I am a little more fortunate than some who live overseas Josephine as I was born in London and my family immigrated here in 1957. I have been back to the Uk three times. The first time I wanted to go and see the house I grew up in until the age of 12, it didnt really look like the same house the facade had been changed and a porch with a door had been built, the street had changed and the shops as well. The bombed out area on the corner of Romford Road, Manor park, near the Three Rabbits Pub, I told my kids, my siblings and I use to throw snowballs across this huge hole in the ground where the bomb had landed was no longer, it was shops there instead. The pub had chnaged it names all of which was disappointing to me. For some reason yu have in your mind this place you either know or have read the history about and expect to find it that way. But in the UK especially houses get pulled down to make way for roads, or skyscrapers etc. it does happen to a lesser extent here, but not like England. Anyway, I hope you are feeloing better today. Edie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Josephine Jeremiah" <jojeremiah@dsl.pipex.com> To: <bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 10:33 PM Subject: [B&S] Researching from overseas (was A cautionary tale ...) > On Sun, 05 Jan 2014 00:10:00 -0000, Edie <eamca@bigpond.com> wrote: > >> We who live overseas are very appreciative of any help we can receive. > >> We do have access to ancestry, findmypast and The genealogist, >> Familysearch, >> but they are not the Original Parish registers, sometimes they give an >> origianl record but mostly not so. We could do with the original and >> those of you on the spot have access to and have very kindly on many >> occasions >> gone out of your way to check for us. > > Hi Edie, > > Thanks for your response to the cautionary tale thread. > > I can understand that researching from overseas can be more difficult than > researching here. > > For me, what I would find difficult is not being able to picture a place > or the layout of a village, town or city from my own memories of them. > > It's even difficult for me to picture some ancestral places in the U.K. > > For instance, some of my 19th-and-early-20th century Bristol ancestors > came from Exeter in Devon. I know their addresses and I have old maps of > Exeter, but because I don't know the place personally, I can't picture > their situation. I believe the city has changed, too, because of the > Exeter Blitz in the Second World. > > Yet, I can quite happily picture my Bristol families in pre-war Bristol > and I am more familiar, in my mind, with central Bristol streets as they > were before the war than as they are now. > > Josephine > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi Edie Your suggestion of pulling down buildings may have been true of the 1960's and before but certainly not of today Planning laws are quite comical really, before they allow you to even change windows etc and demolishing what most would consider an eyesore would take heaven and earth to be moved before getting approval (unless it was in a councillors favour of course :-) The problem is we want to remember things the way they were, but time moves on and people change things and it disturbs the memories I went back to my birth village, the brook is all but gone, sluices and pipes take it here and there unseen, the areas I once played on have been built on, the small school is now huge compared to that I remember Sadly time and tide wait for no man :-( Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > history about and expect to find it that way. But in the UK especially > houses get pulled down to make way for roads, or skyscrapers etc. it does > happen to a lesser extent here, but not like England. > > Anyway, I hope you are feeloing better today. > Edie