Newsletter – 31st October
2022
Findmypast & British Newspaper Archives 20% SAVINGS END TODAY
Burial, cremation, or
compost?
Ancestry DNA OFFERS
The library book
returned 84 years late
About face: first
King Charles III coins due in the New Year
Gardeners Corner: Back
to the Fuchsia
The LostCousins
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Findmypast & British Newspaper Archives 20% SAVINGS
END TODAY (MONDAY)
Someone
was saying to me the other day that genealogy isn’t a cheap hobby, and in one
sense that’s true. On the other hand, when I thought of all the other leisure
pursuits I’ve enjoyed during the past 70 years, I realised that researching my
family history has probably been the cheapest of them all, certainly once inflation
is taken into account. More importantly, it has also
been the most fulfilling, for a whole range of reasons.
Nevertheless, if we can save money by
taking advantage of discounts so much the better – so I was delighted to be
able to arrange an EXCLUSIVE British Newspaper Archive offer, as well as
providing early access to Findmypast’s offer, which started last Tuesday for
LostCousins members (but not until Thursday for everyone else).
However all good things must come to an end, and at
11pm (or possibly midnight) on Monday both offers will finish. By all means try the links after that time if you read this
newsletter late, since occasionally they forget to switch them off until they
start work the next day, but the chances are you’ll be too late.
You
can save 20% on 12 month Plus and Pro subscriptions at Findmypast’s
sites in the UK, Ireland, and Australia; at their US site the offers applies to 12 month Essential and Ultimate subscriptions. Whilst
the new Premium subscription isn’t included in the offer you can
purchase a 12 month Pro or Ultimate subscription
at the offer price, then immediately upgrade to Premium for just £19.99
(or the approximate equivalent in the currency of the chosen website).
It’s
worth reminding you that Findmypast are almost unique in offering a Loyalty
Discount to subscribers who purchase 12 month
subscriptions, and this currently provides a useful 15% discount on automatic renewals.
This means that if you do decide to take up the offer, you’re unlikely to be
faced with a big increase in a year’s time. There’s no absolute guarantee,
because with inflation at the current rate it would be foolish to predict what
will happen to prices, but you can always cancel the renewal – just don’t leave
it until the very last minute!
(If
you subscribe through the UK site the offer also applies to 3
month subscriptions, but the discount will only last for the first 3 months
– so crack open the piggy bank, lock in the savings for a full year, and give
yourself the chance of a 15% discount in a year’s time.)
To
take advantage of this offer please use the relevant link below:
Findmypast.co.uk
– SAVE 20% ON 3 & 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO SUBSCRIPTIONS ENDS MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER
Findmypast.com.au
– SAVE 20% ON 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO SUBSCRIPTIONS ENDS
MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER
Findmypast.ie
– SAVE 20% ON 12 MONTH PLUS & PRO SUBSCRIPTIONS ENDS
MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER
Findmypast.com
– SAVE 20% ON 3 & 12 MONTH ESSENTIAL & ULTIMATE SUBSCRIPTIONS ENDS MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER
The
British Newspaper Archive offer is exclusive to LostCousins members, but you will
only be supporting LostCousins when you use the link below:
BRITISH
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE – SAVE 20% ENDS MONDAY 31ST
OCTOBER
Please
bear in mind that the reductions only apply to the initial payment (and shorter
subscriptions are, in any case, much more expensive per month), so best to get
a 12 month subscription if you can.
For
more details about both of these offers please see my
articles in the last
newsletter.
Burial, cremation, or compost?
We’re
used to looking through burial registers to find the final resting places of
our ancestors – or cremation registers for more recent relatives. A few have
relatives who were buried at sea; rather more of us will have relatives whose remains
were never recovered or never identified, perhaps because they died on the
battlefield.
But
from 2027 it will be possible for human remains to be composted – though only,
so far, in California (where else?). See this article
for more information.
Ancestry
DNA OFFERS
You
can still save on DNA tests from the company that offers the best chance, by
far, of solving your ‘brick walls’ from the last 250 years.
Please
use the relevant link below so that you have a chance of supporting LostCousins
when you make your purchase (if you’re not taken to the offer page first time,
log-out from your Ancestry account then click the link again).
Ancestry.co.uk
(UK only) – REDUCED FROM £79 to £59
Ancestry.com.au
(Australia and New Zealand only) – REDUCED FROM $129 to $89
Ancestry.ca
(Canada only) – REDUCED FROM
$129 to $79
Ancestry.com
(US only) – SAVE $40
Ancestry.de
(Germany) – REDUCED FROM €69 to €59
Tip:
remember to follow the advice in my DNA
Masterclass – just reading it isn’t enough, you have to actually do what it
says (and you can start while you’re waiting for your results!)
