A busy week

I am now able to relax a little after what has been a very busy week.

On Monday I gave a talk on how to trace your family history to the Holme on Spalding Moor history society. I have spoken to them before about Snowden Dunhill and about Saltmarshe and always enjoy it.

They are a very friendly group of people and  I think the talk went well - there were lots of questions which is always a good sign.

Their next talk is to be given by eminent East Riding historian Dr David Neave who will  talk on the Lords of Holme on Monday, 18 November at 7pm in the Scout Hut which is part of the village hall.  It is on the left hand side as you drive in the car park and has a separate entrance round the corner.

I hope to attend.

And then last night I was at Melbourne near Pocklington talking to the Pocklington Local History group about East Riding emigrants.

 I explained some of the reasons why people emigrated - ranging from the Puritans who left Rowley near South Cave in 1638 with Rev Ezekiel Rogers to create a new settlement - Rowley in Massachusetts,  to the Quakers of Knedlington who went a few years later to Delaware and right through to the young men and families of East Yorkshire who went to Canada in the nineteenth century to make a new life.

I am particularly interested in the last group as my own ancestor, Robert Nurse of Eastrington suffered the loss of his farm, took on the village pub, the Black Swan and then, as family lore has it,  drank the last of his inheritance. He then in 1832 took his family to Canada, settling near Port Hope where there was quite a community already established of local people who had emigrated 10 years earlier.

I have some letters from family members which describe the wonderful life in Canada and the difficult conditions at home in Yorkshire. No wonder Robert went. His descendants are still settled near Rice Lake.

Today I shall concentrate on keeping the Rayburn going and walking Molly in the rain.