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Odd, Unexplainable Appearances

Wasn't til we lived in Colorado, I ever really had a sense of the sheer massiveness of some places outside Europe. Here, every thing is built on, overlooked - no woods that stretch for entire counties, etc. I think that genre of 'backpacker murder' films and TV has, of course, plenty to do with a recent serial killer but also, speaks to this fear deep inside us all, of being alone in an unknown vastness. And all those 17thC, 18thC and 19thC US 'captive' narratives - this fear of what christian Europeans would have seen as 'the uncivilized' and 'wilderness' runs deep, I think (translated in some cultures in the 20thC into alien abduction stories, I suspect...) Space, the final frontier. Etc.

Mungoman, my son's fiancee comes from the Potteries! They still export their very lovely women as she's now living here in Yorkshire!

Skinny, yes, them merinos were something we can't farm very well here. My Aus relatives were a Lincolnshire farmer's son who went out on the Third Fleet as a marine then married a convict and stayed and an 1840s' grt grt uncle whose story I stumbled on in the 19thC newspapers, when researching summat else. He was an 'incendiarist' and got the death sentence but it was xmas so the sentence got commuted to transportation. I think he was eventually released and stayed in Tasmania, which is where my other (unrelated) earlier relative had also gone. On my dad's side there is another Aus connection - he had a very posh ancestor who went bankrupt around 1830, and took himself to Aus to build a new life. Interestingly, I found this man mentioned in the newspapers a few years earlier, as the victim of a notorious robber. The robber had been transported to Aus. He ended up staying there and my man's son married the convict's daughter! Always intrigues me to think of these Yorkshire people, probably never been beyond York in their lives, suddenly at the other side of the world...
 
Always intrigues me to think of these Yorkshire people, probably never been beyond York in their lives, suddenly at the other side of the world...
Intriguing indeed. I am nearly connected to those folk. It's more than imagination. I'm convinced there's a connection that is palpable but that our language just doesn't have words for. I kindly doubt I will ever stand on Ireland's green fields, but I almost don't even need to. I'm almost there, whilst being here. I can't do no more in this husk than poesise it. Listen to my voice telling you the story.
 
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I just wanted, with all this talk of emigration, to nip in and mention that my recent ancestry DNA indicated that my ancestors came from Libya and, as the last ice age ended, they made their way up through the newly opened-up Europe and mostly settled in what we would now call the Cotswolds and the south Welsh marches. And that's it. Our DNA stayed put.

The Romans came and went, the Saxons invaded, and the Vikings. The Normans conquered. None of it troubled us enough to make us move. Well, I suppose it was a long trek up from Africa all those thousands of years ago. They needed the rest, probably.

Family tree research my brother has done show some movement during the industrial revolution from the Welsh marches to central England, where we settled again and still live.

I think that's got to be VERY unusual. An ancestry with no migration, other than out of Africa. I still don't know whether to laugh or cry about it!
 
To say the least, I'd be blown away Frides.

It would initiate a whole new line of thought about existence and perception. Dej Vu on a huge scale?

I think you need a scribe to take notes! :twothumbs: even if you didn't see it, the repeated action of going to look for it....
 
I just wanted, with all this talk of emigration, to nip in and mention that my recent ancestry DNA indicated that my ancestors came from Libya and, as the last ice age ended, they made their way up through the newly opened-up Europe and mostly settled in what we would now call the Cotswolds and the south Welsh marches. And that's it. Our DNA stayed put.

The Romans came and went, the Saxons invaded, and the Vikings. The Normans conquered. None of it troubled us enough to make us move. Well, I suppose it was a long trek up from Africa all those thousands of years ago. They needed the rest, probably.

How do you know that your ancestors migrated from Libya to what would become the UK?
Can that be ascertained from a DNA test?

Is it possible that your ancestors included Roman soldiers who were Libyan and sent to live in the Cotswolds?
 
I think you need a scribe to take notes! :twothumbs: even if you didn't see it, the repeated action of going to look for it....

It's funny Frides...i wouldn't be surprised if it did happen.

Goulburn was 'town', 20 odd mile from 'Gibraltar', where all shopping would get done, and now that Highways and motorways have been built over the last fifty years, Sydney is now a two hour drive - just up road - where at one time it took six hours.

Unfortunately, people from Sydney and Canberra (The Capital) have realised that you can buy property, or a heritage house built by convicts, or designed by a rather swish 19th century european architect for next to nothing in Goulburn...meanwhile selling their single brick house on a 300 square metre block for $900,000, and commuting to Sydney to work.

