Reflections - An interview with SPVR

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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. ...

Life Behind the Gate

For the first time in many years, the gate into our house is shut. Not to keep us in but to keep others out. I will shortly be going out to put a table in place for delivery drivers to leave parcels. And attaching a few helpful instructions on the other side of the gate. Last night's statement from Nicola and the legislation that is coming shortly from Westminster and Holyrood will create a framework designed to protect us all. Our role as more vulnerable oldsters, whose bodily systems are gently declining as we age, is to protect ourselves from becoming a burden on our health service, our social services. People with serious conditions, whose immune systems are relatively ineffective for whatever reason, sick babies, need to able to get to the front of the queue without people like us who can take action to avoid, or at least postpone catching the bug, getting in the way. Reports coming to me from elsewhere suggest that there is still a minority who may need something a...

Numbers

The exercise regime continues. Yesterday's walking came to a total of 7.84 miles. That included a new route of 6.9 miles which I walked continuously, and briskly, for a bit over two hours—feeling both virtuous and properly muscled-tired. Can feel muscles tightening in the legs. Besides providing some new scenery, the walk also threw up a wee mystery. At five points over about half a mile, I spotted what one might almost imagine as a large washer nailed into the tarmacadam. Now it is often said that the Scots invented the modern world. And with some due cause. But it turns out that tarmacadam was a Welsh invention not as I had always assumed, a Scots one. Edgar Purnell Hooley patented tarmacadam in 1902 and with the founding of the Tar Macadam Syndicate Ltd in the following year, took control of the commercial exploitation of his idea. Something we are a bit less good at than we need to be. Selling our ideas? - yes; keeping control? - rarer. It does turn out that the Scots w...

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