Mary Ann Bottomley 1865-1906

Photograph © Copyright Humphrey Bolton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. St. Luke's Church, Norland is located at OS Grid Ref. SE0663222618

Right, let’s have some more genealogy stuff. I am currently working through my database locating and attaching citations from the various England & Wales census records. So far I have completed 1841-1891 and I’m now working on 1901.

The latest person to be worked on is my 3rd Cousin 3 times removed, Mary Ann Bottomley who was born on 16 April 1865 in Soyland, West Riding of Yorkshire (as was prior to 1974 when it was abolished). She was baptised on 20 May 1866 at St Bartholomew, Ripponden, baptism entry 423 in the register ‘Mary Ann dau of William & Susannah Bottomley, of Soyland, Stone delver. Born 16 Apr 1865’ (West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D21/7; New Reference Number: WDP21/7;).

I had located Mary Ann with her parents in the previous Census records; 1871 (PRO RG 10/4408 folio 40, page 20), 1881 (PRO RG 11/4413 folio 40, page 10), and 1891 (PRO RG 12/3598 folio 44, page 2).

I had also located her marriage on 7 April 1894 at St Mary, Elland to Arthur Nussey marriage entry 253 in the register ‘7 Apr 1894. Arthur Nussey, 23, Batchelor, Labourer, Norland. Father: Jem Nussey, Bootmaker. Mary Ann Bottomley, 28, Spinster, -, Soyland. Father: William Bottomley, Labourer. After Banns. Witnesses: W H Bottomley, Clara Nussey;‘ (West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D79/34; New Reference Number: WDP79/34;)

It struck me that Nussey is an unusual surname; I think it is a variant of the Germanic Nusse, itself a diminutive form of Den(n)is, whose etymology is from ‘follower of Dionysus’. Anyway, easy enough to locate in a Census and, sure enough, there they were in 1901:

(PRO RG 13/4133 folio 25, page 11)
Prospect Terrace, Norland, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Arthur Nussey Head 30 Married Railway plate layer Norland, WRY
Mary Ann Nussey Wife 35 Married Soyland, WRY
Ivy Nussey Daur 2 Norland, WRY

So that gave me Arthur’s date and place of birth and I was able to locate a GRO birth index for him; Arthur Nussey, volume 9a, page 478, Dec quarter 1870, Halifax district. I also found the GRO index record for their daughter Ivy Nussey, volume 9a, page 460, Sep quarter 1898, Halifax district. So far, so good.

Next I tried the 1911 Census but there was no sign of Mary Ann. I did manage to find Arthur and he was a widower!

(RG 78, RG 14 PN 26438 registration district Halifax, sub district Sowerby, enumeration district 9)
28 Maude Buildings, Scarr Head, Sowerby Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Gibson Riley Head 48 Married Iron moulder at machine tools works Sowerby Bridge, WRY
Harriet Ann Riley Wife 48 Married Sowerby Bridge, WRY
Mary Ellen Riley Daur 20 Unmarried Sowerby Bridge, WRY
George Arthur Riley Son 19 Unmarried Iron fitter, apprentice at machine tools works Sowerby Bridge, WRY
Jeremiah Riley Father 74 Widower Retired loom tuner at woollen mill Sowerby Bridge, WRY
A Nussey Brother in law 40 Widower Platelayer for railway company Norland, WRY
Married 21 years, 2 children, 2 living, 0 dead

Now I needed to find the death of Mary Ann and what had happened to Ivy?

I turned to the parish registers, located Mary Ann’s burial record, viewed the page, and was shocked to find three consecutive entries at Sowerby Bridge, Christ Church and Norland, St Luke, Yorkshire, England (West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D93/12/7A; New Reference Number: WDP93/12/7A):

No. 775. 9 Oct 1906 Mary Ann Nussey age 41 of New Longley, Norland. Died 6 Oct
No. 776. 9 Oct 1906 Ivy Nussey age 8 of New Longley, Norland. Died 8 Oct
No. 777. 13 Oct 1906 Fred Nussey age 5 of New Longley, Norland. Died 10 Oct

What on earth had wiped out the whole family except Arthur? I can find no details of an epidemic at that time and place, but it seems likely that that was indeed some kind of illness that caused the deaths. I would need to get the death certificates to be certain. In the meantime I was able to fill in the rest of the blanks for the family.

