HERE is a link to a gigantic relative on the Isle of Man of my slim 5'8" husband . . . The Caleys married into his Quayle line, hence he's related, though fairly distantly. I've not dug into that properly yet, but it's one of the bits of oral family history handed down through the family. I'm working on the Manx lines at the moment. Still hoping to find the "four brothers" which is also a snippet passed down.
One line which is a complete dead end from the start, back in Manchester, is the marriage to a "Mary Evans from Wales." Yeah sure, there are thousands of those out there, and not even a date of birth!
Anyway, I need to gird my loins and do some painting. I'll try and add a few photos of the town later.
I had vaguely heard of the Manx Giant before but was interested to read that article about his little scam way back then!
ReplyDeleteI think I'd have done the same if I was him - making the most of his "assets"!
DeleteHow you avoided temptation is beyond me, really. I'd have succumbed in the flower spot.
ReplyDeleteAh, but I only lasted a couple of days before buying myself a beautiful rose yesterday!
DeleteYou get these dead ends. I have never been able to trace my direct paternal line before 1811 as my gggGrandfather died in 1842 so I gave no idea where he was born or whether he had any siblings. But going back further and further is not everrthing for me.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am also stuck with my direct paternal line and 1811 is when g.g. grandfather gave up being a sailor (he was at the Battle of Trafalgar, with my g.g. grandfather on the other paternal line, and HE was on board Victory and got a medal for it). I thought I might have cracked it recently, when I finally got backwards properly on a 40 year old tip, only to find the possible ancestor was a sojourner, so not of that parish! Hmmph!
DeleteSometimes avoiding temptation is the best we can do for a day... Breaking down is not a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I am on the verge of tears all too often these days. BUT, a good walk always helps and sometimes I should just sit and sob, but I don't do that very often. As you well know, the temptation resisted didn't last long!
DeleteLove the expression to gird my loins! I need to do that too. It was farmer’s market day in Petworth yesterday and like you I ignored the flower stalls and only bought a dressed crab from the Selsey fisherman and four hot cross buns. After my morning shift in the bookshop and lunch of crab and rocket from the greenhouse sandwiches I had a garden potter (I had spotted the first Apricot Beauty tulips in flower and had to take a photo) and planted out broad beans and sowed beetroot direct into the veg plot and rocket in the tin bath outside the back door. I had been hoping that Queen of Night tulips would flower a second year here but they are all leaf so I have carefully eased them out and will plant them in the meadow bed amongst the spring flowering shrubs, tete a tete daffs and cowslips and see what happens next spring. I picked purple sprouting broccoli and cavolo di Toscana for chilli, garlic, anchovy pasta last night and picked flowering stems from forsythia and amelanchier and some daffodils in bud to bring spring indoors. Have a lovely day BB, it’s grey and gloomy here today but the garden is calling me and I am hoping the menfolk will make a start on spreading the stones… a sack a day and it will be done by Friday! Sarah xx
ReplyDeleteIt's one I use often. We don't have a local Farmer's Market - I think the nearest one is Aberystwyth, although Hay does have a good market on a Thursday. Oooh, dressed crab - haven't had that since being on Guernsey nearly 40 years ago! Your Apricot Beauty tulips sound lovely. I just have the mixed colours sorts bunged in tubs out the front but they are about to burst into flower. I must get some bunged in the beds this year. My friend in Dorset planted over 300 last year. They must look stunning. My back would give up after planting the first 20 I think!! I hope your Queen of the Night ones come up in the meadow when they've settled in. Your plot and garden sound so lovely. I have my Magnolia stellata coming into bloom, and fresh grown by a red Dogwood which we'd thought we'd killed - so I planted the Black Elder behind it and they will be jockeying for position now.
DeleteOooh, that was a naughty little scam. But I suppose £2,000 was a LOT of money back in those days, and he never got caught, you have to admire his cheek. It's got to be hard to hide and reinvent yourself when you are so super sized!
ReplyDeleteI'd have been sorely tempted by both the plants AND the jugs.
Indeed, a great deal, and one assumes he was out to make as much as he could whilst he was able - giants generally don't make old bones after all.
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