Hi Mom,
Thank you for the email. It made me smile and laugh. I am sorry I haven’t written to you this week. Our internet is somewhat temperamental. Plus, we haven’t been in until pretty late and have been leaving pretty early. I guess I have some catching up to do.
The last time I wrote MaLese and I were walking out the door to have dinner with the family that had taken us to stake conference. The family is an American air force family. They lived in Japan for 7 years and are half way through a 2 year stint in England. Because they have so many members in their family they are renting a home off base. Their home is probably my favorite house (that I have seen) in England. First, it is surrounded by a mote. Most of the house was burned down a while back, but part of the house dates back to before the reign of Mary I. It was the home of the regional leader who opposed Mary and held her captive for a short time. The family was so kind; the oldest daughter will be attending BYU-Idaho in the fall. After dinner, the kids took MaLese and me on a walk. We went around the mote. Then, we toured the surrounding area via the old public foot paths. Some of these paths you would not be able to tell were paths unless you knew they were there. Still, we saw a number of hidden jewels. I even got to walk through a wheat field.
As a result of this trip, I had the worst allergic reaction I have ever had in my life (but it was worth it). We got home. I took a shower, and when I still resembled the elephant man in the morning MaLese went into town and bought me some Benedryl. Around noon, I felt up to going to the Archives. I guess I was the only one who held this opinion because our B&B lady advised me to keep on taking the allergy medicine when she saw me and MaLese linked her arm in mine and wouldn’t let go until we got to the archive. It was then that I realized the power of comparison. MaLese and our host compared me to what I was like when I wasn’t swollen and running a fever. I compared myself to how much better I was at noon the day after than I was when I went to bed the night before. Still, we took it easy on our way to the archive and by the time I went to bed I wasn’t swollen or running a fever.
MaLese and I discovered very quickly that Bury does not have emigration records. As a result, we analyzed our options. MaLese’s grandmother gave her a file on a family line from Nottingham a day or so before we left. We had been trying to find a day to visit the Nottingham archives. So, we set our alarm clock for 2 hours earlier than usual and caught a train up to the land of Robin Hood.
We decided to go based on the fact that MaLese felt a very strong impression that we needed to go. Oddly enough, I remembered that somewhere I had one ancestor from Nottingham, as well. When we reached the archives I searched through all of my PAFs and finally remembered that I had put together a list of my English ancestors and organized it by county at the beginning of winter semester. Then I found him: Robert Pennel, the father of Hannah Pennel, who married someone in Pennsylvania in the 1690s. This was my first encounter with anyone in my Bond line. It was also my first attempt to extend a colonial line. This is the first time that a family I am researching has jumped out of every record I looked at. After ascertaining that the parish recorded in PAF as the birth place of Robert did not exist I looked in the only other parish that sounded remotely similar to what was in PAF. The Pennel family are all over the place and can be found in the records back to the 1530s. I even found two wills for the family. Knowing the work that has been done on my colonial lines I was rather surprised at this, but after looking at the FHL holdings for the parish in question I realized that we don’t have the records in the US that are needed to research this line. It also dawned on me that if Hannah was married in Pennsylvania in the 1690s the family probably joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) before they emigrated. Apparently, the Nottingham Archives has a great collection of Quaker records, which I will be investigating tomorrow.
Hoping that this lucky streak would continue MaLese and I went to Norwich today. All of the Lowestoft records are held there and I was hoping for some bastardy bonds and rate books. I was not as fortunate. In fact, none of the poor law I needed exists any more. I found a good marriage index for Norfolk and learned more about Joseph Castleton and his history in the Wesleyan Methodist church, though, so the day was not a complete failure. I am glossing over the fact that we got lost in town, ended up walking in the wrong direction, and missed a connecting train on our trip home. All in all, I compared the day with my first trip to Lowestoft and suddenly today seemed to be a pretty good day.
I need to get up in 5 1/2 hours to catch our train for tomorrow, so I am going to bed. I love you and am glad you had such a fun day.
Love you lots,
Heather
Posted by dawndrium 
