Reflections - An interview with SPVR

Comments

Genealogy Series: Betsy (or Elizabeth) Esplin Bell (1858-1930).

Betsy (or Elizabeth) Esplin Bell (1858-1930). She had a long criminal record driven by her addiction to drink, but was she her husband’s victim? by Stewart Stevenson. Betsy was born on 26 th January 1858 in Dundee to David Bell, a carpenter, and his wife, Agnes Sandeman. i Father registered the birth, but is recorded as “Not Present”. George T Bisset-Smith, the Registration Examiner, published his book “Vital Registration”, the manual for Scottish Registrars in 1907. ii In it he states that a “liberal interpretation” should be given to the word “Present” in this context but also states that “Not Present” must not be used. I suspect that leaves most genealogists, me included, little the wiser as to what “Present” was actually supposed to mean. So let’s pass on to the story. Betsy’s parents married in 1856, iii with her mother Agnes making her mark, an ”X”, rather than signing the registration record, indicating that she was illiterate. Her husband David signed. ...

29th Day

As I enter my fifth week of social isolation, today is my 29th day, and I am somewhat surprised to find that rather than being bored by it all, I find myself stimulated by the opportunity that time creates. I have certainly found myself more directly engaged in the day to day challenges faced by others as the lockdown continues through the increased constituency workload. And neighbours in the immediate vicinity of where I stay, are now people with whom I am at least on nodding terms with. Getting out of the car and onto my feet has had some social benefit as well as benefitting my health. In Edinburgh, I would have found myself having a degree of social interaction during my 12-minute walk to and from Parliament. But substantially less than in the now 80 minutes or so of my daily walk. I suppose that in part, that is because people in the country that I meet are not rushing to be somewhere. They are already where they need, and want, to be. By contrast, in the city one ma...

101 Primer for being video-online: Part 2 - Presentation

Yesterday I wrote about preparing to go "on-air". Today, it's Lights, Camera, Action. In a professional TV studio, an illuminated sign "On-Air" will switch on above the door to warn people to keep quiet and be aware that cameras are broadcasting. Many things happen behind the camera that the public does not see. I have sat in the corner of the BBC's Reporting Scotland studio playing pontoon with some of the stage-hands while Sally Magnusson read the news. And rescued a cameraman who, in his enthusiasm to obey the producer's instruction to reposition his camera, got his leg tangled in the cables, tripped and fell forward with the camera a mere six feet in front of Kirsty Wark who was speaking to an adjacent camera. I saw it coming and had dashed forward and caught him, and his camera, just before he hit the floor. Risks in a home studio are less extensive and more banal. For example, The First Minister's daily press briefing yester...

Search This Blog