Tag Archives: family

Local slang

A little ditty about ‘Bob’

If y’ur Bob dosn’t gi’ our Bob th’t Bob th’t your Bob owes our Bob, our Bob is gunna gi’ y’ur Bob a bob on’t  nose !!!!

Now you know perfectly well what that means, don’t you ?

If your Robert does not give our Robert that shilling that he owes him, our Robert will hit your Robert on the nose !!!       –        simple isn’t it!

No matter where you live  or what your social standing there are words that are associated used and only those from the locale or social circle will know.  But you will find the exception to the rule, as you always do as many of the words and sayings are known nationwide.  For example :- Gaffer or Gaffa, Boss ;  Gear, clothes ; Doff, take your cap off ; Poor Show, went badly and so on.

The Slang page of Wakefield Family History Sharing can be found here



Blue Plaques

How many of us walk from A to B in the shortest route and in the quickest time. Iin every day life, probably nearly all of us. We only tend to mooch, look around and take our time when we are on holiday or a day out.

Next time you are in your village, town or city look around and look up, you will be surprised what you will notice that went totally undiscovered before.

How many bars, restaurant and shops do we only know from street level – look up, you may learn what the building was orignally used for.  Wakefield for example, has a street known as Westgate.  In modern times most popular for its ‘Westgate Run’.  Westgate, a long street, one of the main entries and exits of the town had a very large number of public houses, the ‘run’ was to have a drink in each of the pubs.  The ‘run’ has now changed slightly as the pubs have now been superseded by bars.

If you looked up while walking down Westgate you would see that the majority of the buildings, grand buildings, were at one time banks.  These banks were needed in previous centuries due to the amount of money that was changing hands in the area, either from the great cattle market held only a couple of minutes walk away or the number of merchants that were in the area who did their business in the old cloth hall.

Look around, you never know what you might find – images of Wakefield’s Blue Plaques can be found here

A list of the Blue Plaques with a short description of where the plaque can be found – click here

Lots of other towns have their Blue Plaques on the internet for example :-

English Heritage Blue Plaques – mainly London and the surrounding areas
Oxfordshire Blue Plaques
Tameside Blue Plaques
Canterbury Blue Plaques
Windsor Blue Plaques
Birmingham Blue Plaques

Why not look around the place where you live ?

Margaret – Maggie, Peggie or Daisy ?

The previous blog was about naming traditions, so I thought I would follow on with nicknames.

My aunty was called Dolly or Do-do, but it was not until I was nearly a teenager that I found out she was really called Frances – I still can’t work out why she was called Dolly. She was always a Dolly but to me she was aunty Do-do and very much loved.

So, why an I putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard?  Well, to suggest a few other names that Margaret or Pauline or Caroline might have been known by and therefore found on documents, census etc.

Imagine, it is the night of the census in 1871 (UK) and the enumerator comes to your home – it’s a good job he came and did the writing as you can only ‘make your mark’.  He enters your house, your husband is out and there is you with your children and your grandchild.  Mr Jones, the enumerator, asks who lives here.  You say there is your husband Jack.  You come next as the wife, so you say Jane.  Your children are next, John, George, Rosie and ‘our Aggie’ and ‘little Isa’.

You answered the enumerator, he did his paperwork and off he went next door.  But who really lived in your house?

Here is where it gets tricky!  The husband Jack, was really John – Jack being a familiar for John in certain areas. Jane  and George are easy, but Rosie is Roseanna, ‘Our Aggie’ is really Agnes and ‘Little Isa’ is Isaiah – confused yet?

When searching for your family in the census and documents remember, not everyone used the name they were Registered with, or Christened/Baptised with.

Many years ago I put my Riach line on hold as I had a choice of fathers for one family – the dates were a year out, not too disasterous, the place was the same but the names were Patrick and Peter, until some kind person informed me that Patrick and Peter were one in the same, just like Jack and John – easy when you know!

To have a look at some name variations and nicknames  click here
(This link also includes the English Naming Traditions)

Who Are You ?

Who are You ? How many times have you looked at a photograph and asked that question ? From my experience I can say 100’s if not 1,000’s.

I’m not a betting person but I will guarantee that you will have gathered, inherited or bought photographs of people, not always related but you have wondered…. Who Are You?

Donald Curtis, probably taken in Africa – the Curtis family new the Riach people from Urquhart and Lhanbryde, Moray.

My mum for instance, she served in the ATS during WW2, being posted to Nottingham and Burntisland just across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh.  During her time in the ATS she collected lots of photographs of young men and women all serving their King & Country.  These wonderful pictures showing happy times during an unhappy period in our history are not only part of my family history but are important socially aswell.

These photographs, all in wonderful black and white, either have no information or simply ‘love Willie’ or ‘regards Joan’. But, who is Willie and who is Joan – mum knew who they were, where the photo was taken and when, so why would she bother to write names, places and dates on her ‘memory’ photograph?

So, what to do with all these photographs of her time in the ATS, her youth in the Urquhart area of Morayshire and her work as a housekeeper to Miss Kynoch in Fochabers, plus photographs of a friends son who was now married, had a son and lived somewhere in Africa, possibly South Africa.

A Gallery, a big gallery, that was the idea, with images scanned and questions posed on each picture.  Then I was given access to a local historians collection of photographs –  two very large shoe boxes to be precise, full of thick cards and some of the backs, beautifully decorated, were more interesting that the actual photograph on the front.  Some of these photographs had names and dates on the reverse.  The photographers studios were worldwide.

How to gather all these photographs in one place that seemed to make sense and make it easy for visitors to search and peruse.  I decided to divide in to areas i.e. Bradford, Leeds, Canada, Morayshire etc.

To view this collection of Who Are You’s visit WhoAreYou and enjoy !