Slates nowadays reside in a cluster near Manchester in England proper. And my sponsee, Orange Irish to the core, traces his clan to the Scottish Lowlands of Glasgow.
 
Rusty:

That is sort of where our family history lie at this point - With absoutely no record of residence or land ownership on IOW, and knowing that those recruited for the plantation-building companies were "men of substance" our James had to at least be known to the company founders. Possibly a Jacobean fugitive from the troubles in Scotland, since the line has (it seems) always been Protestant. OTOH, my granmother used to be fond of saying "Irishmen are EVERYWHERE". ¿Quien sabe?
 
Wal, what sites have you used to trace your family history? I'd kinda like to find out more about my family's history, but haven't been able to trace anything solid back past the last hundred or so years. The only other thing I know is that part of my family were Polish aristocracy, and the other part were Irish fisherman. :D Strange combination, but I ended up being real good at eating potatoes and drinking. ;)
 
Matt:

Start with a search for "Cyndi's Genealogy Sites". She has several, including some by state, and areas of Europe and other parts of the world. My "luck" came when I met (on the web) a previously unknown cousin who referred me back to my dad's first cousin (who I had met, my senior year in HS) whom she introduced as the ultimate family historian. These things take strange little loops. At the point I learned I had been looking too far afield, I had been surfing around the sites nearly a year. Lots of fun, but if you don't gather as much personal information as possible before you start, it is just surfing. Stick with the free sites - the "hired" searchers can be expensive and have more than their share of phoneys. As one lady said, she paid a researcher $500 to dig up her family history, and then paid $2,000 to have it covered up again. Have fun.
 
I get stalled in an orphanage in Italy and the woods of North Carolina where Jones married with Stampers (Cherokees).

And thanks for AM chuckle, Wal. I can use all I can get these days.
 
What makes research on families from Wales is they followed the Norse custom of taking the father's christian name Jane, born to ( father ) William, would be known as Jane Williamsdattir and her brother John would be know as John Williamson.

This aroused the ire of the English tax collectors, and the Welch were ordered to take a family surname. Most families took either Smith or Jones/Johnson, whether or not there was a smith or a John within the family memory. As long as it confused the tax collector, they were happy.
 
...for those of you who don't get to see this comic strip is a cartoon viking raider with more or less modern family, home and "business" problems. The tax collectors are hooded thugs, one carrying a large sack, and the other a double-bitted battle axe. These guys aren't too far off the mark for tax collectors in the era Rusty talks about. They travelled in gangs, complete with chains to haul off anyone who couldn't ante up, or who argued with the set rates. Welsh and Cornish kings were the protectors as well as collectors, and even the gentler rulers were stern. The common folk, rather than go into rebellion, had their own "games" they played with the collectors and the tax rolls. In some areas this resulted in raised rates. In others it was "raised peasants" - on a rope. The "raised rates" areas actually amounted to a two or three year payment plan in which some were allowed to play the game, but at the end of the period had to come up with the current taxes or wind up a few inches taller. The "Domesday Book" was intended to put an end to the games, hence the popular name for the tax rolls.
 
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