Ivy was born on 19 June 1898 and baptised on 24 September 1899 at Norland. (Baptism of Ivy Nussey in 1899; West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D93/12/1; New Reference Number: WDP93/12/1; Baptism. No. 768. 14 Sep 1899 Ivy, of Arthur & Mary Ann Nussey, of Prospect terrace Norland, Labourer. Born 19 Jun 1898)

Fred was born on 14 July 1901 and baptised on 22 September 1901 at Norland (Baptism of Fred Nussey in 1901; West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D93/12/1; New Reference Number: WDP93/12/1; Baptism. No. 807 22 Sep 1901 Fred, of Athur & Mary Ann Nussey, of Prospect Terrace Norland, railway Plate Layer. Born 19 Jul)

Arthur and Mary Ann had no other children. Arthur died and was buried on 22 February 1940 at Norland. (Burial of Arthur Nussey in 1940; West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; Old Reference Number: D93/12/7A; New Reference Number: WDP93/12/7A; Burial at Sowerby Bridge, Christ Church and Norland, St Luke, Yorkshire, England. No. 1250 22 Feb 1940 Arthur Nussey of 6 Derby Road, Sowerby Bridge aged 70 [257 in margin]). The number in the margin may be the plot number where Arthur was buried.

2016 Review

This blog is looking rather sparse. I must resolve to start using it again next year. Anyway, on with my 2016 music review.

Out of 41 musical purchases my pre-2016 acquisitions totalled 26, all on CD.

First a couple from the Original Album Series, Chris Rea and Alanis Morrissette. The Chris Rea collection consists of 5 albums, Water Signs, Shamrock Diaries, On The Beach, The Road To Hell and Espresso Logic. All good solid stuff but The Road To Hell is obviously the standout, but I was also very impressed with On The Beach. The Alanis Morrissette collection consists of Jagged Little Pill, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, Under Rug Swept, So-Called Chaos, and Flavours Of Entanglement. If you like Jagged Little Pill then you'll like the rest as it's pretty much more of the same, not in a bad way mind. So, in summary, two excellent purchases and fantastic value. Not so good was Masterpiece Annie Nightingale a curated collection from various artists, some tracks of which were very good but some just bafflingly poor. Everyone has different tastes I guess, hey ho.

Following on from my dip into the waters of acoustic guitar last year I decided to try The Art of Segovia by Andrés Segovia. A mixed bag, some I liked, some not so much.

Staying on the classic theme I also found a bargain recording of Der Ring Des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, £22 for a 14 CD set comprising many hours of listening. Needless to say, I've not got through it all yet, but I'm working on it!

I had a bit of a Japan moment this year and decided to splash out on a number of David Sylvian issues; Brilliant Trees the 2006 remastered version of his 1984 solo album, A Victim of Stars the double CD from 2012, and Alchemy - An Index Of Possibilities the 2006 remastered version of his 1985 album. I have 5 Japan albums already and none of these new purchases disappointed.

The nostalgia continued this year with Third Stage the 1986 third album from Boston with classic tracks like Amanda, and Cool the Engines. The eponymous first album from Visage from 1980 and remastered in 2002. The third album from Status Quo, Dog of Two Head from 1971 and remastered in 2008.

As mentioned in last year's review, I saw Steve Hackett on tour. I continue to be impressed with his output and this year added; Bay Of Kings (1983, reissued 2013), Beyond The Shrouded Horizon (2011), and Genesis Revisited II (2015), all of which are cracking albums.

I continue to replace albums that I had on vinyl back in the day and this year added Very best of The Stylistics (2007), although I originally had their 1975 version, the slightly different The Best of the Stylistics.

I've always loved Catherine Wheel and one day, after listening to one of their albums, I looked to find out what ever happened to the band. I was surprised to see that lead singer/songwriter Rob Dickinson released a solo album in 2005 Fresh Wine for the Horses. I bought it and it was brilliant, well recommended.

Coming a little more up-to-date I've expanded my collection of albums by prog-metal supergroup Transatlantic by adding Bridge Across Forever (2009), and SMPT:e (2015).

I loved the first two albums by You Me At Six but had lost touch with their music, so remedied this by purchasing their third album, released in 2011, Sinners Never Sleep.

Having watched Tame Impala perform Elephant I decided to try the full psychedelic rock of their 2012 release Lonerism. The album is not easy listening but bear with it, it's very good indeed.

Finally, a bunch of recent releases from bands that have caught my ear; brilliant Finnish rock from Von Hertzen Brothers on Nine Lives (2013), indie rock from Mr Andrew Hozier-Bryne, Hozier (2014), spaced out Drones from Muse (2015), alt-rock from Dinosaur Pile Up on Eleven Eleven (2015), prog rock from The Pineapple Thief founder Bruce Soord's eponymous 2015 album, and John Mitchell's latest music project Lonely Robot whose Please Come Home(2015) is a complete tour de force.

