The meaning of life and everything

42, which some will get and others won't. Don't worry if you don't, it's not that important.

Signed up for a free 14 day trial on ancestry.co.uk yesterday. Terrific fun delving into the family history, and I discovered two things that I didn't know about my maternal line, so my mothers mother. Turns out that her mother remarried when her father died at the age of 40. I didn't know that. I was also perplexed by the fact that almost all of the children had an initial in their name, so my grandmother was Florence Mary D Tindale. It looks like they either had a double barreled name Dodd Tindale or Dodd was my great grandfathers middle name William Dodd Tindale and in a moment of vanity, he decided to give it to all of the children. I won't know until I dig a bit deeper.

Other interesting findings:

~ They bred like rabbits but died young. Between the 1891 and 1901 census', 2 children had disappeared and 2 popped into the world
~ They lived like sardines in a tin, mum, dad, 7 children and a servant in a 2 up 2 down in Hetton Le Hole
~ Yes, they had servants. In reality, I think they were live in au pairs who were unpaid but got bed and board and helped look after the brood. In this case, she was actually my great grandmothers sister. Goodness only knows where they all slept
~ In 1901, 2 of my grandmothers brothers were of working age. Frederick (19) cleared coal in the mine and Joseph (16) was a pony driver. Their step father was listed as a miner/underground stone mason. Tough work for such young lads. It will be interesting to see how their lives panned out

Matthew returns home from France today in the Fiat MOWGLI which he tells me has a cracked exhaust, no spare wheel, no handbrake and no windscreen wipers. So, as long as he keeps the window cracked open so he doesn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning, avoids any hills, it doesn't rain and he doesn't get a puncture, he should be home around 8 o'clock this evening. I'm dreading the phone ringing today. Recovering Rosina from the M1 was one thing. Recovering Matthew from France would be a much bigger challenge.