June 9, 2007

Dear Mom,Thank you for your email. You have an amusing way of summing up events.

Hi Sweetie,

Thanks for the update. I enjoyed your post and I am so glad that you finally found a family that is jumping. I must admit that it probably is a good thing that Robert Pennel had his work done after he was dead if he got baptized 100 times. Otherwise he might have thought they were trying to drown him instead of save him, and approximate dates would have been hard on his hinny when the doctor slapped him and said, “It’s a boy!” (How many times?:))

The weather is incredibly sweet today. It has been cool – almost cold and it is raining. The clouds are hovering low on the mountains and it is just the kind of day that makes you want to get outside. The rain is a good solid almost heavy rain so everything is looking very green. At work today, Shauna said, “Janet, look out the window. See that soft steady rain and how everything looks green? That is what England looks like on a typical day.” Perhaps we got our love of the rain and the green from our English ancestors… 

I Love You,                               
~Mom 

Tonight is MaLese and my last night in Bury. Oddly enough we haven’t spent much time here. The Saturday we got here we went through the market with Gordon and Jean. Sunday we begged a ride back to Ipswich to go to conference. Then we went out to the country for dinner in the house with the mote. Monday we researched in Bury and realized there are not a lot of emigration records here. As a result, we traveled to Nottingham and back on Tuesday. I found quite a bit there. Wednesday, we went to Norwich to research at the Norfolk Record Office. The archive was beautiful, but the records I needed no longer exist. I still found some helpful records, though.

Thursday we returned to Nottingham. We were one our way to the train station before 6 AM. We arrived a little after 9 AM. And we got to travel through Netherfield! While in Nottingham, MaLese and I found an emigration card index for transportation, I spoke with the archivists and will email the archive when I get home. We arrived home around 9:30 PM.

We visited Cambridge on Friday. I worked on emigration while MaLese researched her family. The archive closes for lunch, so we climbed to the top of Castle Mound and took pictures. MaLese’s family was only in Cambridge for one generation. The family joined the church in Cambridge and immigrated to Utah. As a result, she was at a loss as to what she could do that was unique. Luckily, we remembered the project Dr. Doxey was working on to locate the homes of early converts in the tri-county region. As a result, MaLese spoke with the archivists and found a map of Cambridge from the mid 1800s. After the archive closed we found her ancestors’ church and the street where they lived.

MaLese still needed some family research hours so we decided to find
the parishes of the ancestors she studied for History 412. After sleeping in for the first time this week we headed to the bus station (the train did not go to Saint Elmham or Rumburgh). Unfortunately, MaLese forgot the paper she wrote the directions on, so we showed up at the station and asked how to get to South Elmham. We were met with blank stares. MaLese did remember that we needed to go to a place called Diss. When the bus station employees pulled out a map they decided if we went to Diss we might find a connecting route. So we hopped on a bus and rode through the beautiful English countryside.

On arriving in Diss, we could not find any bus information, so we found the tourist information. The lady in the information center looked at us like we were from another planet when we asked for directions. She was horrified that we were trying to go there on a Saturday without a definite plan. She phoned the bus company and figured out our itinerary. She was so worried about us traveling on our own that we listened and analyzed our plans. At worst (if our transfer bus arrived before our bus) we would have one hour to walk three miles to All Saints, find the church, and walk back three miles to catch the last bus to go through the area. If we missed the bus we would be stranded for the night.

At this point we thought of our mothers and decided to be responsible. We analyzed our time constraints for the rest of the trip and discovered we have less than 20 hours of research left that we need to do. We can finish our IAP research by Tuesday. We are still looking into flying to the Channel Islands Wednesday, which leaves Thursday and Friday open. There is regular bus service to South Elmham on Thursday, so we will run up there next week.

We only have 11 days left on this trip. It seems like the time has slipped away. Most of our time has been spent in archives, but I feel like I have learned and grown so much. I have always loved Britain. England has a fascinating history, but now I feel like I am a part of that history. I feel the presence of my ancestors in this land. I felt them with me as I researched. I have walked their streets with them. I also feel the pains they must have felt as they left their home to travel to a new land. The land they traveled to is my home, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to leave my home to walk the streets where they lived. I feel like I know them just a little more than I did. I appreciate the sacrifice they made for me. They left everything they knew so their children and decedents would have a better life. My ancestors will always be my ancestors, but now they feel like they are truly a part of my family.

I am so glad I will be seeing you in less than two weeks.

I love you,
Heather