The King’s Road, Family History and the End of the Holidays 2011

 

Dear Friends and Family,

The very first Saturday we were in England, we took a walk down the King’s Road in Chelsea, where we live. Below is painting of King’s Road by Faith Sheppard done in 1940. Except for the vehicle it doesn’t look much different today.

 

On our walk we started at a district in Chelsea called the World’s End. The World's End is the part of Chelsea lying at the western end of the King’s Road. It was named after a tavern. The original World's End Tavern was built before 1790. A later pub was built in the mid-19th century and replaced in 1897 by the building we pass today as we walk up the road.

 

 

 

 

The King’s Road was named in honor of King Charles II and was his private road from Westminster to Fulham Palace. From there he could take a boat on to Hampton Court Palace.

 

 

 

The road itself dates back to 704. King Charles also used the road to visit his mistress Nell Gwyn. 

The road remained private until 1830 and today runs for about 2 miles from Fulham to Sloan Square.

 

 

Chelsea is shaped like a horse's head with the World's End as its snout. Fulham Road runs east west along the top, the King’s Road runs parallel in the middle and the lower road next to the River Thames is the Chelsea Embankment. We live on one of the streets in the “snout” running northwest from the King’s Road. Sloan’s Square is shown on the eastern end of the “head”.

 

Family History

During the past year as we have been working as Family History missionaries, we have learned a lot about tracing a family tree.  One of the things that helps in doing research is to search in the census. This is true of UK as well as US research. The census can provide valuable information about our ancestors:

• Where they were living
• Who they were living with
• What their occupations were
• If they had servants
• Who their neighbors were
• If they had brothers and sisters
• What their ages were at the time of the census
• If they had any disabilities

The US census began in 1790 and is taken every 10 years. The last was taken in 2010. The 1940 census will be released online on April 2, 2012. There is a 72 year privacy restriction on US censuses.

In the UK,  a census also takes place every 10 years.  The most recent census took place on 27 March 2011 and we had to fill out a census form. The most recent census to be released is the 1911 census. In the UK there is a 100-year rule to protect privacy.

When research takes you to the time before the fist modern census (1841) and before the beginning of civil registration (1837) you have to go to the parish records.

In some parishes, records started being recorded in 1538. A law had been passed ordering the clergy to record births, marriages and deaths. This provides invaluable information to a person searching out their family. Most of the parish records have been microfilmed by our church and an index of them is available on FamilySearch. If you watched the Royal Wedding of William and Kate last April you might recall that after the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Kate and William went into a private chapel to sign the wedding register.

When our patrons come to us in our area on the first floor at The National Archives and want to see images from the parish records, we help them locate the microfilm they need to view. We have over 63,000 microfilms with us that include parish records.

The Church has microfilmed church records from all over the world. The other day I was doing a scan for a young man from Brazil. His grandfather had immigrated from Italy to Brazil many years before. He told me that the images he had found on the microfilms were his great-grandparents birth records and he had been looking for them for 5 years. He and his grandfather had even traveled to Italy to find where their family was from. They had spent several days going from village to village in an area not too far from Naples. Many of the churches they visited said their records were lost during the war. On the last day of their visit they found his great-grandfather's name on a census. From that census they were able to identify a village and then order the microfilm of the church record from the Family History Library in Salt Lake. The film arrived at our Centre and he came to view it. He was so excited to finally find what he and his grandfather had been searching for. I emailed the image to his grandfather in Brazil.

John Robertson, one of the Family History missionaries, related the following, “I happened to be sitting next to a woman while working on the WW I diaries. In the course of our conversation, she asked what we were doing here in England. When she found out that we were from the London Family History Centre that she knew so well, she said how wonderful the elders were that had helped her so much. She said, "I'm so glad to meet an elder today."

Ken and I had a similar experience while we were working on the war diaries. One of the English volunteers expressed to us how much the Church has done for family history research by having the IGI and now FamilySearch available to the public.

It’s very nice to feel appreciated by people who love the work as much as we do.

End of the Holidays

A few days after Christmas we were able to get tickets to see the Nutcracker with the Robertsons and Inskeeps. It was at the London Coliseum and was a beautiful production.

 

 

 On New Year’s Eve we had dinner with the other senior missionaries at Sharon’s flat and celebrated the coming of 2012 at Vienna time- 10:00 UK time.

 

 

 

Riley’s First Birthday

On that very first Saturday as we were on the King’s Road my phone rang. It was Kelly and Curtis announcing the birth of their new baby. It’s hard to believe that baby Riley will be celebrating his first birthday on January 15th. I can’t wait to get home and get some of those bear hugs!

Emily and Elizabeth Baptism

Our granddaughters, Emily and Elizabeth, were baptized yesterday. We are so proud of you darling girls!

 

 

Our best to all!

Love, Elder and Sister Fugal (aka Cheryl and Ken, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa)

 

 

Senior Missionaries and Christmas in England

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It’s pretty crazy that as I’m sitting in our flat  writing this blog on Boxing Day, I can hear the cheers coming from the Chelsea Football Stadium just a couple of blocks down the road. Sometimes it doesn’t seem possible that we are in England and have been here on our mission for almost a year.