Everytime I drive down to Marulan/Goulburn, I see more and more of the old property that has been divided up into 50 acre blocks...rather sad really.

There was a time as a lad that i visited the neighbours, just up the river, and left it late in returning. It was a summers night, no moon, and a massive Southerly was building up and for some reason I was on my Sisters horse.

I reached our front gate on the Brayton Road without incident, which meant there was only another mile or so to go when just then, there was a massive clap of thunder which caused Peggy (sisters horse) to rush.

Thunderclap followed thunderclap and I couldn't hold Peggy. She was in a full bolt.

As one can surmise...it was a dark and stormy night (i had to put that in, didn't I) and somewhere in front was an eight foot wide creek that ran through the homebound lane with only one bridge. There was no way I was going to pull Peggy up, and so I dropped the reins and let her have her head.

She missed the bridge but cleared the creek beautifully, and didn't check until she got home...this was all done, 8 furlongs in pitch dark with a water jump of 8 feet, massive thunder rolling around and lightning stabbing away.

It saddens me to say that that is now impossible to imagine, never mind to do, and will be just one of 'those' anecdotes That great Uncle Jon talks about now and again.

I feel that there will come a time when I will drive down to Goulburn expecting to see these visionaries...and I will see them.
 
It's funny Frides...i wouldn't be surprised if it did happen.

Goulburn was 'town', 20 odd mile from 'Gibraltar', where all shopping would get done, and now that Highways and motorways have been built over the last fifty years, Sydney is now a two hour drive - just up road - where at one time it took six hours.

Unfortunately, people from Sydney and Canberra (The Capital) have realised that you can buy property, or a heritage house built by convicts, or designed by a rather swish 19th century european architect for next to nothing in Goulburn...meanwhile selling their single brick house on a 300 square metre block for $900,000, and commuting to Sydney to work.

Everytime I drive down to Marulan/Goulburn, I see more and more of the old property that has been divided up into 50 acre blocks...rather sad really.

There was a time as a lad that i visited the neighbours, just up the river, and left it late in returning. It was a summers night, no moon, and a massive Southerly was building up and for some reason I was on my Sisters horse.

I reached our front gate on the Brayton Road without incident, which meant there was only another mile or so to go when just then, there was a massive clap of thunder which caused Peggy (sisters horse) to rush.

Thunderclap followed thunderclap and I couldn't hold Peggy. She was in a full bolt.

As one can surmise...it was a dark and stormy night (i had to put that in, didn't I) and somewhere in front was an eight foot wide creek that ran through the homebound lane with only one bridge. There was no way I was going to pull Peggy up, and so I dropped the reins and let her have her head.

She missed the bridge but cleared the creek beautifully, and didn't check until she got home...this was all done, 8 furlongs in pitch dark with a water jump of 8 feet, massive thunder rolling around and lightning stabbing away.

It saddens me to say that that is now impossible to imagine, never mind to do, and will be just one of 'those' anecdotes That great Uncle Jon talks about now and again.

I feel that there will come a time when I will drive down to Goulburn expecting to see these visionaries...and I will see them.
That's fabulous. I haven't ridden a horse since the 1970s when I was a kid but still do in dreams, sometimes. And then, of course, it's like riding a bike - I haven't forgotten how. Except in reality, I wouldn't know how, any more.

Reminded me of a dream I had more than once, years ago, of riding a horse hell for leather like someone was after me. But I can't remember/didn't know who it was. It was all very Dick Turpin/Swiftnick. And then I got to a certain river, about 5 miles from where I grew up, where there is now a bridge. Only, in my dream, there was no bridge and I had to get a ferry across to the other side, and whilst I was waiting for this painfully slow boat thing, all the time I felt like whatever it was after me, was about to catch up.

As a grown up, I found out that once had indeed, been a ferry point and the bridge was only built in 1870. But although I have ridden real horses (borrowed ones, I never owned one), as a kid and teen - I never think of that kind of ride you describe, without thinking of that dream, rather than any real horse memories.
 
Oh not rude. Phew.

She and I share a love for tasteless pot dogs. No-one else gets it.

I have a pot dog! It was given to me by someone who inherited it from her mother. It's realistic though, not one of those more stylised 'fireplace' ones.

There's a northern saying for when you want to hurry someone along - 'Don't just sit there like a pot dog!'
 
My middle daughter went out of Oz for the opportunities, three years ago. She'd done no research, just been on a six week trip out with a friend the previous year, decided she liked it, and went with nothing more than some clothes, a boyfriend from the UK who fancied an adventure, and a student visa.