The library book returned 84 years late
In
the late 1950s, when I was at primary school, I’d visit our local public
library at least once a week to return books I’d read and borrow new ones. It wasn’t
long before I’d read all the books of interest in the junior library and graduated
to the adult library, where I could indulge my passion for science fiction (it
helped that many of them were published by Gollancz and had distinctive bright
yellow covers).
Very
occasionally I’d return a book late, and pay a fine –
only a penny or two, perhaps, but still a lot of money for a schoolboy whose
pocket money only went up at the end of the decade to 9d a week (just under £1
in today’s money).
I
was reminded of those times last week, when I read the story of a library book that
was returned 84 years late by the grandson of the man who took it out in 1938. Not
only did he return the book, he paid the fine of
£18.27, based on the 1d per week rate that applied in 1938 – though if the
library had insisted on charging the current rate of 25p per day, the fine
would have amounted to £7673. You can read more about the story in this BBC
News article.
Note: libraries in
Leeds abolished fines in 2019 in order to encourage more
people to use their facilities (see this article).
This
year the Great Clock of Westminster, commonly known as ‘Big Ben’ (after the
bell that tolls the hour), was adjusted from British Summer Time to Greenwich
Mean Time – the first occasion on which this has happened in 5 years. You can
read more on what happened and why in this interesting article.
Note:
from next year it should once again by possible for members of the public to
visit the Elizabeth Tower, which houses ‘Big Ben’ – follow this link
to sign up for updates,
About face: first King Charles III coins due
in December
Until
the early 1970s I was used to handling coins with the heads of different
monarchs – from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II. But youngsters who were
born after decimalisation in 1971 may have only ever seen coins bearing the
head of Queen Elizabeth.
The
first King Charles III coins to go into general circulation will be released in
December according to an announcement from the Royal Mint – you can read more
in this BBC News article,
or see a video of the coins in production on YouTube if you follow this link.
The
portrait of King Charles shows him facing left – traditionally each monarch
faces to the opposite way to their predecessor. The exception was King Edward
VIII, who insisted on showing his best side – though in the event the coins were
never officially issued. This article
on the Royal Mint site has pictures of some of the unissued coins.
According
to the late Douglas Adams, Vogon poetry is the “third
worst in the universe”. I don’t remember ever distributing any of my poetry at school,
but if I did it might possibly have inspired Douglas Adams, who was a fellow pupil
(though rather younger than me – indeed, most people are these days).
Today
is the last day of the exclusive 50% discount offer that I arranged with Poems
by Post. Like most would-be poets I usually find other people’s poetry hard to
appreciate, but that certainly hasn’t been the case with the poets who Alex,
founder of Poems by Post has chosen.
If
you want to buy a special present for someone, but without ‘breaking the bank’,
take a look at the gift subscriptions, which start at just £11.25 for a 3 month subscription. Follow this link
and the LC50 offer code should be entered automatically, though only when you
get to the checkout.
Gardeners Corner: Back to the Fuchsia
I
hope that the gardeners amongst you – and I know there are many – enjoy my wife’s
latest article.
Autumn
in the UK has proven very mild to date, and with enough rainfall to enable
plenty of tree and shrub planting. Although to some extent the planting season
extends throughout the cooler months, ground temperature reduces in the same
way as the sea temperature. Plants do not like shocks whether in terms of
aspect, ground, or water temperature, so while the ground cools gently and
moisture availability increases, autumn and early winter is a better time to
get digging and planting before the ground becomes too cold. It is also worth
remembering that frozen water cannot be taken up by plant roots, which is much
less of a problem for well-established plants than recent garden entrants. I
use jute mulch mats beneath new plants to help insulate, retain moisture, and
suppress weeds.
This summer
desperate circumstances have called for desperate measures. I moved my small
collection of hardy fuchsias in containers from a west facing patio into an
east facing shady spot in the woodland garden- and even with less watering, they
flourished far better facing east than the other way around. An obvious clue
had been overlooked for several years; a Magellanica Riccartonii fuchsia planted over 20 years ago in the
same area has been perfectly happy left to its own devices. The same has been
true of a couple of large Mrs Popple bushes
planted against an east facing wall. Clearly, a little morning sun is
preferable to too much afternoon scorch.
Right
now, I am still researching shade-loving flowering shrubs which can cope with
woodland margins and the curiosity of hungry rabbits. The choice is still rather
thin, but observing how well the Riccartonii
fuchsia has thrived in a shady, rabbit-infested corner, Magellanica
fuchsias may well meet these criteria. The name relates to their discovery
along the Magellan Straits, an important South American sea passage between
Chile and Argentina which avoids having to circumvent the Cape Horn.
The Magellan Straits are very windy - and this may also offer a clue as to why
these fuchsias perform well in windy coastal gardens or as ornamental hedges.
