Pedigree

Back in the late 70's my then wife and I bought a Border Terrier pup which I was surprisingly allowed to name and have registered with the Border Terrier Club. And so  "Berkeley James Harvest" was entered into the records. Some of the Oldies who grew up without a spelling checker/corrector may know the play on words and even find the odd Youtube video connected to this.

In due course, little human babies arrived. The first was lumbered with having a name associated with my mother and was spared having a connection to her paternal grandfather. However when a son came along, my wife got the first choice and I was simply allowed to give him a second and third forename, based on the dog's name. I was told three middle names especially an agricultural term (Harvest) would not be appropriate.

The reason for this Blip is simply that the weather was awful, I didn't go out except at dusk to walk the dogs in the pouring rain and without a camera or even a mobile phone. Had spent all day trying to get to grips with the piles of unsorted paperwork left over from the pre-Christmas tax return panic. I had also been playing with Blip by posting a photo on my birth date and the combination of events got me thinking of the long roll of paper in a cardboard tube where I also keep my grand children's A3 size drawings.

It's the so-called Family Pedigree, something semi-jokingly handed down from my father. He always claimed his mother had it commissioned and paid the genealogist an extra £10 to link her to William the Conqueror or as my brother-in-law and frequent Bliper of Normandy often refers to, William the Bastard.

More notable for me is the connection to my Blip Journal name - I was born in the Chinese year of the horse and Williams sister was named Godiva. Given the connection to me, I reckon this Godiva is the one famous for her horse riding skills but mistakenly thought to have been of Anglo-Saxon descent. Wikipedia reveals she died sometime between 1066 and 1086. For me, there is no doubt but only a DNA test can change the history books and allow me to take my rightful place in Buck House.

By the way, my father carried the middle name as did his four sisters (you were very lucky Kate). He didn't think it was fair to burden his son with it so I didn't get it but instead the regal name of Frederick, after his father's middle name. For many years at school up to 17, I was called Fred but once I left there, studied and grew up without any contact to school chums so it disappeared from daily use. Another name my father had used a few times and my younger German uncle picked up and used for many years was "Fish face"!