So we come to the releases of 2016 of which I managed to pick up just 15. I have to say right from the start that there is not a duff album here but obviously not all can feature in a top ten. the ones that got away, in no particular order, were; Confessions of a Romantic Novelist by The Anchoress who is Welsh multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and author Catherine Anne Davies, The Winery Dogs by American supergroup The Winery Dogs, Your Wilderness by prog-rockers The Pineapple Thief, All Bright Electric the long awaited album from Feeder, and Resonate the solo album (at last!) from the 'Voice of Rock' Glenn Hughes (he of Trapeze, Deep Purple Mk III and IV, Black Sabbath, Black Country Communion, and California Breed.)

Yea gods, we're here at last! My own personal top ten of album releases of 2016. here we go pop-pickers...


(10) Kentucky by Black Stone Cherry. This is their fifth album, the first since the band signed to Mascot Label Group in late 2015. Southern-fried hard rock that very much reflects the band's roots. The album opens with The Way of the Future very much in their familiar style with a memorable chorus. The music is more diverse these days with some female vocals creeping in, a cappella harmonies on Rescue Me, there's even some brass on their cover of Edwin Starr's War.




(9) Take Me To The Alley by Gregory Porter. No, honestly, I haven't lost my marbles. I actually really enjoy listening to this jazz vocalist. Maybe I'm getting old but you have a listen and hear for yourself.








(8) Blues of Desperation by Joe Bonamassa. His 12th studio album, that's a prodigious amount of recording. Previous albums have been heavy on covers of blues classics but all the songs here are all original with Joe Bones assisted by first rate musicians. Superb.








(7) Ellipsis the latest from Scottish post-hardcore, alt-rockers Biffy Clyro. I first stumbled on Biffy, in 2003 with their The Vertigo of Bliss and have every album since. I've heard fans lament that Opposites (2013) was the band selling out to commercial success and certainly it gave them their first number one album, but for me they've continued to evolve and this album also jumped straight in at number one. Highly recommended, and also check out their back catalogue.




(6) The Astonishing by Dream Theater. Well, hey, basically this is a band playing to all their strengths. A concept album, 2 CDs of material, alternating mix of soaring, inspirational tracks and quieter, introspective moments. It's what I like from this band and they delivered in spades.







(5) Folklore by Big Big Train. I love Big Big Train and their quiet, English brand of prog-rock. If Genesis grew up in a mining village, they would have made this music. Simples.









(4) Solas. The Answer got a bit same-y after a while but they've come back with a new album that keeps their underlying, Irish hard-rock and somehow managed to re-invent themselves. They've tapped into folk, bluegrass and Celtic motifs and created a tapestry of songs that take the band to a new level.







(3) 4 1/2 by Steven Wilson. His fourth solo album Hand.Cannot.Erase from 2015 certainly marked a high point for Wilson and was number one in many yearly round-ups (4th on mine). So while we wait on his fifth album he has decided to treat us to a mini-album of 6 tracks, 37 minutes, to keep us going. Don't think for one minute that this is filler material though, oh no. Four of the songs were recorded during sessions for Hand.Cannot.Erase, one from sessions for the previous, The Raven that Refused to Sing, and one is a version of Don't Hate Me, a song originally recorded by Porcupine Tree in 1998 and redone with a feeling of his latest solo albums. My Book of Regrets is long prog track reminding one of Porcupine Tree. Happiness 3 is similar but shorter, almost, dare I say it, a pop song. Three track are instrumentals, Year of the Plague and Sunday Rain Sets In are cinematic, melancholy pieces whereas Vermillioncore is much more hard-core.


(2) F.E.A.R. by Marillion. Wow! 68 Minutes of just five songs that will never get radio air-play. Recording was funded by fan pre-orders via PledgeMusic. Pundits are saying it's their best album for 20 years, I certainly think it's up there with Happiness Is the Road. Politically astute lyrics are lovingly wrapped in Floyd/Radiohead richly layered instrumentation. The whole band is on top form and this is a must-hear album.

 


(1) Blackstar by David Bowie. Yes, 2016 has been a fatal year for many household names across entertainment and music in particular. Among many others we've lost Keith Emerson, Prince, Glenn Fry, George Martin, Scotty Moore, Dale Griffin, Leonard Cohen, Eddie Harsch, Andy Newman, Leon Russell, and not least The Thin White Dame, David Bowie. Released on 8 January, his 69th birthday, he passed two days later. There can't be a soul on this planet that doesn't know at least one of his songs and his talent will be sorely missed. For me his career came in three parts. I really loved his early stuff, mostly on the Deram label. Then came what I think of as his pop years, with hindsight probably his mainstream albums. Finally, starting in 1995 with his 1. Outside I think he really transformed into a genuine prodigy. On Blackstar Bowie has grasped the waving fronds of improvisational jazz and tamed it into songs. With seven tracks and a 42 minute running time, it feels somehow out of sync with his back catalogue and stands alone, self-contained.

• The album kicks off with the single Blackstar all hip-hop beats, doomy elegance, and sultry saxaphone. It comes as two parts somehow stuck together, that somehow make one song. Genius.
• 'Tis A pity She Was A Whore gets its name from a controversial 17th-century play by John Ford in which a man has sex with his sister only to stab her in the heart in the middle of a kiss. Bowie twists the original with some gender-bending (she punched me like a dude), a robbery, and World War I, but the message is the same as the play, that humans will resort to savagery when necessary, no matter where or when. Originally released in 2014 as a single.
• Lazarus is sung from the perspective of Newton, the homesick alien Bowie played in 1976 film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'. Over a Massive Attack-like thick, skulking groove he sings the woes of a man out of time, scarred and self-mutilated. But, listen again to the lyrics and he could almost be foretelling his own death. Weird.
• Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) is a track from 2014 (B side to 'Tis A pity She Was A Whore) that has been radically reworked, its big band melodrama now welded to a frantic, drum'n'bass rhythm, its climax reflecting murderous intent.
• Girl Loves Me is a menacing, militaristic tattoo with Bowie rapping in a lazily aggressive, sing-song style, and yelping in the slang of A Clockwork Orange. It also references a bar in Orwell's 1984 called the Chestnut Tree.
• Dollar Days is a gentle reminisce about a soul who wants to spend his golden years in a blissful British countryside but can't because of his restless nature.
• I Can't Give Everything Away. Tellingly, the final song is a beautiful and moving farewell, a epic closing track that basically says; here's an album which references 17th-century plays, classic nihilistic fiction, films, et al and yet I won't tell you what it's all about really; Seeing more and feeling less / Saying no but meaning yes / This is all I ever meant / That's the message that I sent.

2015 Review

Oh, dear, I've not been so prolific either in purchases or live gigs this year. I must try to do better.

Out of 30 musical purchases my pre-2015 acquisitions totalled 19, all on CD:

• There were serveral late purchases in 2014 that didn't make the 2014 list; Sonic Highways by The Foo Fighters, Hypnotic Eye by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, The Unravelling by Knifeworld, Great Western Valkyrie by Rival Sons, Magic Mountain by Black Stone Cherry, and The Dirty Truth by Joanne Shaw Taylor. All were good, solid albums.
• For Now I Am Winter by Icelandic pianist Ólafur Arnalds (2013) was a bit leftfield for me but this indie-classical composer has produced a magical album that I throughly recommend. He has toured with Sigur Rós which rasied his public profile and may give you an inkling of his music. He composed the score and end-credits track for the 2013 ITV series Broadchurch, the score for Ron Krauss' film Gimme Shelter, and For Now I Am Winter was used in the pilot of the 2013 US TV show Masters of Sex.
• This year I acquired four Pink Floyd albums, all remastered and released in 2011; The Final Cut, Obscured By Clouds, Soundtrack From The Film 'More', and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.
• A couple of 'complete' recording came my way; Reason To Believe: The Complete Mercury Studio Recordings of Rod Stewart (issued in 2005), and ...That's Who! The Complete Chrysalis Recordings (1973-1980) of Frankie Miller (issued in 2011). The Rod Stewart collection is of his early material 1969-1974 and features some fantastic songs before he became a mainsteam pop star. Frankie Miller was a new name to me but his Be Good To Yourself was covered by Thunder so I went in search of his material. A Scottish rock singer-songwriter he had his biggest success in the 1970s. But this compilation is an indication of the massive influence his songs had on artists of the seventies. This is fully-featured mini-box set which puts 7 albums (plus 1 remixed version) and 3 single sides onto 4CDs and not a duff track in sight!
• And a couple of best ofs; The Very Best Of... Stevie Ray Vaughan from 2007, and The Look of Love: The Very Best of ABC by err.. ABC from 2001
• Another boxset in the Original Album Classics series, this time by Jeff Beck issued in 2008 and comprising the albums; Rough And Ready, The Jeff Beck Group, Blow By Blow, Wired, and Live With The Jan Hammer Group.
• I wanted to dip my toes into a classical guitar selection so tried The Ultimate Guitar Collection by Julian Bream (2001) but was slightly disappointed.
• Finally, a couple of oldies that I've heard before, thought they were great and wanted to buy; Further the 1997 album from Geneva feauturing the superb vocals of Andrew Montgomery, and the 2014 re-issue of the 1987 album Momentum by Steve Hackett. Very pleased indeed with these.

