Addendum

[xenith]

(And just in case you think I might be disgruntled about the museum... I've just been reading a copy of an ancestor's conduct record. Not on a screen or a printout, but the actual 150 year old document, held in my hands (in a protective cover). She was a naughty girl.

I do love this place.)

Comments

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

So, are you going to tell us about this naughty ancestor or leave it hanging? :-)

It must be wonderful to handle the real thing.

Some years ago, I was given some old newspapers - 1926 - from under someone's carpet as a donation to my library. I couldn't keep them because I had no way of conserving them, so I offered them to Kerry Greenwood, historical crime writer extraordinaire, who was pleased to accept. Before that, I read as much as I could and it was fascinating, a different world. If I could have kept them, I would have.

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

Oh, nothing exciting. Being drunk, absconding, refusing to work; and getting hard labour in return. I'm sure they were glad when they finally married her off and she became someone else's problem.

(She applied three times for permission to marry, to a different man each time. The first two times it was refused because it had been less than 6 months since her previous transgression.)

(Also she had a illegitimate kid 8 months after being dumped in Hobart.)

I get to "play" with lots of cool stuff at the museum that most people only get to see behind glass and then only if they're lucky. (Only a tiny fraction of the collection is out on display, I assume this is the same at any museum of size.) This is what keeps me going back there :)