RootsChat.Com

I've bitten the bullet and been persuaded by the 21% discount for the Premium subscription to FindMyPast.  I used the link on the Lostcousins website so I hope Pete gets some commission.   I got some extra Army Papers of James Cathcart but still much is not available ... he still disappears after the 1881 Census.
But, all my other brick walls are still just that.
 FindMyPast turns up NIL results even on people who are readily found on Norfolk Parish Records and Lancashire BMD and OPC sites and Familysearch ( FREE).
I find it difficult to understand why a Search Function does not give the options for any related information to be added, such as siblings, employment, variety of places of residence.
But, I will persevere, after all will have £157 less to spend on Egg Toast with Melted Cheese, Strips of Bacon plus Double helpings of Maple Syrup to which I was in danger of becoming addicted, so, back tae auld claes an' purridge.
cheers, Ian

I had the pleasure of knowing Sidney Devine through his ownership of the Harbour Lights Pub in Irvine and his hotel at Alloway, by Ayr,  near his home.
I supplied catering and bar equipment for both enterprises for Sidney and Shirley and the Harbour Lights was a total revamp from old harbour workers pub to an upmarket joint with higher class food on offer.
My then business partner David Blair and I were sitting in the hotel one day discussing supplying glasswashers for the bar and opposite us at a table for two was a young couple who had just been served their meal. Shirley nudged me and nodded towards Sidney so I turned and saw him carefully watching the interaction of the waitress and the young couple.   As soon as the waitress disappeared into the kitchen he nipped across to the table and asked if the waitress had offered them sauces and other condiments.  They replied not and Sidney dived into the kitchen returning with a tray full of sauces, vinegar and mustard etc!  He was nitpickingly fastidious that people deserved the best service possible. 
I had installed a stock control cash register at both establishments and one Saturday night my wife and her sisters and their pals (all nurses) were all having a supper and drinks at our house when the phone rang at 11:45pm.
It was Sidney; " Ian, Help! the cash register has jammed and we're full to bursting, can you come over?"   He was a hard man to say No to so I went over to Irvine toute suite.   There was a crowd outside drinking and dancing and inside a band was playing loudly ... the cash register jammed because it had too much money stuffed under the spring clips and they prevented the drawer from opening ... problem solved with a carving knife from the kitchen and the party continued.
The determination in the man wasn't just in his music business, he was just driven to be as good as you can be at everything you do.
In conversation I mentioned the artificially lowered rail bridge at Bellside and its unnecessary roundabout ( my own belief was that they had raised the road surface to lessen the gap between road and bridge to force South bound lorries to use the new M74 link to the north and spare Airdrie from all that heavy traffic) and Sidney told me he came from Cleland.
The same group of nurses and I had a night out at the Ayr Gaiety Theatre to watch Sidney and they were over the moon when the second half of the show saw Sidney bound onto the stage in a white cowboy outfit with sparkling stars and sequins and from then on it was Country & Western, including 'Blackboard'.
Sad to know he's passed, he was a 'Legend in his Time'
cheers, Ian

here's a link via twitter to Amazon and linked to the supply of FREE Open University KINDLE editions.

https://twitter.com/UnchartedWorlds/status/1425448915411800065?s=09

You have to sign in to Amazon and give your email address and then peruse the list of Kindle ebooks and click on the Buy Now and it will be added to your Cloud store for reading by the Kindle App or your Kindle.
I clicked on more than 50, It'll take me a few years to read them all though, cheers, Ian

Does anyone have access to newspapers or coroner's report of 1843/44?  My 4GGrandfather James Dickinson of Bolton-Le-Sands died on the sands in March 1843 yet his body washed up in May 1844.  His wife Ann (Newsom) had died in 1840 aged just 44.  Was it accidental or suicide?
 
One of his daughters was my 3rd Great Grandmother, Jane Dickinson (b 1832) who married John Cathcart in Preston in 1853.

If you can point me in the direction of where to find some more details I would be grateful, regards, Ian.

Dublin 1848 to 1858. I'm searching for William Cathcart, Slater, Gardener, Farmer but

allegedly deceased by 1853.   He was father to John Cathcart ( House Servant) born

Ireland 1828, who married Ann Bowles in Dublin 1848 and moved to Preston, Lancashire

where she died in 1850.  John re-married in Preston in 1853 to Jane Dickinson of

Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire.
Ann Bowles father was William Bowles, age and Place of Birth unknown. Catherine

Bowles, 28 Upper Merrion Street, married Robert Wilson, a Butler, 16 Upper Fitzwilliam

St, his father John Wilson was a Farmer. They married in 1858 in Dublin and her father

 William Bowles was once a Steward now a Mercantile Clerk.
There may be a connection to the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Wedding witnesses were Sabbeth Needham and William Griegstian in 1848.
John & Anne's address was given as 42 LR Dominick Street.  1858 Witnesses were George

Dorans and Mary Ivers or Ivens. I would be grateful for any extra information,

thanks, Ian