And so to the releases of 2015 of which I managed to pick up just 11, which is a bit rubbish for me.

I'll start with more from the Original Album Series which, whilst technically released in 2015, span earlier years and so won't qualify for inclusion in my top ten. The Groundhogs, a band for which I have no other material and only the dim memory of Thank Christ for the Bomb. More good, solid music but sounding a bit dated these days.

Having disposed of album 11 that only leaves 10 for my top ten, oh dear. Here we go pop-pickers:

(10) Wolflight by Steve Hackett. We saw Hackett on his Genesis re-Visited tour and were mightly impressed with with how well he has aged. A superb guitar player and such a fine performance that I pre-ordered his new album. This is brilliant staff and definately a 'must have' even if you are not into Genesis.

(9) Hollow Meadows by Richard Hawley the Sheffield troubadour. This is a vastly darker album from his 2012 album Standing at the Sky's Edge. A bit more Leonard Cohen than I would have liked but strong stuff indeed and recommended.

(8) A very new aquistition, The Oblivion Particle by Spock's Beard. This seems to be a concept album about a chap who discovers the oblivion particle and uses it to build a time machine, guided by the voices in his head, when he isn't taking his medication. A bit weird, but the music is great, to me a bit more mainstream than their 2013 Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep.

(7) Rattle That Lock by David Gilmour. OK, I actually prefer his 2006 album On an Island but this is still top-notch stuff.

(6) The Grand Experiment by Neal Morse and his solo band which, for this album, included Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater). Fantastic album with extremely high production values.

(5) The Killer Instinct by Black Star Riders. Their first album, which was superb, had the shadow of Thin Lizzy upon it, this this shows them moving out of the shadow and into their own sound. Oh sure, you can still hear the Lizzy influence, but this are still old-school, hard rocking tracks that stand on their own.

(4) Never a wrong step, Hand.Cannot.Erase from Steven Wilson is a joy. His fourth solo album and apparently heavily inspired by The Dreaming by Kate Bush. The album is written from a female perspective, and the concept and story being inspired by the case of Joyce Carol Vincent, where a woman living in a large city dies in her apartment and no one misses her for over three years, despite her having family and friends.

(3) Oh Wonder is an eponymous album, I haven't been able to use that word until now in this review. Oh Wonder are a London-based pop duo, Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West. Their mellow, slow-grooving, R&B-flecked alt-pop tunes make for gorgeous listening. The track All We Do was used as the theme for ITV's 2015 six-part drama The Unforgotten.

(2) Who knew that Jeff Lynne would come back in 2015 with his own ELO and a brand spanking new album Alone In The Universe? What's more it's flipping brilliant, everything you would expect and more. An instant classic.

(1) And finally, who am I to confound the critics? The best album of 2015 as voted for practically everyone on the planet who have working ears is... Iron Maiden's Books of Souls. Their sixteenth studio album, first studio double album, and therefore also their longest to date, with a total length of 92 minutes of genius. It topped the album charts in 24 countries and earned the band their fifth UK No. 1. I'm sorry, you need to buy this. Do it now!

OK, I'm re-purposing my blog. Who knows what I might put up here, but I'm going to start with some genealogy.

Today I'm going to try and track down Amelia Butler, baptised on 30 August 1835 at St Mary's in Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire, the daughter of Thomas Butler (1814-1904) and Amy Barefoot (1815-1895).

What do we know already?
Well, in the 1841 census she was aged 7 and living with her parents at Church End in Swaffham Bulbeck (HO107/72/4 Folio 10B). Then we lose her entirely until she pops up in the 1881 census, again at her parent's house in Swaffham Bulbeck (PRO Ref RG11 Piece 1678 Folio 79 Page 24) listed as a cook and unmarried. Her age is given as 40 (she should be 46) but the name is correct as are her parent's names so this is definitely her. She then appears in the 1911 census at 95 Cowper Street, Hove in Sussex aged 75 and listed as an old age pensioner (Class: RG14; Piece: 5195). Sussex might seem a bit of a stretch but many of the Butlers moved to the Brighton and Hastings area and Amelia is recorded dying in Brighton in 1917 (GRO Death 1917Q4 Brighton 2b 276 Amelia Butler aged 81.) We also have a complete census record for Thomas and Amy and therefore know that Amelia was not at home in the intervening censuses.

