There was a dog in church again yesterday - this time it was a guide dog, so legitimately a member of the congregation. Its presence raises an interesting theological question: when I received communion Jess (niece) came to the altar rail for blessing; as the dog also goes up to the altar rail should s/he too receive a blessing? We are all God's creatures.

On Friday I did the first of three talks in the village hall about Family History Research. This one was concerned with all the evidence you have of your family in your own home. The small group covered a wide age range 14 to 80. Some of the things one says about asking the older family members about their memories would seem not to apply with the older members of the group, but one of the oldest is going to consult his 94 year old uncle!

Joe has really got the bug, and - thanks to the web, not to mention Liz's enhanced access to family history records - has got back to a great-great-great-great-grandmother on his father's side, which is only five generations and just over 200 years short of what we know on my side. All this since he started on Thursday! Of course, it does help to have all three surviving grandparents in walking distance, not to mention me.

Saturday would have been Nan's 111th birthday. She helped me draw up my first family tree when I was 6: I wonder if she had any idea what she was starting?
NanNan1Nan2
Nan was not a lady who liked being photographed. The first of these (from the 1940s?) is very typically Nan, the next is her wedding portrait, and the last is one of the last pictures we have of her.

By extraordinary coincidence, a very, very distant cousin (seventh cousin twice removed), who is researching Cleethorpes fishing families, rang up this evening and has subsequently e-mailed a whole load of information.

It then gets even odder. Given just one new placename - Eskham near Marshchapel - and I find that my great-great-great-grandmother, Ann Coulbeck nee Pennell, is the sister of Liz's great-great-great-grandfather, William Blythe Pennell. We have both been researching our family trees (and swapping notes) since we were children, and have never spotted this link, although these particular ancestors have been sitting on our respective neatly tabulated family trees for more than a quarter of a century! So we are now officially fifth cousins, after a lifetime of being best friends.