The advent calendar is completed, the gifts have been opened and we are awaiting the new year. We have had a Christmas we will    always remember even though we spent it far from home.

 
 
After finishing work at The National Archives on Thursday, we met Devon and Judy Tufts for dinner at Haché, a French restaurant on Fulham Road.
  
Devon and I both retired from Timberline Middle School at the same time and ended up serving missions in England. The Tufts were here  for a few days from Birmingham where they are serving a CES mission. It was very good to see them, compare missions and  share news from home. 

On Christmas Eve Day Ken and I went to the Kings Road, my favorite place to shop, and picked up some last minute items.

On Christmas Eve we got together with President and Sister Patch and the other senior missionary couples for dinner. Besides the Robertsons, Sprouses and Empeys, we have 3 new senior missionary couples serving in the England London Mission. Elder Don and Sister Claudia Inskeep have joined us to work as Family History missionaries at The National Archives. The Inskeeps  served in the same capacity a couple of years ago. President Patch joked that they had had too much fun and wanted to come back. The Browns, a couple who arrived about a month ago are serving in Gravesend and the Grays, a Scottish couple who live in Australia, joined us for dinner. The Grays will be serving in Cambridge. Elder Richard and Sister Devie Mills are also senior missionaries in our mission but they did not make the journey into London for dinner. Elder Michael Wells and Sister Sylvia Edwards serve with the young adults so they were with them for Christmas Eve.

                       The Empeys, Fugals and Sister Robertson

    Sister Brown, Sister Patch, President Patch, the Browns and Inskeeps

After dinner we had tickets to the Royal Albert Hall to see a wonderful program called Carols by Candlelight. It was performed by the Mozart Festival Orchestra and Chorus wearing period costumes. The Christmas Sequence from Messiah, The Twelve Days of Christmas and many other wonderful carols were presented and we joined in for much of the singing.

On Christmas morning, because the tubes and buses didn’t run, we attended church at the Baden Powell building where the Hyde Park Ward is meeting during the building renovation. It was a nice meeting with some very good talks. A young woman sang Silent Night very beautifully.

When we arrived home I started our Christmas dinner and we unwrapped the gifts that were under our tiny red tree on the mantle.

We put together our annual puzzle- this year’s was a winter scene of the Royal Albert Hall.

And finished it

Roasted chestnuts

Ate goodies

We even had some See’s Chocolates that the Inskeeps brought us from home.

Displayed our Christmas cards

Best of all, we were able to talk to our family on Skype and see all the fun things Santa brought for Christmas.

It was a wonderful Christmas! Now we look forward to the new year and the remaining 6 months of our mission.

At home there is a very special birthday coming up. Spencer will be 12 years old on January 4th. We are so proud of you Spencer!

 

 Our love to all and a Happy New Year!
Love, Elder and Sister Fugal (aka Cheryl and Ken, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa)

Family History and Christmas in England

 

Dear Family and Friends,

One of our regular patrons, an English gentleman in his 80’s, shared with us the gravestone epitaph of his great grandfather’s brother and sister-in-law. It reads:

To the memory of Joseph and Maria Hales, who in the 22nd year of their age and in the first year of their marriage were both killed at Tibberton while sleeping in their bed at 3 o’clock in the morning Saturday December 20th 1862 by the sudden falling of the tall chimney belonging to the Paper Mill during a long continued gale of wind. “Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

Quite a run-on sentence but some good advice at the end. You never know what you will find when you do family history.

A couple of weeks ago the senior family history missionaries working at The National Archives, began a project to help  prepare World War I Diaries for digitization. At times when all the missionaries are not needed on the floor, we go down to the basement of the Archives and carefully sort through archive boxes containing the diaries of British Military units. According to TNA information, “A war diary is a daily record of operations, intelligence reports and other events, kept for each battalion by an appointed junior officer”.  Below is an image I found on an internet site that shows a page from a diary .

The diaries are mostly hand written accounts of daily happenings, often listing the numbers of casualties. One box I was going through had several maps showing trenches and the English and German battle lines. On the back of the diary someone had written, “On His Majesty's Service”.

The maps are of particular interest to me as my Dad was a cartographer in the US 8th Infantry Division during World War II. He was in many of the same places in World War II that are shown on the maps we see as we work on the project.

                               One of my Dad’s maps

For our children and those interested, here’s a link to information about the 8th Infantry Division Division in WWII:

http://www.fatherswar.com/8thinfdiv/WW2/WW2index.html

 

Christmas in England

 

I have a London Advent Calendar on my computer that uses sights and scenes of London to count down the days until Christmas. On the calendar Big Ben keeps the correct time, the sky changes to dark when the sun goes down and the phase of the moon is always correct. Tonight it’s in the last quarter. December has been flying by.

With several of the other senior missionary couples, we caught bus number 10 from Kensington High Street and rode on the top deck down Oxford Street to see the Christmas decorations.