First steps
Does anyone else know more than me? A Google search only shows information I already have. A search of Ancestry public member trees doesn't look too promising with seven trees; a couple of duplicates, one is mine, and one seems to have the wrong father. Viewing each of the tree I find no additional clues, in fact none of them have even the three census records. Intriguingly, one of the trees mentions that in 1875 she was a cook at Swaffham Bulbeck, but there is no citation, so nothing I can check as to where this information came from. I have a Kelly's trade directory from 1896 but she isn't listed in that and in fairness I didn't expect to find her in there, but it was worth checking. Anyway, we have confirmation that she worked as a cook.

The other census records
First efforts to find Amelia in 1851, 1861, and 1871 are a complete failure. I even try taking out 'Butler' then 'Amelia' from the searches but there is nothing even close. Let's start at the other end. Success with 1901! Amelia is living in Brighton at 2 Stone Street. Her birthplace is transcribed as Southam, Cambridgeshire but looking at the image I can see it is Swaffham, so I put in a correction to Ancestry. Sadly, she has no occupation listed but her age is 64 (66 expected) and she is unmarried.

Disaster!
1891 gets a hit as well; Amelia is a cook living at 2 Stone Street in Brighton aged 59 (expected 56) from Swaffham but, she is listed as a widow and the daughter of Sarah Hide aged 78 from Swaffham who is the head of the household and also a widow. What? Is the whole Amelia in Sussex a load of rubbish? I look at the record again and there are some boarders staying at the same address. A quick look in 1881, when Amelia was at her parents, shows a Sarah Hyde from Swaffham operating a boarding house out of 2 Stone Street. So, my new theory is that the enumerator got it wrong, Amelia was neither a daughter nor a widow.

I chase Sarah back through the census records. In 1871 and before that she is born in Hastings and operated a boarding house whilst doing laundry work following the the death of her husband, George, sometime between 1851 and 1861. At no point does she have a daughter called Amelia. That doesn't help with Amelia but it does show that the record is confused in 1891.

1851-1871
So back I go to searching the rest of the census records and no matter how broad I cast the net I can find no matches, hey ho. So what might Amelia have been doing? She could have been working abroad, although I doubt that in 1851 a 16 year-old would have done such a thing. Still, on the plus side, I did find her in 1891 and 1901, and that appears to be more than anyone else has done so far.

2014 review

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, of cabbages, and Kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether we should have a music roundup of 2014." No carpenters in this selection mind...

Gig-wise I've been very, very naughty but I hope to do much better in the new year with four already booked. The purchase of a Sonos system has meant that I spent a lot of time ripping my entire music collection to a NAS where it is now instantly available in two rooms, independently or together. But hey, vinyl is killing MP3s so this year I also got a turntable (technically it's a Christmas present, but I had to test it out!)

Out of 44 musical purchases this year my pre-2014 acquisitions totalled 22, 19 on CD and 3 on vinyl:

• Tales Of Mystery And Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project: I used to have this on vinyl, way back in the day, so this was a bit of a nostalgia purchase.
• End is Forever by The Ataris: I love the later stuff by The Ataris and as this was only 50p I thought I would dip my toe in some earlier material. Not disappointed.
• On The Sunday Of Life, Signify, Metanoia, and Stupid Dream all by Porcupine Tree: OK, I have to admit these were me being a complete-ist. Having said that, most of the material is really very good so I don't regret splashing out when the prices dipped enough to make it worth a punt.
• I have to say that I do like the Original Album Series. Usually there are four or five albums for an extremely good price. This year I picked up ELO, The Doors, and Jim Croce. Top stuff all of them.
• I heard Ben Howard on Later... and whilst waiting for his second album to be released managed to pick up his first, Every Kingdom, in HMV at a special price. Thoroughly recommended.
• This year I fancied trying North Atlantic Oscillation so I started with their Fog Electric album which was right up my street.
• In a similar vein, and because I like The Pineapple Thief anyway, I picked up Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse's Wisdom of Crowds as well as TPT's One Three Seven. Both extremely good.
• Until The Colours Run by Lanterns On The Lake was recommended to me and turned out to be an excellent purchase.
• There were a few rockier albums which were released in 2013 but ended up on my Christmas list so failed to make my 2013 roundup. Fortress by Alterbridge was one such, a fantastic album.
• I was a bit disappointed with the Live in Tokyo album by Portnoy,  Sheehan,  Macalpine and Sherinian. It was, to me, very self-indulgent and no real improvement on the original tracks.
• On the other hand, I was very pleased with English Electric Full Power by Big Big Train and Like Clockwork by Queens Of The Stone Age.
• Finally, I thought The Temperance Movement's eponymous album didn't really live up to the hype.