Fuchsias
(and the bright pink colour) are named after Leonhard Fuchs, a 16th
century botanist and author of the book The New Herbal published in 1543,
several decades before the birth of Nicolas Culpeper. Apparently the first
fuchsia to be identified and named by a European was discovered in 1697 by the
French botanist Charles Plumier on the island of Hispaniola. Fuchsias have long
been cultivated and heavily hybridised; the most familiar are the thousands of
non-hardy cultivars with showy blooms in all manner of bright reds, oranges,
pinks, purples and combinations thereof. In addition
to a huge range of these tender hybrids, Bourne Brook
fuchsia nursery near Halstead in Essex lists over 100 hardy varieties, which is
a far broader selection than the half-dozen or so listed in most online nursery
catalogues – noting that the hardiness of each one might differ from borderline
tender down to around -10c. Partly because I cannot see the point of annual
planting (from perspectives of cost, environmental waste, and my time), hardy
fuchsias have become an inexpensive and reliable mainstay for my containers and
garden beds. Among the “hardies”, the Magellanica
are a narrower set of very tough, hardy, woody-stemmed shrubs capable of
reaching between 3-6 feet, making them ideal for shaded woodland margins where
the rabbits will try almost anything.
Fuchsias
are deciduous but fast-growing; having bought a collection of 6 hardy plug
plants earlier this year, they have already developed into half-metre bushy
plants flowering profusely into October. I’m especially impressed with Delta’s
Sarah, a hardy hybrid with white sepals and iris blue corollas. The large flowers
have paired beautifully well with a deep purple hydrangea.
Returning
to the Magellanica cultivars as the most robust for a
woodland setting, their flowers are among the most delicate and profuse of all.
The common name of “lady’s eardrops” surely relates to these elegantly arching
beauties, and not the very weighty hybridised blooms which would be too big to
grace most ears. The Magellanica sepals tend to be
longer, drooping gracefully over a narrow corolla (in contrast to the “ballet
tutu” appearance of fancier hybrids). As a late-season showstopper, they bring
form and impact when other plants have had their turn. I plan to plant a few in
the shade border among rhododendrons, camellias, and hydrangeas. But I have
also seen fuchsias happily paired with Astrantia, crocosmia, salvia, roses,
lavender, Hemerocallis and other late-summer companions, provided
that they get enough moisture and rest from hot sun.
A
few more points to note- with an eye on cost in particular:
- Fuchsias are excellent value
for money; they are cheap to buy and very easy to propagate, as this article
demonstrates.
- While tender fuchsias could be
treated like disposable bedding plants, cutting them back and storing in a
frost-free environment may keep them going for another season or so. Avoid
waterlogging, and take cuttings to freshen and boost
supplies.
- If you keep fuchsias in
containers, they are unfussy about soil but they
need good moisture, good drainage, and feeding. Ideally granular feed or
seaweed extract, but tomato feed is good too.
- Fuchsia flowers produce
edible berries which range from rather bland to slightly peppery. They can
be eaten raw but are more useful in syrups, jams
and jellies.
Aside
from their obvious appeal to butterflies, fuchsias also attract a very special
visitor. I remember our cat jumping backwards in sheer terror at the sight of a
4-inch bright green moth hawk caterpillar on the lawn. They pupate into
sizeable gold moths with luminous, fuchsia- coloured wing tips and body
markings. The caterpillars feed on fuchsias; this will not destroy a healthy
plant and the moths are quite beautiful.
To
date I have only been able to find a few Magellan cultivars, but the colour range
varies from “quiet” to punchy. I usually grow hardy fuchsias in containers for
the first couple of seasons so that they can be transplanted as decent sized
shrubs with intact, well-developed root balls. Even with hardy cultivars, it is
safer to transplant fuchsias into open ground only once, and well after the
last frosts.
Alba (aka Molinae) – pure lilac-blushed white: 1.5m
Aurea – bright gold/lime
leaves, red sepals over purple corolla: 1m.
Gracilis variegata – pink, silver and green variegated foliage. Red sepals over deep
purple corolla: 1.5-1.8m
Gracilis versicolour – green-grey, pale pink/creamy white variegated foliage. Cherry-red
sepals over violet corolla: 1.2m
Hawkshead- pure white (the buds
are tipped with pale green, like snowdrops): 1m
Lady
Bacon
– stunning combination of pink, white and violet-purple: 1m
Logan
Woods
– as above, except the corollas are more magenta than violet: 1.2m
Macrostema – long, variegated foliage in shades of sea green, coral and
white. Red sepals over magenta corolla: 1m.
Riccartonii- pinky red sepals, bright purple
corolla: 1m
Thompsonii – like Gracilis varieties, but non-variegated:
up to 1.8m
These
are some the things I’ve been buying recently….
Suppliers
of Magellanica and other hardy fuchsias
Burncoose Nurseries (breeder of amazing magnolias and
camellias)
Crocus
(sale on many items)
J
Parkers (their spring bulbs are also excellent value)
Victoriana
Nursery (not just for fruit trees!)
Article © Sian Lloyd 2022
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Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2022 Peter Calver
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