Family History

Reading Turpinus pharaohnic blog contribution I was struck by the similarities between the Baty and Bates history and the Turpin and Sam[m]s story.

I have been able to go back to the birth of John Beattie, my triple great grandfather in Cumberland in 1791 but have reached cul-de-sacs earlier in my searches through other bloodlines. This character moved to an obscure part of Northumberland, perhaps in search of a job or a wife, and stayed there until he died of "exhaustion 7 days" when he was 92 and still an agricultural labourer. His children and grandchildren appear to have lived out their lives on the land nearby, with the women taking jobs "in service" before getting married.

Curiously my 5 known great grandparents - not 6 because my paternal grandfather was illegitimate - were all born during the window of 1851 to 1861 and each had 7 children by the time of the 1901 Census. Was this down to following the fashion of large families set by Queen Victoria or due to a combination of poor contraception and lower infant mortality?

Having seen the recent programmes on BBC2 about some celebs' family histories I wonder too about the poverty these families must have endured with low income, small dwellings, outside loos, no central heating, etc.

We too had blacksmiths in my maternal grandfather and his father, and this is understandable as they must have been as necessary in their time as commercial garages became for cars.

My father's generation was one that broke out from their rural fastness getting jobs in the public services i.e health, fire and police services and moving to cities, mostly in other counties. The attraction was probably stability of employment for a generation with recent experience of the 1930s depression. To my knowledge Horace and Albert Minster took the same route and others in the Turpin and Sams lines may have done too for opportunities that do not exist in farm work.

What a far cry from the lives and prospects of our children with their creature comforts, job mobility, electronic "necessities", stressful work, etc etc.

DUNSFOLD

I thought of renaming the site to reflect its pictorial nature but Percy Flage (or is it Per-Si Flage?) already has powerful P-words in his title and might get jealous.

Anyway, here are this weekend's curiosities from a village called Dunsfold (click on the photo for the detail). First "modern "standing stones - why do they admit it? Why don't they say they were erected by some mysterious ancestors who carried out strange rituals there, and get the touristic benefit?

They made a fine sight on the horizon, even though there was no sunshine to highlight them.









The second one is of a pub sign, probably modern too, and not very inspired but suggesting that binge drinking has been with us for a while.

BLOG SURFING

I could not resist this picture which attracted 21 (!) comments of the "poor kitty"/"no, pretty kitty" variety in someone else's blog.

SCHOOLING CONUNDRUM(serious and no photos)

The UK Government is very keen that parents can choose where to send their children in the State schooling system. The theory is that "better" schools will grow and prosper, and failing schools will close. Very simple.

In practice parents make their choices based strongly on League tables of exam results, and also the opinions of friends and relatives. Middle class parents strive very hard to get their offspring into what they perceive as good schools, driving them miles to school if necessary (like Tony Blair's children) and even moving house to get in a relevant catchment area. The school run jams up the roads and pollutes the environment, but this strays from my point.

School funding is primarily based on the number of pupils you have on the roll and I believe that the more classes you have of a given size (say around 30) the more money they have to spend on goodies like extra-curricular activity, school trips etc. Schools therefore compete aggressively for new admissions, even exceeding their official admission ceilings, and have practices that facilitate recruitment of more able children- er, selection. The latter will help them to achieve good exam results later on to keep their advantage.

What about the less well off children from council estates and the like? Parents cannot afford the school run and send them to the local school which inevitably becomes a centre for disadvantaged and poorly behaved children. My view is that bright babies pop up in all strata of society (as do plonkers!) and that it is generally primarily good education that enables them to achieve their potential, irrespective of their background.

I therefore think that such schools should be subsidised, based on suitable criteria and data, to compensate for disadvantage. This funding should be for smaller class sizes, better teachesr, more training for teachers, not to mention school trips etc. I also think that geographical catchment areas should be adhered to so that schools are more likely to have a mix of ability - good for social cohesion, good for a stimulating environment, good for the environment. This currently happens in London and major urban areas but not elsewhere.

Also league tables should be based on value added (increase in performance of kids between assessment levels) which shows where the good teaching is, and not on outright achievement, which reflects where the profile of natural ability is higher.

In short I am with the Labour rebels on this one.

LET'S GET SERIOUS! (AGAIN)

Steve Jobs - God of the Geeks, largest individual shareholder of Disney and CEO of Pixar - recently said to his staff:

Your time [on earth] is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

The profile I am quoting went on to mention his temepr tantrums etc but no-one is perfect, even if he was responsible for the iPod.