Overall a very good haul and, despite slight disappointment with a couple, not an actual duff CD to be seen. The vinyl purchases, from a charity shop (I'm such a shameless hipster) were pure nostalgia:

• Rod Stewart's Foot Loose & Fancy Free from 1977.
• A little more current was Alf, the debut solo album of Alison Moyet from 1984.
• Spandau Ballet - The singles collection. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this stuff!

And so to the releases of 2014 of which I managed to pick up 22.

• I'll start with more from the Original Album Series which, whilst technically released in 2014, span earlier years and so won't qualify for inclusion in my top ten. Two excellent releases: Robin Trower who is a brilliant guitarist, and Runrig who are an awesome live band.
• Well, I love Thunder and the live Xmas Show 2013 was brilliant. Sadly I won't get to see them on tour in March as I'm on holiday but I'm so pleased that they've got a new studio album in 2015 and I've pre-ordered it as I just know that it's going to be fantastic.
• The Fall of Math by 65Daysofstatic was recommended by a friend a while back but I spotted the 2014 re-mastered edition and was very pleased with this.
• Another hyped, eponymous album was from Augustines and, I'm afraid, it too was slightly disappointing.
• Mystoria by Amplifier also didn't hit the heights I expected of them. The Octopus was such a great album in my opinion and they've struggled to reach that form again.
• Robert Plant seems to be doing well with his solo career and Lullaby...and the ceaseless roar was an excellent album.
• The Pineapple Thief had a new release with Magnolia which was every bit as good as I thought it would be.
• It's been a while since their last album but Engineers released Always returning which I bought with a bonus instrumental CD. Since their vocals are always very subdued anyway it's a bit like having two copies of the album that are practically the same, but hey ho it's a very good album so no complaints from me.
• I've always thought that I would probably like Bigelf so I tried their Into The Maelstrom, and I do. very much. Good purchase.
• A band that I do know and like, Transatlantic, turned out another fantastic album with Kaleidoscope.
• Finally in this section, I did enjoy the Pink Floyd release of The Endless River. Not classic Floyd but well worth having.

Here come the excuses. This my preferred order on this particular day, tomorrow it could be a slightly different list. It doesn't include any of the undeniably great albums which I failed to buy. I can't listen to everything; I have a full-time job, a family with grandchildren, other interests, and a limit as to how much I can spend on music. All this notwithstanding, here are my 2014 top ten albums:

• (10) Escape From The Shadow Garden by Magnum. Probably their best album since Brand New Morning, an outstanding return to form.
• (9) OK, it was a bit left-field for me but Splinter (songs from a broken mind) from Gary Numan came highly recommended by my oldest friend, a big Numan fan. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't cut the mustard, but it turned out to be a masterpiece and I'm very grateful that he pestered me into buying it. Cheers Vin!
• (8) Different Shades of Blue, yet another album from the prolific Joe Bonnamassa. In fairness he does a lot of covers and tracks with other people so it was refreshing to have an album of his own material, and he never disappoints.
• (7) As I enjoyed North Atlantic Oscillation's debut album I just had to buy their latest, The Third Day which was stunning, please buy this.
• (6) A blast of the past came in the form of Brighouse band Embrace who released an eponymous album eight years after their last. I always loved Embrace although they never seemed to get the major breakthrough that they deserved, bit like Thunder in that respect. This album mixed things up a bit with classic Embrace riffs and electronica / dance rhythms. I really liked it and was really pleased that they were the 'house band' for the Yorkshire Grand Depart at the First Direct Arena in Leeds with Hope&Social in support.
• (5) Supergroups are usually inconsistent or transient so I'm hoping that Flying Colours are going to stick around for a while. This year saw them quietly release the brilliant Second Nature, surely destined to be a classic rock album?
• (4) Feeder are currently in hiatus although I understand that Grant Nicholas is working on new material with Taka, so that's something to look forward to. In the meantime he has released a solo album, Yorktown Heights, which ticks all my boxes. It's kinda stripped back Feeder with the emphasis on the lyrics. very, very good indeed.
• (3) And so to the top three (trumpet blast) and the nicely eponymous (using that word a lot) album from Royal Blood which really blew my socks off. Superb.
• (2) And in complete contrast is the beautiful and haunting Distant Satellites from Anathema which would have been my album of the year if it wasn't for that pesky chap...
• (1) ...Ben Howard and his incredible I Forget Where We Were. What a stunning album.

2013 Review

19 December 2013 – so here is my musical roundup of 2013. The number of live gigs was definitely down again this this year, my own fault, nothing to do with the quality of artists at local venues. I did manage to get further afield this year, so that's a positive. I'm pleased to see that the First Direct Arena in Leeds has got off to a good start. I really hope that they can keep it up as there was strong competition from the O2 Academy in the latter half of the year. Venues in York seem to be struggling to get people through the doors. I'm not sure why this should be as there have been some excellent acts performing in the city, possibly one of the stronger years for talent.

My CD collection has swelled by another 25 albums, but that's nearly half the number from last year. Of those, 14 were released this year, 10 were older, and one was a 2013 re-issue of a 1995 album. My top ten new albums for 2013 were:

1. Dimensionaut, Sound of Contact
2. The Next Day, David Bowie
3. Opposites, Biffy Clyro
4. Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep, Spock's Beard
5. The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories), Steven Wilson
6. All Hell Breaks Loose, Black Star Riders
7. Echo Street, Amplifier
8. The World is Yours, The Union
9. Xmas Show 2012, Thunder
10. Dream Theater, Dream Theater

Some, well four actually, didn’t get in my top ten. Here they are in no particular order:

• Afterthoughts, Nosound
• A Far Cry From Home, Stolen Earth
• Oceans of Time, Touchstone
• Field of Reeds, These New Puritans

Of the older issues, it isn’t fair to rank them as the reasons that I bought them vary so much, so I present them by artist alphabetically:

• The Silent Enigma, Anathema (re-issue)
• American Beauty, The Greatful Dead
• Live Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Working Man's Dead, The Greatful Dead
• Hotel Radio, The Hazey Janes
• The Winter That Was, The Hazey Janes
• The Rainbow Bridge Concert, Jimi Hendrix
• Tall Ships, It Bites
• Sounds That Cannot Be Made, Marillion
• Crossing the Line, Simon McBride
• All the Little Lights, Passenger

The Winter That Was

Thursday 12 December 2013 - Due to the timing of some errands I found myself with a spare couple of hours to kill in York, so popped along to The Duchess. I knew that The Hazey Janes were playing and that Andy might be turning up. It was very quiet when I arrived. There were six people standing at the barrier and me, so I secreted myself towards the back. The sound and lighting engineers turned up and another chap who stood next to a pillar, then three of the six at the front clambered up onto the stage to play, they were support band The Article.

I really, really liked their first track, Lost In Circulation, almost a prog track, going off in all kinds of directions, and a fantastic start. The rest of the set seemed to be a mix of their own stuff and some covers, most of which I didn't recognise except for The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've). Their vocals reminded me of early Cheap Trick but they were very muddy and indistinct, hence I never caught the name of any but the first track. The Article are very young but there is clearly nascent talent there, they just need to ditch the covers and get the vocals right.

Andy and Dan arrived a just after The Article started, swelling the number of us punters to seven. They too seemed to share the view that the band held promise. During the interval we adjourned to a nearby hostelry so that we could talk without shouting at each other, and we came back as The Hazey Janes (THJ) were mid-way through their first track. Meanwhile, the audience had increased by six, making a grand total of 13.

THJ are billed as a country-turned-indie-pop outfit from Dundee, although that description probably doesn't do them justice as their music actually spans everything from shoegazing to rock, quirky pop to balladry. Whilst they have supported acts such as Snow Patrol, Elbow, Idlewild, Brakes, Aberfeldy and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, I've never heard of them or any of their music. What was apparent, right from the start, was that this was a musically mature band, very tight, and confident of their performance. They were obviously disappointed by the low turnout but determined to put on great show and the handful of us attending were enthusiastically grateful for that.

Many of the tracks were taken from their latest album, The Winter That Was. The ballad-style tracks had an air of Del Amitri about them, but they also produced rip-roaring rock, foot-tapping country, and a frankly awesome track Everything Starts Again. And, kudos to them, even though we were a pitiful crowd, they came back and gave us two songs for an encore, one of which was a cover of a Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris track (I think it was Return Of The Grievous Angel).

After the performance we stayed behind while Andrew Mitchell (lead vocals and guitar) produced a box of CDs and both Andy and I bought a copy of The Winter That Was each which Andrew kindly signed for us. I shall definitely be checking out their back-catalogue.

I'm probably not best placed to cast stones, and it might have been due to late-night Christmas shopping, but for bands of this calibre such a poor turnout must be depressing. The outlook for live music looks bleak.