She's found herself in Melbourne, with a very fancy and well paid job in her relevant field (she's an accountant), split with the UK boyfriend and met an Aussie one, lives in a lovely house in a suburb and is extremely happy.

So it still happens.
 
As a grown up, I found out that once had indeed, been a ferry point and the bridge was only built in 1870.

Bridges that replace ferries are like desire paths. You're taking the way of least resistance across the river that was found by people who knew the water best. I know of lots, some big with lots of traffic and some small, and they're all special places.
 
My middle daughter went out of Oz for the opportunities, three years ago. She'd done no research, just been on a six week trip out with a friend the previous year, decided she liked it, and went with nothing more than some clothes, a boyfriend from the UK who fancied an adventure, and a student visa.

She's found herself in Melbourne, with a very fancy and well paid job in her relevant field (she's an accountant), split with the UK boyfriend and met an Aussie one, lives in a lovely house in a suburb and is extremely happy.

So it still happens.

I do like Melbourne catseye...it can be rather cosmopolitan without it seeming to be forced...which Sydney is.

Then there is the Cricket at the MCG, the Boxing Day and New year sales - wonderful clothes and shoes for less than half price. Now I think on it, I suppose it is rather strange to travel 1200K's just to watch cricket being played, and for a decent coffee, a plate of pasta, and the opportunity to buy some decent clothes for less than half price.

We're a weird mob.

And your Daughter catseye...what was it that Our William said about tides taken at their fullest?
 
I do like Melbourne catseye...it can be rather cosmopolitan without it seeming to be forced...which Sydney is.

Then there is the Cricket at the MCG, the Boxing Day and New year sales - wonderful clothes and shoes for less than half price. Now I think on it, I suppose it is rather strange to travel 1200K's just to watch cricket being played, and for a decent coffee, a plate of pasta, and the opportunity to buy some decent clothes for less than half price.

We're a weird mob.

And your Daughter catseye...what was it that Our William said about tides taken at their fullest?

Not so weird. We're driving to Melbourne on Monday (from the Southern Highlands) for a day of business on Tuesday only to drive back again on Wednesday. It's a big country. We were offered tickets to fly, but with driving to Sydney (or Canberra) airport, having to be there 90 minutes early, potential delays, taxi rides at the other end, it's just easier to drive and really will only take a little longer all in all.
 
Not so weird. We're driving to Melbourne on Monday (from the Southern Highlands) for a day of business on Tuesday only to drive back again on Wednesday. It's a big country. We were offered tickets to fly, but with driving to Sydney (or Canberra) airport, having to be there 90 minutes early, potential delays, taxi rides at the other end, it's just easier to drive and really will only take a little longer all in all.


True LL.

I suppose I needn't talk. My eldest Daughter was coming back to NSW from Kalgoorlie, so I though to myself - aye aye, let's be 'aving yer, hooked up the trailer and of I went.

Faith loved the idea of it too. It took us about 3 days back from Kal, needless to say we both enjoyed it immensely.
 
I do like Melbourne catseye...it can be rather cosmopolitan without it seeming to be forced...which Sydney is.

Then there is the Cricket at the MCG, the Boxing Day and New year sales - wonderful clothes and shoes for less than half price. Now I think on it, I suppose it is rather strange to travel 1200K's just to watch cricket being played, and for a decent coffee, a plate of pasta, and the opportunity to buy some decent clothes for less than half price.

We're a weird mob.

And your Daughter catseye...what was it that Our William said about tides taken at their fullest?

Melbourne is much nicer than Sydney.
 
Melbourne is much nicer than Sydney.

I like Melbourne. Was there last week and heading back there in 3 weeks time (flying down this time) for a week of trade fairs. Our eldest son lives there. It's a very livable city, not as pretty as Sydney by the water but I'd happily move there.
 
I flippin' love this board :)

I love how a really odd (in a good way) experience and its retelling can lead to discussions about ancestral migrations and connections to far-flung places. And pottery dogs.

I love a good road trip - we once decided to be driven the Prithi Highway route from Pokhara to Kathmandu which takes about 6 hours rather than a 30 minute flight, for cost reasons and to have a change. Very interesting and the dal bhat on the way was great.
 
Years ago I took the greyhound bus from Perth to Sydney. Took about two days if I remember. People kept saying ''why don't you fly'', but I wanted to see a bit of Oz. Not too much to see on that route, granted, but at least I saw that there wasn't a lot to see- if you, er, see.
 
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