Many of the department stores have amazing Christmas displays and lights decorate the crowded streets.

 

We are going with the other senior missionaries to the Royal Albert Hall on Christmas Eve for the program Carols by Candlelight.

Since Christmas Day is on Sunday this year and since the tubes and buses don’t run on Christmas, we will be walking to the Hyde Park Ward for their sacrament service instead of going to the North London Ward.

London has so many Christmas traditions it would be impossible to write about them all but here is one that I really like.

In the forest of Østmarka which is near Oslo, Norway, a 46 year Norwegian Spruce tree was selected as the 2011 Christmas tree for Trafalgar’s Square. For the past 65 years the city of Oslo has donated a Christmas tree to the city of London in appreciation of England’s assistance during World War II.

When it reaches Trafalgar Square, the tree is carefully decorated. A plaque at the foot of the tree reads:

       ‘This tree is given by the city of Oslo
       as a token of Norwegian gratitude to
       the people of London for their
       assistance during the years 1940-1945.
       A tree has been given annually since 1947’

We feel so blessed to be able to serve a mission in this beautiful country. We are thankful for the friends we have made here and for the wonderful missionaries we are privileged to serve along side. We are ever grateful for our friends and family at home.

We pray for God’s blessings on you all.

Merry Christmas!
Love, Elder and Sister Fugal (aka Cheryl and Ken, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa)

Christmas in England

 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love to decorate the house, shop with my girls, make fudge and other goodies, listen to Christmas music and plan for Christmas Day. I love that we remember the baby Jesus and that people seem to have more goodwill for each other during this season. I remember the special times I had as a child with my family and the wonderful Christmases with Ken and our children. Now they have families of their own and this makes our Christmas even more exciting with all of our beautiful grandchildren.

This year we are away and it is difficult but Christmas is still magical. So I have decorated the flat, listen to Christmas music on my iPod on the way to The National Archives and shopped for gifts for my family. Kelly made my fudge and delivered it to our other children.

Last Christmas Ken and I spoke in our ward for the Christmas program and also because it was our missionary farewell. I told a story about Charles Dickens. Here is a part of my talk.

“In his December 1994, First Presidency message President Gordon B. Hinckley told a story about Charles Dickens. At Christmastime when we hear the name Charles Dickens we usually think of A Christmas Carol, but on this occasion, President Hinckley wasn’t talking about Christmas Carol.

Charles Dickens was the father of ten children and evidently loved to tell them stories. In 1849, while he was writing David Copperfield, Dickens took time to write The Life of Our Lord. This book was not for publication but only for his children. It was a simple testimony from him to them and it presented the Christmas story in Dickens’ own words. His children, when they grew, would not permit it to be published. For 85 years it remained in the Dickens family. Then, when the youngest son died in 1933, publication was permitted.

The book begins with these words:

“My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable... And as he is now in heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you will never think what a good place heaven is, without knowing who He was and what He did.”

And then he tells them the Christmas story.”

I took this photo in the Dickens's Museum which is in a house where Dickens once lived. They were decorating for Christmas during our visit.

We were able to see Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the London Arts Theatre with the Robertsons and Spruces. It was an interesting production- a one man show with British actor Simon Callow relating the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

I love the preface to the book published December, 1843. Dickens wrote,

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.”

Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.

 

 

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening with the other senior missionary couples to begin the Christmas season. Elder and Sister Sprouse hosted the party at our flat and we all finally got to have that turkey dinner we missed on Thanksgiving.

Sharon (our FHC director) the Robertsons, us, Sister Spouse, the Empeys and Elder Sprouse.

Especially for our children- notice the Santa picture that I have on the mirror.

After eating, we shared our favorite Christmas memories, had a gift exchange and Ken read the Christmas story from Luke. Then we pulled our Christmas crackers. Christmas crackers are part of the Christmas celebration in the UK.

The crackers, which are made of a cardboard tube wrapped in bright paper, are pulled making a snap. Each cracker contains a hat, joke and trinket.

Another English Christmas tradition is the celebration of Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Traditionally, an alms box was placed in the parish church and on the day after Christmas it was opened and gifts were given to the poor.

The Twelve Days of Christmas originated in 18th-century England, as a ‘memory-and-forfeit game”. British children had to remember all of the previous verses and then add a new verse. If they were unable to remember they had to pay a forfeit, candy or a kiss.

Christmas day is the first of the 12 days of Christmas.                     The Twelfth Night is the end of the Christmas season. In medieval England it was the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve (Halloween).

One of my favorite memories of teaching at Timberline Middle School is of our Christmas assembly where every year the choir sings The Twelve Days of Christmas. It always made me smile.

More on Christmas in the next blog…..

The North London Ward had their Primary Program today. It was delightful watching the children we have got to know in the past year, sing and give their talks and just look so cute. It was a sweet mixture of British and American accents. You could never find a group that sings Scripture Power with such gusto! It was a beautiful program.

 

Our love to all and a Merry Christmas!
Love, Elder and Sister Fugal (aka Cheryl and Ken, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa)